City Road Basin, Regent's Canal, London

click photo to enlarge
The Regent's Canal is an 8.5 mile long waterway that passes through the north of central London from the Grand Union Canal at Paddington to the Limehouse Basin (and the River Thames) in the east of London. It was built between 1812 and 1820 by the engineer James Morgan working for the architect John Nash. Its purpose was to aid the redevelopment of this part of the city.

Today the canal still has minor commercial uses but is predominantly recreational with narrow-boats a common sight at various points, many acting as floating homes. The tow path is a combined footpath and cycleway, forming a pleasant, traffic-free route through these densely built areas of London. Canal-side sites are, like any open or disused space in the city, a magnet to builders, and flats continue to spring up at many points along the route. Here, at the City Road Basin in Islington, warehouse conversions and new-builds of both traditional and determinedly modern design sit side-by-side.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: City Road Basin, Regent's Canal, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20mm (40mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Winter bonfire

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Many gardeners in England are obsessives, working all hours to maintain their garden to the highest of standards. When autumn borders are tidied before the onset of winter the dead and dying annuals and late flowering perennials are cut down and the resulting stems and dead heads composted or burned. Autumn garden bonfires are not unusual.

We, however, adopt a different strategy. We leave many of theses plants to over-winter so that their seed heads are available for the birds. Many shrubs, annuals and perennials, such as sedum or hydrangea, provide rich pickings for seed-eating birds and can look very attractive covered with a sprinkling of frost. This strategy means that though we enjoy the sight of foraging birds in winter, we have to dispose of the stems and heads at the end of winter as spring approaches. Much is composted but not all can be, so we have a bonfire or two.

Today's photograph shows my wife busy burning the woody materials that have been cut down. This winter has been very mild compared with what we usually experience. However, during the last week or two temperatures have dropped, skies have cleared and overnight frosts appeared.In those circumstances what can be better than wrapping up warm and feeding the fire?

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Garden Bonfire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Vaulting, Southwell Minster

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The chapter house at Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire, like most such buildings, is polygonal, in this instance octagonal. A few are rectangular. What makes this particular chapter house differ from other polygonal examples is the lack of a column rising up from the centre of the floor to the centre of the vaulting above. Looking at the pattern of ribs that spring from the walls between the windows and the complexity of the ribs and bosses, one can imagine that a central column would have made the building of the roof over this beautiful space considerably easier. However, that ease would have been bought at the expense of the clarity of the view that the members of the chapter would have had of each other as they sat on the seating built into the walls: they would always have to lean to see the person opposite them!

Most photographers with an interest in architecture gravitate to Southwell's chapter house for the beauty of the naturalistic carving of the capitals of the columns. These represent identifiable leaves and plants, and were executed in the Decorated style around the year 1290. Every time I visit the Minster I photograph them. However, since I hadn't photographed the vaulting before that was what I concentrated on during my last visit.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Chapter House Vaulting, Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 9mm (18mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:000
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Arcade lights

click photo to enlarge
On our recent visit to the seaside resort of Skegness in Lincolnshire I took several photographs of the "amusements" that feature on the seafront. These were mostly closed awaiting the warmer weather. But, some indoor amusements were open and displaying their signs and lights in the hope of attracting passing visitors. This line of lights, quite unremarkable in most respects, attracted my eye. Firstly for the colours - I like the deep yellow and orange against the very dark background. But also for the way the reflections give the electric lights something of the appearance of flames.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Arcade Lights, Skegness
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Workhouse and silos

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Today's photograph was taken three years ago. I came across it twice recently - once in a presentation I was giving about architecture and again when I was searching for the original of another photograph. Seeing it once more reminded me how odd it is. It also prompted the thought that it would make a reasonable blog post.

The first oddity in this photograph is the style the architect (a young George Gilbert Scott in 1837) chose for the facade buildings of a workhouse for the poor and homeless. Why, you have to wonder, did he think that the heavily symmetrical, classically-influenced, style of a country house (in miniature with a triumphal arch in the centre) was suitable. On reflection it is, perhaps, better than using a cotton mill as your inspiration as seems to have happened at Southwell. Quite a bit of money was spent on the facade and its administrative rooms and offices. Behind this range were the tall, plain, brick-built dormitories etc of the workhouse inmates. These are long gone, replaced in the most insensitive and peculiar way by this overpowering run of industrial silos - the second oddity in the photograph.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Former Workhouse and Silos, Boston, Lincolnshire
Camera: Canon 5D Mk2
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 24mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Pleasure, happiness and slanting light

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Many people confuse pleasure and happiness. Such confusion is quite understandable when you appreciate that we are constantly told by advertisers and businesses that happiness can be bought, when in fact what they are offering is (usually) pleasure. What is the difference? Happiness is a deep, long-lasting experience born of meaningful activity and solid relationships: pleasure is transitory, experienced briefly, then it is gone.

