Around this time in summer here we get the most amazing clouds. I suppose we might back in Indiana, but I actually never paid any attention to that until I came here.

Clouds always make a sky more interesting. A blue sky is nice, but it's just a little boring by itself. Add some clouds, though, and it's instantly more interesting!

Of course that's a double-edged sword. If you want to direct eyes to other parts of your photo, clouds can distract. But when we are just taking aimless and subjectless photos, sometimes that can be a good thing. And when the clouds themselves become the subject, as in these photos, well... the more complex the clouds are, the better!

A couple times a season when the clouds are looking especially interesting, I go out and take photos of them. As photographers I think we are always chasing the perfect photo, and that urge can motivate us to return to the same spot again and again and again as we try to get it. I'm sure that is part of what motivates me to always go out and get even more cloud photos.

At the same time, when you have so many photos of a certain subject, that frees you a little and gives you more of an allowance to experiment and try new things. I guess that's kind of opposite from the first urge... Being a photographer is complicated!

But as Walt Whitman said, "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes."

This time around I had my zoom lens on most of the time and I was looking for interesting details in these clouds. Sometimes I cheated and zoomed out, but I tried to always force myself to zoom in again and get as close as I could.

Do you ever find yourself looking up at the clouds and seeing funny objects there? Do you see anything when you look at the clouds in these photos? I can see what looks like a face in one of them. Another has what looks almost like a ram's head.

What do you see when you look at them?

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.