Watery reflections, Canary Wharf

click photo to enlarge
We were in London's Canary Wharf at about 7.30am recently,  Our reason for being there wasn't photographic but family-related. However, with a little time on our hands, I was photographing buildings and people in the clear, sharp, morning light. My photographic assistant, a.k.a my wife, knowing my liking for semi-abstract subjects, pointed out these patterns in some of the remaining water of one of the former docks. The reflections in the moving surface of the water were made by a building with a facade with very finely detailed fenestration. I took several shots of the subject but liked this one best showing the contrast between the building reflection and a section of water that mirrors only the blue of the sky.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Reflected Building and Sky, Canary Wharf, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 70mm (140mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.5
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:400
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

An urban landscape

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I was raised in quite rural surroundings and, unlike most of the contemporaries of my youth, I enjoyed the countryside and what it offered. I didn't share their yearning for the bright lights and big city. Consequently, when I moved to a city in order to further my education, and then for employment, I was quite surprised to find that I liked urban living. I was discussing this with one of my sons the other day. He lives in London and enjoys the experience. During the course of our conversation I observed that as someone who relishes the visual more than many, the city offers me stimuli aplenty. The fact is, for those with eyes to see there is always something of interest in cities.

Today's photograph was taken only a few minutes after the shot in the previous post. It shows a subject that I've photographed many times in recent years - the financial district known as Canary Wharf. What I like about this group of towers as a subject is that they change with the light, time of day and season, and especially with the myriad foregrounds that can be placed before the them. This shot appealed to me for the contrast between the children and parents in the playground at the bottom of the frame with the impersonal bulk of the distant skyscrapers at the top. It's an urban landscape of the sort that I enjoy composing.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 37mm (100mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Not so anonymous buildings

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Presented with today's photograph I imagine many people would comment on the beehive-like arrangement of the identical windows, or think of faceless corporations hidden behind the glass and steel. Perhaps their mind would reflect on the anonymity and soullessness of modern life. Certainly the image would, in the main, prompt negatives rather than positives. And yet, this particular building doesn't, I think, deserve that kind of negativity. Of all the tall towers built in Britain in the last 50 years this is one of the better examples, a structure that has worn well, one that is distinctive due to its shape, location and size, and which, due to its excellent detailing, still looks good from close-by.

From 1990 until 2010 Cesar Pelli's tower at 1 Canada Square in Canary Wharf, London, was Britain's tallest building. The Shard overtook it during the course of construction and its 1,004 feet (306 metres) far surpasses the Canary Wharf tower's 770 feet (235 metres). However, the distinctive pyramidal cap, its extra height among the surrounding towers, and its location away from the City make it both distinctive and distinguished both during the day, whatever the weather, and at night. When I'm driving on the M11 into London it's the first building I notice as we crest the low hills to the north of the city.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 48mm (72mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Towers of the winds

click photo to enlarge
Many years ago I visited Athens to look at the architecture of Classical (and later) Greece. One of the many buildings that I viewed was the Tower of the Winds, a 12 metre tall octagonal structure in the Roman agora, that was built in the period between 50BC and 200BC. It features the eight deities associated with wind and has a sundial on each of its faces. It was, essentially, a clock tower.

The other day I was standing in a public space at Canary Wharf in London where there are several clocks indicating time at different locations. We were debating where to sit to eat the lunch that we were carrying. That question was important because, though the sun was shining and the temperature was generally quite pleasant, it was windy and we knew that sitting in the wind would soon result in us feeling cold and uncomfortable. However, it was difficult to find such a place because the tall towers that dominate the location cause the wind to swirl in many directions. We eventually settled on a bench in a well planted area by some water features.

