Cut back.

May 15, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in photography | 4 Comments

Hi everyone,

I have cut back a lot of late, first I gave up my Pixels account and website and thus no longer have any outlet to sell my work. I also changed my 500px account to the free version . The net result is my work no longer get so much exposure but I cannot justify the expense. Over the years, I’ve tried all kinds of things, books, e-books, online galleries and different websites including my own but I’ve long since recognised that my work isn’t of widespread interest to the buying public, so it no longer makes any financial sense to pay for these sites as things here in the UK have been very hard with the current cost of living crisis, our fuel bill alone has more than doubled last month and, despite cutbacks, our food bill is also very expensive, If things don’t ease up soon I’ll have to consider switching my Flickr account over to the free one but it does introduce loads of adds which I think are off putting. Reluctantly, my blog is the last thing on my list if it becomes absolutely necessary. I am closing my LinkedIn account which has never worked for me and, some while back I closed my Twitter account as I strongly object to Elon Musk’s policy of re-instating banned accounts.

Kind regards

Leigh

“From the bridge”

May 15, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Back to my roots, HDR, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Monochrome, photography, River, Travel | 5 Comments

Hi,

River Thames at East Molesey, UK. A case in point as to why I love that 20mm (40mm equivalent) lens. I thought it was going to be hard sticking to just this one prime lens, so far at least, it’s proven easy, it’s so sharp and feels really natural 🙂 .You can always view my images full-size on my Flickr Page and my 500px page.

Have a great day,

Leigh

“Saffron Sunset”

May 14, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Back to my roots, HDR, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Paintography, photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi,

Carshalton Ponds, painterly landscape.

Best wishes,

Leigh

Helping my eyestrain.

May 13, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi,

For a long time when going to bed I had sore, watery eyes until I changed some things about a year ago. I did two things which kick in automatically approximately and hour before my usual bedtime. Firstly I bought some software for the computer called IRIS which I’ve setup to automatically change the colour temperature of my monitors to a more relaxing and eye-calming warm white. I’ve also setup program triggers which run when I use one or other of my photo editing software programs to change the monitors’ temperature back up to daylight (6500K) whilst they are running, reverting back to the previous setting when they are closed. Secondly I bought one of those LED smart bulbs which simultaneously changes the room light to warm white via an Alexa routine set to run at the same time as I’ve set within IRIS. Additionally I bought an uplighter shade for this bulb which provides a more even and slightly diffused light. Taken together these work very well and allows my eyes to rest for a while at the end of the day before going to bed. So, basically, at a set time in the evening the room lighting and monitors switch to a warmer and more soothing light. Another Alexa routine runs when I turn on the room light to reset it to my normal daylight setting and brightness.

My IRIS controlled monitor settings:

Normal daytime setting – 5550K colour temperature @ 70% brightness

Evening warm white setting – 3000K colour temperature @ 80% brightness

Photo editing software running – 6500K colour temperature @100% brightness

Kind regards

Leigh

Nine years of blogging! (I’m still standing) :)

May 13, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 4 Comments

Hi everyone,

I don’t believe that I’ve been blogging for nine years, not bad for someone that’s always considered himself a non-blogger 🙂 . I hope that my blog is still of interest, I try and post as often as I can and mix things up between my shots, techniques, gear, travels and occasionally some posts about things that I’ve bought or adapted and find useful in my photography or maybe my feelings and observations about photography in general in the hope that they’re of interest to someone. Thanks, as always, to those that continue to follow my blog. There have been lots of ups and downs along the way, not the least of which has been COVID, our move to the coast, health problems, financial worries etc. but I’m still here and still taking photos. 🙂

Best wishes,

Leigh

PS. I’ve never been read in Greenland though, so if you know of anyone living in Greenland please let them know 🙂

A nice idea, but?

May 12, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in photography, Photography equipment, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi,

I picked up a couple of these the other day. They’re water resistant battery storage/transport boxes with inbuilt storage for a couple of SD cards and micro SD cards. They’re made by JJC, one of my favourite innovative camera accessory manufacturers. They come with several inserts in two thicknesses which allow one to adjust for different battery thicknesses. They’re also available in two sizes, I got the smaller size which accommodates one of my Olympus BLN-1 batteries easily. The SD card compartment holds the card/s snuggly and they don’t fall out at the slightest puff of air or vibration unike some I’ve had.

