Love in a mist and the Meike MK320 flash

click photo to enlarge
There's something about the Love in a mist (Nigella damascena), sometimes known as simply Nigella, that makes me want to photograph it. I think it's the fact that it is quite different from most garden flowers. The flower head is fairly orthodox except for the prominent centre. The leaves are exceptionally thin and spiky and when seen in a group of many flowers give the misty appearance that prompted one of its common names.

The example in today's photograph has a blue flower and is the variant "Miss Jekyll". However, you can't see that because another feature of this flower is that it makes me want to photograph it in black and white. Against a black background the spikes become very prominent and give the plant a more threatening appearance than it actually possesses. The plant's seed pod is nothing short of remarkable and could easily be used by a sci fi film-maker as the basis for some alien life form. I made one of these the subject of a photograph in 2013 (also in black and white).

I took today's photograph with a 60mm macro lens and a newly acquired flash - the Meike Speedlite MK320, a small M43 compatible flash that performs much better and has more features and options than its cost of just over £50 might suggest. The guide number is 32, fine for my requirements - plant photography, family portraiture and indoor architectural detail shots. The fact that it comes supplied with a diffuser, a stand for off-camera triggering (the EM-10 works with it), has a metal foot (the plastic one on my Olympus flash soon broke!), three built-in LEDs, and it can be charged with a USB cable if you use rechargeable batteries, will I hope, encourage me to do more flash photography than hitherto. Time will tell.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Nigella Flower
Mode: Manual
Focal Length: 60mm macro (120mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Penyghent's moods and drystone walls

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Elsewhere in this blog I have posted photographs of Penyghent, my favourite among Yorkshire's "Three Peaks", a small group of mountains in the Pennine range that forms the central backbone of the north of England. Those photographs show the varying moods that time of day, weather and season can bestow on this whaleback that looms over the upper Ribble valley near Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

Today's photograph shows Penyghent in a benign mood, the afternoon June sunshine that falls on its slopes lessening the effect of the dark clouds above. Anyone wondering at the perversity of a person who would build a drystone wall running up the steep slope of the mountain's "nose" should know that such walls were usually a result of the legal enclosure of common land and were required to mark the boundary of the landowner's holding.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Penyghent Seen From Near Swarth Moor
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 47mm (94mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Narrow boat, Regent's Canal, Islington

click photo to enlarge
For many years our visits to London involved staying in Rotherhithe by the River Thames. That great artery formed the subject of many of my photographs of the city during that time. Recently our stays in the city have centred on Islington and a different, much smaller waterway has received the attention of my camera. The Regent's Canal runs through the borough and we have come to know the stretch that passes east from Angel towards Hackney.

The canal remains a route for narrow boats and other pleasure craft and the tow path is a combined footpath and cyclepath, much used as a commuter route by pedestrians and cyclists as well as a pleasant place for a walk away from the noise and fumes of traffic. Today's photograph was taken not too far into our walk from Angel and appropriately, and not coincidentally, features a narrow boat called "Angel". I took the photograph using a bridge as a frame and also tried to capture some of the greenery that makes this part of the canal particularly pleasurable.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Narrow Boat, "Angel", on Regent's Canal, Islington
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 49mm (98mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Hackney graffiti

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Over the years I've mellowed a little with regard to graffiti. I still dislike "tags" and the graffiti that is piled up one surface on top of another as spraycan-equipped passers-by superimpose their graphic on top of that of earlier "artists". However, I am better disposed towards the considered piece that seeks to add something of beauty, interest or humour to the street-scene.

We came upon today's example in Hackney, London. It isn't particularly accomplished drawing and doesn't seek to make any obvious point, but I like the restricted pallette, it brightened up a street corner and it caused me to wonder why the raindrops were multi-coloured. The piece also causes something of an optical illusion due to the figures being much larger than life-size. This has the effect, at first glance, of making the bicycles appear to be under-sized or children's bikes. As Isay, nothing profound, but nothing offensive either, and on a wet day the subject resonated..

