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

Vanbrugh Castle

click photo to enlarge
Walking over Blackheath and in Greenwich Park, London, the other day it occurred to me that, as far as the UK goes, castles can be grouped into three categories. There are those castles that were designed, built and functioned solely as fortified strongholds and that is pretty much all they have ever been: for example, Castle Rising, Norfolk. Then there are those castles that were built as fortifications but, down the centuries, were transformed into grand residences: for example, Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire. And finally there are those castles that are castles in name only, buildings that were never intended to be military structures, but which borrowed architectural elements such as turrets and battlements to give an imposing appearance to a residence. It was an example of one of these - Vanbrugh Castle - by the edge of the park, that prompted this reflection.

Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) was an English dramatist and architect. His best known buildings are Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. One of his last works was the Baroque north elevation at the above-mentioned Grimsthorpe Castle. Vanbrugh Castle was built by the architect as a home for his family. He chose a medieval Gothic style for the house which was completed in 1719. Though the architectural details that he employed could not be mistaken for the originals on which they were based, it is noteworthy that his "castle" pre-dates what is regarded as the first Gothic Revival building, Horace Walpole's villa, Strawberry Hill (also in London), by thirty years.

My photograph shows a view of the upper parts of the building rising above the trees at the edge of the park. It suggests how the building might have been seen when it was first built, but misrepresents the surroundings today - the site is actually in a residential street and the surrounding buildings are decidedly domestic in character.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 37.1mm (100mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Self-portrait with pink chair

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Walking along a street in Greenwich, London, recently I came upon a shop with goods spilling out on to the pavement in front of its window. It was the sort of shop that sells a wide range of eye-catching items for the home at relatively low prices.

Two items caught my eye. The first was the eye-wateringly pink (and gold) chair. I tried to imagined the rest of the room in which that might stand but immediately gave up under the influence of the waves of nausea that it provoked. Then I saw the glitzy mirror and immediately knew that the owner was trying to sell a collection of items that would complement each other in the room that my mind's eye briefly conjured up.

As I stared at the mirror, transfixed by the glass pimples that bordered it, I saw myself, headless, and decided it was time - in fact, well past the time - for another obscured, reflected, self-portrait. So, positioning myself to create a composition with depth, confusion and anonymity, I pressed the shutter.

© Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 27mm (40mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Yellow, red and blue doors

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I think of the three colours, red, yellow and blue as the long-recognised primary colours associated with, not only painting and design, but also children's toys. Sometimes, however, they can be the perfect threesome to enliven a narrow, shadow-filled road in a big city. I photographed these three colourful doors on an interesting modern terrace, during a walk near the River Thames in Greenwich, London.

© Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm (60mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f9
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Cutty Sark and the Carbuncle Cup

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Two years ago the Cutty Sark visitor centre opened to the public. It was built following a fire in 2007 that seriously damaged the old sailing ship. The Cutty Sark is one of the best known and loved of Britain's nineteenth century sailing ships. It was built by Scott & Linton on the Clyde in 1869, one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest too. The opening of the Suez Canal and the advent of steam ships meant that the work for which it was built soon ended and the carrying of wool from Australia became her main task.

The new visitor centre tells the story of the venerable vessel and is designed to do it in a way that is more commodious for the paying customers. Before the fire the ship rested in a dry dock. However Grimshaw Architects were tasked with making a centre that included more under-cover areas. The answer they came up with is ingenious but not universally liked. A wrap-around latticework of glass and metal forming a wall, roof and entrance, combined with steel supports that raise the ship off the floor of the dry dock, allow the area beneath the ship to become a large indoor space with exhibitions, offices and a cafe. Lifts and stairs allow access to different levels of the dock and ship. The inside and deck of the ship is open to the public in the same way that it always was.

Clearly there are benefits to the display of the ship by having the new covered space. However, there is one very big disadvantage that critics have seized on and that is that the ship as a whole cannot be seen in one view - the top and bottom can only be viewed separately. This prevents the beautiful, sleek lines of the Cutty Sark from being seen, and it is this, as much as anything else that has provoked an intense dislike of the new facilities. In fact, so widespread is the disapproval of the visitor centre - it has been likened to a bus shelter! - that it was the recipient of the Carbuncle Cup in 2012. This award, made by the magazine, "Building Design", is for the "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months". I think the building has serious drawbacks but I'm not entirely sure it deserved such disapprobation. Why? Well, the space created beneath ship is quite spectacular, and though it doesn't make up for the loss of a complete view of the ship, is enough I think to disqualify the project from consideration for UK architecture's "unaward".