Now for the but part, the two latches seem quite flimsy to me and I wonder how long they’ll last but I suppose that one could always resort to a stout rubber band in the event of them breaking off, only time will tell. My main reason for getting them was space saving compared to using my existing battery boxes and SDHC card case.

Correction: They’re actually made/distributed by KIWIFOTOS but they’re very similar to the JJC ones, possibly a bit better build quality?.

Best wishes,

Leigh

I ditched the lens hood on my 20mm Lumix lens.

May 12, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Firstly let me start by saying that I’m a firm believer in using lens hoods, something that I’ve been doing for many many years and all my lenses have hoods. Panasonic, unlike most of their other lenses, doesn’t supply a hood with the lens as they don’t reckon that it needs one. My instinct was to fit one of my metal screw in after market hoods which has been fine. I was keen to test the lens without a hood, it’s not easily knocked as it’s a pancake design and, equally importantly, it is not prone to flare even in strong light.

This got me thinking about adding a 46-62mm step up ring to the lens which in turn has one on my 62mm (magnetic) XUME lens adapters attached. This still gives a little shading and protection to the front lens element and still makes the lens considerably shorter and thus takes up less room fitted to the camera when in my small camera bag. A nice side effect of this is that my silicone lens cap now fits right down flush to the camera body and completely encases the lens mount. I’m not claiming that this water proofs the lens in transit but it doesn’t do any harm. An unexpected benefit to doing things this way is that my somewhat voluminous but effective rain cover, which has an elasticated front end stays on much better and can’t easily slip off the front of the lens as the step up ring arrangement prevents this unlike having the smooth metallic lens hood fitted.

Now onto my filters, my preferred (slim) CPL filter has a 58mm thread so I first fitted one of my 62mm XUME filter adapters and then a 62-58mm step down ring and then the filter. Because the step down ring makes the filter somewhat recessed and fiddly to adjust I then fitted a 58-62mm step up ring which makes the filter easy to adjust and also provides a little shading to the filter. I’ve tested and with this arrangement fitted it doesn’t cause any vignetting as it’s still considerably shorter than using the hood. I’m also packing a 62mm clear filter and XUME filter adapter to quickly snap on the lens to protect the front element should I need it in harsh environments, rain, snow (with my rain cover fitted), dust etc.. Easier, quicker and safer to clean the filter than the front lens element when required.

Kind regards,

Leigh

“For old times sake”

May 11, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Back to my roots, HDR, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Paintography, photography, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi,

Carshalton Ponds, painterly landscape.

Kind regards

Leigh

Landscape photography the forgotten genre.

May 10, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in photography | Leave a comment

Hi,

Earlier today I participated in an online discussion regarding all the AI features being introduced with modern cameras. We now have face tracking, boat tracking, plane tracking, car tracking, train tracking, bird tracking, eye detection etc.. and, if not strictly an AI feature, Pro capture. Of course this comes at a price, we seem to be being asked to pay for more and more features in a new camera that I have no interest in or use for. Of course I fully recognise that they have their uses for certain photographic genres but not for me, I’d be paying for something that I would turn off and almost certainly never have a use for.

I’m more than happy with my cameras, never once, in all these years can I remember thinking that I wish I had this or that feature. What more could I need for my photographic interests, tree recognition and tracking ?, not that I’ve ever photographed the walking tree of Ecuador but, then again, that only moves 2cm a day so shouldn’t present much of a problem! , sky recognition?, water recognition?, maybe a camera that would automatically choose the subject and take the picture for me? 🙂 I say forgotten as it never seems to get much exposure, deliberate pun, amongst camera manufacturers, look at their sites and PR materials, videos etc. and one rarely sees much about landscape photography, it’s just not “sexy” when it comes to showing their latest innovations because, in landscape photography, they haven’t got many or any innovations to scream about.

I’m not a Luddite, I just can’t get in any way excited with the latest tech that they’re promoting. I suppose it’s inevitable that this is the way things are moving. I’m not King Canute trying to turn back the tide of change, anyway, who’d listen to me if I was to try?, we’re getting it, and paying for it, whether we have a use for it or not.

