Mill Bank, Tewkesbury

click photo to enlarge
It was an overcast day when we stopped off at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on our way to Herefordshire. We walked around the abbey, the town and by the riverside, and in the course of our perambulation I took this photograph of these houses, raised above the water near the weir and the Abbey Mill. It's a picturesque row that to many people shouts out "Merrie England". The warm, orange brick, painted render, plain tile roofs, heavy chimney stacks, timber-framing with jettied first floor, and the pleasing individuality of the houses, each determinedly different from its neighbour, make a picturesque and pleasing scene. They are the sort of houses that many would wish to live in, residences with history, presence and character.

However, all is not quite so "chocolate box" quaint or jigsaw perfect as it seems. Living in houses by the rivers that flow through Tewkesbury requires a certain fortitude because flooding is no stranger to the town. In recent years there have been times when the area around the abbey has appeared to be an island or a peninsula in a large, irregular lake, and at the fringes of the island, and beyond, houses have their feet and sometimes their knees in water. Yet, despite this inconvenience and disruption, a feature that afflicts the area periodically, and has done for centuries, people still vie to buy the old houses that grace the streets. And consequently they continue to make a fine sight for visitors such as me and my camera.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 30mm (99mm - 45mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Using graduated ND filters

click photos to enlarge

In the days of film photography I used a fairly wide selection of filters on my SLR camera lenses, and one or two on my rangefinder camera. I still have most of them, and several weeks ago I was looking at the collection, trying to decide which had a future and which I would be unlikely to ever use again.

I think its very doubtful that the red, yellow, orange and green filters that I used with black and white film will find a place in my future photography. The digital equivalent of these, applied to a colour image converted to monochrome in post-processing, seems to me to offer significant advantages over shooting in black and white with a filter on the lens. Nor too, I think, will the 49mm polarising filter be used again: my current lenses have much bigger filter sizes. I suppose, however, if I ever bought a compact system camera - M43, NX, NEX or somesuch, it might fit a lens. I also have a set of square filters of various kinds with a group of mounting filters, but once again these are of a size suitable for smaller diameter lenses. So, even though some of them, such as the neutral density filters, continue to have a very real purpose in these digital times, they are just too small for the lenses I currently use.

My attention had turned to filters because I was wanting to use a graduated neutral density filter to make better use of the sky in my images. It's true that with digital you can expose for the sky and then bring up the underexposed ground in post processing. But the fact is this takes time, effort and skill. Moreover, it's often the case that the dynamic range of the shot is too wide to do it completely successfully. The graduated neutral density filter tones down the brightness of the sky at the moment of capture and makes the details more as our eye sees them. It's especially useful, I find, on overcast days where the sky is white (but figured) and the ground dark and without obvious shadows. It is also useful when the camera is pointed anywhere near to the sun. Occasionally, however, this kind of filter does make too much of the sky's details and it can look a touch apocalyptic!

The upshot of all this is that a while ago I bought a 72mm mounting ring, filter holder and a square ND8 graduated neutral density filter. Fortunately the 24-105mm and the 17-40mm lens both have 72 mm filter threads, so the two lenses I own that are most suitable for this kind of filter can be accommodated by the single setup.

The photographs above were all taken on a rather overcast day using the filter. They show the late C15 (and later) Mannington Hall, a moated house in Norfolk. I may have been able to achieve the balance of the first image without the filter, and perhaps the second one too, but the third shot really benefited from it, acquiring a mood that would have been difficult to reproduce with a normal exposure and post-processing.

photographs and text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 28mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
Filter: Graduated ND8

New look & Comments are back

click photo to enlarge
After almost 3 years of the "Minima" template I decided I'd have a change, and have moved to "Tic Tac Blue". I think I like it! :-)

I've also turned Comments back on. Let's hope the spammers have gone elsewhere. If they return I'll give Moderated Comments a try even though it's fairly unsatisfactory for readers (the comment is delayed until I've authorised it), and me (I have to check and authorise).

I'll leave the email address up for a while. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to comment on the pictures or text by this method - your feedback is appreciated. However, from now on Comments is the preferred method. So, if you've got any observations to make about your visit to the blog let's hear them!

Regards, Tony

Here's a shot from my recent travels. This row of houses on Castle Street, Saffron Walden, in Essex, appealed not only for the variety of colours and the individuality of each building in the terrace, but also for the way it shows examples from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and maybe eighteenth, centuries. A walk up this hill is a real visual and architectural pleasure.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm (80mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On