Consequently it is refreshing to see the word "pleasure" used accurately, as I did at the Lincolnshire seaside resort of Skegness the other day. The children's rides - roller coasters, big wheel etc - are part of what is known as the Pleasure Beach. This is a place where you pay your money and experience the fun and thrill of a ride. Even though the day was bright and sunny the month of February was not one where the owners felt that punters would be tempted on to the outdoor rides and so they were all still, waiting for the end of march or April to arrive. But the big, bold, painted and illuminated signs were still proclaiming the pleasure on offer even though most of the light bulbs were unlit.

The word shown above, part of the sign "Pleasure Beach" was painted in light blue, purple and yellow with red stars. Not my favourite combination of colours but appropriate for the purpose to which they were being put. What I liked was the way the slanting sunlight was making long shadows of every part of the wall, name and stars, and particularly the light bulbs. I felt the effect would be amplified by conversion to black and white, and so it proved.

photograph and text ® Tony Boughen

Photo Title: "Pleasure", Skegness, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 70mm (140mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Ash wood grain

click photo to enlarge
Sometimes photographs are in front of you and you don't see them. Occasionally they are under your nose every day and you still don't see them. Today's photograph shows a section of my kitchen table, the place where I eat my breakfast and many other meals. It is a table made of wood from the ash tree, a wood with a strong, attractive grain - one of the reasons I bought the table. I often stare at this grain, following its lines, fascinated by the way it appears to change colour with the light, looking intently at the darkest parts, wondering if they really incude the dark blue that appears to be there.

The fact is, if something draws your eye and causes you to reflect upon it then it is a suitable subject for a photograph. So, over eight years after I bought it, here is a photograph of part of the top of my kitchen table. Perhaps its another to add to my "kitchen sink" collection.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Ash Table Grain
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm macro (70mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:2500
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Pollarded willows

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In the middle of the Lincolnshire town of Bourne is a large, grassed open space with some stretches of water, trees and bushes. It looks like a municipal park and it is - the war memorial is sited there as is a children's playground, benches and tarmac paths. However, there are also a couple of quite old, stone-built buildings - an early C18 farmhouse and barn - and, at the edge of the area a building that was once a working water mill fed by a stream. There are also odd undulations that hint at what was formerly here and accounts for such a large area being undeveloped.

The mounds mark the site of an eleventh century motte and bailey castle that appears to have had two large enclosures. Some of the remaining areas of water must have fed defensive moats. However, the motte has gone and it is hard to discern the parts of the Norman site that must have been built to control the area after the Conquest. Recreational use has led to the planting of plentiful willows, the water-side sites being ideal for this species. However, willows in parks can present problems - they weren't called "crack willows" for nothing - and many have been pollarded to control their spread and remove high, heavy boughs that were seen as potential dangers.

Todays' photograph shows some of these pollarded willows reflected in one of the stretches of water. Immediately after they have been cut such willows look rather ungainly compared with their elegant uncut neighbours. But, as the boughs thicken and the the shape returns they look much better. These, I thought, looked somewhat sinister reflected in the water with a broken sky above.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Pollarded Willows, Bourne, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 25mm (50mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Earworms and couplings

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Earworms are terrible things. I mean, of course, the snippet of a tune that keeps playing itself over and over in your head to the point where it drives you to distraction. I recently had the Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen song, "Love and Marriage", on replay in my head. It's a song I positively dislike, one I remember from my early childhood when it was popular through Frank Sinatra's recording.  "Love and marriage", Frank repeatedly tells us, "goes together like a horse and carriage", and what's more, "you can't have one without the other." That was never true when the song was current and it's even less so today.