Actually I’ve just though of one AI feature that I could use and might be prompted to throw some money at and that’s “people tracking and removal”, now THAT would interest me 🙂 , as they have an annoying habit of trying to get in my shots . Having said that I have software that does that job quite well.

Kind regards

Leigh

“The pub at the end of the pond”

May 10, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Back to my roots, HDR, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Monochrome, Paintography, photography | Leave a comment

Hi,

Carshalton Ponds, Carshalton, UK

Best wishes,

Leigh

As I sit here looking at my modern digital cameras I’m reminded of my first camera and, in particular, the first photograph that I ever took. Nowadays we take cameras and camera technology pretty much for granted but when I was a child I can’t remember many photographs. The only time our camera saw the light of day, and it had to be the light of day, as there wasn’t a flash, was on a few family occasions, the usual thing, school sports days, birthdays, etc.. My interest in photography didn’t start until my grandfather “loaned” me his camera to take with me on a week-long school trip, sleeping under canvas, in Snowdonia, North Wales. It was a somewhat battered old twin-lens reflex camera in which one looked downwards in to the viewfinder when taking a photograph.

I remember being very excited at being entrusted with the family camera, film wasn’t cheap and I had very little to no idea how to use it. The experience must have made some kind of impression on me as, after all these years, I still remember taking my first photograph. The coach stopped en-route at Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill and it became the subject of my first photograph. Although, sadly, like my other photographs from the trip, it has long since disappeared, however, I really don’t need the photograph to remind me as the experience is indelibly etched on my mind. I wonder if this is perhaps where my interest in landscape photography stems from but that’s probably too much of an assumption. As far as I remember I was the only kid on the trip to have a camera, that’s how different things were, nowadays, just about everyone has a camera of some sort built in to their mobile phones. It also taught me to be disciplined to the point of being frugal when taking photographs as the trip was for one week and I only had a 12 exposure black and white film in the camera.

Some years later I really got the photography bug and bought my first camera, an Olympus OM-1 35 mm film camera and I went on to own their OM-2 and OM-4ti cameras and a range of lenses. Film was still pretty expensive considering I earned about £20 a week in my first job so I got in to developing and printing my own black and white and, later, colour films to help keep the costs down and make things more affordable. Not only did this experience teach me an awful lot about image-making start to finish, many of the techniques and skills that I learned in my makeshift darkroom, a small room adorned with genuine World War 2 blackout curtains fitted to keep out the light, another hand-me-down from my grandfather, these skills would re-surface and be invaluable some years later when I started working on processing my digital images.

I put myself through University as a mature student and I badly needed the money so I had to very reluctantly part with all my photographic equipment, but needs must. After I graduated I bought my first digital camera, a small fixed lens Kodak compact camera, reduced in a sale. It had, by today’s standards, a laughably small maximum image resolution of 640×480 pixels or, to put it another way, a stunning 0.4 Megapixels!. For all of this and further equipped with screw on wide angle and telephoto lens attachments, it proved to be a fabulous little camera which I took all over the place with me. Put simply, digital photography was a revelation, to me, no requirement for film, no real running costs and a lot of image capacity on a small memory card which I found absolutely liberating.

A few years before that I had discovered some free graphics editing software on the cover disk of a computer magazine and that started off my real passion for working with graphics and, ultimately, photo processing. So I then had all the tools I required to develop, pun intended and further, my interest in digital photography. Processing is where the magic starts for me, I am totally absorbed in and fascinated by the range of options that digital processing affords me. It encourages me, if, that is, I ever need encouragement, to constantly experiment with new styles, new techniques and is such an important part of my enjoyment and interest in photography.

I went on to own several DSLRs but, as I got older I began to find that they were simply too heavy and bulky. I switched over back in 2013 to Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses. My choice of MFT system was heavily influenced by my experiences with my Olympus film cameras, maybe it was, in truth, part based on nostalgia that I decided on their OM-D system. As a landscape/travel photographer I have to carry my gear around all day and the weight and bulk saving is highly significant. I’ve been very impressed with the image quality of my Micro Four Thirds equipment, it has traveled with me extensively, never let me down and I have never had cause to question my decision to go over to that format.

