Looking down on Great Malvern

My wife's position on an outcrop of rock above the Worcestershire town of Great Malvern looks precarious. In fact, it is less hazardous than it might seem. Moreover, it gives a peregrine falcon's eye view of that part of the town around the medieval priory church. The photograph was taken on an unseasonally cold late April day when even the sun didn't feel spring-like - hence the warm jacket and trousers, hat and gloves.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Looking across Herefordshire

 click image to enlarge

One of our favourite views of Herefordshire is the prospect seen as we look back when climbing to the summit of Worcestershire Beacon on the Malvern Hills. The wooded nature of the county is evident as is the undulating landscape overlaid with the ancient network of hedged fields. The mixed agriculture of sheep, cattle, arable and fruit can be discerned as can the small villages and farmsteads. On the distant horizon are the western hills leading up to the Welsh mountains. This larger than usual photograph was taken on 25th April 2023, a time when a late and colder than usual spring was beginning to make itself felt.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Photographing Hereford Cathedral

 click image to enlarge

A British cathedral is, for the most part, a very big church. It can be situated in a city or a town and sometimes has an open space around it. This space - called a "close" - can vary tremendously in size and for that reason can be helpful to the photographer (a big space) or not so helpful (a small space). The big space makes it easier to compose a shot that includes the whole of the building. Hereford Cathedral has a small space around it which includes several big trees, and beyond this space the buildings of the town press close. The unavoidable consequence of all this is that photographers must search for views from afar that feature just a part of the cathedral. One such is from the beech avenue through Bishop Meadow across the River Wye. But, it is only available when the trees are not in leaf - hence this recent photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

A view from Llangatwg Quarries

click image to enlarge

A map can only hint at the view a location offers: the reality is invariably better. This thought came to mind as I zoomed my lens in and out looking across the landscape north from Llangatwg quarries. The view I settled on has Penallt farm with its surrounding pastures, sheep and lambs at the bottom of the frame, the line of conifers at what appears to be another farm called Fedw, and beyond, on the far side of the hidden Usk Valley, the lower slopes of the mountains at the western edge of the Brecon Beacons - also dotted with farms, houses and sheep a-plenty.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

View from Summer Hill

As we walked up Summer Hill, one of the lower hills that lead to the summit of Worcestershire Beacon in the Malvern Hills, we paused to look out over the Herefordshire landscape. From this vantage point it is a chequerboard of fields of pasture and crops, each bordered by hedgerows, with plentiful areas of woodland, all laid across undulations and ridges that stretch into the distance where, faintly, a low cloud, higher hills and mountains can be seen. Farms, rural houses, hamlets and villages can be glimpsed through the trees and the red Herefordshire soil is revealed in fields where crops have yet to grow. I took the photograph two days before the end of March and made a mental note to take a similar shot in May or June when the trees are fully in leaf.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

St Mary, Ross on Wye

The church of St Mary, Ross on Wye, stands at the highpoint of the town above cliffs that fall away to the River Wye below. Its significance in the landscape - it is visible from great distances - is ensured by its 205 feet high tower and spire.

We recently climbed the tower, to the parapet where the spire begins, and briefly enjoyed the view over the town, valley and nearby wooded hills. I say briefly because when we were up there a squally shower that had been approaching when I took the main photograph, lashed the church and drove us back under cover.

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

View through coffee shop window

The view from the coffee shop window was unremarkable - vehicles, passing people, and a few market stalls, with the stone-built historic buildings the most interesting things on offer. The view through the window was another matter due to the sheet of dots that had been laid over the lower half to give the coffee drinkers a modicum of privacy. These dots, that decreased in size the higher they went up the glass, gave every object seen through them a pixelated-cum-Pointillist-cum-newspaper print flavour that kept me amused for quite some time.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The value of blur

Many photographers aspire to the sharpest photograph that they can achieve, seeking lenses and bodies that deliver the most minute details. There is a place for sharpness and detail, but there is also a place for blur. There are situations and subjects where his can deliver interest whether it is deliberately sought by de-focus, caused by an obscuring layer or is induced by movement. This shot, taken through the slightly smeared windscreen of a moving car on City Road, London, has qualities I like that a sharp exposure of the subject would lack.

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