Photography

Digital photography is liberating. You are freed from waiting, you learn quickly from mistakes and get the chance to correct them. You can process pictures to suit your taste without having to build your own darkroom. And although the speed of development has slowed, digital equipment gets better and better, So why use some old screw thread manual focus lens designed in the age of the slide rule which has a tendency to flare (though this one is quite remarkable in other respects) knowing that it introduces the distinct possibility of failure into your photography? Why bother with adapters and zooming with your feet when even the cheapest kit lens provides more certainty in your picture-taking?

The photographer was photographed with a Tomioka-built Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens mounted via an M42 - EOS adapter on a Canon EOS 30D digital SLR camera dating from 2006. The lens is probably from the mid 1970s.

Some people whom you ask will readily agree to be photographed but they will stand in front of you like a board. Others know exactly what to do, and this lady falls into that category. If I were a better photographer I would have done her more justice.

Westbury railway station. February; warm coats weather. The wind can be keen when it whistles along Westbury platforms. Nikon D2Xs, Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP lens. A heavy combination of kit.

The setting sun sending fat shafts of bright light through the kitchen window illuminating the semi-saintly stainless steel teapot and kettle as they bask in the success of their day's work. Photographed with an old screw-thread Cosina Cosinon 135mm f/2.8 lens on a Fuji X-E1. The lens was £10 on eBay. Something to celebrate every time I use it.

Nikon D2Xs and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. 400 ISO, f/4.5, 1/80th. Window light.

Using a 28mm f/2 Nikkor 28mm lens on a Nikon D2Xs, I photographed this scene at three different settings, all with 1/125th shutter speed. The first was at 3200 ISO and f/8. The high ISO negated any advantage of the small aperture. The third was at 200 ISO and f/2. Despite what I had read about the excellence of this lens even wide open, it was not the best. The picture shown here was easily the best despite the use of 800 ISO where received wisdom says that the D2X becomes unusable. The aperture was f/4. In every case I cleaned the photos up using the same settings on Lightroom. That made a big improvement to all of them.

This is a new edit of a picture previously posted here. I've cropped out some of the foreground to accentuate the young cyclist taking a short cut across the park, and getting a bit bogged down for his pains. The mist was doing a good job of shrouding the trees but I've made it even denser by, inter alia, making the photograph more grainy. That also emphasises the presence of the cyclist a bit more. I must prefer it to the original edit, because I am posting it afresh. Editing is a whole sub-genre of photography, I find, and it has taken on more prominence for me since Covid changed my habits so profoundly. I notice that the focal length of the lens gave a full-frame equivalent field of view of 60mm; and cropping it a bit more simply serves to confirm my preference for shooting moderate telephoto. Nikon D40 + Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 AF DX lens.

Benbo Multi-Angle Head. One like this was found by Special Branch at the bottom of Aunt Fanny's needlework box. They entered it in their inventory as 'Sewing Machine Accessory'.