Autumnal bracken

click photo to enlarge
A warm, sunny autumn morning suggested a walk in the woods at Woodhall Spa. This location and time of year makes for a pleasant meander down the lanes, tracks and roads, surrounded as they are by an area of lowland heath. Yellowing silver birches and oaks, fly agaric and shaggy inkcap toadstools, and spiders' webs dripping with dew are all likely subjects to find at this time of year. However, I had a feeling we were three or four weeks early for the full-blown sights of autumn. And so it proved.

But, in places the bracken was turning from green to brown with hints of red, orange and purple, and I came upon this patch illuminated by a shaft of sunlight that was penetrating the still thick leaf canopy above.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Bracken, Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 28.5mm (77mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:250
Exposure Compensation: -0.7EV

Autumn cherry leaves

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Apparently the intensity of colour of some autumn leaves is affected by the weather that prevails before and during the time that chlorophyl production in them begins to decline. A spell of warm, sunny weather with cool but not freezing nights results in the leaves producing sugars during the day that are retained by the closing of veins prompted by the lower temperatures.The accumulated sugar combined with the colder nights triggers the production of the anthocyanin pigments that produce the reds, oranges and purples in leaves. Yellow leaves are produced by carotenoids that are always present and not weather-dependant (which must account for why the lime trees' leaves are a fine show every year).

I've been looking at our ornamental cherry trees recently, wondering if they would produce a good show of colour, particularly some of the fiery reds and oranges that make the garden come alive. The recent weather and the information above suggests they will. However, that weather is about to change with rain, wind and storms coming in from the west. With that in mind I decided to take matters into my own hands and make the best of the leaves as they are now. The low sun enhanced the hues of several that were on the ground, allowing me to achieve my aim of a photograph of contrasts and colour.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon 5D Mk2
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: Off

The seaside in winter

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"Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though plenty of people have described a day at the seaside."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish playwright, essayist and critic

People will have their own opinions about Shaw's view of a day in heaven, but a majority would probably think his description of it perfectly matches a day at the seaside in winter: particularly at a town that specialises in "entertainment". These are places that are either loved or hated. The English middle classes tend to look down their noses at the likes of Blackpool, Margate, Weston-super-Mare, Cleethorpes or Skegness, seeing them as places of cheap thrills and meretricious tat, glitzy facades with no substance. There is some truth in that, but it's certainly not the whole story, and this kind of seaside resort, even in winter, can be a place of deep interest.

My first impressions of the Lincolnshire seaside town of Skegness weren't good. Its beach is flat and relatively uninteresting, the architecture is of the expected kind, but bland, without the showy excess and originality that enlivens many resorts. The pier, a feature of the English seaside that I love, is so short it rarely has water beneath it, lacks interesting ornamentation, and seems to be closed for most of the year. And the funfair is compact, ordinary, and without the spectacular rides found elsewhere. And yet, after a couple of visits, I started to look at what the town had, rather than what was missing, and in doing so found details, buildings and scenes at which I was happy to point my camera.

Today's image was taken on an early January afternoon as the low sun was about to be replaced by dark, looming clouds. The orange light of winter deepened the red of the sand, and intensified the colours of the amusement park rides against the deep grey sky. I took a close shot of the wheel and roller coaster, and then looked for a wider view. But, there was no foreground interest, and so I decided to use my own shadow. That produced the photograph that I liked best, perhaps because its starkness complemented the scene that was empty of the summer bustle and noise of holidaymakers enjoying themselves.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm
F No: 7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Yellow leaves, blue sky

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Autumn is a time of year when, depending on the turn that the weather takes, you can convince yourself that it's still summer or you find yourself lamenting the onset of winter. As I type this "reflection" the area of Lincolnshire in which I live has had a full day of light rain - the first such day for months - that brought with it thoughts of the darker, colder, shorter days to come.

However, two days earlier, when I took this photograph, the sun was shining on the brightly coloured leaves of the maples. As I looked up into a tree and framed this shot, full of bright yellow, deep blue and clear white it almost seemed like I was looking back into summer: only the slight edge on the wind and the crunch of leaves beneath my feet reminded me that it was definitely autumn.

The yellow/orange with blue of this image shows the power of complementary colours, each deepening the apparent hue of the other, and generating a vibrancy that has appealed to artists, photographers and designers down the centuries.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 86mm (172mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On