The compact chronicles #1

As boxing day comes to a close, we enter that weird twilight zone between Christmas and new year where we all lose track of what day it is, so on this particular boxing day (Tuesday?) that I take advantage of the first day of dry weather in a few days, very keen to commence the first of my ‘compact chronicle’ outings.

Armed with the Lumix LX7, a wander on a local shingle beach at low tide seems the ideal way to begin my latest photographic escapade.

After all the hype of the festive build up, this boxing day exudes a quiet lull after the storm feeling, the only sound, the crunch of shingle from my sturdy walking boots and the odd squawk of an attention seeking gull.

Normally I would pay attention to low shots of the boats stranded on the grey low tide sludge,instead I look to the smaller details of the shoreline, the macro mode of this little camera is just the tool for these compositions.

With the first of my chronicles under my belt, I am looking forward to the twists and turns that 2024 will bring.

Operation ‘avoid the crowds’

With just a week or so to go before Christmas, even this curmudgeon is beginning to look forward to the ‘big day’, as it will mean spending time with family and a well earned few days off.

With this Saturday being the penultimate weekend, the shopping centres will be heaving, not my idea of a fun time but I have slowly but surely amassed my Christmas gifts so that operation ‘avoid the crowds’ can be deemed such a success that I was able to get out for another photo walk along the East Devon coast to Budleigh Salterton.

I had not expected the place to be as quiet as it was, most of those partaking in a sneaky seaside stroll walked without a care, with an aura of ‘yeah, I’m ready for Christmas’!

This Saturday was a day of grey overcast skies, with the occasional rays of light playing peek a boo through rare gaps in the cloud, one had to pay attention to capture these all too fleeting moments.

As I strolled along the beach, I began to think more about what direction this blog may go in the new year.

I had started blogging originally when I decided to shoot an entire year with my Fujifilm X100F, a project I really enjoyed, with a camera that I regrettably sold and is too much money second hand to even contemplate.

A second project with just 50mm over 50 days of photo walks soon followed and more recently most of my posts centre around my collection of old digicams and mirrorless cameras.

What started off as projects have become the norm for me, so I am thinking of starting a series of blogs focusing on those compact cameras that I love using so much, the working title is ‘The compact chronicles’ but I am open to other suggestions.

Alongside the ‘chronicles’ will be more blogs based around a lens that has become a firm favourite, the Panasonic Lumix 20mm F1.7, no working title for this yet but something like ‘twenty twenty vision’ is churning away on the cerebral back burner.

I still have a little time to finalise my ideas for 2024 but lets enjoy what is left of ’23 with a handful of shots from yesterday.

A mixture here from my Lumix LX5 and the Olympus EM10 MK3 with that 20mm.

Another year … what next?

As we approach the middle of December, my job within the food sector starts to get a little mad, so I thought it may be an idea to reflect on my photographic year and consider what the new year may bring.

Having dipped my feet into the world of older compact cameras in the autumn of 2022, I believed it would be just another diversion on my photographic journey and that I would return to the well trodden path in just a month or two.

I didn’t!

For me, that diversion has become one of my most enjoyable chapters in my photography, as slowly but surely the toe dipping became a fully fledged dive in at the deep end.

There is rarely a trip now where I do not take one of my Lumix LX series or Canon S series compact cameras, with one of my micro four thirds ‘proper’ camera, more recently, I have dared to take just a digicam to challenge myself with supposedly less capable gear.

I use the word challenge but in all honesty it has actually been more like fun, especially when many of the images I have captured with these smaller sensor cameras have become some of my best photos of the year.

Throughout my blogs, I have said how much I love the black and white rendering from these pocket rockets, often now if I see a scene that I want to edit as a monochrome image, I will reach for a digicam.

In terms of 2024, I will continue to shoot a lot of square format photos and perhaps dedicate one of my photographic days purely to one of my digicams, ‘digicam Sunday’ has a certain vibe…

Before posting a few favourite images, I would like to wish all those who have followed my musings throughout this year a very happy Christmas and new year!

