“Pictures in the park”

October 22, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Landscape, Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

I visited a local park this morning for a photo-walk and with the express purpose of trying out my new camera rain cover modification. Although the weather forecast mentioned a possibility of rain that wasn’t really what I was interested in so much as the effectiveness of the modification in keeping the cover firmly in situ whilst walking around and taking shots. As things turned out and such is the somewhat unpredictable nature of British weather it was a beautiful sunny Autumnal morning with blue sky and wispy white clouds about which I’m certainly not complaining. 🙂 . I took my EM-5 mk I camera and M.Zuiko 12-50mm lens. Purchased years ago with my original EM-5 I camera this lens has seen relatively little usage over the years. I quickly, possibly too quickly, moved on to other lenses in this zoom range like my faster M.Zuiko 12-40mm and 12-45mm PRO lenses and my trusty workhorse Lumix 12-60mm but it is well suited for occasions like this. It’s lightweight and the construction of the lens is such that it doesn’t change length when zooming unlike the “trombone” type zooms, ergo it doesn’t cause the cover to bunch up and jam when zooming and is thus ideally suited for use with a rain cover.

I think that this lens has attracted some unfair criticism and you can pick them up very cheaply used, It also features a customisable lens function button on the lens like many of their pro-series lenses which I’ve used to quickly switch between normal aperture priority mode and a pre-programmed HDR mode, variable-speed electromagnetic zoom mechanism and manual zoom, a minimum focus distance of 20cm and a useful pseudo-macro capability. I’m not a pixel-peeper, I’ll leave that to others with nothing better to do 🙂 . I’m very happy with the rain cover modification which performed exactly as intended . Although both the camera and lens were sold as weather-sealed I’m more than reluctant to totally trust the seals after so many years but it does potentially offer another layer of protection, below some shots with minimal editing, I set out to try and capture some of the beautiful Autumnal colours in the foliage and anything else that caught my eye. I broke my cardinal rule about always fitting a fresh battery and memory card before shooting in the rain which, as things turned out, didn’t matter. The last thing one needs is having to break off shooting and find a dry sheltered place do so which puts a bit of a dampener on things (pun intended). 🙂

All the best,

Leigh

My camera rain cover D.I.Y modification works brilliantly! :)

October 21, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

As here in the UK we’re in Autumn heading towards Winter my thoughts once again turned to camera rain protection. All the rain covers that I’ve tried seem to suffer from one common problem. In use they all seem to slip down the lens exposing it to the rain or snow and/or bunching up and getting jammed interfering with the zoom mechanism and requiring tedious frequent readjustment. They all seem to be designed for mounting a camera statically on a tripod and not carrying it around. I thought I’d try something different, I asked my wife to sew on four small hooks from a hook and eye set in an approximate north-south-east-west orientation to the end of one of my rain covers. These hook onto the end of the hood and, by also using the inbuilt elasticated draw string cinch cord, the cover stays put much better. Tightening the cinch cord pulls the hooks into the front of the hood making for a secure tight fit that can’t slip back towards the camera body. I’ve tried this with lenses with a square/rectangular lens hood as shown below and also tulip style hoods as fitted to most of my zoom lenses like the one shown here. I’ve yet to try it with circular hoods which I suspect will possibly be less effective as the cover could/would slip around the circumference of the hood?.

They say necessity is the mother of invention 🙂 ,sometimes a simple modification can make life a heck of a lot easier. 🙂 It’d probably look a bit better with black hooks but this was a quick proof of concept try out. Once fitted this baby isn’t going anywhere!. 🙂 It’s very quick to fit and remove, once the cover is fitted place the hooks over the end of the hood, tighten the drawstring and that’s it and vice-versa to remove. I’m going to leave it fitted and take it for a walk in a local park tomorrow where there might be some interesting Autumnal foliage and there’s also a distinct chance of rain to test it out in action. I have added one very low-tech modification a rubber band behind the lens hood just in case the cinch cord should work loose when carrying it around. 🙂

Update

I replaced the lens hood on my M.Zuiko 12-50mm lens with a 52-67mm step up ring and an oversize 67mm tulip-style hood that I had. This hood better shields the front lens element from rain, knocks and flare and makes it virtually impossible for the hooks on the cover to slip round as they fit neatly into the recesses in the hood and it doesn’t vignette. The hood takes a 62mm lens cap.

Kind regards

Leigh

Rediscovered.

October 14, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Landscape, Leigh Kemp, photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

Amongst my many photos that I’ve rediscovered on an old hard disk drive dating back to 2000 like this one of Notre-Dame well before the fire. This was taken in 2003 when I was in Paris for a week long private commission. The subject of the shoot was very sombre, the roundup and transport of Parisian Jews during WW2 but I did have some time to wander around and take some shots for myself like this one when travelling between locations. Taken on a relatively low resolution by todays standards Canon DSLR.

And edited for converging verticals, sharpness and a little colour saturation.

Kind regards

Leigh

Chichester Cathedral 950th anniversary test shots.

October 9, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Yesterday morning I re-visited one of my favourite local locations Chichester Cathedral again to take some test shots in readiness for the 950th anniversary son et lumier light show event later this month for which I have tickets. I wanted to test out my 12mm M.Zuiko f/2 lens, a lens that I don’t use as much as perhaps I should. Below a couple of my shots. In order to adapt it for use with my 58mm filters I fitted a 46-58mm step up ring and a 58mm tulip style lens hood with locking ring to lock the orientation which I had which doesn’t cause any vignetting and provides effective shading for the lens. Especially important as wide angle lenses are more prone to flare and I’ll be shooting in bright multi-directional lighting. It might look a bit odd, not that that bothers me, but it does the job nicely and is more effective than both the dedicated square metal lens hood and a much shallower circular metal wide-angle hood. 🙂 I also fitted one of my black mist filters but I’ll most likely use a lower power diffusion filter or maybe my shimmer diffuser filter for a less pronounced effect.

