Oxford Canal
This canal used to be one of the main commercial links from the Thames at Oxford to the Midlands but is now used almost exclusively by leisure traffic. The number of narrowboats is increasing year by year offering very colourful photo opportunities, particularly in the holiday season, as they saunter, almost silently too and fro down the full length of the Cherwell Valley. Robert and Charlotte walked the towpath, in 1940, in the new romantic novel, Aynho Junction. They observed camourflaged boats laden with armaments passing in both directions.
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Wintering narrowboats
The saturated colours are drained from the landscape in mid - winter. Given some fleeting sunshine these boats will substitute for much that is missing. The colour, reflections upon the opaque ice and the patch of thawed water do, to my eye, add up to a nicely balanced and pleasing picture. The compression needed by my service provider robs the photograph of much of it's impact but an A3+ print will restore the original intention!
Location: Lower Heyford
Photographer: Robin Barker