Beautifying hoardings

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There must be money to be made from supplying beautified hoardings. Wherever I go I come across boards and fences surrounding building sites that have been elevated by artwork of one kind or another. It wasn't always so. In the past such structures were usually unadorned plywood, chipboard or somesuch material, frequently showing the scuffs, cracks and splinters of re-use. Now, however, developers often use their perimeter fence to provide advertisements or a visual experience for passers-by. I've seen graffiti artists employed to liven them up, photographs linked with the locality displayed on them, abstract paintwork designed to catch the eye etc. On a recent visit to London we came across this example near King's Cross railway station - simplified climbing plants spray painted onto the hoarding providing a leafy backdrop to the bicycle parking stands. It was a simple expedient to brighten up what otherwise would have been an eye-sore in a rapidly improving area.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Painted Hoardings and Bicycles, King's Cross, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:2500
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Waiting for the frugivores

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The waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) doesn't seem to have made its appearance in Lincolnshire as I write this piece, but it can't be long before they do. Interestingly the first locations where these winter visitors are spotted are usually urban or suburban, often the superstore car-parks of Tesco, Sainsburys or Morrisons. The reason for this is the prevalence of large numbers of small, berried trees in these locations; trees such as the rowan. Waxwings are frugivorous, that is to say fruit eaters, and so they make straight for where fruit is available in large quantities.

Frugivorous is a word I came across for the first time only recently and it means "fruit eater". Autumn is a time when fruit in the form of berries or wind-fall apples is plentiful, and frugivores are quick to take advantage of the bounty. Today I saw a horse gorging itself on rose-hips, carefully avoiding the thorny stems to pluck off the ripe, red berries one at a time. That's something I've never seen before. I've seen horses eat apples from a branch or from the ground, but never rose-hips. Who would have thought they had a fancy for them?

The tree in today's photograph has lost almost all its leaves but still has a full complement of berries. I came across it outside the museum in Lincoln. As I took my shot, captivated by the way the silhouette of branches and the bright berries contrasted with the flecked brickwork behind, I wondered how much longer they would hang there before blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings or, perhaps, waxwings, descended on the branches and stripped the tree bare.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 36.3mm (98mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

UK cycling - a shadow of its potential

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I said the other day that I've always preferred my bicycle to my car. It's a more civilized form of transport that respects the environment and promotes the health of the rider. For short distance travel it cannot be surpassed, and even for slightly longer journeys it is surprisingly effective. But today too many people are blinded to the advantages of the bicycle by the omnipresent danger presented by the motor car.

 In fact, the bicycle is not an especially dangerous form of transport and over the whole population of riders is responsible for prolonging a vastly greater number of lives than it curtails. However, the average potential cyclists sees multiple high-speed tons of metal whizzing up and down the road and pictures what would happen to their body and the bike if one came into contact with them. In that imagining they turn their backs on cycling. And that prevents - at least in the UK - the establishment of a critical mass of cyclists that have to be catered for by better cycle paths, space on main roads, more realistic speed limits, parking etc. I took today's photograph in Peterborough, an English city that makes better provision for cycling than most. Yet, the cycle stands in the pedestrian areas were nowhere near full, and cyclists on roads, though present, were not visible in great numbers. If cycling cannot thrive in this flat city, I reflected, where will it?

I've posted a photograph of these cycle stands and their shadows before, and a different design in Blackpool. In fact bicycles have become a recurrent theme in my photography. For example - No cycling, a shop bike, incendiary bicycles, a drowned bicycle, a bicycle silhouette, a dismounted cyclist, a rubbish bike, and a bright yellow cyclist. What I've never photographed is a small group or a large number of cyclists. Perhaps one day!

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 23mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Using shadows in photography

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Shadows and reflections figure fairly heavily in my photography. I value them for their ability to contribute contrast, complexity, repetition and drama to things that are otherwise quite simple. They have the capacity to make the mundane look striking.

Yesterday, as I was shopping in Peterborough, I stood in a pedestrianised street in the shade of some plane trees. The spring sun was making dappled patterns on the block paving and people were sitting on the conveniently placed benches, enjoying the warmth and brightness. This particular British city is noted for the provisions it makes for cyclists, so bike parking facilities of one sort or another are very commonly found across its centre. At this particular location the landscape designers had settled on metal tubing bent into undulating lines as the parking solution and they caught my eye as a possible subject for a semi-abstract shot. But, many were in use with machines of every conceivable shape size and colour fixed to them. However, as I stood waiting a cyclist came along and removed his bike from one that was nearby, and pedalled away leaving it free to cast an inverted shadow of its shape across the ground.

"He who hesitates is lost", they say, so before anyone else could claim the bike stand for its legitimate purpose I stepped smartly across and took a couple of shots of it, before continuing with the shopping. This particular example, in portrait format, with a slight angle across the frame, is the best of the crop. Not a "Wow!" shot, but not without some pleasing qualities I think. However, without the shadow that doubles up the impact of the main subject, and contributes a little intrigue, it would amount to much less, and I wouldn't have thought of posting it.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 19mm (38mm/44mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On