As I ate my sandwich I recalled an article I read recently about a tall tower in Leeds that caused the wind to increase in speed at its base to the point where it often knocked people off their feet, and caused a death when a lorry blew onto a pedestrian. The piece described how structures were being erected at ground level as baffles to reduce the wind velocity. It occurred to me that Canary Wharf's towers were "towers of the wind" too: the gusts definitely seemed to be stronger among them that in the open space by the river. But, the people who work there seemed to know the best places to sit at lunchtime and enjoy food and a break, so I took the opportunity to photograph the be-suited people enjoying their moments of mid-day leisure.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 140mm (210mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Is grey the new magnolia?

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I ask the question posed in the title not because I'm some sort of fashion sage or guru, or an arbiter of taste, or an expert on interior or urban design. No, what prompts my question is an article that I read in The Guardian entitled, "From Apple products to DIY and fashion: how grey became the colour of the decade."The author of the piece describes the colour as embodying "the spirit of the post-boom era", hard-wearing and practical. She goes on to note its presence, even ascendance, in clothing fashions, interior walls and on doors, in upholstery, sports wear, nail varnish, office and domestic equipment and much else. It is seen to be smart, elegant, neutral and a good complement to other colours.

I have noticed a slight resurgence in the use of grey but not the all-conquering shift suggested in the article. Perhap I'm not persuaded by her argument, in part, because we used it on some internal wall in the mid-1970s, and I've noticed it being used reasonably regularly since that time. But, I have seen the "tide of green paint" (particularly the sage variety) that I blogged about a while ago watered down by shades of grey that are used in similar circumstances by the same demographic. And I've seen and enjoyed its use in architecture, particularly on facades (see above). But, as for choosing grey because it fits the "spirit of the post-boom era": well, that's a stretch too far for me. It makes as much sense to suggest that it's part of the search for the new magnolia, a need for a change in the backdrop of living rooms, a colour against which other points of colour display well. Black, white, cream and grey serve this purpose especially well. This well-known among the photographic fraternity. Card mounts around photographs often feature one of these colours. Photographers who use Photoshop or one of its equivalents also appreciate the value of a mid to dark grey background against which to display digital images. In fact, why do you think I chose the colours I did for this blog!?

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 28.5mm (77mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Piranesi and the London Underground

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London's "Tube", more properly known as the Underground, is an interesting place for the photographer because it is a metro system that has developed over such a long period of time and therefore offers subjects old and new. In fact, it includes the world's first underground line that was developed by the Metropolitan Railway and opened as long ago as 1863. The Underground is a system that, despite having 270 stations and 250 miles of track, is still being extended and consequently has a number of sleek, modern stations to contrast with the older structures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The other week I used a couple of these recent stations - Canada Water and Canary Wharf - both examples of what I call the "stainless steel" stations. I think of them in those terms because they feature large quantities of stainless steel alongside the inevitable concrete. However, modern and gleaming though they undoubtedly are, I also cannot help but think of them as "Piranesian". That word is an adjective especially familiar to students of the history of art and architecture. It derives from the name of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), an Italian etcher and engraver born near Venice. He started out as an illustrator of contemporary views, moving on to studies of the remains of ancient Rome that he drew with an obvious delight in old stonework and the contrast of Mediterranean light and shade.

However, it a series of sixteen drawings from his imagination for which posterity remembers Piranesi, works that fired the imagination of the Romantic movement and inspired a number of architects. These showed the interiors of imaginary prisons, "Carceri d'Invenzione". In high contrast he depicted gigantic stone vaults, stairs, machines, ladders, chains and ropes and crawling about these fantastic, cavernous interiors, tiny people, dwarfed by their surroundings. Looking at today's black and white photograph of the exit hall and escalators at Canary Wharf underground station you can perhaps understand how Foster + Partners' work conjures up in my mind this inspirational draughtsman's imaginings.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Inequality

click photo to enlarge
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), a man who was on two occasions the prime minister of Great Britain, once said, "There are three types of lies - lies, damned lies and statistics". One of the implications of his remark is that statistics are not only frequently untrue, but are often deliberately used falsely. And yet, statistics can be very revealing because they can quantify, and therefore clarify, that which may be hidden or obscured. When they do this the revelation that they uncover can be startling.

