Etonians, education and power

click photo to enlarge
I saw in my newspaper the other day that Jesse Norman MP thinks Etonians (products of Eton public, i.e. private, school) are dominant in the government because other schools do not have the same "commitment to public service". When I read it I was dumbfounded that someone who had received that gilded education didn't understand the purpose of places such as Eton and the main reason why parents send their children to them.

He might think it's to receive a good education. So might you. But you'd be wrong. The main reason is to maintain or to improve the social position of the individual. This is done by the schools not only charging high, riff-raff excluding fees, but ensuring they are very effective exam factories at which pupils get high grades (not the same as a good education), passes that will allow them to apply to Oxford or Cambridge, or at the very least, to one of the Russell Group of universities. Importantly, they also give pupils the opportunity to mix with others of the same advantaged background, to network with people who have similar aims, and with them to move into jobs of power and influence where they will earn a lot of money. In such advantaged circles it often means that who you know trumps what you know, that jobs can be offered by grace and favour, and that interviews may be formalities rather than the sifting process they are for the most people. Far too many of our current crop of politicians have benefited from this process and seek to confer its advantages on their own children.

The idea that Etonians have any more "commitment to public service" than the products of state schools or even other private schools is risible. I never came across any of Eton's finest when, during the course of my job, I met social workers or other mainstream public sector workers. Politics used to be seen by many aspiring MPs as a way of serving the public but today voter disenchantment is, in part, because the main motive now appears to be self-serving aggrandisement. I think that the Etonians who go into politics are no different from politicians of different backgrounds in this respect. A while ago I spoke as a member of a panel at a meeting about the forthcoming general election. At one point the discussion turned to education. I said that what I didn't want was another crop of politicians to be elected that came from the same so-called elite schools and universities because they had no understanding of wider society and lacked the skills necessary to move our country forwards. I remember a fellow panellist (echoing the man who is currently prime minister) saying that a politician's background isn't important. Nothing I've seen from this incompetent Coalition government has made me change my views that it does matter enormously.

Jesse Norman's words came to mind as I was processing this photograph of London's City Hall, a shot I took on my recent visit to the capital. I remembered that another old Etonian, Boris Johnson, is currently mayor. I'd say bad luck London, but the voters have seen fit to vote him in twice. To me that says much about the level of political understanding and engagement in the UK. What people have forgotten is that Old Etonians and their kind flourish and the rest of us languish when the voting public pays little attention to politics and is more interested in celebrity, status and the status quo.

For a couple more of my photographs of Norman Foster's building see here and here.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20.4mm (55mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On  

Advertising puzzles me

click photo to enlarge
Ever since the invention of the TV remote control our household has muted the adverts. Consequently I am unable to take part in conversations about such things since, while I may have seen the advert in question I won't have heard it. Choosing to avoid advertisements seems to me a perfectly reasonable thing to do, though I know not everyone will agree. The fact is I can't understand why we should willingly co-operate with companies trying to sell us things we neither want or need.

The particular pitches that advertisers choose puzzles me too. Take celebrity endorsement. We all know that such people are paid to either wear, use or promote the product in question. That being the case, why would we be influenced by the blandishments of David Beckham, George Clooney, Sienna Miller (whoever she is) or anyone else? Or what about the way so-called "up-market", that is to say expensive, products are sold. Muted, often monochrome colours, plenty of white space in print advertisements, few words but in classic fonts, "under-stated" design, models that don't smile and other "less is more" tricks are used to suggest that a product sits at the top of its market. But if all this is obvious - and surely it is - why do advertisers persist with it and why are buyers influenced by it? Perhaps the pitches are not as unsubtle as I think, or maybe people want to believe it all and suspend their critical faculties in such situations.

I pondered advertising methods recently after coming upon a whisky company publicising its wares outside The Design Museum in London. They'd set up a framework from which models of dark clouds were suspended, a sound system was simulating thunder, flashing lights represented lightning, and heavy rain periodically fell on members of the public who volunteered to stand in the centre of all this wearing brand name-emblazoned waterproofs  and similarly badged umbrellas. Apparently the word "storm" featured in the whisky's name and the "weather" was intended to give the public a taste of what is regularly experienced on the Isle of Skye whence the drink comes. Oh, and the lucky punters who subjected themselves to this ordeal had the chance to win a bottle of the beverage. I suppose my reaction could be best described as bemused, so i took a couple of photographs and walked on.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 37.1mm (100mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.9
Shutter Speed: 1/80
ISO: 800
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

Reflecting on cameras and capital cities

click photo to enlarge
A recent couple of days in London coincided with the two warmest days of the year so far and I returned to a cooler, windier, wetter Lincolnshire with a face turned ruddy by the sun. I'd gone to our capital city for a small family gathering. However, the visit also became an experiment with my recently acquired compact camera and I made it an opportunity to photograph some of the city's most recent buildings as well as those that have been around for a few years.