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Graffiti, Hackney
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Café cutlery, Broadway Market, London

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As its name suggests Broadway Market is a market street that has grown up on an old drove route, a track or road on which cattle and other animals would be driven into London to slaughter houses and markets. Such roads are characterised by broadness due to the quantity of animals that would be involved and the fact that a broad way gave a better chance of the route being passable because the animals and other travellers were not all concentrated in a narrow way and could choose the better ground for their passage.Today this street in Hackney hosts a mainly food market that fills the street and the shops on either side have a high proportion of eating establishments.

We stopped off at one on a recent visit to London and secured this photograph of cutlery. On a rainy but warm day we were eating inside with the whole of the side of the restaurant thrown open to the pavement. My son noticed the containers of knives, forks, etc ready and waiting for customers and he suggested the shot.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Café Cutlery, Broadway Market, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 60mm (120mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.5
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:1250
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Orangery, Belton House

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We tend to think of the conservatory as an adjunct to Victorian and Edwardian houses, and they were certainly popular in during those periods. However, the glasshouse and orangery pre-date the nineteenth century and rose to popularity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

English country houses built orangeries in their kitchen gardens or elsewhere near the residence for the cultivation of not just oranges, but peaches, grapes and other fruits. They were primarily hot-houses, heated by fuel in winter, for the production of fruits that could not be grown easily or at all outdoors in our country, and were secondarily ornamental additions to the grounds.

The orangery at Belton House in Lincolnshire is less ornate than many - a large rectangular building, glass fronted with stone piers and Coade stone balustrade. Inside are statuary niches and water features. It is currently home to a variety of climbing plants, palms and shrubs. It was designed in 1811 by Geoffrey Wyattville but not built until 1820, and then with a slightly revised plan. As with many orangeries the light, plants and warmth give quite sub-tropical feel to the interior and the favourable growing conditions encourage luxuriant foliage of the type seen in my photograph.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Statues, Orangery, Belton House, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20mm (40mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f4.3
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:400
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The north face of the O2

click photo to enlarge
The O2 Dome entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London was initially known as the Millennium Dome since it was built to celebrate and coincide with the year 2000. It was initially seen as something of a vanity project of the politicians who supported its construction, was reviled by many Londoners as the wrong building in the wrong place, and seen by the regions as yet another enormous sum spent on the capital at the expense of the provinces. However, over time it has come to have something of a purpose as a large arena for music concerts and other events, and the subsidiary buildings and subsequent construction nearby have made it seem less of a stranded white elephant. The scale of the building and the method of construction has ensured it is a visible structure that people look at and visit.

I was recently looking at the dome from near the Isle of Dogs on the north bank of the Thames. We were exploring a part of London by the river with which we are not very familiar. I took a few shots from the arts centre that is Trinity Buoy Wharf and while doing so saw some people undertaking the walk on the roof of the dome. I've seen people doing this before. However, on this occasion, from this vantage point, I got a very good impression of the size of the dome as the ant-like people carefully made their way down the structure. They appear to have been clipped on to the wire alongside which they were making their way - a wise precaution on a wet and intermittently windy day.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Walking On the O2 Dome, London Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

K2 and K6 red telephone boxes

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One of the poor decisions of the 1980s was that made by the newly privatised BT (British Telecom) to introduce a new design of telephone box (sometimes called a kiosk). The original designs were so well-liked by British people, and had become one of the symbols of the UK to non-natives, that any new design was bound to provoke a negative reaction. And so it proved. The sleek KX100 design, though it was undoubtedly cheaper to make, maintain and clean, was much reviled and vandalised. Such is the consequence of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

We didn't know it in the 1980s, but the life of the telephone box was limited; the rise of the mobile phone has by now made them all but redundant. However, such is the affection that they engender, that many councils bought redundant boxes for a nominal fee, retained them in their original locations, and turned them to new uses such as information points and free "swap libraries". British Telecom kept some in strategic locations as phone boxes for heritage reasons. The other day we came upon a few in Smithfield Market in London.

