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 evryone,
It’s getting ever increasingly more difficult to get the shots that I want. I’m now down to taking out just one small prime lens and pretty much the lightest of my Micro Four Thirds camera bodies. I started with prime lenses years ago and then bought several zoom lenses including my original travel zoom my Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens which is now far to heavy for me to take out. The lens that I need doesn’t exist and in terms of technology probably won’t exist for many years to come that’s a “standard” zoom lens that covers my preferred focal length range, mid wide angle to medium telephoto, as fast, light and compact as a standard focal length prime lens It’s a bit ironical as a standard zoom is what I need nowadays as , with my mobility problems, it avoids having to zoom with my feet or maybe that should be move with my legs but it’s not adequate as a one lens solution as I need a fast lightweight, compact lens for both day and nigh time use. So, the lens that more or less ticks the weight and speed boxes the best and covers most of my requirements albeit with its limitations is my M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 35mm equivalent lens. I’m missing some shots because my legs get very achy and tired very quickly on leaving the house not to mention painful by the end of the day but at least I’m getting some shots. At the risk of sounding melodramatic I’ve come close quite a few times to considering selling up my gear but something inside always stops me short of doing so.
Filters:
I’m not a big user of filters as I like to do most in post processing but I have narrowed it down to an absolute maximum of four filters that I’m experimenting with taking out and about with me.
Marumi Super DHG circular polarising filter. Not a filter that I need that often but useful on occasions.
Tiffen FusionPOL combined 1/4 pro black mist and CPL filter. I very rarely take portraits of people but it’s handy to have the black mist effect as well as the CPL but, for me, it’s not as useful as my other two filter below for use at night.
Kenko Black Mist #0.5. This filter has a pretty strong diffusion effect and works well if one want the halation to effect the whole image. It has it’s uses in both day and nigh time but I find my last filter give a more pleasing all round effect.
K&F Concept Shimmer Diffuser 1 filter. Unlike the black mist filter this filter is much more subdued, the halation is localised to light sources and hardly noticeable in daylight. I like this filter for nigh time use as the effect it a lot more subtle that black mist filters.
Software:
I’ve just invested in upgrading my DXO PureRAW software to the latest version 6. I’m a fan of DXO’s lens correction profiles which apart from lens distortionc correction it also includes corrections for lens-specific global sharpness and, vignetting as well as chromatic aberration correction option and, in my opinion, the best noise reduction out there and now incorprorating the DeepPRIME XD3 denoising tecnnology, The latest version also includes saving as compressed DNG format.
Kind regards
Leigh
Hi everyone,
A landscape shot of Emsworth from my recent visit.
Best wishes,
Leigh
Hi everyone,
Another work of Emsworth, Hampshire, UK.
Have a great Easter, Kind regards,
Leigh
Hi everyone,
Some shots from my visit this morning to Emsworth in Hampshire all taken with my M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 lens and Olympus PEN-F camera. I took my M.Zuiko 12mm f/2 lens as well but didn’t end up using it, this focal length is too wide for me. Nice lens but, try as I might, it is just doesn’t work for me.
Kind regards
Leigh
Hi everyone,
All being well I’m heading out to Emsworth in Hampshire today to try out a combination of lenses that I haven’t used for quite a while, I’m taking my 12mm f/2 and 25mm f/1.8 (24mm and 50mm equivalent) lenses. These prime lenses were amongst the first lenses that I bought years ago for my Olympus cameras. I’ll upload some shots taken today with these lenses in a future post but here’s a few shots taken in Emsworth on a previous visit back in 2021. It’ll be interesting to see what I can find today using these lenses again. The only other items I’m taking with me are a spare camera battery, spare memory card and my combined 1/4 strength Tiffen Black Pro Mist and CPL filter. As it’s a fairly dull day I’m not sure if and when I might use the filter but it tends to live in my small camera bag nowadays and doesn’t take up any space or add any appreciable weight.
