Tables and chairs

click photo to enlarge
Of all the objects that man designs possibly the most frequently attempted by people who are not trained designers are tables and chairs. These staples of the interior seem to attract the home DIYer, architects, artists and others as well as those qualified in design. Frequently, as I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog, the motivation is appearance rather than utility because tables and chairs make such a strong impact on interior design. And all too often the pieces that look the best perform the worst when it comes to using them for their intended purpose. Tables and chairs that combine great appearance with excellent functional attributes are the mark of a good designer, whether amateur or professional.

Today's photograph shows some tables and chairs that I saw outside a restaurant/cafe near King's Cross and St Pancras railway stations in London the other day. Looking down the line of white table tops I was reminded of the circular ripples that appear on still water when you skim a flat stone across it. The other thing I noticed was that, apart from the colour white, the tables and chairs had no obvious connection: they don't appear to be designed to go with each other. In fact they didn't look too bad together, and even the brown leather seat pads weren't too dissonant, offering a warmer note to the black and white. In fact, the contrasty aesthetic was a factor that prompted me to take the shot, and I knew as I pressed the shutter that I would be converting it to black and white.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Cafe Tables and Chairs, King's Cross, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 15mm (30mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.2
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The transformational power of flowers

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Every gardener knows the transformational power of flowers. Grow a clematis, a rose or a wisteria against a dull old wall and, for the duration of the flowering of the plant, the mundane becomes beautiful. When our pots of red/orange pelargoniums, that we place to the left and right of our garages and a dark green shed, burst into flower these utilitarian buildings become more interesting and more noteworthy. The Royal Horticultural Society's "Britain in Bloom" competition is all about improving the appearance of settlements large and small by the planting of flowers.

On our recent visit to Brigg, Lincolnshire, we had a welcome and enjoyable cup of coffee at a cafe. The main area of the premises was well-presented under a glazed roof with several potted plants, palms and climbers. The "overflow" or outside area had less to offer, located as it was in a wide passage-way with block paving and rendered walls. However, this somewhat dreary location was lifted and made much pleasanter by the wall-mounted planters filled with multi-coloured petunias. My photographer's eye particularly enjoyed the contrast of the bright flowers and the plain, grey background and white furniture, the near monochrome quality of the latter making the colours of the former seem more intense than nature intended.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 30mm (45mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/50 sec
ISO:110
Exposure Compensation: 0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Hither and thither and morning coffee

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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

Einstein on the beach (at Sheringham)

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My introduction to the music of Philip Glass was through Godfrey Reggio's film, "Koyaanisqatsi" (1983). This movie features footage from various locations in the United States presented with no actors or narration, simply a score by Glass. The only indication of the message of the film is in the film's subtitle "Life out of balance" -  a translation from the Hopi language of the film's main title. I loved the film and it quickly became a favourite of all the family.

The score of "Koyaanisqatsi" is in the minimalist style, a branch of modern classical music that seems to be either loved or reviled. It's an approach to music that I was familiar with before I heard Glass through Terry Riley's album, "A Rainbow in Curved Air" (1969), and I'm firmly in the camp that likes minimalism. We bought other music by Philip Glass in later years, but this piece that was written for the film, has remained a favourite.

On our recent visit to the Norfolk coast we came upon a series of paintings on the promenade that had been done by an artist as part of a project to involve children in drawing using chalk. The main "canvas" for this work was the sea wall. Towards the end of the series that showed deck chairs, boats, an ice-cream seller's van, etc., we came upon the example shown in today's photograph. Immediately we saw it my wife and I turned to each other and said, "Einstein on the Beach". Clearly the artist knew about Philip Glass. Why else would a seasonal, sea-front cafe be adorned with a picture of Albert Einstein drinking a mug of hot tea other than to reference the composer's first opera, a five hour piece from 1975, called "Einstein on the Beach"? It made us smile.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 32mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Cameras and coffee

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I've been idly thinking of replacing my Lumix LX3. Recent compact cameras, notably the Sony RX100, offer a much improved feature set in a similar sized body. In particular, the low light performance is considerably better, as is the video. Those are characteristics that would give me greater success in my evening photography in London and elsewhere, and with the photography I do with my grand-daughter.

However, though I could open my wallet and buy that particular camera, or another model that gave me better image quality, I won't at the moment. Why? Well, first of all there's the relative price. I judge the newer offerings to be too expensive. I'm sure others will disagree, but when it comes to spending my money then it's mainly about me! The manufacturers set the opening price of new cameras high, and they almost always fall, sometimes by an enormous amount. The Sony's price has dropped significantly already, and will, I'm sure keep going down. If it approaches my mental "guide price" I will consider it. Of course, the other thing holding me back is the fact that I know that while the surface qualities of low light shots from a new camera would be better than I get from the LX3, the more important photographic qualities will be no different. In other words, a new camera won't make me a better photographer. And lastly, while my old (in digital terms) camera produces shots like today's, this one, or this, that satisfy me greatly, then why bother.

