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another year has gone

Leica Summicron 35mm

So another year has come and very nearly gone.

It’s been a year of change and of more the same.

My day job in IT has changed this year. From being a senior engineer, looking after my own area its evolved. COVID-19 had me leave the office and work from home full time. This is now permanent. I still head into a few clients data centres occasionally to under some task but this is generally only for projects implementing new hardware. The head of the infrastructure team has now left to go onto new things, so my roll now has additional duties. I now head up the infrastructure since April last year. Its challenging but I have some good engineers I can rely on and has certainly improved my people skills, having to deal more with the customer and not just the technical side of things.

My part time photography has also done well. Last year I pushed hard and this year I continued this, ensuring each month I did a good piece of work. On the equipment front, I have built out my grip and flash accessories, plus I am really enjoying the Nikon Z7 I treated myself last Christmas.

With being at home over the last few years I have developed a few bad habits, too little exercise, certainly not journaling enough and letting house work slip. Its odd that coming home from work at the office you then got on with other tasks, now being at home so much you leave your desk and do not want to do anything else at work. This has to stop.

Lastly I want to read more and practice my music more. The last few months I have been quite good at keeping up with the piano practice but I really must read more.

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a Bikers – Night before Christmas

I have posted this before but as it is Christmas Eve I thought I was worth posting again.

On the Biking Blog “Ride it like you stole it!” which is sadly no more by Dave Dragon, there was a poem “The Biker’s Night Before Christmas”.

Biker Days

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the pad,

There was nada happenin’, now that’s pretty bad.

The woodstove was hung up in that stocking routine,

In hopes that the Fat Boy would soon make the scene.

With our stomachs packed with tacos and beer,

My girl and I crashed on the couch for some cheer.

When out in the yard there arose such a racket,

I ran for the door and pulled on my jacket.

I saw a large bro’ on a ’56 Pan

Wearin’ black leathers, a cap, and boots (cool biker, man).

He hauled up the bars on that bikeful of sacks,

And that Pan hit the roof like it was running on tracks.

I couldn’t help gawking, the old guy had class.

But I had to go in — I was freezing my ass.

Down through the stovepipe he fell with a crash,

And out of the stove he came dragging his stash.

With a smile and some glee he passed out the loot,

A new jacket for her and some parts for my scoot.

He patted her fanny and shook my right hand,

Spun on his heel and up the stovepipe he ran.

From up on the roof came a great deal of thunder,

As that massive V-twin ripped the silence asunder.

With beard in the wind, he roared off in the night,

Shouting, “Have a cool Yule, and to all a good ride!”

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where are the cameras?

We have had steady releases from a number of brands; and once more claims that Nikon are missing in action with no real new camera since the Z9 a year a go. The Z30 just being a re-bodied Z50.

In the last month we have major announcements from most camera companies, but we are still in a world where it is difficult and challenging to get parts. Lots of models have not appeared on the shelves till nearly a year since they have been announced.

So do companies announce a produce then have people unable to buy, or like Nikon stay quiet and not release anything. A little more communication would help matters, and its not as if Nikon have been doing nothing, as their fleshed out lens range shows.

Next year we should see a refreshed Z6/7; will there be a Z8, hopefully so; there is a need for a smaller body of full pro spec.

On the lens front, we have had a big year of telephotos, I think we will see some quality f/1.2 primes this next year.

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Coffee Love

Leica M8 & 50mm Summilux ASPH

Last two weeks I have had the opportunity to visit Lincoln. So I took the Leica and did a little street photography. I also visited one of my favourite independent coffee shops.

I love supporting such places and we have a few now in Lincoln. While the chains are here and still expanding, its great to support the smaller independents.

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Portrait lens – revisited; what’s a portrait lens

Portraits; its easy, studio setting, an 85mm lens, not too sharp, wide open at f/1.2 to give that dreamy look.

The view of what is a portrait lens has changed over the years, in fact the view of what is a portrait has changed.

