Trinity House buoys, King's Lynn

click photo to enlarge
On a shopping trip to King's Lynn we walked along the riverside, past Purfleet Quay, to where the buoy maintenance ship, "St Crispin" loads and unloads buoys on its trips to and from their positions in the river and coastal waters.

I've found this a fertile location for photographs, not just because of its waterside setting, but also due to the strong colours of the buoys. Red, green and yellow dominate, almost to the exclusion of anything else, though black is sometimes seen. However, on this occasion a more subtly coloured buoy was standing among its louder neighbours. I can only assume it was painted with a primer or undercoat, yet the rust on it suggested that might not be the case.

I read on the Trinity House website that the organisation "maintains nearly 500 buoys and inspects those maintained by port and harbour authorities, utility companies and by oil/gas rig and wind farm operators (totalling more than 10,000 Aids to Navigation)." A quick search of the buoys on the Trinity House website showed none that display this particular colour.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Trinity House buoys, King's Lynn, Norfolk
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 36mm (72mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.2
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Newly painted old buoys

click photo to enlarge
The day I took this photograph, in early June, was the first day of this year when I felt that I risked sunburn by staying outside for a couple of hours. So, on went the sun lotion and the cap. We have had bright, warm days earlier in the year, but generally speaking the weather has been cooler and cloudier than usual - at least that's my perception.

This reduction in the amount of sun and heat may well be the reason why recently I've selected bright coloured objects for my photography, such as these newly painted buoys on the riverside at King's Lynn in Norfolk. They had been placed there at the end of their useful lives as objects of visual and local interest, and the town council, with an eye to tourists and tidiness, had applied generous coats of appropriately coloured paint. In the morning light they positively glowed, and each colour picked up a slight reflection of its neighbour's hue. Buoys, fair and foul, are a feature of the riverside in King's Lynn. The buoy maintenance ship, "St Edmund" is based there by a location that specialises in buoy repair and painting.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 28mm (56mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Rusty buoys

click photo to enlarge
I've posted a few photographs of buoys on this blog. The first, as long ago as 2006, reflected on the spelling of the word. The second, in 2008, pondered the colours of these nautical markers. In 2009 I produced a shot of buoys that I especially like for the light, with accompanying text about simplifying compositions. 2010 found me in King's Lynn, a good place for photographing buoys and waxing lyrical about bright colours. In 2011 a black and white photograph of buoys accompanied a piece about alternative voting and the folly of our electorates rejection of it. And, the same year "Foul buoys" was the title of a piece where I noted my discovery of why the word "FOUL" was written on yellow buoys.

Today's photograph is buoys once again, and from King's Lynn too, though this time only a detail. What was it about this detail that attracted me? Well, the battered yellow paint and brown rust, the result of prolonged exposure to salt water was sufficient draw. However, it was the position of the two heavy metal loops that made me take the shot. And the way the steel cable was threaded through them to keep them fixed to the quayside. It reminded me vaguely of the ying yang symbol; two similar and complementary forms interlocking, or at least related one to the other. I hoped that a tight composition would emphasise that feature and deliver enough interest to make the photograph work. I think it does.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 60mm (90mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8 Shutter
Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:180
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Votes and buoys

click photo to enlarge

For most of my lifetime the majority of the electorate have voted for left of centre candidates in UK elections. And, for most of my lifetime our first past the post voting system has delivered a right of centre government with a parliamentary majority. As a result of yesterday's vote against the proposed AV system for future elections, this state of affairs looks set to continue.

Is this what those voting "No" wanted? Perhaps, but I find it hard to think so. There are several reasons people rejected change including inertia, a preference for "simplicity" over "complexity", a campaign of bile and lies (from both sides), the desire to punish the Lib-Dems, a disillusionment with politics in general and more. But, at the heart of it is, I think, the fact that a large section of the British public are not terribly interested in politics and still collectively leans towards the "they're all the same" point of view when it comes to political parties. This would account not only for the low turnout but also the tendency to vote for the status quo. However, it never was true in the past that all parties are the same (though under New Labour it was sometimes difficult to discern the difference) and it's not true now. We have many political parties in the UK, but the fact is, of those that are well-supported there is only one whose principal aim is to transfer wealth from the poor and the middle classes to business and the wealthy. Don't know which one? Well, today you can identify their leaders by the grin on their faces, a smirk that has appeared because the "No" vote means their core task will be just as easy as it always was.

I've photographed the subject of today's image several times and have never been happy with the outcome. It shows the area where buoys are re-painted on Purfleet Quay on the River Great Ouse at King's Lynn, Norfolk. As well as a few old buoys there are paint marks on the ground and a contraption that, in some way, must be used to aid the painting, though quite how I can't imagine. Given that the subject is colourful, with red, green and yellow buoys and rings of paint, it may seem odd that I've chosen a black and white treatment. But, the truth is that light is usually more important than colour in creating a photograph, and here shooting fairly close to the sun gave me a curved composition, made more of the shapes and delivered a shot that I liked.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 28mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Foul buoys

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Purfleet Quay in King's Lynn, Norfolk, usually has several buoys resting on it and the buoy maintenance boat, "St Edmund", moored alongside. Often it is the buoys used for marking the port and starboard limits of navigable channels that are in the process of being re-painted red and green. On my most recent visit (and on the one before that) there was also yellow buoy that had the word "FOUL" painted on its side. Not being an especially nautical person I needed to do a bit of research to discover that in UK waters a yellow buoy is a "Special Mark" that can indicate a number of things as disparate as a fish farm, a speed limit, or a potential hazard. That being the case, I imagine that the word "foul" in this instance indicates either a foul bottom where anchorage is difficult, or a hidden obstruction that might foul an anchor. Of course, it could be something quite different.