The best way to get to know a camera such as my Sony RX100 is to use it. So, I made it my sole camera for the trip and turned its one inch sensor and 28-100mm (35mm equiv.) lens to the sort of uses that I would usually apply my Canon 5D Mk2 and its 24-105mm, 17-40mm and Tamron 70-300mm lenses. What do I conclude? The Sony does a remarkable job. The screen coped in all but the brightest conditions and I could usually compose quite satisfactorily. Having 20.2 megapixels allows for  quite a bit of cropping without the file size becoming too small, consequently the effective focal length can be easily doubled. Unfortunately its not as easy to widen beyond 28mm. I like 24mm as my standard wide focal length, but all cameras are compromises of one sort or another and this is one I'll live with. I shot JPG only rather than RAW or RAW + JPG. It's less flexible, but less work too, and I found that satisfactory. The colours are good, quite "film-like". The biggest drawback was that a couple of times I inadvertently pressed the movie record button. It's all well and good making movie recording easy, but it's a touch too easy with this camera.

On our second day I walked ten miles round the city in search of shots. I was particularly keen to see how the 20 Fenchurch Street skyscraper (nicknamed "The Walkie Talkie") is coming on, and whether its appearance is improving as it starts to approach completion. The answer to that last question is a resounding "No". It seems to me that this building is the wrong shape and the wrong size for its location which is too detached from the main group of tall City towers and too close to the river. Moreover it intrudes far too much on the view of Tower Bridge from the south.

The other thought I had as I followed the course of the River Thames through the city is that London continues to hog far too much of the nation's spending on infrastructure. I got a real sense that the effects of the depression that are felt right across the rest of the country are barely impinging on the metropolis and that this can only lead to further regional and social divisions that will have bad consequences.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 18.2mm (49mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

Pylons, form and function

click photo to enlarge
It's usually the case that when the form of an object is based closely on its function the result is pleasing to the eye, but when styling, fashion and decoration become the dominant reason for a shape then too often the result is unsatisfactory. Bridges are structures where the functional imperative is invariably uppermost and the result is usually satisfying. So too is the case with most hand tools such as hammers or saws, and there are many other examples that can be used to illustrate the point. However, there is one structure where form follows function quite perfectly but the result is always awful - the electricity pylon.

Whenever I see pylons marching across the countryside like a line of giant people holding up a long skipping rope I do my best to mentally obliterate them. Try as I might I cannot appreciate the form that the designers came up with to carry the wires from power station to homes. I can admire it in an intellectual way, marvelling at the economy of means, the way the multitude of short pieces of angle iron are bolted together to form legs, bodies and arms, how lighter lengths are inserted for bracing and plates are used at important intersections, but I cannot see the pylon as a thing of beauty. Even were it not an alien interloper into fields, fens, estuary, moorland and mountain, but an object assembled and displayed for our delight, an aesthetic experience, I cannot love a pylon. At least not the current crop of them.

I have seen proposals for more "elegant"designs featuring tubes and curves, some with a touch of art nouveau about them, but I've never seen them in use anywhere. Perhaps one day. And perhaps then they will be held up as an example of the fact that styling can occasionally, very occasionally, trump function when it comes to producing a satisfying shape.

Today's pylon is a bit of an oddity. It is the last one in a long line that is configured to take the cables down to a substation. Consequently it is not quite as symmetrical as the usual 400kV pylon, a characteristic I have accentuated by photographing it off-centre.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Water lily leaves and macro lenses

click photo to enlarge
Over the years I've discovered that a garden becomes much bigger when you own a macro lens. If I were to photograph my garden solely with a 35mm or 50mm lens of the sort I used for many years with a film SLR the number and variety of photographs that my garden provides for me would be significantly reduced.

I enjoy taking macro photographs of plants, but the interesting thing is, even if you aren't using a macro lens at what we might consider to be a macro level of magnification the very fact that you have it mounted on your camera makes you look closely at smaller areas of the garden, at individual plants, single blooms or at one or two leaves. A camera with a wider angle of view and without the ability to focus at close range, though it doesn't always makes such shots impossible, usually makes them difficult, and more importantly doesn't give you the mindset where you go in close, focusing on small details.