All the best,
Leigh
Hi everyone,
I’ve been feeling totally uninspired of late but I thought I’d ignore the cold wind and take only my 45mm lens for a short walk in Bognor as part of my reacquaintance with using this lens. Below some shots, I wouldn’t take only this lens out with me again as it’s too tight for framing my shots as I like them and it doesn’t leave much room for manoeuvre in tight spots I’m much happier with a lens between 17mm and 25mm (35mm and 50mm equivalent) which is where my Lumix 40mm equivalent f/1.7 lens fits in nicely as this suits my walk-about style much better and it’s how I see things. It is an excellent short telephoto portrait lens but I very rarely take shots of people or hanker for a longer lens which is why it’s been sitting on a shelf for ages. It was however fun trying to find subjects that I could more or less frame as I wanted with this lens and it was, as always, a joy to use
Kind regards
Leigh
Hi,
Some years ago I promptly gave up Adobe products when they went over to a licensing model. I object strongly to having to pay and pay again to keep using a piece of software, I’m happy to pay a one-off payment for upgraded features where I feel that they represent good value for money and are of benefit to me or a one-off upgrade to a new software version where it offers sufficient useful extra functionality but to have to pay for the same upgrade features over and over again annually is something that I strongly object to. For some some years I’ve used Sklyum products including every version of their Luminar software, their Aurora HDR software and many one-off paid add-ons eg. LUTs etc.. I note that they now do an annual “Season Pass” which one has to pay in order to retain some of their add-on extra features that one’s already paid out for when one’s “pass” expires. as well as some extra features that I have absolutely no use for. For this reason I shall no longer be spending any money on their products. These companies seem to think that one has unlimited funds and very deep pockets, they want to try being reliant on a UK state pension!. Skylum marketed heavily on their software being “Pay Once” and not a subscription but they, like the vast majority of their competitor have done are moving in that direction which I find personally totally unacceptable.
Kind regads
Leigh
Seen here on the left, fitted with a 37-58mm step up ring and metal lens hood so that I can use it with my various 58mm filters. I like screw on lens hoods so that I can easily rotate a CPL filter whilst still having a lens hood fitted which is the same arrangement as I’ve fitted to most of my most frequently used lenses..
This lens was the second micro four thirds lens that I bought years ago, I remember the day I bought it and the first time I used it later that same day, such was my excitement at using it. my first purchase being my 25mm f/1,8 M.Zuiko lens. It’s great value for money, incredibly light and very sharp and it’s an excellent portrait lens with nice creamy Bokeh wide open at f/1.8. I haven’t used it for a while now, I used to carry it everywhere and I thought I’d reacquaint myself with it and I’m certainly not disappointed. This is the gear that I’m thinking of taking with me on my travels this year along with its stable mate, my M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 lens and my Olympus PEN-F camera. A lightweight, minimalist, fun choice. I’ll probably pack my M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R zoom lens in my hold luggage so I have a longer lens for the times when I require one. This is another excellent, eminently affordable, lightweight lens that punches well above it’s weight and represent fabulous value for money.
I did a few quick test shots indoors as shown below as it’s another cold, wet, gloomy Spring day outside. My love of motorbikes comes from my father who for ten years used to race BSA and Norton Manx 500cc bikes in the late 50s and early 60s at various UK. circuits including Snetterton, Brands Hatch and Crystal Palace. For those with an interest in such things the Norton Manx bike is shown on the postcard in the first shot and again as the framed backdrop in the second shot.
All the best,
Leigh
Hi Everyone,
As it was a quite sunny day and the bitter cold wind we’ve had of late had at last abated I thought I’d take a stroll with my PEN-F camera and Lumix 14mm f/2.5 lens.
Kind regards
Leigh
Dear all,
I saw the parents and this little girl on breakfast TV a couple of days ago. I’m quoting from their Go-Fundme page “Our beautiful little Leni, who is just two years old and so full of love and life, has been diagnosed with an extremely rare and very severe rapidly neurodegenerative genetic condition called Sanfilippo Syndrome Type B (MPSIIIB), also known as Childhood Dementia. Life-saving treatment may be available this year, but we need to urgently raise funds for her to access this. With Leni’s condition every day matters and time is running out to save her life.”
Every time I look at this picture I see the face of one of our beautiful young granddaughters Mollie looking back at me. I can only imagine how one must feel if this was one’s child or grandchild. I’m including a link below to their Go-FundMe page. We donated what we could, if you could please consider donating and/or sharing the link below.
Thanks for reading and kind regards,
Leigh
📷 Digital Art Photography 🎨 : "Paintography" ✈ 👍 