One from the vaults

click photo to enlarge

Recently I've been feeling, as a television advertisement of yesteryear used to say, "one degree under". It's nothing of great significance, but set against my usual healthy self, it's an unwelcome change that probably accounts for my recent photography being more sporadic than usual and somewhat uninspired. So I've done what I often do in these circumstances and trawled though the vaults for a few shots worthy of posting.

Today's was taken in February last year in the Wellhead Gardens at Bourne, Lincolnshire. It shows willow branches and their reflections in one of the stretches of water that run through the small public park. It's a shot that I like for the semi-abstract effect produced by the soft, water-colour, cloud reflections overlaid with the veil of dark, delicate, almost ink-like lines of the slender willow branches. The subtle range of colours and the difficulty of working out what is real and what is reflected also appeals to me. Reflections in water are a recurring theme in my photographs, one I never tire of, but which I suppose is an acquired taste.

If you do like this photograph you may wonder how it got overlooked or left behind. There are a few reasons. Sometimes the rate of my photography is such that I move on to the most recent crop of images before I've exhausted the previous one. On other occasions the time of year changes, and I do like to reflect the seasons in the shots I post. I also like to ring the changes over the course of a week or so, so sometimes I forsake a shot because it has too many characteristics of one I've recently used. And finally, I'm sometimes just plain careless and don't properly notice an image that I think is good enough to be posted. Today's falls into the latter category.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 32mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation:  -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Milk, choice and cars

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"Any customer can have a car painted any colour he wants, so long as it's black"
said of the Model T by Henry Ford (1863-1947), U.S. industrialist

A supermarket that I shop at sells various kinds of milk. Nothing wrong with that you might think; some prefer full cream and others skimmed. However, it's not that choice that puzzles me, rather it's the choice between two different kinds of semi-skimmed milk in cartons holding the same quantity. What's the difference between them? Well, one is quite a bit cheaper than the other. Now I'm used to being presented with choice in foodstuffs where the quality (and hence, price) is measurably different, but how does that work with milk? The sell-by dates are no different, the colour is the same, and both (presumably) conform to the quantity of fat that should be in this kind of milk. I've puzzled over this one for a while. Are the cows that produce the more expensive milk "a cut above", refined, aloof even, the sort that wouldn't say moo to a goose? Do they feed on only the sweetest grass and hand-picked fodder? Or is it just a crazy extension of the idea of choice into an area where it's plainly ridiculous? Is it a way of getting a few pence more from the pretentious who like to think that their cuppa is laced with milk that's a touch superior to that of the proles?

I think I'm one of many people who has got fed up with being offered too much choice. Do I really want to waste my life agonising over 30 different DSLRs that all take perfectly good photographs? Or compare the merits of one lemonade with the eight other offerings on the shelf? And don't get me started on potato crisps (chips): why do we need a complete aisle devoted to the many incarnations of this fat-laden snack? There are times when I think Henry Ford had it right - one colour for cars would suit me. In fact I've only ever owned red, blue and silver cars. These happen to be the commonest colors in the past few decades, and I read that silver outsells all others by a big margin at the moment. Just how much would we be missing if you could have any colour you wanted so long as it was silver? All your transport needs would still be met. But, I suppose the posing needs of some wouldn't be!

Today's photograph shows the residue of a rain shower on the metallic silver of my car - a colour that I alighted on quite incidentally because it was the only model the dealer had in stock. It looks like a particularly grainy image in need of noise suppression, but the dots are just the flecks in the paint that produce the metallic look.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm macro (70mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f11
Shutter Speed: 1/125 seconds
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On