The Limbo Connection's photos

Like many former pubs built to serve a neighbourhood, 'The Castle' closed and was converted into apartments. It had been a friendly, vibrant sort of place where people would nod and greet you without your having to serve an apprenticeship of several months before being accepted. It would often be full and seldom dependent on just a few patrons. But things changed. A new road bisected the street 'The Castle' was in and it was less easy to get to it. Pub beer increased in price whilst supermarket bargains competed for the business. Social habits changed. Residential values increased relative to other real estate. Smoking in pubs was banned. A British institution was lost to many neighbourhoods and communities. Do they miss it? Probably not. Photographed using an Optomax 35mm f/2.8 M42 lens. Not the crispest of optics. Lightroom was used to put in many adjustments.

I posted this picture ten years ago. It didn't look right then, and it doesn't look right now, but at least it looks better than it did. The best thing about the original post was the comment it generated concerning the word 'bokeh', or maybe 'boke', and its origins. From memory, the five-strong group of Wiltshire Youth Drummers marched nicely in single file, and made a satisfying clattery noise, but as entertainment they were a bit limited unless your idea of a good time was listening to drumming. Still, at least they didn't get heckled, which was the fate of some other acts in the event. This is a tough town. One further, if pedantic, point: Not all the drummers met the description 'youth'. There was a stout fellow who was definitely not 'youth', and another chap wearing some sort of animal skin was borderline. When does youth end? Perhaps it is a philosophical question, in which case disregard my uncharitable remarks. You can't see them in this photograph anyway, because of bokeh, or boke, or whatever. Only the audience is really visible, and I am making no remarks concerning the audience.

Ten years later: an edit attempting to show the energy in a bold public performance. I took many photographs that afternoon. Many were awful, a few were competent enough not to be deleted; but hardly any portrayed the dynamism of the various acts (and the belly dancers put on the most vibrant performance of them all). By dialling back both highlights and shadows and making a few other editing changes the picture has taken on a bit more vitality. Yet I could not rule out that this approach is a bit sledgehammer-ish and exposes my limitations quite starkly.

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.

Photographed using a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens on a Fuji camera via an adapter. This lens was an alternative to the more usual 55mm f/1.8 when Dixons were selling Chinon cameras during the early 1970s. They aren't that plentiful on the second-hand market so I guess not many customers paid the extra. After all, this was the budget-conscious end of the market. There is nothing wrong with the f/1.8 version, but the f/1.4 was definitely worth the extra.

This photograph of a 28mm f/2 lens was taken using a 50mm f/1.4 lens on a crop-sensor camera. The aperture was f/4.5 and I was surprised by the falling-away in depth of field - it looks as though a much wider aperture was chosen. However, I was fairly close to the subject, which probably had an influence.

Pears photographed using a Nikon D2Xs and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens. To get a nice close-up I set the camera in high-speed crop which doubles the field-of-view of the lens, in this case to 100mm. In manual mode I set the ISO to 200 and the shutter speed to 1/125th sec. Aperture was f/2. Natural light only. The result was, I admit, unexpected.

Potatoes may be served in many ways. They are very versatile.

The picture was taken with a Nikon D40 (introduced 2006, CCD sensor). The lens was an elderly Nikkor-H 50mm f/2 from circa 1971. An all-manual experience, like going back in time (except not film).

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

Through the medium of telepathy the secret code is silently transferred between the agents.

I still couldn't get it all in even with a 20mm wide-angle lens on a full-frame camera. Obviously it's too big and must be taken down and started all over again.