Today's photograph is a case in point. I was in the garden with the 100mm macro lens with the camera on the tripod photographing individual blooms. Then, when I took it off the tripod, even though it has technically a telephoto length, I took several hand-held shots from no more than close range. The lily leaves in our small pond hold endless fascination for me. At this time of year the new ones are emerging from below the surface of the water, brown in colour, but soon to be green when they start photosynthesising. I like their shape and size, the way they look against the water and the submerged vegetation, and how the meniscus layer of the water is very evident as they slowly push upwards into the air and light. This isn't the first such shot that I've taken of these leaves and regular visitors will be relieved to find that I'm not going to provide links to those previous shots!

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f11
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO: 640
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Holographic ribbon

click photo to enlarge
I recently posted a photograph showing a macro shot of several lengths of the metallic holographic ribbons that I'm currently using as a bird scaring device to protect an area we've sown with grass seed. In the manner of all such material it displays rainbow colours when it catches the light. However, when you look at the ribbon in a casual rather than a concentrated way the word you would use to describe the essential colour of the ribbon would be "silver".

The other day I attempted to take a photograph of the ribbon to show its silver colour and the patterns that cover its surface. But I couldn't! No matter how I placed the ribbon, whether in light or shade, and regardless of the angle I chose when pointing the camera at it, I could not see through the viewfinder that which seems apparent when I watch it blowing in the wind in my garden. Initially I thought there might be something happening due to the combination of lens/viewfinder and the ribbon surface. But that really can't be. The conclusion I've come to is this: when I look at it casually with my naked eye the image my brain "sees" is a combination of all the dominant areas of silver and I ignore the other specks of colour. However, when I look at through my lens, within the confines of the viewfinder frame, my eye is drawn to each of the iridescent areas and these dominate my visual perception rather than the silver areas. I found that interesting, and another example of the adage that I've long held to be true - "the camera always lies".

So, having failed in my attempt to photograph the ribbon as it "really is", I took another shot showing off its beautiful colours and patterns. I like this photograph better than the one I posted the other day. A friend, on seeing the image on my screen, said, "Mmm, Bridget Riley".

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: Off

Pink and black

click photo to enlarge
Pink always seems to me to be the right colour for carnations (Dianthus) because their colloquial name is "pinks". These flowers come in a range of colours yet pink, to my eye, is just the right colour to go with the blue-tinged green of the stalks, thin leaves and buds.

I think I've said elsewhere in this blog that pink is a colour that I never especially liked but, as I've aged, it has grown on me. It's a colour that cries out to be paired with another colour. I like to see it with turquoise or grey though I'm not fond of the popular pairing with red or purple. When I came to take this photograph of some pink carnations in a vase in our hall I opted for a black background. Pink and black are often put together quite successfully. In this instance it allows the relatively muted colour to display an intensity that it loses when other colours are paired with it, and makes the most of the outline of the blooms. The trouble is that that pink and black have a particular association in my mind, one that I can't shift. Such things are very powerful and can prevent one seeing something for what it is. For example, I can't see the colour mint green alongside brown without thinking of a dessert (pudding) that we had in primary school - chocolate sponge with mint flavoured (and coloured) sauce.

So what association pops into my head when I see pink and black. Nothing less than Bassett's Liquorice Allsorts, a sweet of my childhood, still available today, though one I haven't tasted for decades!

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: Off

Lincolnshire barns

click photo to enlarge
I recently put variations around the words "Lincolnshire barns" into the Google search box and was disappointed to be swamped with results concerning the hire of converted barns for holidays: it has always seemed to me one of life's mysteries why people want to holiday in a converted barn. In fact, I was looking for information about the different designs that I see as I travel about. Growing up in the Yorkshire Dales I became familiar with that region's variations in barn design and I was keen to increase my knowledge of Lincolnshire's barns.

I didn't find anything of interest - perhaps the subject isn't very widely studied or reported - but I did come across a few companies advertising new barns. These are big portal structures based on steel frames with uninterrupted space below the large, spreading roof. Coated steel, brick, concrete block and timber seem to be the favoured materials for walls. Most of the old barns in Lincolnshire, those dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are constructed of brick. Probably the most interesting are found on the "model" farms of the nineteenth century; buildings with well-made brick arches, steel columns, sometimes the owner's coat of arms, all topped with locally made pantiles. I've seen a few of these badly converted into holiday accommodation, though many have escaped that fate due to being Listed for their historical and architectural interest.

