Hi,
With the imminent demise of the Skylum Insiders forum I’d like to welcome anyone who has followed me to my humble photography blog. I try and post whenever I can a somewhat eclectic mix of my photography work as well as photography and tech gear that I find of interest.
Kind regards
Leigh
Apologies for re-posting this but the son of a close friend has kindly given me permission to use one of his band’s tracks to accompany my video. They’re a young duo who toured Canada coast to coast before returning home to the UK. They deserve all the publicity they can get. It’s so hard starting out in any of the arts.
Music: “Midnight Moon” by kind permission of “The Rabbitts” from their album “Tall Pines & Tangled Vines” https://www.therabbitts.com/
Hi everyone,
It’s been three years since I last published a video of my work in early 2020 before COVID brought things to an abrupt end. A lot has happened since then including moving to the UK south coast. I haven’t been idle, this video brings things up to date with a selection of my work from the last three years.
Locations: Bognor Regis, Felpham, Pagham, East Wittering, West Wittering, Chichester, Storrington, Amberley, Arundel, Littlehampton, Bosham, Emsworth, Worthing, Shoreham-by Sea, East Molesey, Richmond-Upon-Thames and Carshalton.
Link https://youtu.be/bZsTgxQ7xmE
Leigh
Hi everyone,
As previously mentioned I recently bought a 52mm Kenko Nostaltone filter. My usual filter size is 58mm, I got the 52mm because I didn’t want to wait until April of next year to get a 58mm size from Japan and the 52mm is also a tad cheaper which is never a bad thing 🙂 . This isn’t a problem as the vast majority of my lenses have a filter thread size of 52mm or less.
This got me thinking on adapting four of my most frequently used small, light Micro Four Thirds lenses to this filter thread size. My Lumix 14mm f/2.5, 20mm f/1.7 and 35-100mm f/4-5.6 lenses all have 46mm filter threads as do quite a few of my other lenses and my Lumix 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 lens has a 37mm thread size so I bought four step up rings to step them all up to 52mm.
In order to minimize things I adapted one of my metal screw on 46mm hoods by fitting a 52-46mm step down ring and, to the front of the hood one of my 58mm magnetic adapter rings and lens caps allowing the hood to be used on three out of four of the above lenses. Why carry several lens hoods when one will do?, after all I can only use one lens at a time 🙂 . The exception to the above being the 12-32mm lens to which I fitted 37-52 mm and 52-58mm step up rings plus another of my 58mm magnetic adapter rings and lens caps. No vignetting at 12mm with the step up rings and a 52mm filter fitted.
It all might sound more than a bit complicated but there is method to my madness 🙂 and this arrangement is very versatile as it allows me to shoot with:
As an added bonus my TG-5 camera and filter adapter also takes a 52mm filter size for which I have a 52mm CPL filter I bought some while back. Fitting the 52mm CPL to one of my lenses as well as the hood allows me to rotate the filter by rotating the hood which is my preferred way of doing things as it’s quicker, less fiddly and still provides protection from knocks and flaring.
There you have it 🙂 ,kind regards
Leigh
HI everyone,
I took my Pen-F camera, TTArtisan 23mm f/1.4 lens and Kenko Nostaltone Orange filter for a little walk around the park this morning.
All the best,
Leigh
Hi everyone,
The other day in a post I mentioned I was waiting for delivery of a new filter. This filter is one that I’ve been greatly looking forward to trying out. Kenko make three Nostaltone filters in orange, blue and green. They all have different properties, I chose the orange version to try out as I have a leaning towards warmer, softer, diffused images. The orange has a stronger colour effect and some unusual flare properties as well as a weaker diffusion effect compared with the blue version. The blue version has a weaker colour effect and a stronger diffusion effect and also some interesting flare properties. I’m not sure about the green filter as I’ve not been able to find a lot of information on it. These filters are somewhat hard to get in the UK and mine came by a very bizarre route from Japan to the UK via Spain and France!.
Below are some straight out of camera shots taken with the Nostaltone filter mounted on my Olympus 9-18mm lens at ISO 200 with sunny white balance setting. I wanted to find some Autumnal foliage as I though the filter would work well with the Autumnal colours. It’s been a lovely sunny day, because we’ve had a long, hot, dry summer the foliage is still very green for this time of year, I’ll probably repeat this later in the month. I haven’t done anything in post with these images except for lens corrections and, as the filter softens the image, I’ve left it that way and not applied any sharpening. I edited the last image to make it look more Autumnal. 🙂 With one minor exception I couldn’t get it to exhibit the blue lens flares, even without my lens hood fitted which might be a factor of my lens choice, I’ll be trying it with different lenses.
Kind regards to all,
Leigh
Hi everyone,
I found this very interesting video and as I’m inexorably nudging towards 70, I can fully identify with what he’s saying. My own minimalist camera choice closely resembles his. A small camera bag, one camera body, a spare battery, a small filter pouch with an absolute maximum of four small diameter filters, a lens cloth and, in my case, a couple of very small and lightweight zoom lenses which weigh in at a combined lens weight of 288g or approx. 10 oz!.