Yesterday my newspaper reported a statistic that not only brought me up short, but made me feel extremely uncomfortable: in fact, made me feel ashamed to be part of our society. The charity, Oxfam*, has calculated that the total wealth of the five richest British families exceeds that of the poorest 20% of the population. In other words this, handful of rich people have more money and assets than the least well-off 12.6 million Britons. Could the starkness of that contrast, the iniquity of that inequality, the shame that it brings to every politician and law maker, and to every individual voter, be made without the force of that statistic? I would encourage anyone who reads that statistic and is as appalled by it as I am, to at the very least, remember it when elections come along; to cast their vote for the party that pledges to reduce inequality; to vote for those who will ensure the rich pay a greater share of their wealth to achieve that goal; and only endorse those determined that the poor and less well-off will receive a larger share of the national income.

I was recently in Canary Wharf. Along with the City of London (the financial district not the greater metropolitan area) this is one of the two centres of finance in the UK. It exudes wealth. From the up-market eateries to the private security guards, manicured gardens and spotless streets it speaks of money. What better to represent today's post than the gleaming steel and glistening glass of two of the many banks to be found there.

* In January 2014 Oxfam also reported that the 85 richest people in the world had more wealth and assets than the poorest half of the world's population!

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Canary Wharf at night

click photo to enlarge
This isn't the first night time photograph I've taken of the financial district of London called Canary Wharf. And it probably won't be the last. However, if you live in the Lincolnshire countryside, where the brightest light around is probably a security light on the side of a farm, then the opportunity to photograph night views with plenty of lights is one not to be missed.

There was a time when I used a tripod quite regularly, particularly when I photographed more interior church architecture than I do now. These days I reserve that kind of camera support for macro photography. I've always thought one of the best developments in camera technology in recent years has been image stabilisation (or vibration control or whatever term your manufacturer uses). A close second has been the improvement in the high ISO abilities of sensors. Put those two together and the tripod is no longer quite the necessity that it was. Even a pocket camera with a relatively small 1 inch sensor like the Sony RX100 is capable of producing pretty good images after the last light of the day has disappeared.

I had the ISO on Auto for today's shot and it chose ISO 5000 to keep the shutter speed up to 1/60 second, a necessarily high speed given the focal length was 56mm (35mm equivalent). Nonetheless, old habits die hard and I rested the camera on a handy lifebelt point for my photograph and I braced it firmly. The result is a shot that I wouldn't have thought of taking this way with this kind of camera only five years ago, and it's one that is, I think, technically pretty good.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20.6mm (56mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:5000
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Dipping into the "maybes"

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Every now and again I come to the end of my backlog of "postable" photographs. That is to say, those images that I consider good enough to feature in the blog and which I prepare in advance, often well in advance, of the day on which they appear. One of the problems with my self-imposed task of posting on alternate days is that I need to collect, process and prepare, a steady supply of photographs that I deem "good enough" for public display: an activity that I sometimes refer to as "feeding the blog."

But, my well has run dry and so for today's offering I've pulled out a shot that I took on 8th December on my last visit to London. I'd prepared it for posting, but then, as is sometimes the case, decided that it wasn't quite up to par, and put it in my folder that I've titled "Maybes". Well, today a "maybe" has become a "postable". What I liked about this photograph is the viewpoint that embraces the Thames Clipper jetty with a catamaran waiting for its load of passengers before it turns up-river to the City, the O2 Arena (formerly the Millennium Dome), the neighbouring and distinctive Ravensbourne College and the office towers of Canary Wharf beyond the curve in the river. Oh, and the wonderful sky and the late afternoon light coming in from the left. What I wasn't so keen on, and what led to its eventual rejection is the darkness of the foreground relative to the background. Had some direct sunlight got through to the jetty or boat I'd have been much happier, but having the bottom half of the frame darker than the top half doesn't work as well as I'd like. However, needs must, and unless I break my schedule then this shot or one of my other "maybes" has to appear.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Cascades Tower, Canary Wharf

click photo to enlarge
Every building seeks to satisfy at least three groups of people - those who build it, those who live in it and those who pass by it. Each of those groups sees themselves as the most important, the people whose interests must be served above all others. But where one group's interests are dominant a building is often a failure. A construction built to maximise profit rarely offers good accommodation or a positive contribution to the local environment. One that is built with the approbation of the general public in mind often fails as a space in which to live or work, and can stretch a budget. The hard trick is to satisfy all of the separate, and sometimes conflicting, interests.

