Author: Richard

In some ways 2013 was a light year for landscape work but it was more down to the fact that most of my work was film, Large or Medium Format.  Exploring a new location and coming back with two exposed dark slides of Large Format film is like coming back from a shoot with your digital SLR’s with two 64 GB memory cards full ;).

Most of my film work for 2013 has yet to be scanned, Santa while getting me a wonderful Adobe RBG wide Gamut NEC monitor for picture editing, he seemed to have forgotten a new scanner, of well, maybe next year.

I found it interesting that most of the above shots were taken with my Leica and the for Leica the budget Elmar 24mm f/3.8, its been the camera I generally walk around with, being small light and close to film frame 35mm.  Yes I know in technology terms my digital M8 is ancient, its an original M8 with the M8.2 upgrades applied, so the sensor is back from 2006.  Even when it was released the camera was known for its noise above the base ISO and shooting above 640 ISO is not a good idea, its colour can be inaccurate due to its over sensitivity to infra-red but these negatives are overcome from the fantastic lens available and the way the M8 handles tones, especially with Black & White.  If your after a stunning Black & White camera that uses Leica Lens and can put up with the Range Finder experience its definitely worth considering.  The other option is the new Sony Alpha A7, if you as wide as 24mm then you should consider the A7, if you only shoot from 35mm then go for the A7R.

Chris Allsopp a local Lincoln Photographer pointed out that the Travel Photographer of the year had been announced. See the BBC’s website for more details, there are some fantastic images here.

There are a number of interesting characters around Lincoln, one of them is the Music Man who can often be seen playing on the approach to Steep Hill or Castle Square.

It was sad to hear he was attacked and robbed by two people on New Year’s Eve. Hopefully its not going to put him off.  If you take any photographs of buskers remember to drop some money in the hat, they are doing their art for your art.

So we are now in 2014 and I thought it was time to review some of the photographs that I took last year.

The first part of the year definitely had wildlife as its focus.  We visited  the Shetland Islands and took a lot of great wildlife photographs.  I am still trying to get the definitive Puffin photograph but these are pretty good I think.

During the year I made a number of visits to a couple of local parks and Whisby Nature Reserve, one of the goals was to practice shots of birds in flight.  This is a tricky area and an area in which the traditional SLR shines, in fact it would be hard to get images with any other camera system, modern mirror less are getting closer but are not there yet.

Its been a good year for wildlife photography helped by visiting great locations such as the Shetland Islands, if your wildlife shots are lacking then try visiting a local zoo or park, book a training course you may be surprised what you can learn and come back with.

One can sometimes find a number of potential shots close together.

The day after boxing day we both went for  a walk round some local churches each armed with our favourite cameras, Caroline her Nikon D200 with a 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom and me with a Leica M8 and 35mm Summicron.

It was interesting how two people could come away with a dozen or more shots each all within a few meters of each other but have very different photographs.

If your shooting digital it sometimes is work taking a number of slightly different shots of the same object, developing an idea until you get the final image.

I feel that the location deserves more and I will be going back again to develop my ideas as I don’t yet feel I have captured the subject sufficiently well.