Lacock, Wiltshire

Nikon D700 + Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens made sometime between 1992 and 2003. ISO 200; f/5.6; 1/640; focal length 86mm.

Nikon D700 + Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens made sometime between 1992 and 2003. ISO 200; f/8; 1/500; focal length 160mm.

Nikon D700 + Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens.

Photographed with a Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens on a Nikon D700. This lens was in production from 1992 to 2003. Aperture priority; 200 ISO; f/8; 1/400th; lens at 190mm.

Ring Toss photographed at Lacock Abbey. The National Trust always has the super de luxe version of these sort of games. Nikon D700 + Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens.

Nikon D700 + Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens.

"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept". (Henri Cartier Bresson) I used a Canon EOS 20D with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens deliberately missing focus for a watery effect.

Nikon D700 + AF Zoom-Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens.

AF Zoom-Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens on a Nikon D700.

Nikon D700 with an AF Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens.

The camera bag is a Billingham 550 model. The Billingham 550 camera bag was introduced in 1983 as a reworking of the 1979 System 1 bag, the first soft camera bag manufactured in Britain. It has remained in continuous production. It is a bag much favoured by professional photographers. The bag is made of canvas and leather, and internally there is nylon covered padding. It is spacious enough to hold at least two camera bodies with a full load of lenses and other accessories. Doing that would, of course, be a mistake. You would end up with an over-stuffed bag which was too heavy to carry and too full to find what you wanted. The bag alone weighs over two and a half kilos. It’s a specialised, well-made and stylish piece of luggage. You can attach additional pockets at either end. I prefer to leave my pair at home. They make the bag look too long. One reason professional photographers like it is its internal height of 10 inches which allows tall lenses and hammerhead flashguns to be stowed upright. Another reason might be the fairly slim profile compared, for example, to a box-like Billingham 555, or indeed any of the Billingham five series which tend to hang from the shoulder four-square like wooden cabinets (and they’ll always do this if they’re filled to capacity). Many camera bags are built square and get in everybody’s way. The 550 will get in everybody’s way anyhow, despite not being square. It’s just generally big. Access is a bit awkward but in my experience that is a general criticism of Billingham bags and a concomitant of high standards of gear-protection. To carry it by hand you have to do up the straps which secure the cover to the bag, which is a nuisance. The only other criticism is the price. Mine is second-hand, with plenty of wear left in it, yet it cost more than many new bags. If you want a real fright, look up the cost of a new one. Don’t confuse it with the 555. Google ‘Billingham 550’. Be sure you’re sitting down when you do this. The camera is a Nikon D700 and the lens is a Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD. This lens was in production from 1992 to 2003. The photograph was made using some quite cheap second-hand kit: an AF Zoom-Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G lens on a Nikon D50.

Photographed in the gardens of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, with a Nikon D50 and a Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens. This lens was in production from 1992 to 2003.

Nikon D2Xs and Micro-Nikko 55mm f/3.5 AI lens.

Nikon D2Xs + Tamron Di II SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR LD.

Nikon D2Xs and Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 AI lens.

Nikon D700 and Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens.

Nikon D700 + AF Zoom-Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens at 58mm and f/11.

Nikon D700 + 55mm Micro-Nikkor f/3.5 AI lens.