Burgundy gloves

I regularly take photographs where a person or people are the main subject. However, most of those are family shots, hardly any of which feature on this blog. Consequently I have few photographs featuring masked people, a prominent marker of photographs taken in the Covid years of 2020, 2021 and 2022. Recently we were in a coffee shop and, as my wife was geeting the drinks, I noticed the low sun was producing brightly lit areas and deep shadows, as well as recording the masked and unmasked customers. So, I took this photograph making my wife's burgundy leather gloves the nearground subject.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Tiled pub facade

What is now the Eagle Vaults pub in Worcester was built as a private house around 1740. It was bought in 1764 and in 1779 was converted into a pub known as Young's Mug House. From 1814-1817 it was known as the Volunteer pub and subsequently the Plummer's (sic) Arms. In 1859 it became The Friar Street Vaults. Some time around 1890-1900 it had the decorative and lettering tiles applied to the ground floor of the facade and its name at that time (as now) was the Eagle Vaults. The tiles have lasted very well and the whole scheme looks almost as good today as when it was first installed over a century ago.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Dark skies - a second shot

 
A minute or so after my photograph of trees against a dark sky (see previous post) I had the opportunity to photograph this row of houses in the same light. I've phototographed the houses before, taken by the colours that are quite atypical in this part of the world. The dark sky strongly accentuated their colours. At this point the clouds were low enough to brush the summit of Sugar Loaf behind the town.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Dark, threatening skies

I do like dark threatening skies that co-exist with sunshine. The contrast between the well lit subject and the dark backdrop make for a theatrical effect that is very appealing. Over the years I've photographed buildings, a church, a manor house, Tower Bridge, London and an old walnut tree in this kind of lighting. Recently I had another opportunity as we crossed Castle Meadows by the River Usk at Abergavenny. Often these dark skies turn to rain. Here it seemed to be associated with the high ground behind the town and cleared shortly after I'd got my shot.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Nearly a photographic cliche

For this photograph to have been a popular and much sought after cliche the robin would have to be a kingfisher: Google Images positively overflows with such shots successfully captured by photographers. However, photographs of a robin on a fishing rod are also very common, and a few moments thought leads to why this is so, and why they may actually outnumber kingfishers on rods. Firstly, robins are one of the most commonly seen small perching birds in the UK (kingfishers are seen much less often). Secondly, robins often seek close proximity to people in search of titbits. And thirdly, the river bank vegetation, bushes and trees provide the kind of habitat that robins frequent.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Worcester's swans

A gathering of up to two hundred mute swans can be seen on the River Severn in Worcester between Worcester Bridge and the cathedral and this area has been designated a swan sanctuary where fishing is not allowed. Bags of specially prepared food are available for the birds in bags labelled The Swan Food Project (a local voluntary group). This is a necessity since the river at this location does not supply enough food for this number of swans. On the day of our visit black-headed gulls were helping to polish off the food thrown by visitors.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Worcester Cathedral nave

A day out in Worcester began with a walk along the riverside to the cathedral. We entered by the north porch and had a look around the nave. As we moved to the crossing we found our way into the transepts and choir blocked by barriers. It seems that Storm Arwen, at the end of November 2021, dislodged part of a tower pinnacle that crashed onto a north aisle roof, piercing the lead covering and cracking some of the underlying vaulting. Work is in progress to restore the affected stonework and re-open the closed areas. None of this could be seen on our approach to the building but as we departed via the cathedral green we could see great areas of sheeting fixed in place to keep rain from penetrating. We'll make a point of checking on progress on our next visit.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Remembering the plague

In the corner of the churchyard of St Mary, Ross on Wye, is a fourteenth century cross. It comprises three octagonal steps, a base, shaft and renewed cross-head. The base is inscribed Plague, An Dom 1637, Burials 315, Libera nos Domine (Lord deliver us).

It is a memorial near the burial place of those in the town who died when the plague made a resurgence in England in that year. Presumably the town "re-purposed" the cross as a memorial to the victims of the disease. A modern plaque nearby also notes that the dead were buried at night without coffins.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Heritage building maintenance

We came upon this man at work as we entered the High Street in Ross on Wye. He was one of three present employed by the rope access company, "Heritage Stone Access", an organisation whose "skills combined allow us to access any part of an historic or modern building, survey and document the findings in a comprehensive report, carry out repairs to the fabric, and mason, carve and install the stonework." The building he is hanging from is the Corn Exchange, a listed building of the Victorian period (1861-2), Italianate in style, faced in Boxhill stone and the work of the architect, Thomas Nicholson.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Reflected reeds

I've said elsewhere in this blog that I have a particular liking for reflections in glass and water. I also enjoy the plants that grow in and around water and regularly fit them into compositions. On our recent visit to Steam Mills Lake I saw many remnant reeds/grasses from last year standing above the surface at the water's edge. As we walked round the lake I looked for an example that was producing a good reflection. This is the one I settled on.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Steam Mills Lake, Forest of Dean

The 5 acre (2 ha.) Steam Mills Lake is in the village of Steam Mills that adjoins the town of Cinderford in the Forest of Dean. Both village and lake get their names from a steam mill that was established there in the nineteenth century. The lake is man-made, the result of clay extraction for brick making (which continues today on a site among trees next to the lake.) The water now serves as a fishing lake containing brown trout, barbel, bleak, bream, carp (common & mirror), chub, gudgeon, perch, roach, rudd & golden rudd and tench. Fishing is managed by the Royal Forest of Dean Angling Club. On our recent walk in the area we saw only tufted duck, mallard, coot, moorhen and gulls on the lake but there were siskins in the surrounding woods. My wife posed as the focus of interest in this shot.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Out of focus necklace

On a sunny afternoon I decided to do a little macro photography and, after experimenting with a few household articles to no good effect, I turned to my standby on such occasions - my wife's jewellery box. I knew there were a few new necklaces since I last looked so I took some shots of them. Once again to no good effect. Then I remembered that it was a long time since I'd taken any deliberately out of focus photographs. So that's what I did. The best of my efforts is above. The subject is, essentially, a coil of a string of graduated black ball bearings that are biggest at the centre of the necklace and getting smaller at each end.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

The naturalized mandarin

The mandarin duck is a native of Eastern Asia, mainly China and Japan. It became known in Europe in 1599 through a painting brought to Rome by Japanese envoys. Live birds were introduced to Britain shortly before 1745 when it was known as the "Chinese teal". Drawings of the birds in the garden of Sir Matthew Decker in Surrey were made by the naturalist George Edwards. Thereafter many wealthy landowners tried, often successfully, to establish the bird in their grounds and pockets of mandarins developed across the British Isles. I recently acquired the book, "The Naturalized Animals of the British Isles" (Christoper Lever, Hutchinson, 1977) where the above facts (and many more) can be found. Interestingly the large colony at Cannop Ponds in the Forest of Dean isn't mentioned: perhaps it is of more recent establishment. The photograph shows a striking male mandarin at the Ponds, standing on ice.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Lock, Stock & Barrel, Hereford

The lock, stock and barrel were the three elements that comprised the early gun. They were all that was needed and consequently the phrase "lock, stock and barrel" came to mean just that i.e. all, everything, the totality. This hardware business in Hereford adopted the name because the proprietor wanted to draw the public's attention to the very wide range of goods on sale. So many, in fact, that they daily spill out of the shop onto the pavement and, with the home-made signage, give the exterior an old-fashioned, Victorian or early twentieth century, appearance. Look carefully and you will see that it is partially hiding the public litter bin. Furthermore, the hand tools on the extreme right extend, out of shot, in front of the adjoining (now closed) premises.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2