Early Days

April 22, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Paintography, Photography | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Still very early days but my experiences with just taking my E-M1 MFT camera and Lumix 20mm lens. Firstly of course it’s lightweight and it doesn’t cause anywhere near the fatigue to my neck and shoulders as a heavier lens like my 12-40mm PRO zoom for example. Then as I’m not carrying any other lenses, when the camera’s hanging from my neck my camera bag/pouch is as light as air on my shoulder as it only contains a filter, spare camera battery, spare SD card, bag rain cover and one of those small puffer brushes, minimalist in the extreme huh?!. I’m not on any sort of crusade here but these are merely my observations to date.

The most interesting thing is that I’ve found that with this focal length is kind of hard to explain as it’s non-technical, non scientific, it’s really just a feeling but I’ll try. I feel more involved, more a part of my surroundings, closer in a connected sense to what I’m photographing. Less detached than shooting a landscape with a wider focal length for example and even more so with regards to a telephoto lens, it just feel very natural to me. I’m happy to say that It’s rekindled a feel good factor about taking photographs which I think that, at least in part, I lost somewhere down the line.

A common comment regarding this lens is it’s relatively slow auto focusing speed as I think that it moves all of its lens elements as one. Yes it is slower than many of my other lenses but not distressingly so and yes it can sometimes hunt in poor light but of course one can manually focus it. These don’t bother me as the majority of my shots are taken in reasonably good light with the lens focused to infinity or near infinity. The camera has a function which is on by default to park the lens at infinity every time one switches it off so, until one focuses on a closer object, it will need to do very little if any refocussing and then of course the autofocus is pretty darned instantaneous. When I first fitted it to the camera and switched it on I wondered why it seemed even slower to focus and soon realised that I’d last used the camera at a fixed distance to the subject with a macro lens and I had turned this feature off so that I could leave the camera on a tripod above the subject and it’d be focussed at the same set distance every time I turned it on and off 🙂 .The lens is very small and light being a pancake design and also very fast and sharp so it ticks all of these boxes for me. In my opinion it thoroughly deserves it’s reputation as one of the all time must have lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system, it’s a joy to use.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, early days but so far so good. 🙂

Kind regards

Leigh

Silicone lens cap try out.

April 21, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I thought I’d invest in one of those silicone lens caps for my Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens, lens hood and XUME lens adapter combo. I carefully measured the outside diameter as a maximum of 62mm and found one going for a temptingly cheap price. I noticed that one can pay significantly more for brand names so I thought I’d dip my toe in the water and get a cheap one to try out and see how it lasts. I’m not so interested in the claimed waterproof properties as the lens isn’t weather sealed and doesn’t have a rubber sealing ring on the lens mount but it might help with some added protection when the camera and lens is in the bag or maybe to slip on quickly if caught out in light rain, better that than nothing. They say it fits from 60mm to 110mm but I think that it’ll probably split if stretched too far and too often, this size is perfect for my requirements and easy to get on and off without much stretching but tight enough to stay on, tighter than a traditional lens cap for sure and it won’t fall off. I’m not bothered about it offering any additional protection from knocks as, with the hood fitted, the front lens element is well and truly recessed but I suppose it would offer a small degree of cushioning. If two solid objects collide I can’t see it as being a bad idea to have something made from rubber between them.

Best wishes,

Leigh

“All things being equal”

April 18, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in HDR, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Monochrome, Photography | 2 Comments

Hi,

Seascape, East Wittering.

Kind regards

Leigh

“Looking in – Looking Out”

April 18, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in HDR, Leigh Kemp, Photography | Leave a comment

Hi,

Seen in a window on my travels.

All the best,

Leigh

“Fresh”

April 18, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in HDR, Leigh Kemp, Photography | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Fish seller, East Wittering. Continuing my one camera-one lens experiment, Olympus E-M1 Mk 1 and Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens.

Best wsihes,

Leigh

Wandrd tech pouch re-visited.

April 16, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I know that I’ve posted about this great little lightweight pouch/bag before but, now that I’m just taking one small camera and lens out it’s really come into it’s own. I have the larger size, the fabric is very water-resistant, I know, I speak from experience as it got thoroughly drenched on one occasion when I was out in heavy rain. Unlike myself, the gear inside thankfully stayed dry but, as I’m more than a bit paranoid about such things, I found a rain cover from one of my small Manfrotto bags which fits it perfectly and is there if I need it in the event of a really heavy downpour. In order for it to be fitted I added lockable metal D-Rings to the pouch and used one of my clip on bag straps. Although I wasn’t ever a Boy Scout I think that their “be prepared” moto isn’t a bad one. 🙂