But, it is true that there are many instances where "you can't have one without the other." One example is the coupling of trees and shrubs with twentieth century rectilinear architecture. Architects' drawings and builders constructions alike are incomplete without the waywardness of branches and leaves as a counterpoint to the rigid verticals and horizontals of windows, doors, roof lines, storey separators etc. I took today's photograph in the city of Peterborough. The exterior of these offices consists of the same concrete panel with its centrally placed window repeated across every facade. Nearby, to offer contrast and soften the hard lines, are large trees. So, I decided to co-operate with the architects and incorporate the two in my photographic composition.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Concrete Offices and Branches, Peterborough
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 80mm (160mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Fan vaulting, Peterborough Cathedral

click photo to enlarge
On a recent visit to Peterborough we made a brief visit to the cathedral. I've said elsewhere in this blog that it is one of the most overlooked and least well-known of our major medieval cathedrals, a building of exceptional architecture that deserves to be much more widely recognised.

One of Peterborough's glories is the fan-vaulting of the retrochoir that is every bit as good as the more celebrated example at Gloucester. I've photographed and written about Peterborough's on more than one occasion on this blog, so I won't repeat myself here. On our recent visit the fall of the light and the visitors reminded me of the etchings and woodcuts of cathedral views popular in publications of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These frequently show small, relatively insignificant people dwarfed by the enormous columns and arches. This effect is heightened by naves empty of seating, something that is seen only occasionally today. However, the retrochoir is usually seat-free, and though it is a smaller space with a lower roof, the visitors here reminded me of those early illustrations. It took a few shots, a few changes of position and a wait for people to populate the scene before I got the image I wanted.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Fan Vaulting, Peterborough Cathedral
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 9mm (18mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:500
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Flying the Union flag

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I get the impression that the Union flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK) is being flown more in recent years than was formerly the case. In January of 2007 I posted a piece about just this subject, noting that it appeared less often than some of the flags of the constituent countries of the UK. Perhaps the referendum on Scotland's independence, that narrowly voted for that country's continuance as part of the UK, has concentrated political minds and a more concerted effort to promote the benefits of unity is under way. One can only hope so.

During my lifetime some nation states, for example West and East Germany, have merged. However, fragmentation has been much more common, and in, for example, eastern Europe, it has at times been very difficult to keep up with the number and names of newly appearing countries. This year the UK's lamentable government, that exercises total power on the back of a mere 36.9% of those who voted, is to invite us to vote on whether to accept a package of changes relating to our membership of the European Community, or to exit from that political grouping. This is being done largely in a (futile) attempt to resolve the ambivalent view of the Conservative Party about being part of Europe. I shall vote for continuing membership for economic and social reasons. I will also be mindful of the fact that wars in Europe are not uncommon, that they usually begin with disputes between near neighbours, and that the people of countries that work together and share common values and aspirations don't, as a rule, try and kill one another.

Today's photograph shows the Union flag flying on the City Hall in Peterborough. My first shot was from the side that was fully lit by the sun. It was fine but relatively uninteresting. I liked this contre jour shot better. It was taken when the sun was behind a cloud. The shadows of the building were much more dramatic and the composition gave greater prominence to the colours of the translucent flag.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Union Flag, Peterborough City Hall
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 45mm (90mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Bicycles and pedestrians contre jour

click photo to enlarge
One of the advantages of winter sun (in the northern hemisphere) is that it is relatively low in the sky. Consequently contre jour silhouettes and deep, elongated shadows are available during the day and not just early and late as at other times of year.

I saw these bicycles in a pedestrianised street in Peterborough when shopping the other day and liked the bold shapes they made. After I'd taken my shots I seemed to remember photographing bicycles against the light in similar circumstances before. A quick search of the blog turned up the image and proved my memory still works reasonably well despite my advancing years. The main differences between the shots is that I used a much wider angle on the earlier photograph and above I used a longer focal length to minimise the elements I wanted in the composition.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Bicycles and Pedestrians, Peterborough
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 56mm (112mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Humber Bridge and a soft sky

click photo to enlarge
I have a liking for what I call "soft skies". These are cloud-covered skies with only a small amount of contrast and strong detail. Not the featureless stratus that is just unbroken grey. I mean those skies where the individual clouds are not strongly delineated but are either "smeared" across the sky or are merge into one another like a bed of feathers. I featured one of the latter skies several years ago above a collection of small boats drawn up on the beach at Aldeburgh in Suffolk. Today's photograph, taken on one of our frequent, family-related trips over the Humber Bridge, has the former kind of "smeared" softness.

I've always maintained that a sky can make or break a landscape photograph and I take a great interest in what the day offers by way of cloud cover and the type of cloud. There are several photographs on this blog of the Humber Bridge, including a number from this location - Barton Haven. Each one has a different sky, and each sky lends the photograph a large part of its "mood".

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Humber Bridge Seen From Barton Haven, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/1600 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On