An obliging pigeon

I've photographed pigeons before. I've also photographed block paving before. But, I've never photographed a pigeon and block paving together before. It wasn't my intention to do so here. I'd seen a cyclist with a strong silhouette pass over the paving and I was waiting for the next cyclist to appear. But none did and the pigeon obliged. So that became my shot.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Starling on chimney bird guard

A bird that gets down a chimney can be a real problem, especially if the fireplaces that use the chimney have been blocked: then the bird becomes trapped. If the fireplaces are still open and in use a different problem can arise, namely the bird, covered in soot flying around the room. Consequently many chimneys are fitted with bird guards. These come in different designs. The best, often the least attractive, do not allow the bird to perch on the chimney. Others, including the example shown in the photograph, have a more interesting shape but do not prevent perching. This example, near my house, is actually a favoured perch regularly used by house sparrows, starlings, blackbirds, jackdaws, carrion crows, magpies, wood pigeons and collared doves, with the occasional sparrowhawk that also uses it.

My photograph was taken against a stratus covered sky and is black and white to make the most of the silhouette effect.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Tree top cormorant

The cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) always appears to me to be an odd looking, ungainly bird. There is something prehistoric, reptilian even, about it. When it swims it looks like it is sinking because its feathers don't trap air like a duck's and so it is less buoyant. This is to make it easier to dive and swim under water in search of its prey. When walking it has all the grace of a goose i.e. none. In flight, it has to be said, the cormorant flies directly and powerfully (and I imagine its underwater movement is elegant). When it holds its sagging wings out to dry after hunting it appears clownish. And when perched on trees it looks completely out of place when compared with other perching birds.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Photographing dog walkers

I frequently find myself photographing dog walkers. It's not that I'm a "doggy" person out to capture the variety of species (both dog and human) who fall into this category. It's simply that we do frequent some of the haunts of dog walkers and they are often useful as human interest or a visual focus in a photographic composition. As we approached the clump of trees that mark the summit of May Hill in Gloucestershire I noticed a few people passing between them silhoutted against the sky. I took several speculative shots with a long lens looking for a contrasty composition. This one, with the dog that didn't want to be restricted by is lead, and the owner who was getting tangled up in it, pleased me most. Not least for the humour of the situation.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Early autumn bracken

I've always known bracken. As a child it was common on the hills on which I played. As an adult I have enjoyed watching the plant's life cycle - its slow uncoiling from the ground, through its expansive, arching greenness, to a slow subsidence through a palette of orange, gold, brown and black. One of the houses where we lived had bracken in the garden, under a willow by a stream. There are those who see bracken as an invasive pest that forces out more interesting plants. I can forgive its trespasses because of the year-round beauty it offers to the sharp-eyed observer. The plant above was growing under oaks in the Forest of Dean, the onset of autumn driving the green from its fronds and replacing them with brown.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Silhouettes: Take 2

This photograph was taken from the same spot as that posted yesterday. But whereas the focal length of that image was 74mm (35mm equiv.) this was about 400mm (35mm equiv.). The strong silhouette of my wife on the bench against the lower, distant background forms the entirety of the composition and the interest comes from the form and details of that bold shape. Once again I can look back and see other photographs where I have used the same device. This example, featuring a bait digger's bike, was taken in 2006.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Silhouettes and compositions

I saw the line of the wet path before the bench and once I'd seen the bench I imagined someone sitting on it and a composition that involved the path leading to the silhouetted figure. My wife obliged as the figure and the rest fell into place. The basis of this composition is one that I have used several times, as for instance, in this example.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

January silhouettes

The promise of sun found us hauling ourselves up Worcestershire Beacon in the Malvern Hills. As is often the case, the forecast was more optimistic than the reality which included a fair amount of cloud and a sprinkling of rain. However, a low winter sun offers the prospect of silhouettes and my wife was a helpful subject in this regard. Here is the first of three silhouettes, in this instance also incorporating the triangulation pillar at the summit.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Cannon Street station