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/30 sec
ISO:640
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

Tessellation

click photo to enlarge
Language is full of connections, which, if you make them, increases your understanding and use of language, but also expands your enjoyment of it too. Many years ago, when I was studying an aspect of mathematics, I was introduced to the word "tessellation" and the essential concepts that underpin it. At a basic level this involves the tiling of a flat surface with a finite number of geometric shapes such that there are no gaps or overlapping. The square tiles of a bathroom wall tessellate; so too do the hexagonal cells of honeycomb. However, as a branch of mathematics tessellation goes far beyond such simple examples. So too does tessellation in art. The Sumerians tessellated their clay tiles, as did the Islamic architects of the Alhambra in Spain; both used many different tessellating shapes. The Dutch graphic artist, M.C. Escher (1898-1972) famously created pictures with tessellating birds, dogs, lizards and all manner of other things.

When my lecturer used the word "tessellation" it immediately occurred to me that I'd already come across "tessellated" in school geography in connection with a feature in sedimentary rock known as a tessellated pavement, whereby erosion produces the effect of a layer of interlocking tiles. The word "tessera" also popped into my mind. This is the name for the individual pieces of a mosaic such as the Romans used for villa floors or the Byzantines used in their wall mosaics of religious and other subjects. It hadn't occurred to me before, but tessera means tile, more specifically, a 4-sided shape, and its meaning had been extended to describe all close-fit tiling of whatever shape.

On our most recent visit to London we came across a relatively new building near the Thames Cable Car. Ravensbourne College is the work of the Foreign Office Architects and, unusually in a modern British building, it has exterior walls that are tessellated with pentagons and triangles. Interestingly that's not necessarily what the first-time viewer notices because its other distinguishing feature is that every window above the ground floor level is circular! The building is certainly eye-catching. It is located next to the enormous and distinctive O2 (formerly known as the Millennium Dome) so one can understand the architects wanting it to claim its space.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 37.1mm (100mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The Thames Cable Car

click photo to enlarge
There has been something of a kerfuffle in the UK because a supposedly independent body has suggested that members of parliament should receive an 11% pay rise and the great majority of MPs think they deserve it. On the face of it the suggestion is reasonable since the parliamentarians haven't taken the pay awards that have been offered in past years and their pay is relatively less than it was. However, the proposal comes at a time when public sector workers are in the middle of a multiple years pay freeze (imposed by MPs), and when the pay of other sectors (the City, directors of companies, senior management excepted) is either declining, stagnant or barely rising. Opponents of the MPs' pay rise rightly point out that they are public sector workers and that unlike most other state employees they are able to take on a second job -  say, a nice non-executive directorship or "adviser" to a company - and that they are in a line of work for which there is no shortage of applicants.

I have a lot of sympathy with the opponents of the pay hike. To their persuasive arguments I would add that the MPs' suggestion that their pay should mirror and be linked to the pay rates of "other professionals" such as GPs (family doctors) is risible: our elected representatives are not professionals. They have no formal training for the job, need no qualifications to secure it and are not subject to regular scrutiny by a professional body, factors that distinguish most professional occupations from others. The government and opposition leaders who are rejecting the advice for the pay rise are doing so for public relations reasons, worrying how it would play with the electorate; it would be better if they refused as a matter of principle. I was reflecting on this when I rode on the Thames Cable Car recently. This £60 million plaything, subsidised by the budget under the authority of the mayor of London is a colossal waste of money, the most expensive cable car system in the world, and the sort of vanity project that you might expect from amateurs - which is what most politicians are. The current incumbent of the mayor's post is famous for his extra-mural jobs, and is reported to have little of the detailed knowledge needed by someone in his position. Moreover, he is widely believed to want the job of prime minister. It was a disaster for the capital when he became mayor of London; it would be a catastrophe for the country were he to achieve his greater ambition.

So, did I enjoy my ride on the cable car. I did! I'd rather it had never been built, but I'm not immune to the delights of being transported over the River Thames at maximum height of 295 feet (90 metres). Not least because it offers opportunities for some great photographs. It's just a pity that money was spent on this fairground project that currently runs at 10% or so of capacity, rather than the much needed pedestrian and cyclist bridge between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf that has been suggested by Sustrans.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 21.5mm (58mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Hither and thither and morning coffee

click photo to enlarge
Though the language police would wish otherwise, language changes. Over time spelling and grammar are modified by use. New words are introduced, existing words take on new or additional meanings and old words are cast aside. I was thinking about this the other day when, in a slightly self-conscious manner, I used the phrase "hither and thither". These two words, both singly and in this pairing, are rarely heard today; they sound old-fashioned, the sort of language you'd come across in Shakespeare or in the novels and poetry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The context for my use of the phrase was an explanation to someone that we'd been travelling about a lot in recent weeks and consequently much of my photography during this time had been done beyond the confines of Lincolnshire. As I uttered the phrase, I made a mental note to try and find out whether "hither and thither" was ever in widespread use and, if so, when it became replaced by "to this place and that" or, more colloquially, "here and there". A bit of research produced no satisfactory answer to the question. Most of what I discovered came from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and from that source I was interested to find the words had more meanings than I knew.

