Canada Water balconies

click photo to enlarge
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

Night photography

click photo to enlarge
When I used a film camera the photographic day was shorter than it is now. By that I mean the film that was widely available wasn't at its best when light levels started to drop away. If you used a tripod with a static subject you'd got a chance of a reasonable shot, but hand-held it was a different matter. So, I rarely shot in the early morning or in the evening after sunset. And, of course, those are the times when you can make some great photographs.

That slowly changed with the arrival of digital. As sensors improved we started to use ISO numbers that were unheard of with film. From a film-days maximum of ISO 400 or so we soon progressed to the point where 800 and 1600 were regularly used to good effect. The arrival of in-body and lens stabilisation allowed us to hand hold these numbers quite comfortably at speeds down to 1/15 or 1/8 second despite the fact that often the lenses were not as bright as the 50mm 1.8 or 1.4 that we routinely used with film. Then technology moved on and ISO 3200 and 6400 became viable. Today we see cameras offering 12800 and even 25600.

Consequently, when I'm in London I think nothing of hand holding my camera for night-time shots. Sometimes, if I'm away from street lights and strongly illuminated buildings, I'll brace the camera against a wall or on some railings. I never - thankfully - need to consider carrying a tripod because the results I get hand-held are quite acceptable. We passed Canada Water Library the other day. I first photographed this striking Piers Gough/CZWG designed building at the turn of the year during daylight hours. The night offered a different take on the structure and the opportunity to use highlights on the adjacent water of the old dock.

photographs and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/30 sec
ISO: 640
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Canada Water Library

click photo to enlarge
At a time when budget cuts have reduced public library funding, when libraries are closing, their services are being reduced, and the very idea and future of the public library as a repository of books and information is under question due to the depth and extent of internet access, it is uplifting to find politicians who are following a different course. The London Borough of Southwark has bravely bucked the trend of closure and contraction, not only keeping its 12 existing libraries open but adding a new one in the form of this bold and unusual building at Canada Water.

On the day I first saw the library we had driven into London on the M11 and had passed a convoy of armoured personnel carriers in desert camouflage being transported on lowloaders. The angularity of this building and its brown metal cladding reminded me of those vehicles. In their case the inclined sides are designed to deflect projectiles that come from the side and from IED and mine blasts from below. The building, however, is this shape in order to fit more floor space on this small site by the edge of the former dock. The design is the responsibility of Piers Gough of the architects CZWG and he has come up with a building that adds distinction to its location. Not unusually for this practice it is characterful and upbeat, rather like their China Wharf (1988) on the Southwark Thames and their nearby house, two buildings with which I am more familiar. We passed the library on the way back from a walk so there was no time to look inside at the big wooden spiral staircase in the centre of the interior or the gallery around the top. Nor was I able to take a shot of it from the other side of Canada Water to show it in relation to the dock. Perhaps next time I'll get to do both those things. This recent blog post shows more of the building, including the entrance.

The library is next to Canada Water station, one of London Underground's newer buildings. It too is an essay in metal but this time polished stainless steel formed into great cylinders. It can be seen on the right of the black and white shot in front of a block of flats.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 24mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The London Underground roundel

click photo to enlarge
There is a great temptation for companies to update their company name and logo to better reflect the times. If you look at companies as disparate as Shell, BP, Coca Cola, British Airways, Lego or Ford you can see a clear difference between the original logo and that of today, often with intervening versions along the way.

Companies that stick to their original logo or way of presenting their company name are fewer. Why is this? Could it be that they don't want, in some way, to dilute or muddy their brand by departing from what is tried, tested and successful? Or is it that they think they have found a design upon which improvement is impossible? BMW is an example of a company whose logo has changed little since its inception around 1920. The linked letter Cs of Chanel have also remained the same since the design was conceived by Coco Chanel in 1925.

A further example of a long-lasting logo is that of London Underground. The red roundel with a blue bar across upon which are the white letters - either "UNDERGROUND" or a station name - dates from 1908. There is the suggestion that it was adapted from the wheel with a bar across it used by the London General Omnibus Company in the nineteenth century. However, what is known is that a slight variation of the present design with the word "Underground" presented thus - UNDERGROUND  - was first used in 1908 and that in 1919 Edward Johnston designed a sans serif typeface with all letters the same height for use throughout the London Underground, including on the roundel. It has remained the same since that time. The Transport for London (TfL) subsidiary, London Overground, adapted the roundel for its use, as did , London Buses  (also a TfL subsidiary). All three logos can be seen on this sign near the determinedly modern Canada Water Library in London.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 28mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On