amipal photography

Hello all! Despite the long period of inactivity, this blog is still active. I've just been a bit busy. But back to this post. Today I'll be talking about a trip I made up to London for an evening shoot at St. Paul's cathedral. I knew before traveling that I'd need an ultra wide angle lens to do the architecture any sort of justice. I've owned the Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm lens for many years (checks LR metadata - April 2012!), and it is a compact and light UWA whose performance isn't too shabby. Saying that, I've definitely noticed a diminishing in its capabilities over the years - whether this is down to use or something else, I cannot say. I'm simply not happy with the sharpness of the corners from it anymore. I've looked into replacing the M.Zuiko previously. I can't really justify the ~£1000 GBP price-tag of the Olympus f/2.8 7-14mm, nor the similar price for the Panasonic Leica 8-18mm, as I rarely shoot UWA these days. I shoot manual l

Due to some recent building work, I'm been stuck working from home for the last four weeks. Which is both a blessing and a curse - being stuck in the same room for days at a time with little human contact makes one a little stir crazy. Cabin fever is real, people. Anyway, this has led me to heading out for a walk after dinner of an evening; for exercise, for fresh air, for something other than the constant four walls. I have the benefit of both the South Downs and English Channel being a five minute walk from my house, depending on the direction I walk in, both of which are an ideal prescription for being stuck indoors for days on end. On a recent walk along the clifftop to Rottingdean, the sun was getting low and heading towards setting. Currently, there's a lot of long dry grass up there, and this created a wonderful contrast where tall bright stalks rose up above the heavily shaded undergrowth. I'd actually gone along there with my camera and a superzoom lens expecting