Hinges and old doors

click photo to enlarge
Today's photograph shows a detail of the priest's door on the exterior of the chancel of the church of St Andrew at Heckington, Lincolnshire.

The solid oak and the rusted, ornate metal work appear to date from a Victorian restoration, perhaps that done by Charles Kirk in 1867. Readers of this blog will know that in Lincolnshire (and many other parts of Britain) church doors are often considerably older - examples from the fifteenth century are relatively common and those from three or four centuries earlier are still to be found.

Many people imagine that the large, intricate scroll-work of the hinges of such doors are purely ornamental. But, as with the tracery, buttresses moulding, pinnacles etc of Gothic churches the seemingly decorative is fundamentally structural. In the case of the doors there are stiles and rails that fix the pieces of wood together. However, the scrollwork of the hinges provides additional fixing and hence strength to the structure while at the same time beautifying the door. If I were to hazard a guess I'd say that this metalwork has rarely, if ever, been painted. It looks none the worse for it!

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The photographic appeal of repeated forms

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Walking down the south aisle of a church the other day I came upon a stack of I didn't know what. They looked like the bases of tables, the sort of rectangular metal top with legs that would support a flat smooth surface. And yet that didn't sound like a reasonable answer to what they were. Why would they be stacked without tops when its perfectly possible to stack tables in this way with the tops in place?

But, it wasn't the question of their purpose that interested me and caused me to pause by them so much as the way the repeated forms, lit by the subdued light of stained glass windows, made interesting semi-abstract shapes. I took a few shots of the pile and moved on.

However, when I returned home I made  a concerted effort to find out what they were. After some searching I concluded that they must be the bases of movable staging; the sort of thing that can be erected when needed - for a concert or ceremony for example - and then stored until the next time. At least that's what I think they are. If anyone knows different I'd be glad to hear from them.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 27mm (40mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/25 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Fitting in the photography

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Recently my photography and blogging has suffered, having been fitted into a schedule that has involved a lot of travelling and time spent with an ailing family member. Consequently, though there have been one or two outings where photography has been planned, the activity has frequently been something of an afterthought, a shot or two grabbed here and there.

Today's photographs are a case in point. During a day away from home, with a little time on my hands, I looked around the garden in which I was sitting to see if I could snatch a few shots. The metal garden table and chairs with their shadows on the lawn seemed the best available option. Sometimes a self-imposed determination to get a photograph from a particular subject prompts a level of invention that otherwise lays untouched. To the amusement of my companions I circled the furniture, composing shots from every angle. The two shown here are the best of the crop: nothing startling, but pleasing enough in their own way.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: N/A

Bad whole, good detail

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It's a paradox of many man-made structures (and a few natural ones) that something that you dislike as an overall piece may well have details that you appreciate. Take automotive design. I've never been a great fan of Jaguar styling yet I've photographed bonnet and front details of the marque on more than one occasion because they appeal to me. Or how about contemporary architecture? The development near Tower Bridge in London with the ridiculous name of More London was justly short-listed for the 2007 Carbuncle Cup, an annual award for bad architecture, but I've taken a few photographs of the buildings' details that I really like.

The other day in London I entered a new building and noticed that the ceiling in the foyer above the receptionists' desks had sheets of undulating, perforated, reflective metal fixed to it. I can only assume that it was a styling feature though I suppose it may have fulfilled some acoustic purpose. My immediate thought was, "That doesn't work." In a very impressive and elegant structure this detail looked cheap by association. By that I mean it reminded me of foil covered cardboard packaging of the kind that is sometimes used in a vain attempt to "lift" the appearance of the contents of the box. But then I looked closely at the reflections that changed as I moved beneath it and I saw something that interested me. This photograph of a small part of the expanse of metal has a semi-abstract quality that I like. I rather regret not taking a shot of the whole of the location for comparison purposes, but I was pushing my luck getting this shot, and I think the receptionists might have taken exception to my camera being pointed at them rather than up at the ceiling.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 47mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 2000
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Bent metal

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Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, and the exigencies of war speed up innovation in a way that peace time seems unable to match.

In 1916 Major Peter Norman Nissen, a Canadian member of the British Army's 29th Company, Royal Engineers, designed a prefabricated hut made of 54 sheets of corrugated steel. These pieces of metal, of a size suitable for transport on a standard army lorry, were fixed into threes, joined together and bent into slightly more than a semi-circle, then joined to more arches to make a tunnel-like shape. With the aid of pieces of timber and floorboards they made a multi-purpose building that was easily transported and which could be erected by 6 unskilled men in four hours. So successful was this design that more than 100,000 were produced during the First World War. Yet more were built in the Second World War when the hut was revived. The U.S. Navy adapted the basic design for their Quonset hut. Examples of the Nissen hut, recycled into civilian life, still stand today serving as garages, stores, barns, etc.

The virtue of corrugating metal is that it imparts greater strength and rigidity to the material. Architects and engineers have built on, and elaborated, Nissen's basic idea over the decades, producing their own, usually more complex, versions. I came upon this new, metal-coated building in today's photograph, on an industrial estate in Spalding, Lincolnshire. Its curves and corrugations immediately caused Nissen's name to pop into my head. Slightly flashier than its progenitor, the standardized units, curved corners, and corrugated walls and roof show its lineage very clearly. Not only do Major Nissen's orginals "soldier on", but their offspring march in their footsteps!

In truth, the overall form of this building was quite boring. However, the reflective metal with its repeated straight and curved forms seemed to offer something, so I took this detail with a long lens. Incidentally, isn't it interesting how the shapes in this image give the impression that the photograph is not rectangular!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On