The word, "hither" has its origins and equivalents in Old English,Old Norse and the Germanic language. "To or towards this place" (now "here") is its principal meaning. However, it was also used to mean, "to, or or on this side of", "up to this point in time", "to this end" and "in this direction". A United States variant is, apparently, "Hither and yon" (or yond). The earliest recorded use of the phrase as I used it (though with somewhat different spelling), dates from the early A.D.700s. "Thither" has a similar lineage to hither, as does "whither" ("to what place" or "where").

One of our recent "hithers" (or was it a "thither") was London. Whilst there I visited the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and took this photograph of people taking morning coffee. The bird's-eye-view of the tables and chairs, the subtle colours and raking light that produced elongated shadows, appealed to me and so it became the subject of one of my better photographs taken at that location.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14.2mm (38mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

And so this is Christmas

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Christmas has crept up on me this year. I noticed it coming on a few occasions, but deliberately put it out of my mind except when making and writing a few cards, buying some presents and doing the shopping. Then, suddenly, out of almost nowhere, it's Christmas Eve. My wife has done many of the necessaries required to make Christmas as it should be, and for that I am, once again, grateful. How she puts up living with Scrooge, I don't know!

The appeal of Christmas has declined for me over the years. It's the conspicuous consumption that it entails and the interruptions to my routine that it presents, but mostly because it rarely compares to the Christmases that I so enjoyed when our children were young. Perhaps - and I've just thought of this - Christmas makes me feel my age. Last year I quite enjoyed it and next year, well, who knows? Of course, I'm not alone in my ambivalence towards the festive season. Charles Dickens, whose books both celebrated and helped to define the modern Christmas also had this to say about it (through his character, Scrooge): "Every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart." If that sounds a touch too misanthropic (and I have to say I wouldn't endorse it!) let me make it even more so with Gore Vidal's Christmas greeting: "Meretricious and a Happy New Year", and Samuel Butler's prayer: "Forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those that Christmas against us."

Today's main photograph is the only shot I have from this year that has any connection with the festive season. The two Christmas trees with lights standing on the front of Inigo Jones' superlative building of 1616-19, Queen's House in Greenwich Park, London, are my excuse for posting this image today. However, when I think about it, this post could also be an example to support the thesis of my blog post of earlier this year, "Look behind you", because the shot of Christopher Wren's Old Royal Naval College (formerly the Royal Hospital for Seamen) of 1696-1712, were taken from precisely the same spot as the Queen's House photograph, but looking in the opposite direction

After the downbeat opening of this post perhaps a little uplift is required, so here, in conclusion, are four of my favourite Christmas jokes:

"I bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note attached saying, 'Toys not included'". Anon

"My mother in law has come round to our house at Christmas seven years running. This year we're having a change. We're going to let her in." Les Dawson

"Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas - the birth of Santa?" Bart Simpson

"It will be a traditional Christmas with presents, crackers, doors slamming and people bursting into tears, but without the dead thing in the middle. We're vegetarians." Victoria Wood

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/13
ISO: 3200
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Two views of Canary Wharf

click photos to enlarge
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

Photographing the past

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A few days in London, and particularly an evening spent in Greenwich, had me thinking about an issue that I've dwelt on before - how many urban locations are still to be found where you can experience something (if only a little) of what our cities were like a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago? The specific prompt for this rumination was Turnpin Lane, near the market, at dusk. The hurly-burly of the shoppers and stallholders was filling the air with the sounds and smells of people and food. Nearby the spicy tang of mulled wine being poured for my companions wafted by, and down the lane a shopper strode off into the night, carrier bag in hand, his well-wrapped body a silhouette against the glow from a street light and shop windows. Perhaps it was the narrowness of the lane, the hanging signs, the bow and sash windows and Victorian buildings, or maybe the shiny cobbles and drain, but the the scene looked quite Dickensian. So, I quickly pointed my pocket camera (the LX3) before the figure had departed and captured this image.

Many years ago I lived in Kingston upon Hull. At that time - the 1970s and early 1980s - the old High Street hadn't received its big "makeover". It still had wooden "setts" paving the roadway, empty warehouses, small pubs, merchants' houses and an air of time having passed it by. Vistas such as the one above were plentiful, and the sinuous curves of the street as it paralleled the nearby River Hull gave many opportunities for interesting compositions. The Lincolnshire town of Stamford has small corners and sections of streets that, if you airbrush away the cars and TV aerials, look much as they did one hundred or two hundred years ago. Fortunately many towns and cities have civic societies and enlightened planning authorities that give what protection legislation and public opinion can to such places. But, not everywhere is so lucky. Then it is up to concerned individuals to do what they can to preserve and protect these streetscapes that give us a glimpse into our past.

My shot was taken at 800 ISO, a level that pushes the boundaries of what a small sensor camera can reasonably achieve. Nonetheless, I was quite pleased with with its handling of this difficult scene, and can readily accept the noise that appears in a few places.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 7.9mm (37mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/13
ISO: 800
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On