I apply this kind of thinking to lots of things I buy. I have a guide price for coffee, for example, and won't pay what I think is the ridiculous amount asked by the bigger chains such as Costa, Caffé Nero, Starbucks etc (Starbucks' attitude to paying UK corporation tax is another reason to stay away from them.) As a consequence our coffee drinking is done in locally run shops and cafés such as the one above in Spalding, Lincolnshire. I took today's shot there as we ascended the stairs. The low viewpoint accentuated the coffered, concrete ceiling, and the single diner - others are out of shot - added the human interest I wanted in the photograph.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12.8mm (60mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: 2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/160
 ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

Wet café chairs, apps and art filters

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I don't watch many of the TV programmes that people who know me expect me to see. The reason is that I'm prepared to devote only a very limited time to television. So, by the time I've watched, over the course of week, a couple of films, a couple of old, made-for-TV comedy shows, and one or two other programmes, I'm done. With that amount of viewing I've used up the time I'm willing to give to television, and good or bad, I won't watch more. To do so would deprive me of the time I want to give to my other interests and pursuits.

For the same reason I'm currently unwilling to join the majority of the population of Britain in owning a smartphone. It's not that I'm a Luddite, or that I don't think they have some uses above those offered by a traditional mobile phone: they do (though fewer than many would have us believe). The fact is I spend quite a chunk of my week at a computer screen and extending this further via the tiny display of a smart phone would - you've got it - "deprive me of the time I want to give to my other interests and pursuits". However, I'm enough of a realist to accept that the way mobile communications are going the day may come when I will need (rather than want) one.

There is one thing about smart phones that I do rather like, and that is the greater capabilities of the built-in cameras. They are not yet as good as even a basic compact camera, but for some purposes they are good enough. Moreover, currently appearing on the market is the Nokia Pureview 808 with a 41 megapixel camera outputting 2/3, 5 and 8 megapixel images, incorporating a useful zoom facility, offering the opportunity to achieve bokeh, and the capacity to record HD 1080p video. These are the sort of specifications that enthusiast photographers will find appealing. The images that I've seen look very good indeed.

Of course, there is a downside to smartphone cameras and that lies in the "apps", especially the "Instagram" variety that offer "effects" that people find irresistible. I came across this article on PetaPixel recently - "Iconic Photos "re-taken with Instagram" - and concluded that such effects, by and large, represent a pretty good method of ruining a shot whilst at the same instantly consigning it to a big subset of other smartphone shots. All of which brings me to my wet café chairs. After converting from colour to black and white I applied digital versions of traditional processing effects - increasing contrast, burning and dodging. In other words it was hand-crafted, insofar as that is possible with a computer! So why do I think it looks like a commercial pin-hole or Holga effect? It seems that digital camera "art filters" and smartphone "apps" that include both these options are starting to impinge on our consciousness and affect how we see photographs.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 99mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Chairs and visual connections

click photo to enlarge

As a child I used to see faces in the front of motor vehicles. The headlights were eyes, the radiator grilles were mouths and the often prominent maker's badge represented the nose. Sometimes the wing mirrors managed to suggest ears. I have the feeling that the car designs of the 1950s and 1960s prompted my imaginings in a way that the designs of today wouldn't. Or perhaps, underneath all this, is the primitive ability and necessity of quickly recognising faces because your life may depend on it. Maybe that's something that is stronger in childhood, but declines as you age. What I do know is that these sort of visual connections work at an unconscious level and come upon you when you least expect it.

The other day we passed an old watermill that also houses a cafe. Outside were tables and chairs for the use of customers who fancied their coffee and cake en plein air. Rather optimistic, I thought, given the fact that rain and unseasonally low temperatures have been an almost daily feature of recent weeks. Most of the chairs and tables were the sort of thing one can see anywhere. But the examples shown in today's photograph attracted my attention because they seemed to be the outdoor equivalent of a bar table and stools. The elongated legs of the trio made them look different and slightly odd. They also prompted one of those unconscious visual connections. As soon as I saw them I thought of Salvador Dali's elephants in "The Temptation of St Anthony"! I think it's the fact that if you cut the legs down to size they would be like any other table and chairs, just as Dali's surreal elephants would become much more "normal" with regular legs.