I've often looked across the Thames at Canary Wharf and thought about the individual buildings that have gone up over the years. One that stands out as different from the others is Cascades Tower, a 20 storey, 194 feet (59m) block built between 1986 and 1988 by CZWG Architects. The left side is a tower with a slightly undulating facade, bands of coloured brick and an unusually large variety of different sized and shaped windows and balconies. At the top is decorative metalwork in a shape that reminds me of eel traps. What makes it different from the run-of-the-mill apartment complex is the big, "ski-jump" slope on the right side of the Thames facade, a stepped structure with glazed roofing: presumably the "cascades". To say it is the ugly duckling alongside swans is to attach too much value to some of the other towers. However, it is a pretty ghastly offering compared with most, a busy looking beehive for young executives of the nearby financial institutions. At least that's how it appears from the outside. The individual apartments may be all that people want and need, and some of those for sale at the moment look fine. But as a contribution to the location and a building that will forever (or at least a few decades) stand in front of the taller blocks, it leaves everything to be desired.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 300mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Photograph what you like the way you like

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Photographers, perhaps more than many others who work in the field of visual arts and crafts, seem to take far too much notice of the opinions of others. Perhaps it's due to the fact that photography is a mixture of the technical and the artistic. Or it could be because the camera is a consumer durable, heavily marketed, constantly updated, available in multiple forms and hence subject to the familiar tyranny of choice, analysis paralysis and information overload that afflicts much buying today. If you agonise over the camera you buy, visiting countless websites, absorbing myriad opinions, listening to the informed, the opinionated, the "brand fans" and the mildly deranged, there's small wonder that you do the same when it comes to deciding what and how to photograph.

There are plenty of people who will tell you what is a good photographic subject and what are the "best" ways of taking a photograph. The problem is that if you follow this - often contrary - advice, you'll end up making images that look like everyone else's that please them, not you. Of course, if you ignore all the siren voices you may well end up doing that anyway because it's difficult to ignore photographs in our everyday lives and seeing so much we are very likely to be influenced by it. Nonetheless, I consider the best advice anyone can give to a photographer is, "photograph what you like the way you like." Given that is my view you'll realise I've not been one for camera clubs, books about photography, photographic qualifications, competitions or the the lure of professional photography. For me - and I'm only speaking about me here - all those have the potential to limit my photography rather than expand or deepen it. I do like to look at the photographs made by other photographers and I am interested in the wider visual arts and photography's place therein. But beyond that I just like to make pictures that please me!

Looking at today's offering and some of my other shots you might legitimately wonder whether it's so different from anyone else's output. Some of my work clearly is mainstream. However, some of my other images are, I think, less so. If I have a defining characteristic it is that I have no defining characteristic. In that respect my photography reflects my personality; I enjoy and pursue a wide range of interests and specialise in none.

The shot above of the Thames embankment lights at Rotherhithe, with Canary Wharf in the background, is a subject that I've photographed a few times before on visits to London, though I've only previously posted this fog-shrouded example.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 50mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Night in the city

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"Night in the city looks pretty to me,
Night in the city looks fine.
Music comes spilling out into the street,
Colors go waltzing in time."
from the song, Night in the City by Joni Mitchell (1968)

The countryside figured very large in my childhood and teenage years. Unlike most of my contemporaries who were aching to be off to the major towns and cities where more happened, I was very happy with my rural surroundings. I appreciated the beauty, the opportunity for outdoor solitude, the natural history and, in most cases, the community that rural living entails. In fact, and on the basis of fairly limited experience, I imagined that I didn't like urban areas much at all. But, when I eventually went to live in a city, I found that I liked it just fine: it wasn't worse, it was just different. Some things were not as good, of course, noise and traffic for example; but some things were better, such as the ease of meeting like-minded people and the wide range of visual stimuli.

