Battered old wooden fence
Landscape,  Lens-Artists,  Photographic techniques,  Themed galleries

Gallery: don’t fence me in

July 16, 2023 / 78 Comments

Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,

Don’t fence me in.

Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,

Don’t fence me in.

Cole Porter

Fences draw lines across our landscapes, towns and cities. They say, do not pass. This is my land, that is yours. Or they say, stay out or stay in, keeping domesticated animals from wandering and wild ones from attacking.

Fences can be purely utilitarian, or they can become things of beauty. They provide a surface on which to hang things. A sign, maybe some sort of decoration, or even washing! Flowers and plants attach themselves, finding a route up towards the sun, softening the angular lines of a fence.

Dawn has asked us to share photos of fences for this week’s Lens Artists challenge. They are a great subject for photography, especially for the technique known as leading lines, a favourite of mine. So I was a little surprised to find relatively few fences when I first started to search my archives. There seemed to be far more walls!

Perhaps that says something about our English landscapes, where hedges or walls are more commonly used? Or about the fences in my London suburb which seem fairly nondescript compared with the characterful ones I’ve seen on my travels? Anyway, in the end I found quite a few, and even took one photo especially for this challenge, something I rarely do. I hope you enjoy them!

Low zigzag fence beside a path leading tot he sea

I’m starting with a couple from Cattle Point, the most southerly point of San Juan Island, WA; this fence lines the path to the lighthouse there

Makeshift fence on rocky ground

Also at Cattle Point, this time down on the beach

Intersecting fence poles covered in lichen

Still in Washington State, this was taken near Newhalem Creek in the North Cascades

My feature photo is also from WA, at Box Canyon in Mount Rainier NP

Washing drying on a fence in Ban Xong Ja, a minority village in northern Laos

Simple fence draped with drying clothes
Two women on a track past fenced properties

Fences lining the main street of Ban Houa Done Deng, a village on an island in the Mekong in southern Laos

Rough fence on sand with small huts beyond

The fence around a family compound near Fimela, Senegal

Straw beach umbrellas surrounded by basket-weave fences

Fences used as windbreaks on Sal, Cape Verde

Fence post and barbed wire sticking out of a sand dune

The fence has been almost buried by shifting sand dunes in Oman’s Empty Quarter

Sand dunes with a wooden fence and sparkling sea

At Praia do Faro, Portugal

Boardwalk over sand sprinkled with wild flowers

Boardwalk fences, also at Praia do Faro

Shadows of two people and a fence

And a third from Praia do Faro, shadows of me, my husband and the causeway fence

Metal fence with dune grasses and the sea beyond

Fence and fire hydrant on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, NJ, on a wet and windy day

Rusty old signs, jugs and implements on a fence

Old signs and various implements and paraphernalia on a fence in a coffee shop in Madrid, New Mexico

Simple fence around a field of dry crops, distant hills

In the Big Horn Mountains, WY

Spindly fence in a field

A rather half-hearted fence on the island of Chiloe, Chile

And just to prove I could find a few fences closer to home …
Small brown bird on a barbed wire fence by a wooden pole

Linnet on a barbed wire fence in Boulmer, Northumberland

Sign saying no parking on a wooden fence

No parking, Ealing

Metal fence with snow lying and snowy trees

Park fence in the snow, Ealing

Lattice fence with green leaves interwoven

Climbing plants on a fence in Ealing

[taken this morning just for this challenge!]

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