Photographic trickery

click photo to enlarge
Trickery has been a part of photography ever since the invention of the medium, and certainly entertained the Victorians. In twentieth century England the Cottingley Fairies became a celebrated example of the art. In fact, the five photographs that cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths took in 1917 were so good that they convinced many that the "the little people" were real and not a product of the story teller's art. The author of "Sherlock Holmes", Arthur Conan Doyle, a confirmed spiritualist, saw them as a genuine example of a psychic phenomenon. Not until the 1983 did the cousins admit that they had faked the photographs.

Today the "selfie" is all conquering, but there was a time when people experimented making illusionistic photographs. A person in the foreground positioned and standing so that they appeared to be holding up a bridge or the moon, people adopting the "Harry Worth" position at the corner of a shop window, and car hub caps tossed in air to be passed off as flying saucers, were all popular subjects.

On a recent walk on the Lincolnshire Wolds I saw a sight that I just had to photograph for the illusion that it suggested. Looking across some fields and trees I saw what appeared to be a rocket shortly after blast-off, rising out of a massive cloud of smoke of its own making. What I was seeing in reality was the top of the Belmont TV transmission mast, a slender structure 1,154 feet (351 metres) tall, firmly braced by cables, from which the signal to my TV (and the TVs of many others!) is broadcast. It was sticking up out of one of the banks of mist and cloud that periodically blanked then revealed the sun as we set off on our walk. Looking at the "rocket" I recalled that the date was 1st April.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 52mm (78mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Lines in the landscape revisited

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It crossed my mind recently that it's been a while since I added a photograph to my "lines in the landscape" collection. I started this series of images a few years ago on the back of a growing fascination with the tracks that agricultural vehicles leave behind them when they work the Lincolnshire land. One of the minimalist shots I blogged used that particular post title. Each year I've added one or two more shots involving barley, wheat and wires, wobbly lines, Nottinghamshire lines, water-filled lines and many other variations on the theme. Moreover, when I was looking through some of my older photographs I discovered that my interest in these lines pre-dates my move to the very agricultural county where I now live.

It was with all this in mind, as well as the fact that I haven't taken such a shot this year, that I kept an eye out for lines as I drove between Louth and Horncastle the other day. Driving over the undulating road that traverses the Lincolnshire Wolds I went round a sweeping corner and was presented with the fine specimens in today's photograph. The thin soil overlaying the chalk beneath made a pale hillside against which the parallel tracks left by the tractor stood out as bold, dark, slightly serpentine lines. The random details of the blue sky and fragmentary clouds made a good foil for the ordered land below, so I drew over to the side of the road and took a few shots. What I didn't notice with my naked eye, or through the viewfinder at the time, were the slender rods, each with a thin, coloured ribbon that mark the centre of the spaces between the lines. Look carefully and you'll see them with their shadows. I don't know their precise purpose but I intend to find it out.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 105mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The Lincolnshire Wolds

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England's "wolds" are to be found in Yorkshire (the Yorkshire Wolds), Lincolnshire (the Lincolnshire Wolds) and the Cotswolds (mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, but including parts of other adjacent counties). It seems that the word "wold" derives from "weald" - meaning woody country (as is the present Weald encompassing parts of of Hampshire, Surrey, Kent and Sussex), but came to mean, in areas farther north, an area of open hilly country on mainly chalk and limestone, with some sandstone.

The Lincolnshire Wolds and the Yorkshire Wolds are a line of low hills that are bisected by the River Humber. In Lincolnshire the highest point is only 551 feet (168 metres) above sea-level, near Normanby-le-Wold. Glaciation produced rounded hills and smooth-sided, though sometimes quite steep, valleys. A few of these have rivers and streams, but many are dry. The settlement pattern is one of fairly regularly spaced market towns that serve small villages and farms where the principal activity is agriculture. Cereals and root crops are grown extensively, with valley sides and fields near to farms often supporting cattle and sheep. These sometimes include the local breeds - the Lincoln Longwool sheep and the Lincoln Red cattle.

The area has a long history. Round and long barrows can be found on the hills, and deserted medieval villages are not unusual. Most villages have a church that is of medieval foundation, though some were "improved" in the Victorian period. It's a good area for both walking and cycling, which is just what I've been doing for the past few days! Oh, and being a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) it presents good opportunities for the photographer, so here's a landscape, showing the greens and browns of early autumn, on the low hills near the village of Tetford.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 50mm (100mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On