As someone who doesn’t habitually shoot many shots at telephoto focal lengths if I’m going to carry a “what if” lens, particularly when travelling, it has to be the smallest, lightest, most compact telephoto that I can pack and at 133g with a length of 5.6cms that’s my Lumix 35-100mm (70-200mm equiv.) f/4-5.6 lens which fits in the palm of one’s hand. At this weight I can live with it even if it only gets used very occasionally. It’s small size means that it’s an eminently pocketable lens which is useful. This lens nicely compliments my equally small and lightweight M.Zuiko 9-18mm (18-36mm equiv.) f/4-5.6 lens which I more than often find myself using at or towards the long end.
In the flashy promotional gear videos you always see a young, fit-looking guy bounding up the rocks with the waves crashing effortlessly carrying a backpack full of gear and a tripod with a heavy camera and lens hanging from his neck. Nowadays I couldn’t even climb up the rocks let alone do so with camera gear. 🙂 So at the end of the day it boils down to a simple choice, adapt to one’s physical limitations or give up. In total honesty do I feel slightly aggrieved that I’m not that man in the videos?, absolutely, will it prevent me from pursuing and enjoying my photography?, absolutely not!.
Kind regards
Leigh
Hi everyone,
A new work taken in Worthing.
Best wishes,
Leigh
Hi everyone,
I recently discovered that Taylor Swift, another Olympus/OM Systems user’s favourite look for her Instagram page is using the Olympus Vintage 1 art filter. As I shoot RAW most of the time and Olympus’ Workspace software allows me to add the art filter in post I thought, for fun, and as I couldn’t find any obliging celebreties, I’d give a few of my recent street shots of Worthing the “Taylor Swift Look”. I never thought I’d have anything in common with Taylor Swift. 🙂 All shots taken with my Lumix 35-100mm f/4-5.6 lens and Pen F camera.
Moving swiftly on, sorry couldn’t resist the pun, I’ve ordered a new filter from Japan, one that I’ve been interested in for some while now. More on that when I’ve received it and had a chance to try it out but, suffice to say, I’m quite excited to see the effect this filter has.
Kind regards
Leigh
HI everyone,
As it’s been a beautiful, sunny, hot day I thought I’d take my 35-100 (70-200) mm lens and my PEN-F camera for a walk around Worthing. This lens is so tiny, light and sharp and it’s a real joy to use. Although street photography isn’t my genre it was fun, I particularly like the shot of the lady dancing to the rap music coming from the boom box. 🙂 I processed these shots with various Teal and Orange LUTs. Below, a few shots:
Best wishes,
Leigh
Thanks to Andrew Bowness at Rigu for his reciprocal link to my blog from his blog.
Kind regards
Leigh
Hi everyone,
After feeling a bit “down in the dumps” following the enforced cancellation of our trip to Canada my thoughts have turned to our hopeful short city break and what lenses I might take. As it’s a city break and, as always, I want to travel as light as possible, I think that I’ll take my Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm lens as a main walkabout lens. This lens has strangely only ever travelled with me once before and, looking back on the trip, I took some of my favourite shots with it. At its widest end it’s a very useful ultra-wide angle 18mm equivalent well suited for architectural, interior and scenic shots and at the 36mm equivalent end a classic street photography focal length. Unlike other wide-angle zooms it doesn’t have a bulbous front element and therefore one can fit filters to it.
It’s not fast, it’s not weather-sealed and it’s plastic fantastic but it does punch well above its weight and I’ve found the image quality to be more than acceptable. I’ll probably pack a couple of other lenses like my Lumix 20mm f/1.7 and 35-100mm f/4-5.6 lenses, all equally small and lightweight as well a small selection of filters and a couple of spare batteries and that’s it. I’m also hoping to get some nice night shots.
Here’s a few shots taken with this lens:
If this lens interests you search YouTube and you’ll find some excellent reviews by well-respected photographers including Peter Forsgard, Robin Wong and Emily from Micro Four Nerds amongst others all of whom rate the lens favourably. Actually Peter and Emily have each done two reviews this lens.
Kind regards
Leigh
Hi everyone,
I’ve not had a very productive Summer for many reasons that I won’t bore you with here. Our long-awaited photographic adventure trip to Canada to see my elderly 89 year old father and my sister and her family had to be cancelled at relatively short notice, fortunately I hadn’t paid out for the airline tickets and travel insurance. My wife went for a cataract operation on one eye earlier in the year and was told that they’d do the other eye a few weeks later. Every time she rang them to see when they’d be doing the other eye she was told that the clinic didn’t have the funding from the NHS. As things turned out she went for her second op. a couple of weeks ago and she can’t travel for six weeks after the op. and after being given the all clear by the optician. We are all pretty disappointed as it’s been forty years since I was last in Canada. We might be able to go for a short city break somewhere before the year’s out. I do enjoy these trips, like Prague, Bruges/Ghent, Brussels and Rome. So Hopefully I’ll be able to salvage something photographic we might try Krakow or maybe Budapest. We’re also planning to re-schedule our trip to Canada for the Spring of next year, fingers-crossed, all being well, third time lucky!.
Hope everyone’s keeping well,
Best wishes,
Leigh
