Go ask Alice

click photo to enlarge
"Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall", From the song "White Rabbit" (written by Grace Slick) sung by Jefferson Airplane, 1967

It's difficult to "go ask Alice" today because Alice, like Maude, Vera, Sybil and Winifred are hard to come by, being names that have dropped out of fashion. In the mid-twentieth century such names belonged to mothers and grandmothers and were seen as old-fashioned. A group of new names took their place, and once they became common-place they too dropped out of use and along came yet more new names. But, in the later waves some of the older names began to be recycled and Sarah, Rose, Victoria, Daisy, Olivia and Lily, to name but a few, made a re-appearance. But not Alice, Maude, Vera, Sybil and Winifred - well at least not in the lists of popular UK girls' names that I have scrutinised.

Today's photograph shows an artwork by Cristina Lucas. Like the quotation above it draws its inspiration from Lewis Caroll's "Alice in Wonderland", more particularly the episode in which Alice eats the cake marked "eat me" with the result that she grows to the point where she can't fit in the room and puts her arm out of the window. The location of this piece is the former Carthusian monastery sometimes called La Cartuja, in Seville, a place where Christopher Columbus once lived. The monastery has an interesting history. After it ceased its religious function it was bought in 1839 by a Liverpudlian businessman, Charles Pickman, who set up a large tile-making works there. Some time after the business ceased producing tiles in 1984 it became a museum of contemporary art - hence Alice. The smaller photograph shows the archway in the main photograph from the outside of the building. Its current status relating to art explains the blue objects in the water and the stainless steel, cylindrical "bus shelter".

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: "Alice", La Cartuja, Seville
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20mm (40mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Recurring photographic subjects

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As the years go by and the photographs accumulate I have become aware that my opus features a number of photographic themes that make regular appearances. There are broad themes such as contre jour shots, boldly asymmetry, deliberate blur and silhouettes. And there are subject themes, for example chairs, church vaulting, flowers and architectural details. Then there are the street lights.

Even before my post of a few days ago of the gull on one of several slender lights at Skegness I was aware that I had a penchant for street lights new and old. As I've been processing the shots from a visit to Seville this predilection has become obvious, and I've already posted two photographs that feature them. Well, here's a shot that features not only street lights but also silhouettes - two recurring themes in one photograph! It was taken on a misty morning as the sun was beginning to burn its way through to yet another deep blue sky. The sun's disc as it briefly revealed itself attracted my attention and I dialled in a little underexposure to emphasise the silhouettes of the ornate street lights, the bell tower, cypress tree and roof top aerials.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Silhouettes - Street Lights etc - Seville
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 39mm (78mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Transport choices

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Cities are getting better at offering transport choices to people. After decades in which the car pushed other forms of transport aside, except in very major or capital cities, the gridlock that their success achieved has led to planners and citizens providing and demanding alternatives. Seville, from what I have, is making good progress in this area.Cycle paths are at the edge of many major roads, a self-service bike-sharing cycle scheme is in operation and well used. Moreover, trams have made an appearance in recent years. Buses are plentiful and inexpensive. Motor scooters are widely used and the car is common, though the old part of the city isn't suitable for them - too many narrow roads with sharp turns. Interestingly a wide variety of Segways, hoverboards, electric scooters and roller blades can be seen, not surprising, I suppose, in a flat city.

Today's photograph was one of a few I gathered when shooting into the early morning sun. I chose this one to post because of the transport options it features - tram, shared cycle and roller blades. Whenever you take shots contre jour, particularly if the sun's disc is in the frame, you are never quite in full control. Blown highlights and, especially if you are using a zoom lens, flare can be expected. This shot has those features, but I quite like it nonetheless.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Transport Choices, Seville
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Baths of Dona Maria de Padilla

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The Real Alcazar is the royal palace in Seville. It was founded and extended during the period (c.700-1200) when the Moors ruled this part of Spain. It was further extended following the re-assertion of Spanish rule in the area.

Los Banos de Dona Maria de Padilla (Baths of Lady Maria de Padilla) are named after the wife of King Peter of Castile (Peter the Cruel). She was born c.1334 and died in 1361. Though they are called baths they are in fact rainwater tanks, a reservoir of cool water very necessary in this hot, dry area.The vaulted roof with its Gothic arches suggest that it was constructed during the time of Dona Maria. At the far end, lit by natural light, is what appears to be an artificial grotto made of real or fabricated tufa.

