Walking by the River Slea in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the other day I stopped when my wife took a phone call. As she chatted I cast my eye about to see if any photographic subjects offered themselves up to my camera. The freshly growing water weed below the water's surface was making lovely shapes, but it didn't translate into a photograph because it lacked the movement that made the vegetation so appealing. Newly hatched mallard chicks whizzed hither and thither like miniature speed boats, but they didn't look like photographic fodder - too fast, too random in direction. Then my eye was caught (not for the first time) by the public seating nearby. It was metal, had words worked into the backrest and the bench seat was perforated with holes. Underneath were bright yellow celandines glowing in the spring sunshine.
I took two photographs of this subject, each with a different point of focus. What I liked about the result was the way they differed and yet offered something of interest, and the colour combination of the blue seat and the green and yellow of the grass and celandines. As some readers will know I have a jaundiced view of much that passes for contemporary public seating because it too often puts the ability to withstand vandalism well-ahead of any attempt to provide a comfortable perch for a passing posterior. One of the things my photographs show - I think - is that even the most unpromising, inflexible subject is capable of providing something out of which we can fashion a photograph.
photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Photo Title: Bench Seat With Celandines Below
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO:400
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