So my 50-plus year photographic adventure has led me from twin-lens reflex and single-lens reflex film cameras to digital cameras, from stumbling around in a dimly-lit darkroom to working with my images on my computer. I’ve heard it said on occasions, including a comment I read some while back by a very famous photographer, that cameras being so much an every-day item now and available in mobile phones etc. devalues photography. I feel quite the opposite, I firmly believe that it empowers everyone with affordable technology to take photographs and enjoy photography and that, in my opinion, is fantastic. Although I’ve very much enjoyed my personal photographic journey I do confess to feeling a slight tinge of regret that the technology wasn’t available when I started out but one can’t put the clock back and I intend to keep on embracing all these great technological advancements, experimenting and enjoying my work.

Cameras:

Olympus: OM-D E-M5 Mk II (titanium) & HLD-8G grip, OM-D E-M1 Mk I (black) & HDL-7 grip, OM-D EM-5 Mk I (silver) & HDL-6 grip, PEN EPL-5, PEN EP-5 (silver) +VF-4, PEN E-PL8 (Silver) +VF4, Tough TG-5 (red), PEN-F (silver), Canon Powershot G10, Nikon Coolpix A100

Lenses:

Olympus: M.Zuiko: 12 mm f/2, 17 mm f/1.8, 25 mm f/1.8, 45 mm f/1.8, 30 mm f/3.5 macro, 9 mm f/8 body cap fisheye, 15 mm f/8 body cap, 9-18 mm, 12-50 mm, 12-40 mm f/2.8 PRO, 14-150 mm II, 40-150 mm II, 12-45mm f/4 PRO, MCON-P02.

Sigma: ART 60 mm f/2.8.

Samyang: Manual focus 7.5 mm f/3.5 fisheye.

TT Artisan: Manual focus 17mm f/1.4, 23mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4.

Panasonic Lumix: 14 mm f/2.5, 20 mm f/1.7, 12-32 mm x2 (black and silver), 12-60 mm, 14-42 mm II, 35-100 mm, 45-150mm.

PEN E-P5, 9-18mm,12-32mm, 40-150mm II. A lightweight kit with virtually continuous coverage from 18mm wide angle to 300mm telephoto.

OM-D E-M1 I, 14-150mm II, 12-40mm PRO. . Heavier than my other kits but with complete weather-sealing. Coverage from 24mm wide angle to 300mm telephoto with some overlap for backup.

OM-D E-M5 II, 17mm, 35mm, 12-60mm. A balance of two fun manual focus lenses with a weather-sealed body and zoom lens.

PEN E-PL5, 9mm, 15mm, 25mm, 60mm, 12-50mm. Another lightweight fun kit with a zoom option.

TG-5, OM-D E-M5 mk1, 7.5mm, 12mm, 17mm, 45mm, 30mm macro. M-CON.

PEN-F, 14mm, 20mm, 12-32mm, 35-100mm. Probably my favourite lightweight day-to-day kit. Two fast primes and two zoom with almost continuous coverage from 24mm wide angle through to 200mm telephoto.

Software:

Corel: Paintshop Pro Elite 2020 & Video Studio 2019.

Skylum Software: Aurora HDR 2019, Luminar 4, Luminar AI and Luminar Neo.

DXO Labs: PhotoLab 5 Elite, Viewpoint 3, NIK Collection 6, Film Pack 5 and PureRAW.

Anthropics Technologies: Landscape Pro Studio 3 and Portrait Pro.

EyeQ: Perfectly Clear

Topaz Labs: Studio 2, Sharpen AI, A.I Gigapixel, AI Clear, AI Adjust, DeNoise AI and Various legacy plugins.

Adobe: Lightroom.

GreenScreenWizard Studio Pro.

Serif: Affinity Photo

Microsoft: Image Composite Editor (Free).

Darktable (Free).

Olympus: Olympus Capture, Olympus Workspace and Olympus Webcam (Free to Olympus owners).

Sony: Movie Studio Platinum.

Lighting Gear:

Godox TT350o flash, Godox X1T radio flash trigger, Godox Lux Junior flash, LED ring flash, GVM RGB LED light, Olympus MAL-1 Macro Arm Light. Two Godox LED36 lights, Godox Litemons LED6R light. Three Bowen studio flash heads, barndoors, honeycombes, umbrellas and flash meter.