The pair in the photograph above are two of the most common designs. On the left is a K2. There were 1,700 examples made of which just over 200 are still in place. This was the first type to be painted red. It was designed for the General Post Office (GPO) by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1924. The first examples were installed in 1926 and in 1935 it was phased out to be replaced by the K6, which is the model on the right. This was also the work of Scott. He designed it in 1935, the first example was introduced in 1936, and production finally ended in 1968. A grand total of 60,000 were manufactured of which 10,700 remain. It wasn't the novelty of finding some telephone boxes with phones still in them that prompted my photograph so much as the strident colours in the background of the "GPO red" paintwork. For more information about Britain's telephone boxes this site is a great resource.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: K2 and K6 Telephone Boxes, Smithfield Market, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 16mm (32mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:1600
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The Celebrated Boston Water Filter

click photo to enlarge
In a post of 2006 I wrote that I could never have been an entrepreneur or venture capitalist because I would dismiss so many money-making ideas as ridiculous. I cited the proposition that in Britain water could be sold to people in plastic bottles at many multiples of the price of inexpensive, pure and palatable tap water. I would have dismissed this out of hand, and I still find it extraordinarythat money can be made in this way. Equally puzzling to me is the notion of water-filters. I can understand their use in parts of the world where the water is not purified and on tap. But, in countries where those conditions do prevail why does anyone buy water filters? The fact is that all the necessary filtration is done before the water comes out of the tap.

On a recent visit to the medieval guildhall in Boston Lincolnshire, I came upon "The Celebrated Boston Water Filter". This stoneware device lacked a tap at the base, but it was obvious that it filtered water for the recipient at a time when piped water either wasn't available or wasn't of the standard that it is today. In other words, the filter had a purpose. The other thing that struck me as I surveyed this water filter was a thought that I often have since my relocation to Lincolnshire not too far from Boston. It is this - when I search for anything to do with this Lincolnshire town I have to be careful because I get lots of hits relevant to Boston Massachusetts, the place that was named after the town near where I live. That problem shouldn't arise here because the filter proudly proclaimed that it was "Improved and Manufactured by Isaac Walker, Boston, England", and I am making that very clear. However, I'm sure that won't stop visitors from the U.S.A. Boston alighting on this page in hope and departing disappointed.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: "The Celebrated Boston Water Filter", Guildhall, Boston, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:2500
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Southrey's charming little church

click photo to enlarge
The church of St John the Divine at Southrey is unusual among Lincolnshire village churches in a number of interesting ways. Firstly it was built in 1898, a late date not only for one of the county's Victorian churches but also because most villages have a medieval building. Then there is the fact that at this late date no architect was involved in its construction. It was built by Richard Turner, the village carpenter, with the help of villagers, the Rev C. Laing and his curate, Mr Knox. This must account for the fact that the church is made of wood, a further unusual characteristic. This material gives the building something of a colonial appearance. The foundations are probably the oldest feature of the church. It is said that the stone slabs that form the plinth were grave covers from the dissolved Bardney Abbey.

The overall design is quite simple - a rectangular nave and chancel in one, a west porch with a large window above, and a small bell turret surmounted by a large weathercock (with cartoon-like painting). What look like four  supporting buttress/poles on each side appear to be later additions holding up the building, perhaps due to movement of some sort. They are, in fact, part of the original design, perhaps a case of "belt and braces" applied by the builders to ensure the structure's integrity.

The exterior timber has been replace by uPVC with little detriment to the overall appearance of the building which is charming. The congregation and clergy clearly look after the building very well and on our recent visit, as on a previous one a few years ago, the church was beautifully presented both without and within. Until recently here was only one piece of original stained glass - a small roundel at the east end above the altar. However, in 2014 the four-light west window above the porch received a remembrance window. The "Southrey Soldiers Windows" by Derek Commander depicts the church in its setting and the military personnel who came from the village and died on active service, the earliest during WW1, the most recent in 2011.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: St John the Divine, Southrey, Lincolnshire
Camera: Sony RX10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12.9mm (35mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Meadow grasses

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Our garden is sufficiently large that one year we thought we'd turn part of our largest lawn over to meadow. That is to say, we'd stop mowing the section that has the fruit trees, sow and transplant some wild flowers into it and cut it annually with a scythe. We researched the theory and embarked on the project. It turned out that the maintenance of this area of grass was, if not more time-consuming than lawn, certainly harder work when it came to looking after it. The effect in spring and summer was fine, but the appearance after the mowing wasn't good and the disposal of the grass was harder than envisaged. Moreover, some flowers in the meadow succeeded but quite a few failed. So we decided to drastically reduce the area of "meadow", return a big portion back to lawn and see how that fared. The answer was, much better, even though I was back to steering the mower round most of the apple and pear trees once more.

