Frosted teasels

This group of teasels caught my eye when we went out for an early morning walk. The darkess of the large seed heads was turned brighter by the frosting that the cold night had added. The sharp shapes against the out of focus background was very appealing.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P950

Foggy December graveyard

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There are few places that so readily evoke a sense of mystery, whatever the weather, than a graveyard. If you add to the tombs some trees, mist, frost and a late afternoon watery sun trying, and failing, to penetrate the gloom, then the scene can quite easily convert into a characterful photograph. This image shows part of the Victorian extension to the churchyard that surrounds St Mary, the parish church of Ross on Wye in Herefordshire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

An icy Peugeot

We once owned a Peugeot. It was a two seater, three at a pinch, and it had two wheels. It was, as you may have worked out, a tandem bicycle. We had it before we bought a car - that wasn't a Peugeot. Why "three at a pinch"? Because when our first-born came along he travelled on a child seat mounted over the back wheel. On a recent cold and frosty day we passed a parked car that was iced up. It had its maker's name - Peugeot - on what I worked out was the back. The vehicle was an RCZ, a sports design, with the back and the front not quite as differentiated as usual. This section is part of the back wing. The lines and colours appealed to me as a semi-abstract composition.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Fog, frost and sun

On a frosty, foggy morning we set out for a brisk walk over the nearby hills. As we walked down a lane the sun was starting to disperse the fog and reveal the nearby landscape of stubble field, pasture, hedges and woods. A diffuse shaft of light worked its magic on the scene and turned the unprepossessing features into something of greater interest.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Pool by the River Slea

I've passed this pool a couple of times on a walk along the River Slea from Sleaford and never worked out why it is there. It borders the river but its flow into the Slea is controlled. The hut at one end of it appears to be linked with its purpose.The pool is clearly man-made, at times looks stagnant, and has reeds encroaching on it. My eye is drawn to it because the straw-burning power station can be glimpsed beyond and together, on a frosty morning, they make an interesting composition.

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

Frosty Fenland landscape

Winter trees make good photographic subjects. They give landscapes detail and their skeletal silhouettes offer a stark beauty. On a frosty winter day the contrast between black branches and the overcast sky and whitened ground is stronger still. In the photograph the mist is enhancing this effect further. The trees visible above are managing to hang on in an intensively farmed area because they have grown either on the side of a drainage ditch or next to a farm building and so are are no impediment to the vehicles that cultivate the land and harvest the crops.

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

Fenland smallholding

The Fens used to be a land of small, independent farmers and smallholders, each earning a living from the fertile soil of this drained, lowland area. However, mechanisation and the pressure for cheap food led to consolidation, bigger farms and contractors working the land. Smallholders still exist, but in much reduced numbers, often as hobbyists. This old smallholding appears to have been recently sold. I photographed it on a frosty morning as dark clouds moving in from the west began to obscure the sun and turn the day darker than was promised.

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