SH is the challenge host this week. He has chosen the theme – ‘Quiet Hours’ – and how we can show these hours in pictures. When I first read SH’s original challenge post I immediately thought dawn, dusk night time etc. However, I’ve since come around to looking at this in a different way, working out how I use quiet hours to benefit me, especially as a stock photographer.

So, my take on quiet hours is turning up somewhere when I know the area is quiet, or quieter than normal, so I can get what I want from a location or situation.

The two images above were taken in The Old Town, Dubrovnik, Croatia. We were staying in an Air BnB not far from here. Prior to our visit a friend had told me that if we wanted to walk the Old Town Ramparts, we should get there when they opened to avoid the crowds that arrived with the daily cruise ships and day trippers.

It proved to be really good advice. We did exactly what he’d suggested and climbed up on to the city wall at 8.30am. It was really quiet and great for a few, clear shots across the rooftops but, as we came towards the end of our wall walk it was getting busier. We came down off the wall, at about 10.30am, to see the scene in the second image. The people in the foreground are queuing for rampart walk tickets!

I suppose if your on a cruise ship there’s no alternative. But, for us, being able to plan ahead really paid off. Ironically, as a stock image, the second image has been quite a good earner for me and regularly sells. You make your own luck sometimes.

These two images were taken in Gran Canaria, Spain. I’d seen these brightly coloured parasols from our hotel, which was perched on a hill, high above the beach. A drone would have been perfect but I don’t have one of those so, I searched around the hotel complex for a good vantage point to capture the image I wanted. I found a corridor window, I could open, overlooking the beach and parasols. The view I had from the window is as shown in the photos above.

Once again, quiet time at the beach was early in the morning and great for my shot. Two hours later, as in the second image, the sunbeds were busy and no longer neat and tidy, which wasn’t what I wanted. There was a compromise though. Quiet time was great for my composition but rubbish for light. Sunrise was behind the hotel and the sun didn’t get high enough to light the beach until the other tourists arrived. But hey-ho, I got my image and it’s sold a few times since, as per the image below.

Here’s two more images with a more sombre take on ‘Quiet Time’. The first image is the M5 Motorway, which runs through Somerset, close to where we live. The image shows a typical summer Saturday on the motorway. It’s the main route to the south coast of England and always busy. The second image is the same stretch of motorway, on a Saturday afternoon in 2020, during the UK Covid Lockdown. There’s one car making its way across the split level carriageways. It’s hard to think back to those times now. I took the second image whilst I was walking the dog, near home, in the hour slot we were allowed once a day for exercise.

I’ll finish the blog with this image, taken at dusk, of Papagayo beach, Lanzarote Spain. You only get one image this time, a quiet time image as at any other time of day, this is a busy naturist beach 🙂

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All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.