Yorkshire Dales morning

I took this photograph on a footpath leading from Watery Lane just out of the market town of Settle, North Yorkshire. You won't find a lane of that name on the Ordnance Survey maps: there it is called Brockhole Lane. However, for the past several decades and perhaps longer I, and many other people native to the town, have styled it after the streams that regularly flow along its length. We had just left the lane and were heading up to Lodge Pond when the early morning mist began to clear and ahead of us, above the hillside and through the trees, the sun appeared. Such shots, where little preparation can be made, are a bit hit and miss, and often require some processing. So it was with this one.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Canon 5D2     2012

A Turner morning

When I got up and looked out of the bedroom window recently I saw before me a J. M. W. Turner morning. The landscape of pasture, hedgerow, trees, distant wooded hill and sky had been softened and made less distinct, not by brush on canvas, but by  fog. The colours too had merged into each other and the glow of the sun, still below the horizon, illuminated and warmed only the clouds. All else was dark and cold. I went out and walked fifty yards or so and took the only photograph from where I now live that has pleased me thus far.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

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

Misty Town Bridge, Boston

I gave a talk about photography in our village recently and in it I emphasised how much I like the weather that many shun for the qualities that it brings to photographic images. There's nothing to beat snow, frost, showers, mist and fog (I exclude constant rain) for interesting photography. During January we've had quite a bit of fog and mist and this photograph of people crossing the Town Bridge in Boston, Lincolnshire exemplifies what I mean. The shot is made by the silhouettes, tones, different qualities of light, shadows, all of which was suffused in a soft mist that was lifting even as I raised my camera to my eye.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100