Resting rowers on the River Wye

A cold, early morning walk that took in the River Wye at Ross presented an opportunity for a photograph that included the mist over the water and the rowers from the nearby rowing club. But they made me wait for it, almost to the point where I couldn't include both subjects in my shot. However, with some judicious movement on my part and a period of recuperating rest on the part of the rowers, I managed it.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

View over Herefordshire

click photo to enlarge
On a recent walk on the Malvern Hills I was reminded how sunlight and clouds can enrich a view of the landscape. Not only do they make it feel more three-dimensional, they focus the viewer's eyes on elements that might otherwise offer less interest. On this shot they also make the foreground, the main subject, feel separate from the bluish, hazy distant landscape.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Mallards Pike, Forest of Dean

Mallards Pike in the Forest of Dean is a small lake with nearby parking, a cafe and a tree climbing facility. The name seems to reference the ducks most commonly seen on the water and a type of fish that lurks beneath the surface. But apparently this isn't so. Mallard in this instance is a corruption of the surname Maller, the person who owned not only land in the area in the 1950s but specifically, a turnpike road and toll house. Maller's turnpike, in time, became Mallards Pike.

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Water surface semi-abstract

There is often a disconnect between what the eye sees when looking at water and what the camera sees. This happens most frequently when a high shutter speed freezes the movement of water or a deliberately slow shutter speed blurs it. Today's example does neither of these things. Rather, the meniscus effect of leaves touching the water surface and the reflections are emphasised, revealing a quite pleasing semi-abstract effect that wasn't easy to see with the naked eye.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Return to Speech House Lake

Three years ago I took a photograph from approximately this point on the edge of Speech House Lake in the Forest of Dean. On a recent walk that went by the lake I took another photograph in the same area. The reflections of the small islands of pines were better this time and the presence of clouds improved the shot considerably, as did the seasonally yellow tinge of the light. I had hoped to make more of the flock of mandarin ducks on the water but they quickly fled and were soon barely visible  (centre right).

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Silver birch avenue

The small, closely growing, silver birch avenue in this photograph must have been deliberately planted because it runs along the top of an embankment of a disused railway near the edge of the Forest of Dean. It is now one of the footpaths that runs from Cinderford's Linear Park into the forest. 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Shop front automata, Gloucester

Gloucester's Southgate Street features a "Watchmaker, Jeweller and Optician" shop of 1904. It retains the original name and today still sells watches, clocks and jewellery. When it was erected the owners had an ornate clock manufactured by Niehus Brothers of Bristol built into the facade. This features, from the top going downwards, a celestial finial, a bracketed clock, a large bell and 5 automata figures, each with a bell.

The figures represent (left to right) an Irish woman in traditional dress, John Bull of England, Father Time with an hour glass, a Scottish military bagpiper and a Welsh woman in traditional dress. They still move their arms to strike the time. I was prompted to take my photographs because I could see that the clock had been recently painted and was looking, as well as sounding, its best.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Fungi again

I've said elsewhere in this blog that my knowledge of fungi is quite limited. Like a lot of people I find them somewhat repellent, partly due to their association with dead and dying wood. But, if I come across field mushrooms - an occurence that happens less and less - I'm happy to pick them and eat them. There are people who have a deep interest in fungi and I'm glad that's the case. It means I can use their expertise to identify those that I come across on our travels. Or at least I think I can because with 15,000 or so species in the UK there are many that are similar. The example in the photograph seem to be one of the bracket fungi, possibly Hairy Curtain Crust, but I'm happy to be corrected!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Autumn trees

I can't imagine what it is like to live in a place where there are no clearly defined seasons. For the photographer spring, summer, autumn and winter can offer the same subject clothed in different ways and so a simple walk in the woods can differ markedly depending on the time of year. Trees the colour of those above can only be seen in autumn. In winter they will offer their black skeletons, in spring fresh, light greens filtering the brighter skies, and in summer dense foliage will block much of the light reaching the forest floor.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Autumn beeches

Arboriculturists seek to breed ever more beautiful trees. Over the years we have visited a number of arboretums and have been impressed by the variety of colours that have been coaxed out of tree families. Acers, in particular, have been the focus of plant breeders and a vast range of leaf shapes and colours have been drawn from this variety. But, every autumn, as I gaze upon the native beech trees' leaves changing from green to brown to orange then gold, I remind myself that there are few finer sights than the autumn sunlight seen through the leaves of Fagus sylvatica. These examples were photographed in the Forest of Dean.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Worn leather upholstery

One of our favourite coffee chains is called Coffee #1. It started life in Cardiff, Wales, and has spread to south Wales and parts of south west England. The chain makes commendable efforts to celebrate the town in which each shop is based, decorating interiors with paintings, quotations and photographs related to the locality. Another characteristic is the heavy use of second-hand furniture - you don't often see more than one or two of each design of chair in a shop. Recently we were having a coffee whilst sitting on a red leather, buttoned Chesterfield sofa. The worn and cracked leather appealed to me and I took this photograph of it with my phone.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Town Trail, Ross on Wye

In the 1960s a large section of Britain's railways network was declared surplus to need. The tracks that faced the axe were, in the main, rural lines or those where passenger traffic was sparse. The metal rails were taken up and the land on which they lay faced a number of new uses. One of the best was conversion into a public footpath and cycle track. Today's photograph was taken on one such at Ross on Wye, Herefordshire. Here the Town Trail passes along the edge of the built-up area and offers a quiet and leafy route fror walkers and cyclists.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Young herring gull

Young gulls can be difficult to identify - they are nearly all white with brown flecks over much of their bodies. If you have one of each common species all together (unlikely) you can usually make an identification by size. I took into account the size of this young bird and, with other features concluded it is a 1st winter herring gull. It was standing on some rocks in the River Monnow at Monmouth, one of several youngsters more interested in being fed scraps by people on the bridge than scavenging in the shallows of the river.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Great White Egret

I've posted a number of photographs of the Little Egret, a bird that is increasingly common in the UK. Today I post my first photograph of a Great White Egret, a bird that is nowhere near as common as its diminutive relative but which was, until relatively recently, a rarely seen vagrant rather than a breeding resident. My first sighting of the species was several years ago in Lincolnshire. This bird was in Ross on Wye, Herefordshire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Flooded Severn Ham, Tewkesbury

The Severn Ham is a piece of pasture in a loop of the River Severn at Tewkesbury. During the dry months sheep are kept on the Ham. However, when the rivers Severn and Avon that flow through Tewkesbury burst their banks it becomes a shallow lake with none of the pasture visible. Today it is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with protection afforded to the flora and fauna that thrive on this interesting piece of land. On  a recent visit to the town we found the Ham under water. This photograph was taken from a slightly higher area of the pasture, looking back at the town and its abbey.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5