That latter advantage isn't, I guess, one that most people would list among the benefits of city life. But for a person who has wide-ranging interests and derives great value and enjoyment from what he sees around him, it immediately hit me right between the eyes as well as in them! The fact is, cities have so much to look at and what there is to see is always changing.This facilitates photography because there is always something at which you can point your camera. So it's perhaps not surprising that I regularly head out from my rural Lincolnshire fastness towards the larger towns and cities, as much for photographic reasons as any other. Having a son living in London means that I go to the capital fairly regularly and as far as UK cities go none is bigger.

It was on my most recent visit, when walking on the south bank of the very full River Thames one evening, looking at the sparkling towers of Canary Wharf, that the words of Joni Mitchell's song chorus, quoted above, came to me. "Night in the City" seems to me to be one of those songs that have been somewhat forgotten, which is a pity because it is melodic, basically simple yet with some complexity, is distinctive, has great honky-tonk style piano, time-signature changes, and a strong contrast between verse and chorus. It's perhaps that it was written for her own vocal style and range, and fits it so well, that other singers cover it much less than formerly. It must be time for that to change!

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 32mm
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/10 sec
ISO: 3200
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

More on the public/private issue

click photo to enlarge

I've visited London a few times in recent weeks. It's a trip I always enjoy, not only for seeing the members of my family who live there, but also for the photographic opportunities that it brings. Yesterday's post notwithstanding, photography in London is largely a pleasure for a number of reasons. Firstly, photographic subjects abound - everywhere. Secondly, people in a busy capital city are used to people walking around with cameras and taking shots of whatever takes their fancy: unlike in country areas they often don't give you a second glance. And thirdly, the big city is a great contrast to my area of rural Lincolnshire, so I welcome the opportunity to snap away at "different" subjects.

My stays in London are based on the south bank of the Thames a little upstream and across the river from Canary Wharf (the biggest area of "private public space" in London), so a short morning walk often takes me to locations across the river from its gleaming towers. Of course, photographing this private area from the public footpath on the opposite side of the river presents no problems. I've most enjoyed shooting this financial district in fog, and have produced several images that I've been pleased with (see here, here and here), but I've also captured it in the early evening and in full sun. Only on a couple of occasions have I ventured into its precincts, and thus far I've not been bothered by anyone objecting to my camera.

Today's photograph was taken on a sunny June morning with a deep blue sky dotted with "cotton wool" clouds. Even though the sun was pretty much behind me and there was little modelling by shadows, the scene looked quite three-dimensional due to those clouds, and so I took my shot.

Incidentally, for anyone following yesterday's post, I received a very prompt, courteous and detailed response to my letter to More London regarding photography. When I've digested it and discussed it further I'll write to them again. Then I'll turn my attention to the owners of the building I was prevented from photographing and also to the London mayor's office.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Nature and the city

click photo to enlarge

Everything visible in this photograph is man-made except the trees, the river and the sky. The part of London in which it was taken has been extensively redeveloped in recent years. Riverside flats, offices, hotels and a few "service" type buildings - shops, pubs, etc, dominate the area. Concrete, steel, brick and glass are the principal materials of this man-made environment. Much of what has been erected is unremarkable, some is good architecture, and some should never have left the drawing board. Were the buildings all that was to be seen, then it would be a fairly grim place. But, there has been a conscious effort made to incorporate natural planting.