The modern lighting presents the baths in a form that the builders are unlikely to have intended but it undoubtedly makes for an interesting photograph with shadows and shapes accentuated and the pointed arches and vaulting ribs reflected in the water below.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Baths of Dona Maria de Padilla, Real Alcazar, Seville
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 18mm (36mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/20 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: 0EV

Imperfect doves

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"Where there is perfection there is no story to tell."
Ben Okri, Nigerian author (b.1951)

Perfection is over-rated, especially in the visual arts. It can be seductive, rather like the "hook" in a pop song, but it is usually something that we tire of after being exposed to it a few times. Too often it is predictable in its completeness and that ultimately makes for an unsatisfying experience. Imperfection, on the other hand, can succeed by hinting at the perfection that might have been. The flaw in something that mars the perfection frequently becomes the focus of the piece, the thing that makes it interesting.

I was thinking about this as I processed this photograph of a line of doves on the pinnacles of an ornate building in Seville. How much more perfect and much less satisfying would it have been if all the doves had the same pose and faced the same way, and all of the pinnacles had a bird perched on it. It would simply be a picture of stacked lines, each repeating the same motif across the frame. Thankfully nature, in the form of the doves, gave the shot the imperfection that made it a more interesting image.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: White Doves, Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares, Seville
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/1600 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

La Giralda

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The tower of Seville Cathedral, La Giralda, is with the Patio de los Naranjos (a cathedral quadrangle with orange trees), the principal remains of the Moorish mosque that was built in the late 1100s. From the early 700s to the early 1200s the southern and central Iberian peninsula were controlled by the Moors. Most was reconquered at the end of that period though Granada remained Moorish until 1492.

The tower of La Giralda was built in the 1190s as a minaret. The tower with its Moorish arches and latticework decoration that stretches from ground level to the bell stage is all of this period. It originally was topped by a recessed domed tower. In 1401 much of the mosque was demolished and the building of the cathedral commenced. Various different tower tops were tried but in 1568 the present classical arrangement was chosen. Classical balusters were also installed to embellish the Moorish openings lower down the tower. Interestingly when you climb La Giralda it is not up steps. Instead ramp after ramp takes you to the level of the bells where fine views over the city can be enjoyed.

Seville is a city with many fine, ornate street lights, particularly in the old town. For my photograph of La Giralda I stood near one of these and composed a shot that included the pair. The different temperature and technology of the lighting in tower and lights produces different colours on the stonework. The smaller photograph shows the cathedral tower framed by one of the old town's narrow streets, Calle Mateos Gago. As ever photographs at night always seem to work better if a little of the day's light remains in the sky. Incidentally, what looks like water on the cobbles of the street is in fact nothing more than the shine produced by the feet and wheels of countless people and vehicles.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: La Giralda, Seville
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 25mm (50mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:800
Exposure Compensation: 0EV

The lights of Seville

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Anyone who has followed this blog for a while will know that one of the reasons I relish my regular visits to London is the opportunity to take photographs in the dark of the evening. In rural Lincolnshire where I live this is not an especially fruitful occupation, certainly compared with the opportunites presented by a city. Consequently, during our time in the city of Seville I made the most of the evenings.

Today's photograph is one of the better results and features a dogwalker, the illuminated tower of Seville cathedral and one of two prominent and ornate lights that illuminate the enclosed square of Plaza del Patio Banderas. In a couple of blog posts I've discussed the value of dog walkers to compositions, particularly in the open spaces of the sea shore. There, usually in distant, diminutive size, they offer a focal point of human (and canine) interest. In this composition I waited for the walker and made her and her dog one of the main points of interest. I returned to this square a couple of times in the hope of getting other good shots, but though some have qualities I like, none matched this photograph.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Dog Walker, Plaza del Patio Banderas, Seville
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 15.5mm (42mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f3.2
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 800
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Not worth a glance?

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As we sat in the centre of Seville a guide passed us followed by a small flock of tourists. Gesticulating at the building behind us he explained in English with a Spanish accent, and without breaking step, that it contained only "documents, documents, documents", implying that it wasn't worth a glance. What he was airily dismissing as they pressed on to the next highlight of their tour was in fact one of the three buildings in Seville that have been granted UNESCO World Heritage status (along with the cathedral and the Real Alcazar). It was the Archivo General de Indias, a former merchant exchange dating back to the 1580s that has, since the eighteenth century, housed the archives of the Spanish Empire's discoveries and involvement in the Americas and the Philippines.

Admittedly, the building's exterior is somewhat severe with main elevations that differ in only minor ways. However, the interior has a fine courtyard, imposing main staircase and rooms and corridors with fine marble floors, coffered barrel vaulted ceilings, sumptuous bookcases and interesting paintings. Well worth seeing and a subject that I thought cried out for the widest of my wide angle lenses.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Archivo General de Indias, Seville
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 9mm (18mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:1250
Exposure Compensation: -0.3EV