However it was the barns of the twentieth century that I was particularly wanting information about: barns such as the big one in today's photograph. It is characteristic of the middle of that century with its asbestos roof, brick side walls, corrugated steel gable wall and its wooden sliding doors. A feature often seen in this part of the world is also present in the barn, namely the gabled "turret" that projects upwards from the main roof. This appears to have a ventilation function though that's just my guess. Until I find the source of information about Lincolnshire barns that I sought but couldn't find it remains only a working hypothesis.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 45mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Scary or distracting?

click photo to enlarge
Wood pigeons are a problem for farmers in the area where I live. In the absence of natural predators in the numbers that there once were they have multiplied tremendously. Accurate figures are difficult to come by. The RSPB estimates 2,570,000-3,160,000 territories (i.e. breeding pairs). These figures don't count the additional birds that come to Britain from continental Europe during the winter. I sometimes see flocks of a thousand or so birds on fields of sprouts. When these are mature plants they do little damage, eating only the new, leafy tops. However, on newly or recently planted fields they can be extremely destructive. Consequently the farmers fight back with a battery of bird scarers. Spinning metal windmills, scarecrows of varying levels of inventiveness, rotating globes with eyes, flags with one side black and the other white, kites in the shape of birds of prey, inflatable people that rise from the ground accompanied by flashing lights and a siren, and gas-powered "guns" that sound like shotguns are just some of the devices used to keep the wood pigeons off the crops.

A piece of research that I read last year concluded that most of these have an effect for a short period until the birds get used to them, then they might as well not be there. The gas guns are the most effective but the least liked by the people who live nearby. A while ago someone bought us a bird scaring device for our vegetable garden. It is a roll of what is described as "repeller ribbon": 30 metres of 5cm wide silver, metallic, iridescent, holographic ribbon designed to flash and flicker in the breeze when hung from trees, sticks or string. It looks like the sort of thing that might have been manufactured for another purpose - party decoration, for example - that some enterprising person thought could be used in a different way. We've just put some over an area that we have sown with grass seed. Does it work? I suspect not, but it isn't doing any harm.

Looking at it the other day as it thrashed about in the wind, glittering in its rainbow-like way, it occurred to me that there might be a macro photograph in it. So I cut a few short lengths, laid them together irregularly in a patch of sunlight and moved my camera until I found a composition and colours that I liked. As I was taking my shots I reflected that perhaps the way it is designed to work is by distracting the birds, encouraging them to gaze on the beauty of the multi-coloured triangles, flickers and flashes, thus causing them to forget all about eating the seeds and plants. Distraction rather than scaring -  a different way of coming at the problem! Or perhaps not.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  +0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Messerschmitt KR200

click photo to enlarge
When you visit a national museum - say the British Museum, the National Railway Museum or the National Maritime Museum - you know what you're going to see: exhibits of national and often world significance, artefacts and objects that you recognise from books and film, gob-smacking, awe-inspiring, magnificence. Such an experience is often memorable.

When you go to a small, local museum, the sort that has been lovingly assembled by an enthusiast, you expect less. And yet sometimes, as Mies van der Rohe said, "less is more". Sometimes the care, concern, and attention that has gone into presenting the collection shines through and leaves a lasting impression. I recently went to such a museum in Lincolnshire, one not too distant from me, the Bubble Car Museum at Langrick near Boston.

I'm not a car enthusiast, but as regular visitors to this blog may have gathered, I am interested in design. This museum appealed to me because it was illuminating to compare the ways designers approached the task of making and selling inexpensive motorised vehicles. In particular I was fascinated by how some tried to hide the fact that these could be better described as enhanced motor cycles than proper cars, and how others cared little about revealing their lineage. Micro cars, a few mopeds and bicycles and some displays of household goods from the 1950s and 1960s, the era of the bubble car, accompanied the main exhibits. The model that caught my eye was the Messerschmitt KR200, a vehicle manufactured between 1955 and 1964. This silver three-wheeler looked like a combination of a small WW2 fighter aircraft, a kitchen implement and the sort of personal spacecraft that Dan Dare might have flown. The bug-eyed fairings, the glazed "cockpit", the piped, red upholstery and the attention to detail were very appealing. In these days of rising fuel prices, with manufacturers trying to eke every last mile per gallon out of cars, it's surprising that such vehicles, in updated form, haven't made a re-appearance on our roads.