What grows in this part of London's redeveloped Docklands is, by and large, what has been deliberately put there. In the area where I took this photograph the streets are lined with trees, often London Plane, trimmed to keep them down to a manageable size - like the pair in my image. In small corners of paved areas beds with hardy shrubs - eleagnus, cotoneaster, etc - have been inserted. The odd grassed area has been inserted to soften up some of the block-paving. Individual houses display plants of their owners' choosing in the small walled gardens in front, and more extensive private gardens fill the centres of apartment complexes. Balconies often have pots and baskets of shrubs, perennials and annuals. And then there are the larger scale, green, public and semi-public areas. Near to the location of my shot is the Surrey Docks City Farm, a collection of animals and vegetable gardens that seeks to educate local families about food production and animal husbandry. Across Salter Road is Stave Hill Ecological Park, a 5.2 acres linear area of trees, grass, water and carefully nurtured wild planting, that comes as a surprise to a visitor to the area. Walking through it the other weekend I saw woodpeckers!

It seems that mankind has a need for the green randomness and beauty of plants. Architects, of course, value their irregularity as a foil for the straight lines of their buildings. And photographers can also benefit from the juxtaposition of a natural shape and a rectilinear building in creating contrast and tension within a composition.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 24mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/00
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

What is photography about?

click photo to enlarge

 People pursue photography for many different reasons. The best list of these that I've come across, at least in terms of the motivations of amateur photographers, is in the book, Photography: A Middle-Brow Art by Pierre Bordieu and others. You can find it quoted in my blog post, Why do we take photographs?, though I'll warn you that it is cloaked in academic prose and you have to dig to get at the meaning. Today, I thought I'd tackle a subject very close to this issue and briefly summarize what photography is about for me, and, importantly, what it isn't about (for me).

I'm a photographer solely for the pictures I can make. I could end there, but I'll expand a little. How the pictures are achieved is less important to me than what is achieved. I see photography as closer to the arts than the sciences or even crafts, though it does often produce work that is more craft-like than artistic. Visual creativity and the components that underpin it such as composition, colour, light, tone, space, shape, line, contrast, feeling, message, etc, are more important to me than the technical details of sharpness, noise, sensor type, etc. The technological and technical aspects of photography are not what I am interested in. I take it as a given that we've passed the point where a correct exposure is one of the main aims of photography: the computers in our cameras are pretty good at achieving that without our intervention. I don't have a great interest in cameras except insofar as I know enough to buy what I need for my purposes, and make them do what I need them to do. Consequently I aim to use a camera that is "good enough" for the purposes to which I put it, and I have no inclination to debate the merits of one compared with another.

It's for these reasons that I (and many others) take shots such as those above, images I call "semi-abstract". These are photographs in which line, pattern, colour, contrast etc. are more important than the ostensible "subject" i.e. windows and their  reflections. Not everyone's taste I guess, but I like them!

photographs and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Towers of power

click photo to enlarge

Some architectural historians would have us believe that the first building with a glass curtain wall was Oriel Chambers in Liverpool, built in 1864 by the architect Peter Ellis. Others point to the large Victorian conservatories and glass buildings such as the Crystal Palace. But, whilst some of them may technically exhibit the features of such a design - a metal frame from which the windows hang, and external walls that are not structural entities supporting the building  - the first archetypal glass curtain walled building was surely Walter Gropius' Bauhaus at Dessau, Germany, built in 1925-6.

One of the things I've always found interesting about the arts and crafts institute that was the Bauhaus, is the fact that it was peopled by staff who were labelled subversives, Communists and anti-Germans. In fact, it was on those grounds that it was closed down. The truth is that the Bauhaus staff didn't support the neo-realism and imperialist style (a sort of stripped down classicism) that was favoured by the German state of the 1930s. Consequently, many dispersed across the world, to Britain, and more especially, to the United States, where they could build in the way they wanted. And it was there that the curtain wall really took off. Not, however, as an architecture for liberal, left-leaning, social democrats, but as the faceless monoliths of "red in tooth and claw" capitalism. The rest, as they say, is history. Today the glass curtain wall is found in the centre of every major city of the world, its reflective surface symbolizing power, wealth, and the discreet anonymity of the people who drive our financial and commercial empires.

