I Think I’ve Said It Before

I love Tamron. Well, for zooms at least. 

I really tried to NOT buy a 70-200mm F2.8 zoom, but I kept reading how versatile they are, and how brilliant the IQ from current models is.

I haven’t been happy with my tele prime. The IQ is stunning, but it lacks VR, which basically means that given the FL, indoors it needs quite fast shutter speeds (easily more than 1/FL for me personally)  and high ISO, which degrades said image quality. 

So I jumped in (of course I did) and I’m disappointingly impressed. 

 I kinda wanted the lenses I own to be as good, or better? But they pale in comparison. So, off to The Bay they go, whilst the the Tamron will stay alongside it’s sibling, the 24-70mm F2.8. Also annoyingly brilliant.

Maybe next the Tammy 90mm Macro….Or the Nikon 85mm F1.8G, or maybe even the Sigma 50mm ART! Choices, choices Lol. 

🙂

Simply Does It

Lately, considering a small MILC body for personal use I’ve been drawn back toward Fuji. Well, it was only ever between Fuji & Sony really. One of the things that Fuji does/did really well is monochrome.

Its a hard to emulate in post what I see Fuji do in camera with jpeg rendering. That old film thing that makes images appealing in a wistful, lonely kinda way.

I often thing a bad image can be made half decent with processing, in colour. But black and white will show you up. It either works or it doesn’t.

Yet, those new to photography quite often favour monochrome. Not because they are brilliant, but because they are initially more powerful.

Over time that changes. I process in black and white much less often than I used to, but looking back at old Fuji files made me hanker for that simplicity.

When I find it I’ll let you know 😉 

Keeping An Eye On The Needle

Having jumped from Sony Alpha to Nikon in the last few months has seen a bit of a learning curve. Probably one I would’ve been better off making earlier.

Sony offer a fantastic set of features on the A99 that I owned, one of them being the EVF. Most all MILC options sport this, and if its where you start it can lead to good images, but with basic ignorance regarding the exposure triangle.

See, every change you make shown in the EVF or on the LCD BEFORE you take the shot. So you can twiddle a knob here, press a button there and when you like what you see, press the button. Job done.

Until you switch.

In honesty, i have a pretty good grasp of what I’m doing, but i’ve been reading a lot about exposure compensation recently, and having always been a manual shooter I thought it was time to have a go.

Er….maybe I should try again ( and read a bit more) as I made a pretty stupid mistake today when at the seaside. I had the camera in manual mode, ISO auto, forgetting that exp comp would change the ISO and not the shutter speed, which I had left at 1/2000.

Oops.

I know I need a high shutter speed to freeze action, but 1/2000 is probably overkill for anything less than a full on sporting match. (Ruggers next week).

So, the outcome. A few nice shots. Lots of noisy shots. Bummer.

🙂

Blind Romance

We were guests at the wedding of Stephanie & Neal yesterday, back in The ‘Wood. It was a gorgeous morning, whose weather turned down a little as the afternoon approached, but this really didn’t impact the beauty of the day.

I say ‘blind romance’ as I wasn’t able to photograph much of it, and truthfully took maybe 20 pix in all.

Brentwood Cathedral ask that cameras and all other gizmo’s be switched off, inclusive of the processional and recessional, so nothing doing there.

It’s a beautiful (vast) building, yet was an intimate and moving ceremony. I really enjoyed attending a catholic service for the first time in a few years.

The reception was held separately, so whilst the photographer was organising the portrait session we all swanned off to buy a round, and anticipate the arrival of the bride and groom.

During the wedding breakfast it was again difficult to take pictures really; being a guest you can’t really hop about the venue snapping away in peoples faces…

………especially when there is paid Pro covering the event

I was seated in a direct line from the bride and groom, but alas the lovely table arrangements rose above the table and obscured my vision.

The company was fantastic, the food was lovely and the drink flowed aplenty (mostly in Chris’s direction)

The evening ‘do’ was great fun, entertainment provided by a live singer who was absolutely brilliant, and everyone enjoyed.The lads are always good for a laugh, and http://www.taxi-booth.co.uk  provided loads of laugh with their London Taxi photo booth and props!

Regardless of not being able to thoroughly test my new lenses we had a fantastic time, and the party went on into the early hours of the morning. Luckily we had a room booked at the venue so didn’t have to stagger far.

Congratulations to Stephanie & Neal

4th October 2014 

❤