Once in a while one hits a rich stream in one’s work. I don’t mind admitting that there is sometimes a bit of a temptation to stick to one subject and/or style but it’s something that I know that I simply cannot do, apart from anything else it’d bore me to tears. I guess there is some merit in getting known as “the guy that does this or that kind of work” and it’s probably the best way to get exposure for one’s work and, as such, potentially commercially a lot more viable. I read somewhere that you should always only post your best work, how does one know what’s one’s best work or not?.
I’ve never had a formula, I don’t want my work to always look the same over and again. I’m always experimenting and taking a chance on something that I don’t think will be very popular and I’m proven right as often as I’m proven wrong. It’s not for me to judge what’s better or not, it’s down to the viewer. I’d really like to think that those who follow my work on my blog and other sites do so because it catches the eye and they follow my work not because they know exactly what they’ll get but because they don’t!.
As per the title of the post “Pigeon holes are for pigeons” 🙂
I think that maybe, it’s my strongest collection to date.
Kind regards,
Leigh
Gallery description:
It’s been a crazy year fraught with family worries, with COVID-19 and the lockdown etc. and it’s been very difficult to get out and indulge my passion for landscape photography but I’ve managed some new works despite the frustration of being confined to home for nearly four months.
The gallery includes pre and post-lockdown works from my 2020 visits to the coastal towns of Bognor Regis and Worthing (W.Sussex), Lewes (E.Sussex), the River Thames at Kingston Upon Thames, Richmond Upon Thames, Sunbury on Thames and East Molesey, as well as Bushy Park, Carshalton Ponds and the River Dee at Llangollen.
I have a deep-seated love of rivers, the seaside and countryside which I try my best to capture in my work. I hope very much that you enjoy viewing the gallery. Please contact me if you are interested in my work.
For many years now I’ve been very reluctant to go out without a telephoto lens of some sort in my bag, just in case, but I’ve finally decided not to carry one about as, for my interests, I just don’t use them or, if I do, then the number of shots I take with them is absolutely tiny compared to other focal lengths, it’s not that they’re not good lenses it’s just that I don’t end up using them. It’s the norm for me to get back and find that I haven’t used such a lens again all day. I think that it has a lot to do with the way that I compose my shots, the framing and perspective that works best for me or maybe the way that I “see” things.
By far the vast majority of my shots are taken in the moderate wide angle to standard focal length range. I prefer to have an ultra-wide option like my 9-18mm (18-36mm) zoom with me which is very useful, apart from anything else, for multi-frame panorama composites but 12mm (24mm) is as far as I usually require and that’s quite often a bit too wide and this is why I don’t usually pack my M.Zuiko 12mm f/1.8 lens as it is too specialised and would get used just about as much as a telephoto would, possibly even less. I know it sounds bizarre, a landscape photographer that doesn’t want to pack a fast wide angle prime lens in the bag. 🙂 . As a general rule I prefer a somewhat tighter framing as the details in very wide landscape shots are pretty small. I like to compose and frame there and then and I very rarely crop in post.
I’ve been raving a lot recently about my tiny Lumix 12-32mm (24-64mm) lens which I’ve got to know very well and it’s so small and light in terms of sharpness, focal length coverage and weight it’s a lens that I can leave fitted nearly all the time without having the requirement to change lenses unless I want to switch to a small faster prime lens like my Olympus 17mm (34mm) f/1.8 or Lumix 14mm (28mm) f/2.5 when the light is very low or my 9-18mm if I need need to go wider or my back’s up against the wall so as to speak, 🙂 as it was ,quite literally, when I was taking these shots taken with my 9-18mm.
I guess that once in a while I might have cause to wish that I had a longer lens with me but I can live with those very rare eventualities as, after all this time having taken thousands of images, I can speak very much from personal experience, it’s just not worth the extra weight and space in my bag .
I’ve been putting together a new online virtual gallery at VirtualGallery.com with 24 of my most recent works. I’m waiting for the curators to authorise the works and I’ll post a link here.