The example in today's photograph is in Canary Wharf, London. I came upon it towards the end of the day as the sun was setting behind patchy cloud. As I looked up at it the building revealed nothing about who worked there and what they did. The visual connect between those inside and passers-by was one way only: they could see me but I wasn't allowed to see them. We used to think that the "iced cake" style tower blocks of the old Soviet Union, with their endlessly repeated window bands epitomised anonymous power. However, I think buildings such as the one in today's photograph do it so much more efficiently. And they do it whilst wearing a reflection that makes them  look like they are part of our world.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

View from Stave Hill, Rotherhithe

click photo to enlarge
A while ago I posted a photograph of Stave Hill, the man-made mound situated in the former docks across the Thames from Canary Wharf. Here's a shot from the top looking over at the gleaming towers, with the trees of the park below. The metal model/plan in the foreground shows what was here before the area was turned over to housing.

For the past two days much of my time has been spent fabricating a cage to cover my newly established strawberry bed. This year I'm determined that I'll eat more strawberries from my garden than will the local blackbirds. I'd like to say that the finished article is both functional and a joy to behold. It certainly isn't the latter, and only time will tell if it's the former. Anyway, my DIY endeavours account for the brief nature of this post.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 11mm (22mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Guilty until proven innocent

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It seems that Britain's photographers are guilty until proven innocent. How else can we explain the police continuing to interfere with people using their cameras on the streets of our country?

Over the past year the press has regularly carried articles about amateur and professional photographers, tourists and casual snappers being confronted by private security guards, police constables and police community support officers. In many cases the representatives of the law took action without the support of any legislation. In other incidents, particularly in London, the "catch all" Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 has been used. A Minister has stood up in the Houses of Parliament and said that this was never the intention of that legislation and has told police not to use the act against photographers. The Metropolitan Police has published advice to its officers along the same lines. And yet it continues.

Recently a man on his way to work in Brighton was stopped and asked for his name and address when he was taking photographs of the newly erected Christmas lights. In November a BBC photographer, Jeff Overs, was stopped and questioned when photographing the Millennium Footbridge and St Paul's Cathedral in London. That one sent a shiver down my spine because a couple of weeks earlier I'd photographed exactly that subject! Partly as a consequence of these events, and in the light of a recent memorandum sent to all 43 of the UK's police forces reminding them that no threat or offence is implied when someone takes a photograph in the street, a Guardian newspaper photographer decided he'd see if the persecution of photographers had stopped. He went to photograph "The Gherkin", the distinctive office building in Central London that is photographed daily by thousands of tourists. Within a couple of minutes a security guard had alerted the police and he was apprehended. You can read about his experience in his article, From snapshot to Special Branch: how my camera made me a terror suspect.

One of the pitfalls of street photography today is that some areas that we might think to be public places are actually privately owned. This applies to all shopping centres (malls) - as you might expect - but also to, for example, land around the base of "The Gherkin" and the whole of Canary Wharf. On private land the owner or his representative can sanction or forbid photography and can add detailed rules about the uses to which such images can be put. I was aware of this when I took today's photograph, but was also conscious that - to my knowledge - no one has been forbidden from photographing in Canary Wharf. And a good thing too. However, and this is the main point that the police refuse to grasp, there is no legislation forbidding the taking of photographs in public places. It shouldn't be necessary for a photographer to bring a civil action against the police for this persecution to stop - it would be a waste of public money - but it seems that nothing else is going to ensure that the law as it is written is properly upheld!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Andre Preview and comedy writing

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In an idle moment the other evening - and I haven't had many of those recently - when multi-channel TV offered nothing that appealed to me, I turned to YouTube and found myself watching a few old clips of Morecambe and Wise. I am of the generation that saw this British comedy duo transfer from live variety theatres and end of the pier shows to television, and witnessed their creative peak in the 1970s when one of their Christmas Shows garnered 28 million viewers.

