amipal photography

I fell in love with the Voigtlander f/0.95 17.5mm prime as soon as I mounted it on my GH4 a few years back. It properly sprang to life once I moved over to the Lumix G9 - the higher-resolution viewfinder made it much, much easier to check focus, and I feel that the sensor was able to benefit from the lens more than the GH4's was. Due to coronavirus in the UK, I've left the area where I live on very few occasions. I am lucky in that I have the South Downs to the north, and the English Channel to the south - and both are only a five minute walk away for me. Despite coronavirus, I've ensured that I've kept my Photo 52 challenge up to date. This forces me to get out with my camera so that I at least have one image, no matter how rubbish it is, to show for my week. As the nights have grown longer, the Voigtlander 17.5mm and its 42.5mm brother have both joined me on my evening walks, so I thought I'd show you a few shots I grabbed the other evening whilst traipsing ...

Wow! July 2019? Is that really the last time I updated this blog? I can only apologise to anyone who follows my ramblings. Life, as they say, has a habit of taking over. I've still been getting out with my camera, though mainly to ensure I have shots to submit for camera club competitions, as well as getting my Photo 52 done. ISO200, f/7.1, 1/125 sec, 17.5mm Aside from the usual work commitments, I got back into my old Amiga computers in April of last year, and have been documenting it on my YouTube channel . I never really appreciated quite how long it takes to shoot and edit even the shortest segments... but I can certainly vouch for the video capabilities of the Lumix G9. The camera is extremely capable in that regard. So what is my plan with this blog? Well, I still want to write articles for it as and when I'm inspired to. I haven't lost the passion of photography. If anything, because I so rarely get out to new and exotic locations to shoot, I apprecia...

After I waxed lyrically about it , readers may well have expected a review from me by now of my "recently"-purchased Panasonic Leica f/2.8-4 50-200mm telephoto lens, and I do indeed plan to write one in time. However, I don't seem to be able to find the time to get in front of the keyboard for an extended period. So rather than leave you with nothing, instead I'll provide you with some example shots which I hope provide you with some insight into just how well the lens performs. Some of the images are with the 1.4 teleconverter, which I'll note in the information. I'm heading to Duxford for Flying Legends in a week's time, so will be able to show some images other than nature. Hopefully I'll be able to provide you with a more comprehensive delve into the lens next time I update the site. In the meantime, feast your eyes on these... Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 50-200mm f/2.8-4 ISO200, f/4.5, 1/1600 sec, 200mm ISO200, f/4, 1/250 sec...

Around this time of year, a sometimes get a nice bonus. This typically goes on camera equipment, as I rarely buy anything for myself the rest of the year.  I am fully aware how lucky I am to get this money in the first place. Last year when it hit my account, I rushed myself up to Park Cameras and bought the Lumix G9 . This year wasn't going to be a new body, after all the G9 is still a lot of camera, even after a year since its launch. No, this year was a lens-spend year, and I had many an idea formulate... Number one on my mind was that my Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm no longer provided the image quality that I've come to expect (I blame that with walking around with a clutch of primes these days). It had to go to a better home. But what to replace it with? Well, I had aspirations for the Panasonic Leica f/2.8-4.0 8-18mm ultra-wide zoom. I'd hired the lens when I headed up to Canary Wharf , and I couldn't fault it. Excellent build quality, fast focusing, brilliant ...

In January, I traveled up to London with my erstwhile friend for an evening's shoot around Canary Wharf. I've walked around there a couple of times during the day, and captured a few architectural shots (as well as processing a bunch in a science fiction aesthetic ). The purpose of our visit? The Canary Wharf Winter Lights festival. My friend had previously want to head up for this, but for various reasons it never happened. When he announced that he was booking a day off work and going up regardless, I jumped at the opportunity to join him. I didn't really know what to expect. I'd been told that there would be a variety of art installations which had the creative use of light as their medium. How well would this translate to photography? And what compositions could one shoot without the photo ultimately being a record of the artist's work? The works were colourful and varied. Some featured audio background to them, which lent some of them a very eerie atmosph...

And so 2018 has been and gone, meaning an end to my Photo 52 for the year. When I look back at it in it's entirety, I'm quite proud of the work I've accomplished. Photography isn't my job: it is my hobby, and so it is primarily something which I do in spare time (what little I have). The purpose of the Photo 52 project is to ensure that I pick up my camera at least once a week - a difficulty considering a busy family life. This maintains my ability to tweak-settings, and keep my muscle memory and general composition up to speed. More often than not, a photo for the week occur within the local vicinity. Only six out of the fifty-two weeks feature shots from places outside of the greater Brighton area, mainly trips to London (though also my first airshow in years). I really value and appreciate the opportunities to travel for photography, not least because it gives me some fresh subjects to shoot but also because I more-often-than-not do so with a friend of mine wh...

I had the luck of getting a ticket to the uk.shooters Halloween Meet in London on 20th October this year. Me and one hundred and ninety nine other photographers (I'm assuming they all attended) descended on London's Leake Street tunnel to shoot a plethora of models who had all been made up by professional make-up artists. Now, previously when I've shot portraits, I've relied on the G9's face-detect auto-focus to acquire perfect focus on the eyes. This has worked very well in the past, and I've had little reason to doubt the capability of the body as a result. But this shoot was different. Not only was the available light low (and I mean really low), but many of the models had make-up the skewed the human face. Or hair that covered large chunks of the face. Ordinarily, if I notice something going wrong, then I'll try to work out what is going wrong, and above all, why it is going wrong. In this case, the camera was struggling to find a face in the co...

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...

Last weekend I got up stupidly early to travel half way across the country to attend an airshow. But what an airshow! The Royal International Air Tattoo 2018! A word of warning - this is going to be a looooong post. Grab yourself a cup of tea and settle down... I haven't been to an airshow, or at least shot aircraft flying since the Goodwood Revival in 2015, where they had a number of warbirds from the Second World War flying. My equipment back then was my trusty GH3 with the first-generation Lumix 100-300mm lens, and my GM5 with Lumix 14-140mm as backup. These performed well as a pair, allowing me to grab take off, landing, and formation shots with the surprisingly-capable GM5, and the longer, single aircraft detail shots with the GH3. At the time, AF-S was used on both cameras, as I didn't trust the reliability of the continuous auto-focus offered by either - bare in mind that at this point, Panasonic had yet to introduce their Depth from Defocus technology to assist wit...

This post is a bit preemptive. I've only owned the Lumix G9 for three months (as of June 2018), and most of my other cameras served me well for around two years. So I feel the G9 has a bit more time ahead of it before I reach the true potential offered by it. Panasonic Lumix G9 March 2018 to Now ~2500 shots I'm rather impressed with the G9, as I detailed in my review earlier in the year. It handles my favourite lens, the fully-manual Voigtlander f/0.95 17.5mm, very well indeed - the new sensor brings out some stunning clarity from it, the IBIS makes those low-light shots pin-sharp, and the amazing EVF (has to be seen to be believed) makes focussing a breeze. But it is the continuous auto-focus tracking which is really surprised me. Panasonic have produces a camera which can truly keep a running toddler in-focus, despite not having any phase-detect on-sensor. It rarely misses target, though I will test it properly at RIAT this year - fast-moving jets should prove a nice cha...