Richard & Caroline's Blog

There was a Landscape Photography Competition recently that has produced a lot of controversy on the Internet photography forums.

The main controversy was the winner. The photograph was a blatant copy of a picture from another photographer. What made it obvious was he had a link to the other photographer who he admired.

The other entires generally were commented on because of the excessive Photoshop work and composites.

The extend of the use of Photoshop should be defined in the rules of the competition, general touch up and editing is one thing but the heavy combining of elements from different images is less photography and more computer skills. Unlike many, I do not have a problem with heavy use of Photoshop, many of the techniques can be and were replicated in the darkroom by the greats. It was Ansel Adams who said the negative was the score and the final print the symphony. Many think similarly of the RAW file.

It’s the blatant copying I have a problem with. It’s one thing to try and replicate a well known photography in order to learn, but another thing to present it as your own work.

After the comments that have appeared on the internet the winner has now been disqualified.

Wildlife photography is tricky.  To get good results does cost money, expensive professional DSLR’s, and pro fast glass costing thousands of pounds.  But good knowledge can help you get closer and get good images with cheaper equipment.

Modern cheap cameras such as the Nikon D3100 have reasonable performance and when combined with a good quality 70-300mm lens can produce good results, if you can get close in good light and when the subject is not moving too much.

TV Programs like the BBC Autumn Watch provide excellent inspiration and enable you to increase your knowledge of the natural world.

Whether you have all the gear or just a basic compact, knowledge of your subject and enthusiasm can take you far.

Some photographs were published on the internet this week claiming to be the output of the new Leica M.  Whether they are real or not, there was a great deal of discussion over the image quality.

It never ceases to amaze me how people feel they can judge the image quality of a camera from low quality jpegs published on a web page.  It is just not possible.

Wait till the camera is released, read reviews from people you trust but most of all, do what I do, visit my local friendly camera store with a spare memory card and do some test shooting yourself.  If you cannot get hold of the camera to test yourself, then see if you can locate some sample RAW files, process them yourself and judge with your own eyes.

Also remember; the way a camera handles is just as important as image quality.  A camera should feel good in the hand, a camera you enjoy and want to shoot with will do wonders for your photography.

It was a busy weekend.  First off, an early start and I got to Hartsholme Park shortly after dawn.  We had a very slight snow fall overnight, and the morning was looking good.  I had high hopes for some good images.

I shot a few leaves and trees, the colour was a little limited, I had wanted some good reds but they were a bit lacking.

After shooting a few landscape shots, I headed to the lake and setup with the tripod to shoot some of the wildlife.  Just as I was setting up a Heron flew past, typically I was not ready.  It was the closest I had seen a Heron for over a year, it would have made a fantastic shot.

I then saw a Cormorant fly past, this time I thought I was ready, unfortunately I was still thinking about landscapes and had left the camera in aperture priority set to f/8, thus as you can see in the picture above the picture is a little blurred due to the shutter speed being too low.

The morning was fun if very cold, and it was a reminder to me how difficult wildlife photography is.  I had not done any for several month, and I missed many good shots.

A good morning, which I enjoyed, but I was a little disappointed with the final results.  Still next time I will do better, as they say practice makes perfect.

The Nikon Series 1 V1 was a very good camera if somewhat limited in a few areas.  If you were willing to put up with those limitations it was an excellent camera.  One of its limitations was the user interface.

Now Nikon have announced the Nikon V2 and in someways it addresses the issues of control.

But while is addresses a key limitation on the original, I have to admit, its not a pretty camera.  We have a local camera show soon and I hope to get my hands on one to test, i’ll also be looking forward to testing the new Sony NEX-6 and I hope the Fuji X-Pro1 and X-E1.  It really is a case of digital photographers have never had it so good.

The leaves are turning but they are also dropping fast.

The weather is really starting to turn now, and as I mentioned a few weeks ago, the leaves are changing to a wonderful golden colour.  One good windy day and it will see the wind strip the leaves from the trees like in the photograph above.  The first chance I get, if we have the right light, I need to get and capture it before its too late.

I took a walk into town today and already many pavements (sidewalks) are covered with golden leaves and some trees are looking remarkably bare.  I hope I have not left it too long.  An early morning trip to Hartsholme Park might be required on Saturday morning.