AI in photography

As digital cameras and photography became the successor to analogue technology, I immediately saw the advantages in terms of how I could progress as a photographer, being able to see my image in an instant and recompose and alter settings there and then was always going to be a winner over waiting two weeks to find many of my images were over exposed or just plain rubbish.

With the computer screen and editing software replacing the dark room, many of the film purists began suggesting that this was not photography, and more manipulation of pixels.

My argument then, was that dodging and burning techniques in the dark room was a tool available to the adept developer, much in the same way that editing software is the tool available to the digital photographer.

Digital photography and cameras have come a long way in a relatively short time, with cameras pretty much able to make every decision for the photographer should they want it, ‘computational photography’ has become common parlance within camera sales pitches and photographic forums.

I am beginning to feel that perhaps I am like the film photographer lamenting the loss of the art of photography to the digital age, maybe because for me photography is the process of creating an image by working a scene by eye and dialling in the appropriate settings is something I enjoy.

For me, the above is perhaps irrelevant, given that I shoot 99% of the time with older digital cameras, but the evolution of AI within editing is where I feel uncomfortable with the way images can be changed beyond recognition.

The latest buzzword seems to be ‘generative fill’ where a scene can be altered by adding elements that were never there.
Of course I can see this being very useful in graphic design but as a photographer, the whole point of going to a particular spot is to capture what is there, instead of adding elements later?

As an amateur photographer, I can pretty much let my concerns pass by but I can see a threat to the livelihoods of those dedicated professionals who have to compete with digital artists sat at a large screen and powerful computer.

What are your thoughts on the AI debate, perhaps I am a Luddite not wanting to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern photographic world.

Making the most of autumn

As we pass the mid November mark, the clocks have gone back an hour,we have celebrated Halloween and bonfire night and now with the local Christmas markets open and the decorations adorning high streets and shopping centres, the festive countdown has begun.

I like to drag my heels a little at this point, by this, I mean that I prefer to avoid the premature festivities and try to eke out the very last drop of autumn before winter takes up residence in the seasonal calendar.

With many preparing for the annual financial assault on their bank accounts this weekend, I was happy to leave them to it and go in search of what could be the last throes of what has been a very colourful few weeks.

In the same way that I still love to peer into rock pools at the seaside, I reawaken my inner child as I rustle through the leaves covering the woodland floor in carpets of gold and orange, simple pleasures often evoke the fondest memories.

Of course, I will have to join those festive queues at some point but these beautiful scenes will not last forever and somebody has to make the effort to capture them….

Autumn outings

Without doubt, autumn is my favourite season for photography, as I am so easily drawn to the colours and textures this time of year brings.

The autumnal change has seemed somewhat slower this year but two recent storms have made me want to get out more before the trees have been made bare of their coloured cloaks by incessant winds.

Having earned a bonus Friday off, a first visit to the Avon dam in South Brent was on the cards, my last trip was over three years ago, so this was an overdue appointment.

The walk to the dam from the car park is just over two miles, the road only really used by environment agency vehicles to access the water works, so makes for a quiet and enjoyable walk up to the dam and reservoir.

With the river in healthy flow after some heavy rain, it is more of a roar than a whisper, with trees either side of the river, it makes for the perfect autumnal composition of fallen leaves, sat like glitter on the verdant lichen coating the rocks above the water surface.

While I seized this first opportunity to capture the beauty of autumn, there would be plenty more on the route to the dam but I took the time to stop and marvel at this annual natural show of colour.

At just over half way up, the view becomes more open and rugged, here the skies are changing to a more rain filled colour of grey, and the sunlight escapes through the few gaps to fill the landscape with a gentle light that contrasts against the brown of the bracken.

At the dam itself, the wind is at its strongest, the reservoir water is a dark blue tipped with the white of the waves as they scud across the surface.

