My entry in the “Travel” contest

December 20, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, Leigh Kemp, Paintography, photography, Prague, Praha, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

I entered one of my travel works in this competition.

https://www.photocrowd.com/photo-competitions/travel-2-travel-photo-contest-4049/entries/prague-little-town-street-scene-2451128.145547487/

I have my own philosophy on entering competitions as I never win so much as 50p on a scratch card and that’s enter and forget it. 🙂

Best wishes,

leigh sig 2

Let’s get things perfectly straight (converging verticals)

December 14, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Brussels, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, Greece, Leigh Kemp, Liverpool, Paintography, photography, Prague, Praha | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

I’m not a big fan of converging verticals. One of the first things that I habitually do with my architectural works is correct for these, my favourite tool of choice being DXO Viewpoint. In my opinion, this program is pretty much a must-have for anyone interested in photographing architectural views. I also use their PhotoLab and previously Optics Pro software for some basic corrections but Viewpoint is a great product for more advanced correction and integrates with both Optics Pro and PhotoLab.

A small tip, when framing the scene do not frame the subject too tightly, leave a fair amount of “wiggle” room around edges 🙂 as it’ll be needed when applying correction. Else you will end up with parts of the building cut off. This is the exception to my general habit of composing a scene 100% in the viewfinder and not cropping during processing. As an exception to the above I’ll not be using this process if I ever get to photograph the leaning tower of Pizza. 🙂

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Best wishes,

Photobooks Christmas delivery deadlines.

December 14, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Book, Corfu, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, Greece, Leigh Kemp, Paintography, Paxos, photography, Prague, Praha, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Here’s a link to information on the Christmas delivery deadlines – http://www.blurb.co.uk/gifts

They ship to over 70 countries and territories.

Best wishes,

Another year of trying.

December 13, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Corfu, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, Greece, Paintography, Paxos, photography, Prague, Praha, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

As you will have noticed 🙂 I’ve been trying very hard to publicise my artwork this year with my usual lack of much success 🙂

I did two new virtual galleries –

‘Praha – Prague’ – Paintography

https://www.virtualgallery.com/galleries/leigh_kemp_a14490717/praha___prague___paintography_s12302

and

‘Paintography’ Impressions 2018

https://www.virtualgallery.com/galleries/leigh_kemp_a14490717/paintography_impressions_2018_s13338

a new book (my third) entitled “2018 Collection” featuring works from my travels –

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/9139523-a-collection-of-my-2018-works-including-works-from

and I’ve worked hard on my websites and social media pages –

https://leigh-kemp.pixels.com/

https://readymag.com/LeighKempArt/LeighKempArt/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/leighkemp/

I’ve had my best year on Fickr to date with nine of my works making it into Flickr Explore, see my Flickr Explored Page for these and my previously explored works. My total photo views are approaching two million views since I started the page five years ago.

Some new YouTube videos –

https://youtu.be/EkyYktLFt8c

Various postings on my Twitter page – https://twitter.com/leighkemp123 and Fine Art America/Pixels account – https://pixels.com/profiles/leigh-kemp/shop

The highlights of my year being my visits to Prague, such a beautiful, fascinating city and the lovely picturesque island of Corfu. The low point being wasting my money joining and then subsequently cancelling my membership of the Royal Photographic Society as my style of work doesn’t fit in there and their attitudes are set in the photographic stone-age. I don’t know what to try in the coming year but you’ll be the first to know. 🙂 .Thanks to everyone that has encouraged and supported my work throughout another year.

thats_all_folk

Best wishes,

Seen it, done it, got the T-shirt :)

December 8, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Brussels, Corfu, Czech Republic, digital art, fashion, Fine Art, Leigh Kemp, Malta, Paintography, photography, Prague, Praha, Rome, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

A selection of T.shirts from my travels :

“The tree in the courtyard” – Malta

“Side Street” – Rome

“Market in the rain” – Prague

“In-spired” – Street Scene, Brussels

“Mirage” – Corfu

and one from my travels in the the U.K

“Halfway down the hill”

Kind regards,

FLASH SALE – 30% off my photo books today

December 4, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Book, Brussels, Corfu, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, Leigh Kemp, Malta, Paintography, photography, Prague, Praha, Rome, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone, 30% discount on my Photo Books today. Offer valid through December 4th, 2018 (11:59 p.m local time)

My bookstore profile page : http://www.blurb.co.uk/user/LeighKemp?profile_preview=true

Category Arts & Photography Books
Size Standard Landscape, 10×8 in, 25×20 cm
22 Pages
ISB Hardcover, Dust Jacket: 9781389673771

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/8136482-photo-art-by-leigh-kemp

Category Arts & Photography Books
Size Standard Landscape, 10×8 in, 25×20 cm
32 Pages
ISBN Hardcover, ImageWrap: 9781389614729

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/8173860-i-can-t-paint

Category Fine Art Photography
Size Standard Landscape, 10×8 in, 25×20 cm
28 Pages
ISBN
- Softcover: 9781388085643

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/9139523-a-collection-of-my-2018-works-including-works-from

Kind regards

New book : “2018 Collection”

December 2, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Book, Corfu, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, photography, Prague, Praha, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I have a new book out, coincidentally just in time for Christmas

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/9139523-a-collection-of-my-2018-works-including-works-from

Size Standard Landscape, 10×8 in, 25×20 cm
28 Pages
ISBN
- Softcover: 9781388085643

collection 1

collection preface collection 2 collection 3 collection 4 collection extra collection newpage collection 6 collection 7 collection 8 collection 9 collection 10 collection 11 collection 12 collection 13 collection page list collection 14

Kind regards

“Little Town”, Prague

November 22, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, photography, Prague, Praha | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Another painterly work from my visit earlier in the year to the very beautiful city of Prague.

Kind regards to all,

Flickr Explored Works

July 21, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, Flickr, photography, Prague, Praha, Rome, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

To celebrate having my latest Flickr Explore I thought I’d post all my Explored on Flickr works in chronological order. I think that it’s a pretty accurate cross-section of my work and representative of my work as a whole. Explore really does promote one’s work to a huge potential audience. I’ve linked the works to them on Flickr and I have an album of these works on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/leighkemp/albums/72157657757247056

Last of the Summer Wine

Between the ponds

The Colours of Spring

Two from Poole, Dorset

Under Pressure!

“Good Light”

Come all ye faithful

Dreamscape

Two from Rome:

When in Rome #3 “Piazza di Spagna”

When in Rome #27 “Piazza del Popolo”

Beyond the trees

Two of my “tree” works:

Don’t fence me in!

“Just about holding on”

Two from Prague:

Going downhill and round the bend!

The No. 13 to Černokostelecká

Three from Corfu:

Corfu 3 – “Surreal Rocks!”

Corfu 29 “If it lights your candle”

Corfu 39 – “Boats” Paxos

Best wishes

leigh sig 2

Looking back on my travels

July 15, 2018 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in art, Brussels, Corfu, Czech Republic, digital art, Fine Art, Malta, photography, Prague, Praha, Rome, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

A few of my personal favourites from my recent travels, all very different locations. I’ve linked them to their Flickr albums.

Pontikonisi, Corfu

Little Town, Prague

Piazza del Popolo, Rome

Grande Place, Brussels.

Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta.

Best wishes

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.