Posts

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Aurora – visible in the midlands

I was out walking the dog last night and was surprised to see the northern lights, or the Aurora Borealis was visible. From the village and naked eye a pale ghostly red glow, with an hint of green.

For a moment I wondered if it was light pollution from the near city or the local village tennis courts, but then realised with the positioning it could be none of these things. Finding a dark spot I took out my iPhone and quickly took a few snaps.

With these kind of results you can see why smartphone cameras have killed the cheap compact camera market.

Its low light performance and shake reduction for the long exposure is quite something.

A wonderful sight and something I hope to see again when I am maybe in a darker part of the country with a tripod and my more serious cameras.

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Do you buy music or stream?

Like most people today, I tend to stream music rather than play physical media, but streaming services pay artists very little money.

So I occasionally buy physical media. So far this year I have bought eight new CD’s and a few second hand vinyl albums.

I rip my CD’s to Flac and import them into Roon to manage, thus I can stream them when out on my phone and around the house to any Roon end point.

So every few months I run a report in Roon on my listening, and any artist that comes up high on the list I go out and buy their CD. I have a physical copy and they get paid better.

Recently we had workmen digging up the road and they cut through the main fibre optic cable delivering broadband to the village.

We have very poor mobile phone signal in the village so suddenly no streaming services. With the several hundred CD’s I own ripped to my own media server I could still stream to devices around the house.

I also buy DVD’s still. These are also ripped to file and held on my media server, so we could still stream movies from our own library.

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Finally the much requested Leica Q3 43

The Leica Q series has been incredibly successful. It has two criticisms; price, but a European built camera made in small numbers is never going to be cheap; and the choice of lens, a 28mm for full frame. For many just too wide for general use.

Many asked for 35mm and just as many requested 50mm.

For many 35mm is too wide, which is why Leica chose 28mm originally. Leica’s new model is 43mm, now 40mm to 45mm was very popular in the past, and by choosing 43mm Leica is likely to capture those wanting a 35mm and the 50mm.

I think it was an excellent choice.

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Project Red

Redheaded model in red dress looking at camera

Some of my project ideas are extremely simple but end up working very well.

Project Red is one such idea.

I have been going back to this theme since the early 2000’s and it’s interesting how the idea has changed from studio to more environmental out door shoots. Something that I will be continuing to come back to over the next few years.

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Nikon S glass, what’s in an f-stop

Canon have their L glass. Sony have G class. With the Nikon Z system we have S glass.

Top of the range, very little compromise.

Now back in the old f mount days, Nikon did not differentiate there top professional glass, but in general it was f/1.4 prime lens were pro and the f/1.8 were a slightly cheaper option.

Nikon caused some surprise when they released the new S range f/1.8 lens with people wondering if these were actually pro as they were not f/1.4. They have now started to fill out there range with some S glass at f/1.2.

Leica M10

So it was with some surprise they released a couple of non S f/1.4. It’s been an interesting choice. For those that feel the S glass is too clinical we now have a smaller lighter f1.4 lens with a bit more character.

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GAS – so what should I spend my money on

You have a camera, not the latest but still well capable. A selection of lens, flash, and more camera bags then you know what to do with, plus a few extra hidden in the back of a cupboard from your significant other.

What to buy next?

Well spend some money on trips out, flex those photographic muscles, maybe if your a wildlife photographer a trip to a local nature park, a holiday of a lifetime to somewhere you have dreamed off.

For the people photographers like me, get a mood board sorted with ideas, collect some cheap props.

I often take a bag of cheap sunglasses to the studio and let the model experiment.

Photography purchases to not have to be expensive. Just something that will get you out shooting.

If your looking at kit, then think about clothing if your into landscape or wildlife. Think about tripods and heads. For studio photographers investing in three C-Stands will enable lots of creativity and will last forever.

For me the list would be like this:

  • Props (hats, material, glasses)
  • Lighting Grip (eg C-Stands)
  • Backgrounds and gels
  • Reflectors
  • Modifiers
  • Flash Heads
  • Filters
  • Camera straps
  • Equipment bags
  • Cleaning equipment
  • Lens
  • Cameras

There is a lot you can invest in, to improve your photography before buying that new camera and lens. Also remember things like storage and backup for your files. I have a large NAS holding all my photography files, then a bunch of external drives holding backup copies. Then an external SSD for my Lightroom database, and backup jobs copying that database to two different computers and a cloud storage provider. But that’s a different post.

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More Z7 firmware

I had a shoot this last Thursday, some art nude with colour gels; and I spotted on social media another firmware. update for the old Z7. I decided against applying it as it did not seem to offer me much but I’ll apply it this weekend and then start testing. Nothing like a bad update to upset a days shooting. I have to admit to Nikon their updates are pretty solid and I have never had an issue. Not like Adobe; I use Lightroom to tether and often an update just before a shoot will bring issues.