I take time to enjoy the view here, it may be another three years before I return, only when the rain begins do I decide to walk back to the car park where a cuppa and a light snack awaits.

One personal rule that I try to make a habit of, is to look back at where I have been, on this occasion the rule is justified by one of my favourite shots of the day…

I must have taken thirty or so shots of this scene as it unfolded but who doesn’t like taking photos of rainbows?

After the storm

After storm Ciarán finally abated leaving a trail of devastation in its wake last Thursday, I left a photographic trip to the seaside town of Teignmouth until Saturday, even then high winds and spring tides would make for possibly one of my most dramatic outings in some time.

The extent of the damage was considerable along the sea front, the pier battered and damaged, inner walled areas of the promenade pulverised by the sheer power of the waves intrusion onto land.

The tide was just on the ebb as I arrived in Teignmouth, but waves were still crashing into the sea wall and over into parking spaces closest to the sea, yet even then I was unprepared for the sheer volume of the roar and crash as the tail end of the storm did its worst.

For a few minutes I was glued to the spot as wave after wave thundered their way from sea to land, some incoming waves smothered by the outgoing ones, others combining forces for another assault onto the man made structures.

As I began my walk towards the ‘back beach’ I watched the waves crashing against the breakwater, where just a few shots in, I captured an explosion of sea water as it hit the wall, this was perhaps my shot of the day.

I have made this my desktop image on my PC monitor, I can still hear the thundering crash it made as it exploded with all its might, as did so many of the waves I was able to catch on this eventful day.

Careful to observe from distance, I spent the morning just watching where the biggest waves landed, positioning myself a good distance away from where they didn’t as I snapped frame after frame of the moody maelstrom as it unfolded before my eyes.

This is a trip that will stay in my memory for some time, reinforcing how beautiful and yet so destructive nature can be.

A few more with the RX100

In my last post, I was keen to share my first outing in some time with my RX100, a camera that I had considered selling on due to lack of use but I am so glad that I held on to.

The unobtrusive nature of this little compact allows me to go pretty much unnoticed as I find the next image, it also sits almost weightlessly in a coat pocket, an ideal lightweight set up.

With such a diminutive size, comes the trade off of battery size and durability, however for me it is no problem to carry a couple of spare batteries but to be honest I worry far less about such things these days, I just enjoy getting out and taking photos.

Outings with the RX100

In my previous blog, I mentioned that I intended to use my little Sony RX100 more, having been neglected for others in my photographic arsenal.

With a trip to my home town of Salcombe on the agenda for this weekend, I ensured the Sony was packed and the spare batteries charged.

So far, I have kept to my promise, the RX100 finding a place in my pocket for most of the weekend.

Not having used it as much as my other compact favourites, it’s almost like ‘new camera day’ as I familiarize myself with the controls and how I like to shoot.

Unlike the full frame A7 ‘s which I find soulless to use,despite them being very good cameras, the RX100 is a joy, as with my other smaller compacts, it adds a little fun to photography but takes some seriously good images.

I had given some thought to perhaps selling this camera but it will stay firmly in my collection.

Too many cameras, too little time?

Regular readers of my musings will have followed my journey into the world of point and shoot cameras over the last twelve months, with many of my recent blog entries centered around the Lumix LX5 and Lx7 cameras and the Canon S95, G11 and G12.

As my collection has grown, there are certain cameras that are going to be left behind, a case of too many cameras and too little time, or another opportunity for a photo project where perhaps I just use one camera for a month? (with my collection as it is, this project would take over a year to complete!)

One such camera in question is my Sony RX100 which I acquired in July of this year and took for its first outing to the seaside at Budleigh Salterton.

The single image that features for this post is one of my favourites from that shoot, which has prompted me to ensure the Sony will be used more over the next week or so, when I have a few days off from work and more opportunity to get out and take photos.