At the time I was both impressed and highly entertained by the style of Eric and Ernie. They were a double act in the vaudevillian sense, with Eric the tall "daft" one, and Ernie the short more "serious" one, though equally daft if he could only see it: the concept owed a lot to Laurel and Hardy. The comic timing, mannerisms, delivery, ongoing jokes, interaction with guest stars, and the slightly anarchic humour that occasionally broke through the "working class lads made good" feel of the show, ensured it had a very wide appeal. What I never thought particularly deeply about at the time was the writing. This was largely the product of one man, Eddie Braben, and today I find that fact quite remarkable. We're used to comedy shows being written by teams of people - Monty Python surely couldn't have existed without the fertile imaginations of each individual being driven to a higher plane by interaction with each other. So to see great line after great line, new idea after new idea, appearing each season, year after year, from the pen of a single writer is, yes, remarkable.

Reviewing this image taken in Canary Wharf, London, a few weeks ago I kept thinking about what the lady in the brown coat might be saying to the lady in the black coat. But a suitably comedic line wouldn't come. The best I could manage are: "Do you think the baby will have his mother's or his father's looks?" and "My money's on the baby's head being an octahedron!" (that one's for the mathematicians out there.) Not ROFLMAO (I think that's right) material is it?

In my small way I have written a few "humorous" pieces for PhotoReflect. My best three are perhaps: Primordial soup and chilli, IMO UN wasted money, and The cows take a bow. Putting those small snippets together didn't come easily, so I can imagine just how hard it would be to come up with several 45 minute episodes or a full hour of Chrismas entertainment in the way Eddie Braben did for Morecambe and Wise. How much easier it would be with someone to bounce ideas off.

Most British people of "a certain age" will be familiar with Morecambe and Wise, and many more will know of their most famous sketch that features the conductor, Andre Previn. But for those who have never seen it, here's a link.



photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Two views of Canary Wharf

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The United Kingdom doesn't offer much in the way of Manhattan-style clusters of modern towers: the closest we get is Canary Wharf in London's Docklands. Over the past several years, on my regular visits to the capital, I've watched as it has expanded around the hub of One Canada Square (the tallest block with the pyramidal top). New towers have sprung up, riverside flats have multiplied, and an underground shopping centre has filled with ever more stores. About 25,000 people worked there in 1999. This had risen to 65,000 by 2005, and the aim is to reach about 90,000.

Canary Wharf was initially denigrated by the architectural profession and by those with an interest in our built environment. I was lukewarm too. But, like those early critics, I've warmed to the place as it has expanded. It's not just that it offers something unique in Britain, it's also that towers work best in clusters, and what looks anaemic when there's only two or three acquires force when there's ten, a dozen or more. During my recent trip to London I enjoyed a walk through the gleaming giants, appreciating the qualities of the best examples such as Cesar Pelli's original and still tallest tower, and recognising the contribution to the whole made by the less distinguished buildings.

The photograph above that was taken during the early afternoon was a quick shot as I walked along the south bank of the Thames to catch the ferry across. A deep blue sky, fluffy clouds, and crisp buildings made it an appealing vista. Moreover, the fact that much of this financial district was in cloud appealed to my liking for metaphor! The evening shot was taken from near the Royal Obseravtory in Greenwich Park. In the foreground is the white rectangular block of Inigo Jones' Queen's House (1616-1635), beyond that are the cupolas of Sir Christopher Wren's Royal Naval Hospital (1664, 1696-1702), then theThames can be glimpsed before we see the towers of Canary Wharf glowing in the last of the sun.

photographs & text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1 (Photo 2)
Camera: Lumix LX3 (Olympus E510)
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm : 24mm/35mm equiv. (53mm : 106mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6 (f6.3)
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 (1/50)
ISO: 80 (800)
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV (-1.7 EV)
Image Stabilisation: On