photographs and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: iAuto+
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 250
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Skidby windmill and goggi geeha!

click photo to enlarge
Ever since I first lived on the eastern side of our island I've had an interest in windmills. These buildings (or are they machines?) are distinctive, picturesque, fascinating in their technology and intricacies, and often quite beautiful. The first windmill that I had any sort of familiarity with was the one at Skidby in East Yorkshire. When I lived in that part of the world I often walked or cycled in the vicinity of the distinctive four-sailer on its hill-top site. Its black tower and white ogee cap and sails were a useful landmark as we made our way round the lanes and field paths of the Yorkshire Wolds near Hull.

I've been back to Skidby windmill since we left that part of the country, and I posted a photograph of it in 2006. We visited it again a while ago and had a look round the small museum-cum-visitor centre that has been established in the surrounding buildings and the lower floor of the mill. Unfortunately, on the day we called in we were unable to climb to the other floors. However, that didn't matter because only a few days earlier we'd been up and down the ladders of Sibsey Trader Mill (also a windmill) near Boston. We'd gone there so that my grand-daughter could see the home of "Baby Jake". When my children were small I knew about most of the TV programmes they watched, the characters, the story lines, etc. But now, at my great age, I am ignorant of such things so I had to be enlightened about this epic of toddlers' TV. I won't bore you with the details - this link summarises the show and this one will tell you much more than you will ever want to know. Suffice to say that a modified version of the windmill at Sibsey serves as the home of the baby, his brothers, sisters and his parents, and so is an obvious place of pilgrimage if you are a fan of "Baby Jake" and almost two years old.

This six-sailer is a fine example of the tower mill. It's a relatively late example too, being built in 1877. It gets its name from the Trader (or west Fen) Drain that it overlooks. It worked by wind until 1953 when it was abandoned. The structure was saved in 1970 and restored in 1981. It is now in the care of English Heritage. I took a few photographs on my recent visit though none so good as this one that I posted in 2011.

Goggi geeha to one and all!

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 24mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Over-exposure, memory and cyclamen

click photo to enlarge
I use a computer diary to keep track of what I'm doing and when. I also use Windows' built in "sticky notes" that mimic "post-it" notes for lists and "to do" items. By and large these two aids supplemented by my wife's calendar and diary mean that we have most things covered. That's not to say that events and activities don't, very occasionally, get missed: we are only human!

What I'm not good at - actually, I'm hopeless at - is keeping track of photographic approaches that I mean to use more. Things such as motion blur, my "lines in the landscape" project (see recent post), photographing from very low viewpoints, over-exposing appropriate subjects, and much else. I really need to establish a way to make sure I shoot in these ways at least once a week. What happens at the moment is that, out of nowhere in particular, a little light bulb occasionally comes on in my head and I think - "try this one with some positive EV".

That happened recently when I was photographing the cyclamen that we grow in our garden room and in the front porch. I've tried a few approaches to photographing the plants and I've been reasonably happy with my shots. However, I haven't yet produced the "Wow" shot that I think must be possible with these very showy blooms. But, looking through the viewfinder at some pink specimens of the plant the lightbulb glowed once more saying "try an overexposed shot", so I dialled in +1.0 EV. I liked it! When I reviewed the shots on the computer I increased the effect a little more. The combination of over-exposure and the macro lens wide open at f2.8 has produced a "dreamy" look that appeals to me. It's not my usual style, and it isn't the elusive "Wow" shot, but I like the water-colour, wet look of it and it's something I'll try again.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  +1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Values, land and the future

click photo to enlarge
What price can be put on a piece of farmland? All land has a market value which equates with as much as someone is prepared to pay. But market value is only one measure of value: agricultural land has values that exceed that narrow measure.

Today's photograph shows a field of pasture on the Lincolnshire Fens. When I took my photograph it was looking a bit the worse for wear after a wet winter and a cold spring. But the sheep and their lambs were finding sustenance in the grass. Farther out in the field lapwings were feeding and occasionally flinging themselves through the air in their courtship flight. A buzzard was surveying the scene from one of the hedgerow trees, and through the bushes were flitting a family group of long-tailed tits. Barn owls frequently fly along the drainage ditches that border the field hoping to surprise an unsuspecting mouse or shrew, and the distinctive song of the yellowhammer can often be heard competing with that of its near relative, the reed bunting. Pasture fields are not common in the Fens where vegetable production prevails, so the value to wildlife of this piece of land is locally immense.

