A beautiful landscape of the Oxford skyline by Jon Lewis. Unfortunately the reason for the wonderfully pale and subtle tones are the visual effects of ‘atmospheric perspective’, enhanced dramatically by the haze caused from Saharan dust and industrial pollution... every cloud!

Oxford Mail:

A great shot from Damian Halliwell taken at the Oxford Tango Festival opening gala at Lady Margaret Hall, above. Despite it being a long-lens shot, I like the way Damian has captured the movement and intimacy between Selva Mastroti and Marcelo Ramer. In addition to this he has also incorporated the reaction of the appreciative audience in his crop. Good shooting.

Oxford Mail:

Summer must be around the corner. Our snapper Antony Moore was down at the University Parks this week and captured this great mid-air action shot of Nottinghamshire bowler, Harry Gurney, delivering at speed to Oxford MCCU batsman, Lloyd Paternott.

Oxford Mail:

Give us a wave. Folks on the Cowley Convoy travel from BMW along the Eastern bypass. I like the way the composition stacks the cars from different eras on top of each other. Photographer Ed Nix chose an excellent vantage point to get the best from this picture.

Oxford Mail:

A bit of a biblical moment in sleepy Shipton-on-Cherwell as lightening struck a 120ft Redwood tree, making it explode and sending huge shards of wood over a massive area. I arrived after firefighters had left to attend Banbury Cricket Club, which had also been struck. Nicholas Kaye is pictured next to one of the shards which had buried itself like a spear in his garden. Two of his cars and his pool house were also badly damaged. The family were visably relieved that none of them had been hurt.

Oxford Mail:

Beerhounds Motorcycle Club had their annual motorcycle run, which delivers pet food to the animal sanctuary at Stadhampton. I am including this picture taken by Mark Hemsworth, because far from looking like a charity handover, the image looks more like a still from Breaking Bad. Its got a dark and cinematic quality and I’ve enjoyed the incongruity with the somewhat more fluffy nature of the actual event.

Oxford Mail:

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to spot that this is a tea dance. Jon Lewis went along to the event at Woodstock social club. I like the way he’s utilised his wide angle lens to exaggerate the perspective, which makes the teapot and cup loom large in the hands of Veronica Benito. Jon’s used nice side lighting, while still balancing the available light for the dancers behind. It’s not as easy as it looks.