The Christmas lights were much the same as last year and not much more impressive so I concentrated on shooting some familiar long exposures. It was the first relatively clear night in ages and I wanted to test my sister's Canon G5 X at long exposures.These were all taken with the camera mounted on a small Velbon tripod at between 15 and 30 secs and mostly at ISO 125. Having the built-in ND filter helped to slow shutter speeds down. The hand-held shots were taken between ISOs 800 and 4000.Merry Christmas!
One of the most cordial and genial places I've ever visited, Bangladesh was full of surprises. A riot of colour, bustling activity, chaotic traffic and delicious food, Bangladesh is a country where development is steaming ahead at a breakneck pace. A country which produces virtually all it needs, be it food or natural gas, it is also the second biggest garment producer and fourth largest potato exporter on the planet. It has the largest mangrove forest and longest unbroken stretch of beach in the world. Impressive. Alas, I didn't get much opportunity to take many photos, so presented here is a brief snapshot of my visit. I used the new Canon G5 X compact camera, which I had bought for my sister but decided to take with me to travel light. All the images here are between ISOs 125 and 4000. My user experience with this camera can be found on Photography Life.
Been doing these for a few years now, so I'm photographing less each year and enjoying more spectacle.I think my shots from last year were better but hey ho. The bunch of us who went together still had a good time. These were all shot with the Olympus E-M5 and 12-40mm F/2.8, 1/30s at F/2.8 and between ISO 1250 and 2000.
While the dense fog disrupted much of the nation's travel today I assumed it would add some atmosphere to Richmond Park and thus I headed down to photograph the deer. The sunlight was sorely lacking but I still managed to make use of the fog and the light to capture the stags baying during the rut. The last few images were of other wildlife/nature in the park. These were entirely shot with the Olympus 40-150mm F/2.8 with MC-14 attached. The shot of the water droplets was taken with the Olympus 60mm F/2.8. Both mounted on the E-M5.
My favourite season, autumn means nature awash with colours and while they haven't been so vivid this year there was plenty to enjoy at our annual trip to Winkworth.Capturing and revealing autumn isn't simply about sprawling landscapes with a kaleidoscope of hues; it can be found in the details too. Isolated fallen leaves or the impressionist effect of colour reflected in water. These shots were taken mostly with the Olympus 40-150mm F/2.8 and MC-14 teleconverter attached, mounted on the E-M5. One or two were taken with the Nikon D600 with the Nikor 35mm F/2 AF-D or the Tokina 11-16mm F/2.8.
I guess I enjoyed the scenery in Colorado so much that I couldn't resist taking a few shots from the car. I do like shots along the road, it provides a convenient set of leading lines into the distance. In this case, the distance had beautiful mountains and autumnal colours.These were mostly taken with the Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8 mounted on the E-M5.
As much as the beautiful landscapes of Colorado impressed me nothing quite beats the British countryside. And even though the autumn colours haven't peaked yet, it was still a nice, long and tiring walk through the estate towards the Ivanhoe Beacon, overlooking the Aylesbury Plain. Much of the views offered great layers and depth.These were all shot with either the Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8 or (and mostly) the 40-150mm F/2.8 with MC-14 teleconverter attached, mounted on the E-M5. I must say, the teleconverter, while extending the maximum reach to 210mm F/4 (420mm FF equivalent) didn't really sacrifice much sharpness. Impressive.
The Black Canyons of Gunnison National Park are a sight to see, tremendous in their scale and depth. A huge thank you goes to John Bosley, a wedding photographer from San Francisco and member of the Photography Life team who, on the drive back to Denver, suggested this amazing detour. The winding road through the brush eventually reveals the spectacular views over deep canyons carved out through the land. Called the Black Canyons because parts of them receive barely half an hour of light a day, it is easy to see how that is true with the harsh sunlight above us desperately struggling to reach into the many deep crevasses. That harsh overhead light made it difficult to shoot, so in several instances I had to find a midway point to lock exposure and rely on the sensor's dynamic range. But at the same time that light provided us with may interesting shadows and highlights within the canyons. The entire area is also home to hawks, deer and chipmunks. Still, no photograph can adequately do justice to the vastness of this place and I reckon it to be one of the highlights of my trip to Colorado. All shots taken with either the OLympus 12-40mm F/2.8 or 40-150mm F/2.8 mounted on the E-M5. The photos of me were taken by John Bosley.
A deceptively dry state in places, Colorado has no shortage of biodiversity. Although I didn't get to see any elks or bears (I'm told that one visited our campsite with her cub one night), there was still a plethora of nature, including chipmunks, deer, hawks and aspens. We even caught sight of the timid paika (a small rodent).A lot of these were shot with either the 12-40mm F/2.8 or the 40-150mm F/2.8, but quite a few were also taken with the 60mm F/2.8, each mounted on the E-M5.