As it happens this land (and three nearby sites) have been shortlisted for a 49 acre substation that is to service the giant Triton Knoll wind farm that is being planned for the North Sea off the east coast. If you thought offshore turbines preferable because they didn't spoil the countryside then think again. The company that needs the substation concludes that this site and the three others it has short-listed can be built with the least environmental and socio-economic cost. The land here is categorised as Grade 2. The other sites are either Grade 1 or Grade 2. In 2011the Government published the Natural Environment White Paper "The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature" which, amongst many other things, sought to halt the decline in natural habitats, promote natural diversity and "protect our best and most versatile agricultural land" (a phrase used to describe land classified as Grade 1, Grade 2 or Grade 3a. Clearly concreting over fields such as this is completely contrary to those stated aims.

Our world of markets, money, profit and growth needs to factor into its calculations the idea of "natural capital": the land that as well as providing food, a commodity that is going to be ever more costly and in shorter supply in the future, also provides habitats for the wildlife without which our world is a dull, impoverished and arid place. The value of natural capital is enormous, eclipsing many of the more routine costs and values that are involved in everyday calculations. A proper valuation of the area of land in this photograph would result in a rethink about its suitability as a place build on.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 19.3mm (52mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On  

Lines in the landscape revisited

click photo to enlarge
It crossed my mind recently that it's been a while since I added a photograph to my "lines in the landscape" collection. I started this series of images a few years ago on the back of a growing fascination with the tracks that agricultural vehicles leave behind them when they work the Lincolnshire land. One of the minimalist shots I blogged used that particular post title. Each year I've added one or two more shots involving barley, wheat and wires, wobbly lines, Nottinghamshire lines, water-filled lines and many other variations on the theme. Moreover, when I was looking through some of my older photographs I discovered that my interest in these lines pre-dates my move to the very agricultural county where I now live.

It was with all this in mind, as well as the fact that I haven't taken such a shot this year, that I kept an eye out for lines as I drove between Louth and Horncastle the other day. Driving over the undulating road that traverses the Lincolnshire Wolds I went round a sweeping corner and was presented with the fine specimens in today's photograph. The thin soil overlaying the chalk beneath made a pale hillside against which the parallel tracks left by the tractor stood out as bold, dark, slightly serpentine lines. The random details of the blue sky and fragmentary clouds made a good foil for the ordered land below, so I drew over to the side of the road and took a few shots. What I didn't notice with my naked eye, or through the viewfinder at the time, were the slender rods, each with a thin, coloured ribbon that mark the centre of the spaces between the lines. Look carefully and you'll see them with their shadows. I don't know their precise purpose but I intend to find it out.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 105mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Google Glass or Guardian Goggles?

click photo to enlarge
As of yesterday Google Glass has a challenger in the augmented reality, immersive technology, wearable video recording market. The announcement of Guardian Goggles means that the technology giant will face stiff competition from a home-grown alternative. Reading the specifications of the new product I'm especially taken by the "optional built-in anti-bigotry technology" that prevents Guardian newspaper readers being exposed to right-wing columns written by the likes of Melanie Phillips or Richard Littlejohn, "as soon as the user attempts to look at them". Particularly innovatory is the ability to have your blurted out loud, incredulous response to a Guardian article added to the newspaper's "Comment is Free" section within 30 seconds. The observation by Paul McMullan, Professor of Thinkovation, that it's the biggest innovation in news technology "since newspapers opened 'virtual bureaus' in Second Life in 2006, transforming journalism forever" is very perceptive. At least I suppose it is. The trouble is I haven't a clue what he's talking about.

What I want to know is can these Goggles or even the competitor Google Glass expunge cars from the viewer's eyesight and, by a wifi connection, from the viewer's camera? If so, despite the one or two slight difficulties this might introduce into a stroll about town, I'll have a pair. Maybe the same technology could be adapted to transform a Georgian terrace such as this one on London Road in Spalding, Lincolnshire, by removing the bay windows that were added during the Victorian era as well as ridding it of the multiple varieties of window glazing bars, thus allowing us to see it as the architect intended. But somehow I feel such a development will be very near the end of any list of apps that are developed. At the top, undoubtedly, will be one that gives spoken instructions on how to find the nearest hospital that has a proven track record in removing glass from eyeballs.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On