It’s nice because it’s well made, small, light and inconspicuous and doesn’t draw as much unwanted attention as a dedicated camera bag as I suppose that it probably looks like a small “man bag”. Not that I’ve ever had a man bag, no macho rambo esque rubbish here it’s just that I like pockets, a concept, like the offside rule in football, that my loving wife has never fully understood, one of her favourite sayings being whenever I try and explain such things, “I have a feeling that I should be more interested in that” 🙂 . She’s got her handbag which we laughingly joke about equating to Dr Who’s TARDIS in terms of the amount of things in it compared to it’s apparent size. Men (like me) like pockets, lots of pockets, preferably zip up pockets are good 🙂 . It’s the same as clothes, men keep clothes, it’s why when one goes into a charity shop there’s rails and rails of women’s clothing and maybe a small rail with men’s, “If you don’t throw that out I’m leaving you!” clothing on it. 🙂

Anyway, I digress, back to the tech pouch, I think that it’s an ideal way of carrying a small Micro Four Thirds or similar sized camera and lens with a few small accessories as it has two zip up compartments, the main one with a few additional elasticated mesh pockets which I’m using for a spare battery, some lens wipes and a filter and a well thought out soft-lined front compartment, lined so that it doesn’t scratch a mobile phone’s LCD screen, glasses, sunglasses etc.. All-in-all I think that it’s a great little bag, intended for those that have a need to carry their tech gear around but equally well suited for my purpose. The picture below shows the pouch with my Olympus E-M1 Mk 1 camera with strap and Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens plus after market lens hood fitted which fits comfortably in it as would any of my small prime lenses such as my Olympus M.Zuiko 12mm f/1.8, 17mm f/1.8, 25mm f/1.8 or 45 mm f/1.8 or maybe my tiny Lumix 14 mm f/2.5 or 12-32mm lenses.

Best wishes,

Leigh

“Closing in from the South”

April 15, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in HDR, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Photography | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Another new work.

Best wishes,

Leigh

Why do I shoot HDR?

April 15, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in HDR, Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

One of the first things that I ever read about HDR was, “you can’t shoot HDR handheld, you have to have a tripod”. Well, when I read the words you can’t do something it immediately triggers the rebel without a cause “why the heck can’t you?” reflex in me. 🙂 So, given that I have a real dislike of tripods, I though, let’s go out and try and since then it’s become pretty much a way of life. It took me a while to hone my technique and work out what works best but it can certainly be done.

First of all it’s not suited to fast moving objects so I wouldn’t try and photograph a high speed train or suchlike using HDR but otherwise it’s fine. What works for me is the following when shooting 5-frame HDRs at +/- 2EV with one +/- 1 EV brackets.

To avoid camera shake which, as you know, is going to ruin any shot HDR or otherwise, keep in mind what the slowest shutter speed is going to be when stopping down 2 stops. If absolutely necessary raise the ISO a bit. The opposite can rarely happen on a VERY bright day with the faster shutter speed exceeding the limits and an ND filter will fix it but it’s got to be more that 1/8000 or 1/16000 of a second depending on my camera choice for this to be a factor for me, maybe in the Sahara Desert but not very often in Northern Europe! 🙂 . Keep as steady as possible between shots to facilitate good alignment of the images, if you can brace yourself do so. If you have a camera with REC view turn it off as it’s really disconcerting seeing the shots as they’re taken and completely mucks things up. I don’t photograph in artificial light and/or fast moving objects so I use the camera’s electronic shutter feature which is fine and it eliminates mechanical shutter wear especially as I shoot a lot of images. Set the camera’s bracketing mode to the desire number of brackets and the bracketing step and also turn on high-speed drive mode, silent shutter if possible. ,Lastly I use Skylum Software’s “Aurora 2019” the best HDR software that I’ve ever used and it does an absolutely fantastic job of assembling the frames, image alignment and anti-ghosting.

Here’s a scene I recently photographed, firstly the five frames taken and +/- 2 EV in 1 EV steps.

Here’s the first of these frames taken with no exposure compensation, straight out of camera with no processing.

Now an HDR of the 5 frames assembled in Aurora, again with no additional processing. This is much closer to what my eyes saw when taking the shot.

This is a starting point for me to process as the mood takes me. 🙂 . So, if you haven’t already, go out and try it, you might be pleasantly surprised!.

Kind regards

Leigh

PS. If you have a look at my recent post “Bright and Cold”, the cars and the people walking down the road were all moving as were all the leaves on the trees in this one!.

“To infinity and beyond!”

April 14, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in HDR, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Photography | Leave a comment

Hi,

Another new work.

All the best,

Leigh

“Fenced off”

April 14, 2023 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in HDR, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, Photography | Leave a comment

Hi everyone, another shot from yesterday.

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.