There are few things as frustrating as being able to see your destination, but not being able to reach it because of a thick tangle of undergrowth or knee-deep mini-swamps. I began to fantasize about keeping a machete in my backpack, but I don't think the police would understand.
I've also become an admirer of the visual chaos that allotments seem to foster. There are several in the vicinity, but my favourite is the one tucked into a hollow behind some houses next to the university car-park. Each morning the sun seems to rise on some new random arrangement of sticks, pallets, polythene sheet, corrugated iron, and the ubiquitous orange netting. A lot of stuff seems to "escape" from the docks, and end up in the creative hands of allotment holders. Things get more ordered and purposeful as the growing season progresses, but there's always an agreeable air of improvised anarchy.
Talking of the docks, here's an impressionistic version of the docks at night. I see this view whenever I drop my daughter off at her friend's house in advance of a night's clubbing, and every time I think, "Must bring a camera next time". This week was the first time I actually remembered, but the conditions were not ideal. A wind-shaken car does not make a good tripod.
10 comments:
Can I put in a plea for more of "the docks" pictures? Being several hundred miles inland, it's something I see only occasionally. Do you have the problem photographing industrial sites that we seem to have in the US, with anyone w/ a camera under suspicion of being a terrorist?
Kent,
Sure thing, I'm working up to it -- access *is* a problem, these days, as there's a lot of security. When I first came here you could wander into the docks on a Sunday afternoon simply by crossing a railway bridge.
The ones I've done so far have been from suburban streets outside the actual docks, which is convenient, and works for me. I need to settle on a "look" -- observant readers may have noticed my recent drift away from photo-realism towards a more cartoonish, graphical look, and I may emphasise this for these pictures.
Mike
Understood. Of course I'm not looking for literal photo-realistic depictions, but simply Mike C. visual interpretations ala the University buildings + fences.
Mike, the Broadlands Road allotments were signed over to the University at the beginning of February 2013. Allotment holders willing to move have been re-located to a new site in Portswood - on the south east side of the University. I can only imagine the distress for allotment holders deracinated from decades of cultivating a friable loam, maintaining precious sheds and re-shaping key pieces of ex-dock equipment. Maybe you will be able to capture the metamorphosis of the old allotments to a new version of "improvised anarchy" en route, no doubt, to becoming a construction site for another University building. Tant pis!
D.Morris,
I thought things were looking a little quiet for February... That explains it.
Mike
Excellent pictures Mike. I'm beginning to know the Common quite well. I do particularly like the Cloud Factory one.
Why does your daughter have to go to a friend's house whilst you go clubbing?
By the way, Lidl have camera tripods for £7.99 this week - cheap enough to keep in the car for such emergencies!
Dave,
I actually have a decent tripod permanently in the car boot -- I just can never bring myself to use it, especially at night in a residential street with a telephoto lens.
Mike
When you might need it!
Well, yes, true, but a high ISO and an image-stabilised lens can work wonders...
Mike
Post a Comment