Leica MK2 1935 vs IPhone 5 2013

A friend lent me his fathers 1935 Leica mk2, this piece of history had formally been owned by a reporter for the Daily Express so had done the rounds.

You forget just how much is done for you "in camera" so with each shot it's, set the asa (once), pull out the lens, use a light meter, estimate the distance, set the shutter speed, set the aperture, wind on the film,​ and shoot.

Anyway I decided to run a little test to see just what was achievable and unachievable with two cameras  ​78 years apart.

​For the Leica  I used Ilford FP4 125iso b&w film, and for the post process on both it was Lightroom 3.

After b&w conversion in LR3, I gave the leica images a little noise filtration and cropped the IPhone images to roughly the same, then some minor vignette, contrast and levels on both.​

Although by no means a scientific experiment the results were quite interesting and the smoother less detailed shots from the Leica I preferred. ​

Has photography really advanced that much, we still the same light source, that big bright one in the sky and although gear is far better technically , is that always so important?

Leica

IPhone

Leica

IPhone

Leica

IPhone

Leica

IPhone

Leica

Iphone

West Pier

Taken the other day during a shoot in Brighton on the UK's south coast, the remains of the old pier lends itself so well to long exposure's...... Well it would be rude not to photograph her.

Band shoot with indie/rock band "Igloo"

So I spent last Saturday with a new indie/rock band from Brighton, Igloo, to shoot some promo shots for their website, flyers, demo's etc.

The ideas for the shots were left open, they wanted to include some long exposure work, so that was fun, and Brighton is such a great location for just walking and shooting, they're a nice bunch of guys and I wish them good luck in the future.

Here's a gallery of what we made, if you want to find out more about Igloo you can link them at the bottom of this page.

The new FUGIFILM X100S →

Well I’ve been promising myself the X100 as my “take anywhere camera" for some time, so you can imagine my delight that dear old Fugi have decided to bring out the X100S.

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Not only is it the coolest looking retro point & shoot I’ve seen in a long time, it is also a serious bit of kit.

Twice the shooting speed 10fps as opposed to 5fps, and shutter lag down to 0.01secs.

Higher resolution 16MP instead of 11MP.

ISO upt to 25,600 from 12,800.

Longer battery life.

Video quality 1080 (60fps) against 720p (24fps).

The X100S has the CMOS11 sensor, the same as in the XPRO1 and improved auto focus (that was always a contentious point), making it the “worlds fastest” at 0.08secs!

With 70 improvements over the X100 I’m not going to list them all, I’ll just leave you the link here: FUGI X100S

It looks like the X100S is going to be available in the UK in March,  so I’m going to have to wait until then, lets hope it delivers what it promises when some of us get our paws on one.

18000+ Tides & Still Standing

Not a lot to shoot down on the coast yesterday, the sky's were cool but I couldn't find a lot of subject matter, however these old groynes caught my eye.18000+ tides and still standing, they change them every 25 years, these are well overdue!

Website Re-Vamped →

Over the last few weeks I’ve completely revamped my website, apologies for the selfy on the “about me page”, it should now work on all platforms, pc, mac, ipad etc. I would be delighted if you could spare a moment to take a look at my efforts and let me know any glaring errors you find.
Any suggestions or constructive criticism would be most welcome.

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International Photography Awards

I've just received an email from the IPA that the two images I submited, "Outcrop" & "Heart" shown below,  have both received an honorable mention - nearly 18,000 entries & 104 countries - chuffed!

"Outcrop"

"Heart"

Asteraceae

The great British weather appears to have reverted to what us limey’s have become accustom to as our summer.

So rather than jumping in the car and driving miles in the hope of capturing something fulfilling with the camera I decided to venture into the garden, grab a handful of flowers (which according to Google are Asteraceae), set up a single strobe and a dark backdrop, and shoot some still life.

I must say I’m pleased with what I got and can see this becoming the start of a series of flower studies, (too girlie?)

Balcombe Viaduct

 

I've been meaning to scout out this location for a while, so this afternoon I took a trip to Balcombe Viaduct.

This is by no means this end product, summer and featureless sky’s rarely make for an interesting LE shot, but I do believe this place has potential and shall be re-visiting when light and sky give me something a little more dynamic.

If you want to know more about this place here's the link for Balcombe Viaduct and to get there heres the Map Location.

 

Glyndebourne Windfarm

Another shot, different angle on the wind turbine up at Glynde in Sussex, UK.
No frills just a pleasant little mono photo, it's nice to find a turbine that has such easy access, most of them being fenced off , it's not like your going to chopped up by the blades in an Indiana Jones styli is it!
I did get some nice le shots with great cloud movrment, but a 2 minute exposure and the turbine fully working just looks like a stick in field, I'll be back when it's stationary.
(For an idea of scale there's two little people standing at the base if look carefully).

Two Mills Together But Separated By Over 270 Years

I took a trip out to Glynde in Sussex, UK this weekend to shoot Glyndebourne Opera’s Enercon wind turbine.

Commissioned on 3rd December 2011 and officially opened by no less than sir David Attenborough on January 20th 2012, at a height of 70M overall with a rotor diameter of 52M and tower some 44M high, it dwarfs the old mill remains in the same field.

Glyndebourne hopes this will deliver up to 90% of their annual electricity requirements thus reducing their carbon footprint, I just think it makes a good photo.

The structure in the foreground is the centre post of the old Ringmer windmill that stood here in Mill Plain from 1740, it remained in working use until 1921. Four years later it collapsed with only the trestle timbers still standing until in 1964 when they to where blown down by a storm. In 1968 the centre post was re-erected.

For more info here’s a link:http://glyndebourne.com/our-wind-turbine-0

Outcrop

The second shot from my little trip to Bexhill on the weekend.

 

If you want to view the full size image it's posted in the "Water" gallery on the Portfolio page, here on the website.