Saturday 21 July 2012

York Northern Pride 2012

I was wandering around York while my wife had her hair cut, as I strolled past York Minster I noticed a larger than usual crowd outside.
It turned out that it was York Northern Pride 2012, I had with me my Leica M8 so took the opportunity to take a few shots. 
Processed in Lightroom, some cropping and levels adjustment but not much else.
I used the Elmarit 28mm for most of these, a couple were shot on the Voightlander 15mm.













Those those of you who are interested, the photo above is cropped from the original dng file. When I view the original dng at 100% I can read the newsprint on the front page. remember that the Leica M8 is "only" 10Mp

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Nudes with an Olympus CZ3040

When I decided to get rid of my 35mm film equipment DSLR's were hideously expensive and in their infancy. I also fancied something a bit more portable.
I chose the Olympus CZ3040, which at the time was getting very favourable press. To think that this 3.3MP camera cost £700 is mind boggling nowadays!
I still have it, and use it mostly these days for taking photos of any stuff I sell on eBay, the zoom and built in flash are handy for this.
Before it was relegated to this and prior to my purchase of my first DSLR an Olympus E330, I took some nudes.





I really like these and they work well despite being taken on a low res camera. I did a few more sessions like this with the same model and camera and even sold a few prints of a photo from the first session we did.

Saturday 14 July 2012

Welsh landscapes with Canon 5D2


After a couple of months shooting with my Leica M8 I got the Canon 5D2 out while in North Wales recently.
I've been meaning to shoot Llyn Dinas and Llyn Gwynant for a while but weather and time conspired against me on previous visits. However on my last visit the water was still and the sky populated with dramatic clouds.
I had both the Leica M8 and the Canon 5D2 with me but on this occasion elected to use the 5D2.
The reason was that I wanted to be absolutely sure that I'd get the result I wanted, and know that the Canon can deliver that every time.
I'm not doing the Leica an injustice here, of course I could have shot an almost identical photo with the M8, but it would have taken me longer.
I find it very easy to shoot quickly with the 5D2 and it never lets me down, if the results are not good enough it is because I'm not pointing it in the right place.
I'm pleased with the results, I achieved the symmetry I was after.
Conversion to B+W in Lightroom.


Boathouse on Llyn Dinas
Llyn Gwynant


Llyn Gwynant
Llyn Dinas looking towards Beddgelert