May Day

Over this weekend there have been many events and things to do here in Lincolnshire.

As I mentioned in the last post, with this being a long weekend we spent one of the days in Epworth.

On Monday we visited Doddington Hall a local stately home.  They were having a vintage event, with classic cars outside and a market inside.

People were invited to attend in vintage attire so we decided we had to.

Caroline wore a classic 1950’s dress, which she had made herself, and so looked very much the part.  While I wore some smartly tailored english trousers, a plain Irish made white classic shirt, english brown brogues and a Harris Tweed jacket, topped off with a Fedora hat.

I was surprised how many people had dressed up.  Interestingly while couples were dressed up, for singles it was mainly women dressed up, but there were a couple of solo men who had dared to be different.  We even had a steam punk.

Inside was the usual collection of vintage stalls, most of them being 1960’s and earlier.  At a few recent vintage events we have seen things from the 1980’s being called vintage, which really makes us feel old.

Caroline’s favourite Lincoln sewing shop had a stall there, and the owner recognised the fabric that Caroline’s dress was made of; she had bought the pattern and the fabric from their shop.  She asked, and Caroline graciously agreed, to be photographed.

While Caroline was buying a new pattern and the fabric for it, I treated myself to a small leather vintage driver’s license holder.  The new plastic photo licence fits nicely.

There were also a few vintage hats but nothing as nice as what I already have.

Caroline then bought a handbag to add to her collection.

Overall a fun morning out and well worthwhile.  With this kind of event I was shooting with the Leica M8 and a 35mm Summicron which looked the part.  With the challenging lighting conditions and my M8’s limited ISO range, I suffered with a number of shots being blurred due to slow shutter speed, and the interior had mixed light sources, of sun, and several different types of artificial light sources, so the white balance was a challenge.

It was a shame my Leica M10 has not arrived yet.

 

 

Epworth

This weekend here in the United Kingdom, its another bank holiday.  We decided to have a visit to the town of Epworth.  We visited a few shops, bought a few treats and finished up in one of the many tearooms.

Epworth is of course famous for being the home of the Wesley family and is considered to be the home of Methodism.

Coffee House on the Bridge

Another walk around Lincoln and a quick snapshot of High Bridge.  In medieval England it was common for building to be on bridges, and Lincoln High Bridge is one of the few remaining and was constructed around 1160 AD.

Leica Noctilux-M 75mm f/1.25 ASPH

I have been hearing a few rumours recently about either a 75mm or 90mm Noctilux from Leica.  Its seemed a little odd but now we have a Japanese website saying that a 75mm f/1.25 Noctilux branded lens will be coming from Leica at the end of this year.

Pink

Most of my street photography tends to be in black and white but with the pink in this shot it just had to be in colour.

Professional Mirrorless

Many people thought Sony would be the first to produce a mirrorless professional full frame camera and it was a big surprise when Leica got there first with the Leica SL, but Leica have not had the party to themselves for long as now Sony now release there model; the new Sony A9.  With twenty frames a second and no viewfinder blackout (a big bugbear of mine with mirrorless), its a technical tour-de-force and I am sure for many people their dream mirrorless camera.

Its now over to Canon and Nikon, will one of the big boys have a go?

Waiting

As you may be aware if you have kept up with this blog, the Leica M10 was announced on the 19th January.  Tomorrow will be three months and I will have been on the waiting list since the announcement.  Hopefully soon i’ll have it in my hand.

Good Friday

Here in the UK its a national Bank Holiday so we all have the day off, unless you work in a shop, the leisure industry or care and emergency services.

My twitter feed of people I follow is a very strange mix of friends, models, photographers, the leaders of the main political parties and also religious leaders of the main groups – yep an odd mix.

One thing that struck me today is the number of angry atheists having a go at people who this day means a great deal.  Come on people, you made your choice and except others have made a different choice.