Cannon Street is a station we use fairly regularly to go to Greenwich. Consequently I have taken a few photographs there. It has two features that make it attractive to the photographer in me - the "exoskeleton" that dominates the main elevation of the building (a subject I have yet to successfully shoot) and the darkness of the platforms. The fortuitously placed figure seen silhouetted against the outside light prompted this shot.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Dog walking

I often think of dog walkers in the same way that many think of motor-cyclists - relatively harmless on the whole, but the majority are tarnished by a small minority. The spoilers in terms of motor-cyclists are those who speed, accelerate too rapidly, and deliberately make their machines excessively loud. The dog walkers who smear the reputation of others are those with untrained dogs, the sort that rush up to you barking as the owner shouts commands to no avail. The dog in today's photograph was well-trained, inquisitive without looking threatening, and its silhouette along with its owner's made a good point of visual focus among the whites and blues of the snow, the shadows, the clouds and the sky.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Fishermen, Tewkesbury

One of the pleasures of photography in winter is the low sun presenting more opportunities for silhouettes, one of the recurring themes in the images I take and make. The phrase "take and make" is particularly appropriate with photography involving silhouettes because I often undertake some post-processing to emphasise the effect. I've done that in this instance and I've also converted the shot to black and white to remove the distraction of points of bright colour on the boats.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M1

WW1 remembrance

Remembrance events for WW1 have been extensive over the past four years. Currently, in Herefordshire (and elsewhere for all I know) many businesses, settlements and churches feature a black metal silhouette of a Great War British soldier. The other day I came across another soldier's silhouette in the small cathedral in Newport, South Wales. The tower arch leading into the nave was filled by a large board with a profile cut from it. The edge of the profile was grooved and a string of LEDs had been placed there. This gave emphasis to the profile, and this remarkable and affecting  effect was achieved at a nominal cost.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Old barn, new staircase

The conversion of old buildings to new uses is a common phenomenon in the UK today. And, regular occurrence though it may be, it still presents the owners and architects with a dilemma: should new additions mimic old examples, should they be contemporary solutions that acknowledge the building, or should they be new designs that pay no heed to their location. I always favour the second option, and that seems to be the most widely adopted approach too. Today's photography shows the staircase inserted in the medieval tithe barn in Abergavenny, Wales. Its sharp modern angles and steel are dissonant notes but the glass allows the old material to show through and the wood echoes one of the original building materials. My photograph required a strong silhouette to make the composition work better, and my wife obliged.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Boathouse shadows

Not so much shadows of the boathouse as a shadow on the boathouse. This building by the River Severn in Worcester is a modern structure faced in brick, timber and glass, the shape of which is clearly intended to reflect the forms of the rowing boats that it houses. None of its sharply pointed "prow" can be seen in this photograph: for that you'll need to look at the next post.

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

Photographing Queen Elizabeth

I'm not a fan of our system of constitutional monarchy so you'd be unlikely to see me going out of my way to photograph Queen Elizabeth II. But Queen Elizabeth I is another matter. Any photograph I took of her would, of necessity, be of a representation, and there are some very interesting examples to be seen. The portrait in stained glass shown above is in Melford Hall, Suffolk. It dates from the nineteenth century and is based on a well-known Elizabethan-era painting. As I waited for the photographer in front of me to complete her shot it occurred to me that the inclusion of her silhouette might make for a more interesting image.

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

Fog on the River Humber

Many navigable rivers, such as the River Humber that separates Yorkshire from Lincolnshire, have old wooden structures on and near their banks, the purpose of which is known to few, if any. Was this group of post the platform of a navigation light, a pier, a war-time structure of some sort, or a simple mooring point? I don't know. What I do know is that in my composition the hard, dark shapes offered a perfect foil for the insubstantial fog that was trying its best to snuff out the brightness of the sun.

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