Today's photograph shows some of the grasses in our small area of meadow lit by June sunshine I expect I'll be photographing the dog daisies in it soon, and enjoying the sight of the long grass and flowers swaying in the breeze and July sunshine before I take the scythe to it.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Meadow Grasses
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Manual
Focal Length: 35mm Macro (70mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The tarnished mirror pond

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The purpose of a mirror pond is to re-create, usually in a man-made stretch of water, some of the qualities that a natural lake or pond displays on a calm clear day when the surface is completely still. In those circumstances a near perfect reflection of the surroundings, after the manner of a mirror, is possible.

The creators of the English landscape garden sometimes made a mirror pond near to the country house as one of the features to which the owners and their guests could walk and admire. Frequently they also constructed something - a building, statues, a bridge etc - whose purpose was to be the object that was reflected. On a visit to Belton House, near Grantham, we went to look at the example there and were disappointed to find it "broken". Water plants with delicate white flowers that had colonised the mirror pond had broken through the surface, spoiling the reflection of the rusticated stone pavilion that had been placed at the end of the rectangle of water, tarnishing, as it were, the surface. This effect probably worked in winter when the plants were dormant, but the onset of spring had spurred their growth. The diligence of the National Trust staff who care for the grounds at Belton is everywhere apparent, so I will not be surprised to find on a future visit that the "polish" has been restored to the water's surface and a flawless reflection of the pavilion will be mirrored for all to see.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Mirror Pond, Belton House, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 45mm (90mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.4
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Pelargoniums and arches

click photo to enlarge
Even though the weather was heavily overcast and dull, and despite the fact that the pelargoniums were only starting rather than in full flower, it was inevitable that I would take this photograph. Why? Well, we favour this flower, in red, in our garden for the great effect that it has for such a small outlay, and the fact that it flowers for a long period and can withstand dry conditions. It brightens up our garages, the garden shed, outside our greenhouse and some of the borders. My favourite colour is a red/orange that isn't easy to find, and failing that I like a deep, strong red.

These examples are in some framing arches that are each side of a fountain at Belton House, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire. The plants go well with the old, lichen-encrusted stone, and even though the terracotta pots sit slightly awkwardly in the scalloped brackets, they brightened up a drab, unseasonally cold afternoon during our visit with some of our family.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Pelargoniums and Arxches, Belton House, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 49mm (98mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:250
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The derivation of King's Cross

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Unlike many names in Britain that of King's Cross is of relatively short standing - less than two hundred years old. However, the site of King's Cross has carried more than one name, and the oldest of these goes back around thousand years.

Unsurprisingly King's Cross refers to a king and a cross roads. In fact, a statue of King George IV stood at the crossroads from 1830 to 1845. It wasn't much of a statue apparently, a double life-size figure on a sixty foot column at the top of which was a camera obscura and at the base, a building. All of this was made cheaply of brick, even the statue, though the latter was coated to resemble stone. The building in the base of the column was initially a police station and later became a pub.

As with many areas of London, the site was once a village, here called Battlebridge, and was sited at a crossing of the River Fleet. A name such as this at a location of this kind would normally arise from an actual event, and it has been suggested, though with only slight evidence, that the battle was one that took place around 60AD between the Iceni led by Boudica and the Roman army. Today King's Cross is known as a district of London and widely for the main line railway terminus of that name that stands only a few yards from another such terminus, St Pancras - hence the name in today's photograph shot one early evening a few weeks ago.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: King's Cross, St Pancras and the Underground, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:500
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On