Over the past few years I've taken a number of photographs of the buoys at this location. Some of my images show details, and others give a wider perspective. This time I decided to try and make something of the carefully painted warning word on the yellow buoy, but also retain some of the red and green of those that were adjacent.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 58mm
F No: 6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/80
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

King's Lynn buoys

click photo to enlarge

Earth colours and subtle, matching hues are all very well, but sometimes, for a photographer, there's nothing better, than to happen upon some good, strong primary colours. I did just that the other day when I visited King's Lynn in Norfolk. I'd been to the particular location before, and knew that it was the place where buoys used in the River Great Ouse and The Wash are renovated and re-painted (see previous photographs here and here). However, nothing prepared me for the brilliance of the colour I encountered. Perhaps it was the deep blue of the sky, itself accentuated by the soft, white clouds, that gave the yellows and reds of the buoys their extra "punch". Or maybe it was the newly painted examples sitting on the boat, ready to be taken to their turbulent moorings. The fresh green and the battered green added to the effect, giving me the opportunity to take a photograph that was as much about the colour as it was about the subjects depicted.

Over the years I've often found myself, toward the end of a cold, dark winter, craving the colour that a sun higher in the sky, and the season of spring itself, promises. My bee-line to the first flowers in the garden usually beats the real bees, and the flowers that my wife buys to arrange in our vases during this period are also a draw. This year, in mid-February, I found myself manufacturing the effect of sun shining through the petals of a flower. I even stole the title and sentiments of George Harrison's "Here Comes The Sun" as a hook for the "reflection" as well as for the title of the post. However, in mid-August, after a summer that has had as much, and possibly more, sun as the average English summer, what excuse can I profer for gleefully photographing some brightly painted buoys. I can only plead a surfeit of rural vegetative greens and browns. It's true that Lincolnshire's landscape is punctuated by roofs of orange pantiles, and the over-arching sky is often of the deepest blue, but my photographic diet in recent weeks (quick trips to bustling Lincoln and the glitz of Skegness notwithstanding) has been pretty much one featuring rural "earth colours". So, like a schoolboy whose sweets have been confiscated, I was craving the sugar of primary colours, and I took the opportunity to get my fill in King's Lynn.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 11mm (22mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1250
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Simplify, simplify simplify

click photo to enlarge
I suppose, in a way, I was an early adopter of new technology. I had a home computer in the early 1980s when they became affordable, and I haven't been without one since. Similarly, I had broadband relatively early, and remember being told by an engineer that our house was one of only four in the neighbourhood who had a high-speed connection (as 1MB then was). On the whole I've valued the way a computer and an internet connection has enriched my life. However, as the scope of the offerings and possibilities of the internet have widened, I've become selective, adopting some innovations and rejecting others. Email, digital photography, blogging, online commerce and finance I've embraced. However, gaming, virtual worlds, Facebook and Twitter I've rejected. It may be a function of my age, but I find that now I have more time I'm simplifying my life and pro-actively choosing or rejecting every "next" thing that comes along. I find that if you don't do this then there's a danger that your life becomes like a shattered mirror - your view of the bigger picture is distorted and you lose the essential clarity that is necessary for navigating your way through life.

And, as with life, so with photography. Sometimes you've got to reject the wide view that your camera offers, with all its disparate details, and home in on that which is elementary and interesting for itself: in other words you've got to simplify things. A few days ago I was standing on the banks of the River Great Ouse at King's Lynn alongside a couple of boats, with the river beyond, the blue sky above flecked with white and grey clouds, and a shore full of nautical apparatus - masts, metalwork superstructures, buoys, cables, etc. Looking about me I felt there must be a few images to extract from the location. There was, and the image I post above is the best I got. The tops of the buoys outlined against the sky, a small detail of the whole scene appealed to me for that elementary simplicity - a few basic colours, simple shapes, textures and shadows. As I processed the RAW image into a JPEG I noticed that slightly increasing the saturation and contrast gave it more of the three-dimensional quality that also attracted me when I took the shot, and so that is how I present it.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 16mm (32mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Two old buoys

click photo to enlarge

I've always been amazed by the fact that we continue to have traffic lights that use green to signify "Go" and red to indicate "Stop". Given that up to 8% of males and 2% of females experience red/green colour blindness you'd think that we'd have taken this into account in their design, or have long ago changed the colours to ones that aren't mis-read so frequently. Colour blind drivers are known to use the position of the lights to determine what to do, and I don't often read about accidents caused by this reason, so perhaps its not the problem I imagine it to be.

I was thinking about this as I photographed two buoys on the docks at King's Lynn, Norfolk. They were very faded, but were clearly red and green. Pairs of newer and better painted buoys nearby were also red or green, but much brighter. Their juxtaposition made me wonder if sailors experienced the same potential for confusion when steering by these buoys that mark channels. However, in preparing this piece I read that in most of the world (except the Americas, the Philippines and Japan) green buoys are conical and indicate starboard, and red buoys are cylindrical and show port. So, the designers of this navigation aid contrived a system that was legible in high contrast light (silhouette) and by colour blind people. But why did they use potentially confusing red and green? Was it simply to mimic the lights that ships carry? It seems that many of our designs, like the QWERTY keyboard on which I am writing this blog entry, have a life that extends much longer than good sense would dictate, and inertia is as strong a force in our "ever changing" world as it ever was!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20mm (40mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On