There's nothing like the perspective that age brings to make you realise that you're not so different from everyone else. Take balconies. What do you think of when the word is mentioned? With me it's Romeo and Juliet. And guess what? That's the association that most people make. It's when you get past that first pairing that the differences start to appear. I'd have to say that next, for me, the association is with dictators, perhaps Mussolini, and then it's the Pope.
Interestingly those three associations are all Italian. And equally interestingly, the English word derives from the Italian, "balcone". One of my sons lives in a London flat with two balconies. The largest is traditional, projecting out past the walls of the room and supported on brackets. The other is a "Juliet" balcony, the name given to a floor to ceiling window or doors in an uper exterior wall that has a barrier or rail across it to prevent anyone falling out. This type, of course, gets its name from Shakespeare's play and character though, in fact, the playwright never mentions a balcony of any sort, only a window.
Today's offering shows a detail of some London balconies we saw recently on flats near Canada Water in Southwark, London. We walked past them the other day on the way to the nearby Underground station and their undulations, much more pronounced when seen from below, attracted my eye. The wave-like forms, the sheen of the glass, the touch of red and the deep shadows appealed to me and prompted my photograph.
photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14.4mm (39mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
