Rock stack in the mist
Colour,  Sunday Stills,  Themed galleries

Gallery: how many shades of grey?

January 16, 2023 / 46 Comments

Grey day. Everything is grey.

I watch. But nothing moves today.

Dr. Seuss

Grey probably gets a bad name as a colour. We think of it as rather dull. We associate it with gloomy weather, with an absence of light and brightness. But it has its admirers:

A grey day provides the best light

Leonardo da Vinci

Maybe other grey things too can be beautiful? Terri has asked that we share images of white and grey for Sunday Stills this week. As I’ve covered white in the past I’ve decided to focus only on grey.

Hopefully I can demonstrate that if you look closely you will find beauty in grey. Grey stone beautifully carved, creating patterns of light and shade. The subtleties of delicate grey feathers on a bird. Silver grey metals intricately worked to catch the light. Even a grey day has its own beauty.

With apologies to Terri, I’ve adopted the UK spelling of ‘grey’ (rather than the US ‘gray’) throughout this post!

Steep rocky mountains with some snow

Sunlight catches the mountains above Lago Nordenskjold in the Torres del Paine NP

Large waterfall with group of people in wet weather clothing

Gullfoss in the rain, Iceland

Looking down at city streets in the rain

View from the Metropolitan Government Offices observation deck, Shinjuku, Tokyo, on a very rainy day

This may look like a black and white shot but the blue bus and hint of green in the tress below show otherwise.

Grey tilled roofs seen from above

The roofs of old houses in Kaesong, DPRK, seen from Mount Janamansan

Very few old houses survived the bombing during the Korean War but Kaesong was part of the south for much of the period and was consequently spared.

Relief carving of dancers on a grey wall

Carvings of apsara (dancing girls) at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, with the early morning sun adding a touch of colour

Small carving of an animal with a ball

Small detail on a building on Graben, the main street in central Vienna

Small piles of grey and beige pebbles

On the beach near Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland

Worn grey tree trunks on a pebble beach

Driftwood at the southernmost tip of San Juan Island, WA

My featured photo is also from WA, a beach on the Olympic Peninsula with (I confess) the mist further enhanced in Color Efex Pro.

Head and fore-legs of a crocodile on a log

Young crocodile by the deck of our lodge on Xugana Island, Botswana

Large grey elephant among damaged tree branches

Bull elephant on Sausage Island, Botswana

You didn’t seriously expect me to post a ‘grey’ gallery without including an elephant, did you?!

Dark grey cat curled up on a white blanket

Sleeping cat at the Barbara Hepworth Studio in St Ives, Cornwall

 Some grey birds even have grey in their name!

Grey bird with a long tail in a bare tree

Grey Go-away Bird on Sausage Island, Botswana

And a Grey Heron at Osterley Park, west London

Large grey bird against a lake

46 Comments

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