35mm

This first shot at the top is a more environmental portrait, taken with a 35mm lens (well a 24-70mm zoom at 34mm). Not a focal length people generally think of for a portrait but I like 35mm for enclosed places and street / environmental use. I look forward to seeing what Nikon’s new Z35mm f/1.2 is going to be like, that is currently on their roadmap. I often use a 35mm f/2 Leica lens or a 35mm f/1.8 Nikon Z lens for portraits and street photography.

The look of a shot does change over the years. With the advent of mobile phones and selfies, a more wide angle look has become more common and people are getting more used to that look. Most phones are around 28mm equivalent; also head shots in the movies are often wider than is traditional in still photography.

I have seen some stunning portraits taken with 24mm an 28mm lens.

This second head shot is more often a classic 85mm, in this case I used a 50mm. I often use a 35mm or 50mm for full length shots, but often get quite close with a 50mm like in this example which is a Nikon Z50mm f/1.2.

Here below we have the classic studio shot, I was shooting some very tight head shots with a 105mm lens, but here I stepped back to get a little more in the shot.

If you are going to go much tighter you are looking at 135mm / 200mm as the classic lens to use. I have an old 180mm f/2.8 but am looking forward to the new Z135mm f/1.8.

So here we have practical examples using 35mm, 50mm and 105mm.

Used carefully a wide angle lens does not distort too much and can be essential in a tight situation. I have shot portraits from 24mm up to 200mm, I don’t think there is a right or wrong, its what works and what is needed to fulfil your needs.

I suppose I am somewhat spoilt as I have Nikon F and Z glass from 12mm to 300mm, Leica glass from 24mm to 50mm, but if you wanted to go for just two high end primes, 35mm and a 85/105mm would cope with most portrait requirements.

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Social Media and Censorship

I am predominantly a people photographer. While I do some wildlife, landscape, the bulk of my work is people.

Weddings, family and corporate photography is some of my photography that generates an income but my studio, work, especially art nude is what I love.

With this being my personal blog, I try to keep it safe for work, my more professional site has a selection of work including up to full frontal nude.

Having a site to show ones work is great but social media is where it is at, if you want the general public to find you. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter being the main three.

I do not use Facebook but do use Instagram and Twitter. I find social media to be a bit of a cesspool containing the best and worst of people. Twitter seems to allow nearly anything and I can post any of my work, but twitter really does show the best and worst of people.

Instagram, like Facebook I have issues with. They do not allow adult shots or any nudity, unless your very famous or playboy. The more famous you are the more you will get away with. They are more likely to allow a shot showing violence against women, then a wonderful shot of a woman breast feeding. The internet is very much two faced.

I do not know the answer when it comes to the internet and censorship, I have more of an issue with violence than sex. So we use what platforms we can and promote ourselves without upsetting our internet masters by showing a nipple.

With the recent changes to Twitter I have now created an account on Mastodon. I like how you can find a server that supports what you need and you can mark you work as ‘NSFW’ Not Safe For Work and they can then only view it if the select to.

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Colour Temperature

I had a studio shoot this last weekend with the lovely Katey. I took the time to test some of my white balance tools.

WhiteBal Card
Popup Greycard/WhiteBal
Colour Checker

Sunlight, age and general use, dirt, oil from our hands all slowly impact on the accuracy of white balance tools.

I have three of various ages.

An X-Rite Colour checker is my oldest and I use it for creating profiles as well for colour critical work.

My little WhiteBal card, and a pop-up grey/white balance card.

My pop up colour confidence grey/white balance card I tend to use the most, it also gets used on location so gets dirty, and has been rained on.

So I decided to, in a single shot capture all three cards. Then cloned it three times and used the white balance picker in Lightroom to compare.

WhiteBal Card
Colour Checker
Pop up

As you can see the white balance card and colour checker despite there age are still close together. The pop up card is showing much warmer.

I really need to repeat the experiment under more controlled lighting conditions but it was interesting.