I took the photograph because tables and chairs often provide visual interest in the form of strong, interesting outlines and, if the sun shines, shadows that reveal more about their structure. The backdrop of old bricks, steps and railings seemed to add to the image too.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 65mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Café society

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My use of cafés has increased since I took early retirement. Not to the point where I can count myself a member of café society and all that entails. However, I'm sure I've experienced more of these establishments in the past few years than I did in the previous twenty. And in so doing I've discovered that, in the main, the independent café is a place frequented by older people, and the national and international chains have customers who are somewhat younger. The last part of that judgement is made mainly on the basis of what I see as I pass by, augmented by the few occasions that I have visited one in the company of my sons.

Another observation that I have is that the older clientele of the independent cafés appear to spend more time talking than do the younger customers of the likes of Costa, Starbucks or Caffè Nero. The reason for this isn't difficult to work out: so-called smart phones have proliferated to a greater extent among the young and divert them from face-to-face human interaction. The other day I saw an extreme example of this phenomenon. Interestingly it took place in an independent café, and involved three people, one of whom could have been described as middle-aged. As we sat down I noticed that the youngest member of the trio was reading a tablet computer. As she read she took a couple of phone calls, made a couple, then eventually put her computer down and looked at her newspaper. The younger of the other two was having an intermittent conversation with the middle-aged man. It trailed off periodically because he was simultaneously prodding and stroking his smart phone. This continued for a considerable time until food arrived and a three-way conversation started up. What's so unusual about any of that I hear you say? My answer? Nothing. And that's my point. Café society, cafés as a place to sit and chat, cafés as a place to watch a unique corner of the world going by, are being transformed into just another place to experience permanent connectedness.

Today's photographs are a couple selected from my recent crop of café interiors. I liked the light, colour and shadows of the main image (we liked the excellent paninis too). On the second shot the "imperfection" and shadow writing appealed (as did the coffee and tea).

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 32mm
F No: f7.1 Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Oysters and porter

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In recent years I've visited Borough Market in Southwark fairly regularly, often to grab something to eat or to have a drink. I've developed a particular liking for the pork, stuffing and apple sauce sandwiches from a stall that's been a regular fixture since I first went there. As a place to watch people, browse for food, listen to street musicians and generally soak up the character of London few places can beat this market and the surrounding streets.

However, one thing I have noticed, and found curious, is the way in which up-market eateries and high-price fast food joints in this part of London often affect a beat-up, artisan look. Places where a coffee costs £3 think that price will be more easily prised from the punter if the tables have an artfully battered look, the seating consists of communal benches and the decor harks back to what a costermonger of c.1910 might have experienced. Or so it seems to this provincial.

Take the oyster and porter house shown in today's photograph. There may have been a time when such an establishment used barrels instead of tables - but I doubt it. Yet today many people see this as desirable attribute, "authentic" in some way or other, and a reason for paying high prices. I think it most strange, but then I suppose I'm not the target market, either for the oysters or the barrels.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 105mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 1600
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Chairs are hard

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"A chair is a very difficult object. A sky scraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous." Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect (1886-1969)

In February 2006 I used the quote above to preface a shot that I consider to be one of my better efforts. It shows a detail of a stack of shiny cafe chairs. In that post and elsewhere I've made the point that chairs can be beautiful, chairs can be comfortable, and chairs can be both beautiful and comfortable - but they rarely are. When the fusion of aesthetics and utility is achieved it is often justly celebrated and the designer becomes, if not a household name, then someone who is known to those who appreciate good design. So, the chairs of Michelle Thonet, Marcel Breuer, Charles and Ray Eames, Mies van der Rohe, Arne Jacobsen, Robin Day, Konstantin Grcic and the like are found not only in the homes of such people, but in the world's museums and galleries.

My mind returned to this subject the other day when I saw this set of two chairs and a table. They are made for outdoor use and fulfil the requirement to stand up to the weather reasonably well - the hard ceramic/plastic surfaces will last a long time, and so will the metal, though it has rusted. And, aesthetically, I suppose they look fine in a cottagey sort of way. The co-ordinated pots are an unusual touch. But when it comes to sitting on them, drinking a cup of coffee, surveying the garden and chewing the fat - or even the cud - with a partner or friend, then the chairs look to have very obvious limitations. In fact, they look as though they would be torture for the posterior: cold in anything but the mildest weather, wet for a long time after rain, and hard, hard hard whenever you chose to sit on them! However, as objects to add detail, a certain character, and a suggestion of alfresco living they are fine. And as a composition for a passing photographer they looked fine too. 

