The photos of the clouds remind me of a series of work by Alfred Stieglitz known as Equivalents. The folklore goes that Stieglitz was such an amazing photographer that someone accused him of hypnotizing people so they could look good in front of a camera. He was then challenged to take photos of clouds and make them look good. Hence this famous body of work.
https://archive.artic.edu/stieglitz/equivalents/