The other day I took a walk around the mean streets of Leicester that I once knew very well. However, in the 40 plus years since our first acquaintance things have changed.
I had to check myself from writing… “I can remember when…“. Trouble is nowadays I can’t always!
I had some time to kill this morning so I made a little drawing….
None of us know what tomorrow will bring so it best to try and carry on your life as best you can. For me that meant trying out my new APS-C lens. It is quite a while since I used my A6000 in anger and I have to say it has been a bit of a reminder that you don’t need the latest gear etc etc to enjoy photography and perhaps along the way capture some interesting images. I am as guilty as the next person of listening to the YouTube talking heads banging on about why the latest gear is a must have and yes I have just shelled out money for a new lens but the body is old and a pain to use but it still has a really great sensor when combined with a good lens makes for a great experience. It was so much fun.
Turn your back for just a minute and the council has come in a chopped down one of your most photographed trees!
This was just two days before. Of course I am sure that this had been planned weeks ago but it came as a bit of a shock. These four, now 3 trees, have been a real fall back for me and now one is no more! I blame Brexit! So here are a selection from as far back as I can bother to look on WordPress!
Nothing says the end of summer like equipment tests but there we are. I spent the last afternoon of summer testing lens and camera bodies whilst at the same time trying to make some interesting images.
The summer ended with the first moon of autumn slowly growing in the sky.
The last day of summer, at least here in Britain, and I thought I would make the passing with a series of images ( I know hardly groundbreaking!) that I captured in the last days of Summer.
I continue my quests to make my iPhone capture better images and I am afraid the jury has returned its verdict and surprise surprise I am now having add two seconds to my capturing experience by opening the phone and using the Adobe Lightroom app. Such a pain!
I then tried this out with my Sony and its much more expensive lenses at Powys (I know it is technically Powis but when in Wales use the Welsh language wherever possible) Castle. It was an interesting experience and has given me much to think about (spoiler alert: The Sony is the better all round but there is a place for the iPhone.)
One final thought…800 px and 72 ppi do not show any of these images at their best .
I have been running a few tests on my iPhone (this is a fancy way of saying I was messing around with iPhone whilst awaiting the coffee to arrive) and have come up to the very unscientific answer to the problem I have with my iPhone camera is that the camera is fine it is the post production software that Apple has developed is a bit, well in my opinion (your opinion may vary and I respect that), shit. There was a time that I enjoyed the wayward results that the iPhone would produce but this latest iteration just doesn’t cut it for me. What the software appears to be doing is using ‘computer learning’ to make the photograph for you and it would appear, to my eyes at least, to be not making a very good job of things – especially around trees on the land/sky horizon.
What I have done is switch back to using Lightroom on the iPhone as the camera app in there gives you significant leeway to make the photo you want rather than what the computer wants to create and then saves the image file as a .DNG. This means that when you post produce in Lightroom on the Mac all the settings can be reversed or enhanced with no loss of technical quality from the image.
The reason why I stopped using this is that I liked using the shortcut button on the lock screen of the iPhone rather than having to unlock the iPhone and then open the Lightroom app. I know it was only a few seconds but that is me. So I guess I’ll just have put up with this pfaff but I find this annoying (this really is a first world of first world problem!)
It wasn’t supposed to have been a walk along the canal but this is Sunday so people decide to walk their dog and I am afraid that some people don’t realise that just because they see cute bundle of energy bounding around others, ie me, see themselves being surrounding by what looks like a pitbull which is not fun. However, the owner of the dog quickly got their dog under control, once I had asked (?) (Not sure whether me sternly asking ‘ do you mind getting your dog under control!‘ counts asking or ordering. Muscle memory I’m afraid. Anyway I realised that there was going to be lots more encounters like this so I decided to walk along the canal.
Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone with me and no matter what I try I just can’t make this bloody camera do what I want it to do. Of course I could take a deep dive and waste more time but I don’t see why I should waste more time. This is the first iPhone camera that I have to say is truly rubbish and by now I have had at least 6 iPhones going all the way back to just after they came out. None have been this bad. The only saving grace is the super wide. Moan over.
It was a lovely walk and not the one I intended but such is life so in its own way that pitbull type dog did me a favour and I suspect he was just being youthful and full of beans but when it is a pitbull type dog how are you supposed to know?
Stranger danger? Not sure but I’ve been making painting. It was fun.
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