The delight of fossils

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If my memory serves me well I spent a fair chunk of my childhood looking for fossils. Growing up in the Craven District of Yorkshire with its plentiful outcrops and drystone walls of Carboniferous limestone was clearly the prompt for this fascination. I had only to walk along a road or lane that was bounded by walls to be surrounded by fossils. Each rock had tiny shells, corals etc. A desire to know more about how small creatures came to be rock led me into the world of crinoids, brachiopods and rugged outcrops that had once been coral reefs beneath tropical seas. From there it was a short step into identifying types of rock, the lines of faults, and the characteristic forms of the karst landscape.

Like many children I made collections. Fossils and rock specimens comprised two such hoards. Interests developed in childhood often stay with you throughout your life and so it has been in this case. There are things that I pursue more avidly, in greater depth, but the why and wherefore of landforms fascinated me then and still does. So, unsurprisingly, when I was in an English Heritage shop the other day and I saw these cut and polished ammonites for sale, at a very reasonable price, I bought a couple. Not for me as it happens, but for my grand-daughter. Perhaps the story of how these pieces of rock came to be formed from the body of an ancient creature will spark in her the interest to know more and she too will cultivate the same interests that have brought me such pleasure.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon 5D2
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 0.6 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: Off

Models and the real thing

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Looking through some storage boxes a while ago I came across a Fleischmann Model Steam Engine. It's the stationary type that requires fuel to be placed below the water-filled boiler, ignited, and the resulting steam pressure operates a piston and crank. A quick spin of the flywheel is required to get it started, but once under way it chugs merrily along, demonstrating the principle of steam power to good, if somewhat limited, effect. The engine was given to me by a friend when my sons were small. We fired it up a few times, but, in truth, once you've seen it go, tooted its whistle, and wondered about what it could power, well that's about it!

During my own childhood I was familiar with these model steam engines: they were the sort of thing I'd have liked to own, but never did. The ones that particularly appealed to me were those that were based on the old traction engine, because in them steam power drove the vehicle as well as provided a take-off drive for powering other things. A friend's father owned one, and through him I discovered that they appealed not only to small boys, but to the small boy that still resides in many grown men. This particular man went on to indulge his interests to a much deeper level, making a large-scale working model of the "Flying Scotsman" steam engine using a lathe and a blueprint, and finally constructing a full-size Auster aircraft from a kit that the manufacturer sold!

I've recently been going through my photographs and have selected a few from last year that are probably worth posting. This shot was taken at an event where a number of traction engines were gathered. I posted an image of this enthusiast with his pride and joy last year, in which he obligingly held his pose for me. The image above is more of a candid shot, showing a bit of delicate, adjustable-spanner work being undertaken. I liked the concentration on the face of the owner here as he carefully undertakes his adjustment, rather like a surgeon giving a final tweak to his handiwork!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Motorbikin'

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I do so want to see motorcycles as the eminently sensible form of transport that they can be, but it's hard. Why? Well, I get the impression that many motorcyclists see their mounts principally as something other than a useful form of transport. And therein lies the problem. Once you choose a motorcycle for its speed, its noise, its machismo, or the exhilaration that it offers, then certain other consequences follow, some positive, but mainly negative.

Firstly you're going to be tempted to ride it very quickly - either within the speed limits in terms of acceleration, or fast in absolute terms, beyond the legal limit. That will, sadly, result in a disproportionate number of deaths amongst motorcyclists, either by their own hand or by the hand of other road users. Secondly, you're often going to make the machine noisier than it needs to be, so it'll either sound like a demented mosquito, a grass strimmer on steroids or an amplified steam tug-boat, chugging, thumping, and crackling along. And in so doing you're going to disturb enormous numbers of your fellow citizens for wholly selfish reasons, and ratchet up the stress of modern life one more notch. Thirdly, you'll be likely to buy the best machine you can afford and cosset it. There's nothing wrong with that - it seems to be a human trait. But it leads to the purchase of machines that aren't especially good for the purpose of transport, and to the employment of them as hobby vehicles. So, your riding will be concentrated into weekends and holidays, and you'll congregate with like-minded people to discuss and admire your respective steeds. And there's nothing at all wrong with that either. However, it's also possible you'll see yourselves as distinctive, on the edge of society, and some will feel part of a persecuted minority.

So where does that leave the apparently small number who use motorcycles as a form of transport that is quick, economic, efficient, environmentally better, less hindered by traffic congestion. As a genuine minority, genuinely distinctive, definitely on the edge of society, that's where! When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s utilitarian motorcycling was commonplace. On one occasion when I went on holiday with a friend to his uncle's and aunt's house he came to collect us on his Vincent Black Shadow with sidecar. We thought nothing of it, and, though he was proud of his motorcycle he saw it primarily as a transport choice that he adjusted to purr along because that was best for him and for everyone else. Perhaps a few more motorcyclists of that sort on the roads would help me to see motorbikin' in a more positive light.

Today's photograph was taken a couple of days ago in Ludlow, Shropshire, at what must have been a meet-up of Harley-Davidson owners. They were mainly genial older riders who looked to be having a fine time, basking in the summer sun, viewing each other's hardware, and enjoying an ice-cream. When I saw the odd machine gliding around the ancient town there seemed to be those who wanted to make the bike as noisy as possible, and others who aimed for that subdued purr. I know which my old ears preferred.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 45mm (90mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/500 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Bigger toys

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"Little boys never grow up, they just get bigger toys!" Old saying, probably twentieth century

To pick up a theme from the previous post - what is it about men and forms of transport? Look at the attention that young men lavish on their cars - taking out perfectly good rear light clusters and replacing them with custom-made versions, fitting exhausts the width of land-drains, bolting on snowplough-like body kits, or installing "sound systems" that, if they're lucky, they'll live to regret as their ears degenerate due to the volume and insidious bass thumping. Or how about the the older blokes with their "Sunday cars" - the Mark 2 Cortina or 2.4 Jaguar that they couldn't afford when younger, but is now their "treat"? Others indulge themselves with shiny motorcycles, model railway layouts of various sizes or even full-size, canal barges, aircraft and the rest. And then there are the traction engine enthusiasts, people who spend their spare time lovingly restoring, operating, and showing a form of mobile power and transport that existed for a relatively short period of time in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries!

I recently attended Bicker Steam Threshing weekend, a Lincolnshire village's fund raising event for its medieval church. The centre piece is the threshing of wheat by an old threshing machine that is powered by a different traction engine each day. Other activities take place over the weekend, but it is the gathering of several traction engines, veteran and vintage cars, motorcycles, steam organs, stationary engines, old tractors and even the odd military vehicle that seems to attract the crowds. And the biggest clusters of people are always found around the traction engines. The men (and the one or two women) that own and operate these venerable machines have an affection for their charges that is palpable. I suppose it is their functional solidity, simplicity, the relative ease of repair and refurbishment, as well as their sheer size, noise and presence that makes them the boys' (and girls') toys par excellence! And, of course, as well as powering a threshing machine, a circular saw or a steam organ, it's a simple matter to hitch up a trailer and give rides around the village, as in the photograph above. Long may they continue!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 79mm (158mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On