During my time in Colorado, I had the opportunity to capture the Milky Way at night, something I was admittedly sceptical about doing on the m4/3 sensor of my E-M5. I had shot the Milky Way before on a full frame DSLR, and had no trouble raising the ISO to 6400 to make the exposure. But concerns about noise and clarity made me wonder about capturing the night sky effectively on a smaller sensor.The sky in Colorado was often so clear it was possible to see the Milky Way with the naked eye. I used the crescent Moon to lock focus and then set the focusing to Manual to prevent the camera trying to reacquire focus in Auto mode. I could then reposition my camera with the adjustable tripod head to ensure I had the composition I wanted.Using the Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8, I zoomed out to 12mm (24mm FF equivalent) and set the aperture to F/2.8. Rather than set a shutter speed value, I used the LIVE TIME function. This revealed the developing exposure on the rear LCD, allowing me to stop it at any time. I set it to show the development every 2 seconds. While the other photographers with me were able to shoot a 15 second exposure at ISO 6400 or 3200, I limited my maximum ISO value to ISO 1600 and shot for around 30 seconds.The Noise filter on the camera, which affects all images, is always set to OFF, but the Noise Reduction feature, which affects long exposures, was set to ON. This inevitably made the write time to the card a little longer. Not having a remote trigger, I used the Anti-Shock function which started the exposure about half a second after I pressed the shutter. In some of the images, the trees were painted with a small flashlight during the exposure. Processing the image I reduced the noise a little in Lightroom, and changed the white balance to make it a tad bluer. I also adjusted the contrast to bring out the nebulous areas of the galaxy. Well, the images may not be as spectacular as what is possible with a DSLR, but I am perfectly happy to have captured the Milky Way at all.
A couple of weeks ago I arrived in Colorado as the guest (and at the behest) of Nasim Mansurov, founder and curator of Photography Life. I also got to meet many of the PL Team, a truly talented and genuinely nice group of people. The autumn colours weren't in full bloom everywhere at that time, so rather than try to shoot the usual wide vistas, I concentrated on the available colour and light. It was a fairly intense and exhilarating experience, shooting the sunrise at one end of the day and the Milky Way late at night at the other (those shots will be in a separate post). Needless to say, sleep was rationed. Most of these were taken around the San Juan Mountains, the Million Dollar Highway and the Last Dollar Road en route to Telluride. I used my full complement of Olympus gear, including the 12-40mm F/2.8, 40-150mm F/2.8, 60mm F/2.8 and 45mm F/1.8, mounted on the E-M5. Colorado is a beautiful state, mountainous in the south with an abundance of flora and fauna (some of which I will present in another post). The scale of the scenery is overwhelming at times and on occasion being seemingly the only two people around was a peaceful and humbling experience. I must thank Nasim for his incredible generosity, hospitality and relentless energy, driving me around everywhere to enjoy the scenery. He almost certainly got less sleep than the rest of us. The last image of me was shot by Nasim.
Photographing the grey seals on the Norfolk coast was an annual autumnal pilgrimage for me but the last couple of years I was remiss in not making the journey.Waiting for good weather to visit the Norfolk coast turned out to be a pipe dream, so we went anyway, hiking for a couple of hours behind the dunes along the beach before finding the seals. There were a reasonable number of them, both sunning on a sandy bank offshore and splashing about in the water. All of these images were taken with the Olympus 40-150mm F/2.8 mounted on the E-M5. I wanted to use the MC-14 TC but it hadn't arrived in time.
Knight Rider. A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man….who does not exist. Ok, well, never mind but if you were even momentarily awake in the 1980s you would know about the hit TV show about a talking car. Basically a souped up Pontiac Trans Am, today I had the opportunity to drive nine laps inside a pretty cool replica of it on an airfield in Essex. I'm certainly no Hasslehoff (thank goodness) but it was a great afternoon treat for my friend Natalia and myself. On site too was a replica Delorean from Back To The Future. The 80s was simply the best decade to be alive. All these images were taken with either the Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8 or 40-150mm F/2.8 mounted on the E-M5.
Just a few shots of some of London's buildings. I rendered some of them black and white to emphasise their geometrical features. They were shot mainly with the Panasonic 20mm F/1.7 and the panoramic view of London was shot with the Olympus 45mm F/1.8. Both lenses mounted on the E-M5.
After a lovely day with Zuzana in Regent's Park I decided to head down to the South Bank for a little street photography session. I'm somewhat on the fence about street photography. Much of it simply captures passing randomness rather than reveal anything interesting and in that sense I find it a little pretentious. But with the slight drizzly rain and searching sun there was an abundance of interesting reflections, hues, light and shadow to capture, as well as plenty of people with a story to tell. I'm a simple soul so I need a definitive purpose to each image, be that the subject, light or colour. Interpretation is for other people :)These were taken with either the Olympus 60mm F/2.8 or Panasonic 20mm F/1.7 mounted on the E-M5.
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