All the best,

Leigh

More of my Crete shots.

October 7, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Crete, Leigh Kemp, photography, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

I’m gradually working through my shots taken in Crete, here’s a few more.

Kind regards

Leigh

Inside the Restaurant

October 6, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Crete, Leigh Kemp, photography, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Spotted inside a restaurant in Crete

Kind regards

Leigh

Another of my works of Crete

October 5, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Crete, Landscape, Leigh Kemp, photography | 4 Comments

Hi everyone,

Lighthouse, Rethymno, Crete.

Best wishes,

Leigh

JJC Reusable Desiccant Silica Gel Canister, Portable Moisture Absorber Dehumidifier with Type-C Port for Easy Reactivation

October 2, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

These look like a neat idea for one’s camera bag, tech bag, backpack etc.. I always pop some silica gel packets in but these seem good with a USB C socket to dry them out and reactivate them. Obviously they need to be in a confined space to work as intended like a bag or case, box, cabinet etc.. I ordered a couple to try out in my camera bag and tech bag. Sure, small silica gel sachets are smaller and lighter but how to you know when they’re saturated? and they’re not reactivated. The USB C socket fits in well with my 100% USB charging philosophy which always works brilliantly when travelling. The only downside to these that I’m aware of is that they can take 10 hours plugged in to completely reactivate but I suppose that this can be done in more than one session if more convenient. Probably better to do it like this as it keeps the heat to a reasonable level. From a safety point of view I never leave anything plugged in and charging overnight or unattended with no exceptions. Compliments my Nitecore Blowerbaby BB2 air blower. Blow the water off, wipe down the camera and lens thoroughly with an absorbent microfibre cloth and let the dehumidifier inside the camera bag absorb any residual dampness. Thanks to my mate Jimmy Cheng for the heads-up. 🙂 . Looking forward to getting more shots in the rain when the opportunity presents itself. Also enjoying my night time photography, maybe get some nice night time rainy shots sometime.

Kind regards

Leigh

PS. It fits nicely inside my Billingham Hadley Digital camera bag with the addition of a surplus to requirements narrow padded velcro divider from one of my tech cases to hold it in place without totally covering the holes in the case grill. I put the other one in my tech bag which I take with me when travelling.

Crete

September 30, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Crete, HDR, Leigh Kemp, photography | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I’m still alive and clicking 🙂 A few of the many shots I took during my recent visit to Crete. All taken with my Olympus E-M5 II camera and Lumix 12-60mm and 20mm lenses. I actually enjoyed taking some “quirky” street shots in addition to landscapes. Mostly taken in Rethymno, Heraklion, Panormo and Chania. I also relished the opportunity to get some night shots with my Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens and one of my black mist filters. Still took too much to comfortably carry around in temperatures in the mid thirties and the change to 17 degrees C in the mornings in the UK came as a bit of a shock to the system. 🙂 My all-USB charging solution worked like a charm as always.

Hope everyone is keeping well, kind regards

Leigh

For my next trip.

July 15, 2025 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my gear to take on my next overseas trip further refined from what has served me very well in the past and taking into consideration the local climate and my physical limitations.

As I like to travel light, Billingham Hadley Digital camera bag, Olympus PEN-F camera, Lumix 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 and 20mm f/1.7 lenses. 4 filter pouch and 58mm filters, filter wrench, spare camera battery with case and 2 SDHC cards, Holux RCV-3000 GPS data logger with case and 2 SDHC cards, Tile bluetooth tracker and rechargeable bluetooth ear buds. Everything that I need to walk around with. The 20mm is there for low light/night time shots else the 12-60mm is a great all-round lens which I’m more than happy to shoot with all day long. It’s got a very good coverage for my needs and it’s lighter than my other “standard” zoom lens. I’d go as far as to say that it’s most probably one of the best kit lenses ever made.

Billingham AEVA7 addon pouch fitted for additional capacity when travelling with extra camera battery with case and 2 SDHC cards, spare 18650 batteries and case, Nllosa P01 10,000 mAh 3-port USB power bank. JJC USB dual camera battery charger, spare data logger battery and USB cable. This helps to ensure that if heaven-forbid my hold luggage gets lost or delayed in transit then I can at least charge up my phone and camera batteries etc. got to get one’s priorities right!. 🙂 I can always buy clothes and toiletries but finding battery chargers quickly can be somewhat more problematical. When travelling with my wife we pack a few of her clothes in my case and vice versa if one of the cases goes astray then at least you’ve got a clean change of clothes or two to wear.

My usual suitcase hold luggage tech bag assortment of Anker 4-port USB Type A/USB Type C fast charging hub, an additional USB dual camera battery charger, backup USB chargers, cables, UK-EU mains plug adapters (rarely needed as pretty much all my stuff is USB powered), camera and lens cleaning materials, USB rechargeable torch, Tile bluetooth tracker, spare lens caps and a backup Lumix 14-42mm II f/3.5-5.6 lens and step up ring for my filters.

That should cover all the bases 🙂 Kind regards

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.