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 119mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The Observatory Cafe

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I'd never been into the cafe at "The Deep" aquarium in Kingston upon Hull until a few days ago. Moreover, until we headed up to it I didn't know that it was called "The Observatory Cafe". When I got there the view of the River Humber, the River Hull, the waterside buildings and the distant shore of Lincolnshire, showed that it was well named. However, as I sat and drank my cup of tea, gazing down through the angled windows, and studying my surroundings, it occurred to me that it wasn't as well named as it could have been.

I imagine the architect envisaged diners looking out at the view and pointing out the passing river traffic. But, the days when this scene would always have had a ship or boat heading up or downstream are long past. The focus of shipping in the port of Hull is now downstream (left) of this view. One or two small craft use the River Hull, yachts and launches moored in the marina venture out at reasonably regular intervals, the occasional small vessel from the Port of Goole passes, and the docks that remain open upstream (right) of the view generate the odd craft. But the fish docks that would have sent deep-sea trawlers regularly past this point are virtually silent, and the smaller commercial traffic of the adjacent docks, has almost vanished.

There's nothing wrong with "The Observatory" as a name for this location, but it seemed to me that "The Bridge" (of either a trawler, a liner or some futuristic starship) was more appropriate. Looking at my photograph on the computer screen only reinforced this feeling. I was in two minds whether or not to turn this almost monochrome image into a black and white shot, but the blue/green tinted glass and the muted colours that just about make themselves felt gave it a quality I liked, so I stayed with colour.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Another day, another cup of coffee...

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...and another photograph. A longer than usual shopping trip for food, concrete slabs and a replacement oven heating element (more DIY!!!) necessitated a break for a cup of coffee in a cafe in Spalding, Lincolnshire. On a recent visit to this first floor venue I'd taken a photograph that quite pleased me, so I thought I'd see if I could find another. This is the shot I came up with, once again taken with the camera resting on the table so that its polished surface would mirror some of the more distant scene.

Photographs of this sort don't come naturally to me, but I've made a mental note to try and secure more of them, if they come my way, because I quite enjoy composing them. I long ago came to the conclusion that I could never be a "street photographer" or someone whose subjects were mainly people, but I don't mind dipping my toe into those pools now and again. You may be wondering why I'm presenting this photograph in black and white rather than colour as I did with the earlier shot. There are two reasons: firstly, I like the medium of black and white, and it's the photographic style that I chose when I first began photography; and secondly, there are a number of Day Glo price labels fixed to some of the items on sale that really don't sit easily with the subdued colours in the rest of the shot, and they draw the eye far more than I would want. Which is interesting considering the subject of a recent post!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Pass the cruet please

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In 1954, Alan Ross, Professor of Linguistics at Birmingham University, published an academic paper called, "Linguistic class indicators in present-day English". In it he looked at class differences in pronunciation, writing style and vocabulary. In the paper he coined the terms "U" (for upper class) and "Non-U" for, essentially, the aspiring middle classes. Ross's idea was that you could differentiate "U" speakers from "Non-U" speakers by how they pronounced words, how they wrote, and particularly by certain elements of the vocabulary that they used. His research was taken up and given wide publicity by the novelist, Nancy Mitford. Other writers and poets contributed to the extensive debate, some in a rather light-hearted way.

There probably was a serious - though not especially important or significant - point to Ross's original paper. And certainly some socially insecure people looked at the subsequent interpretations and became concerned to use the "right" words. However, most people saw it as an amusing irrelevance to their lives and their understanding of society. But, because the whole debate received wide coverage in the press and elsewhere, those of us who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s invariably came across the instances that Ross and others used to illustrate the principle of "U" and Non-U". For those who didn't, or for those for whom this is simply another example of the class-bound society that is/was Britain, here are some examples: Lavatory (U) Toilet (Non-U), What? (U) Pardon (Non-U), Sofa (U) Settee (Non-U), Writing paper (U) Note paper (Non-U), Jam (U) Preserve (Non-U). There are many more!

Perhaps you're wondering what the connection is between what's written above and my photograph of a table top in the first floor cafe of Spalding's "South Holland Centre". Well, the other day we called in for a cup of coffee, and, as we took our seats at the large, part-etched window overlooking the market place, I was struck by the light and reflections. So, I placed my camera on the highly polished table, adjusted the composition and took this slightly surreal and colourful shot. When I came to give it a title I went for the purely descriptive, "Coffee, Flowers and Salt & Pepper". But that sounded too wordy so I considered "Coffee, Flowers and Cruet". But then I remembered what I'd once read concerning "U" and "Non-U": allegedly the two key pieces of vocabulary that distinguished the two categories were napkin (U) serviette (Non-U), and salt and pepper (U) cruet (Non-U). I couldn't possibly commit such a social faux pas I thought - tongue in cheek - so settled on "Coffee, Flowers, Salt & Pepper"!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On