Black and white – Andy's Photography blog

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 local photo walk

To all intents and purposes, this is Day 3 of my ‘squares’ project but I have not really put any time constraints on this one, it will be an ongoing theme for the coming weeks / months.

Today, I decided to take out the GX8 and Panasonic 20mm F1.7 lens, one of the few lenses that have been protected from my sell and repurchase habit from over the last few years.

Today was a more August like day, sunshine and clouds and some bright light which would be ideal for the black and white predominance of late.

That said, perhaps I need to address the elephant in the room, one image today which caught my eye, was always going to remain in colour, just because I liked the way the light caught the subject matter.

An image from the local library with its array of coloured seating was just too good to miss!

In the last few months, I have felt that I have lacked a creative spark or edge, enjoying the image taking process and the walks that go with it but perhaps not offering anything new but this new project has kick started my enthusiasm once more.

Shooting in the square format is nothing new but its almost as if I have found my favoured ‘style’.
For some photographers, they may specialise in Landscape or portrait photography, others have a particular style in their editing technique, perhaps the simple ‘square’ is my forte?

One frame – Candid monochrome

After the enjoyment of a day out with my camera, there is then the pleasure of getting home, making a freshly brewed cuppa and looking through the days images.

I always hope that among the many images that I take,that there is one image that stands out as my favourite from the days shoot.

My candidate for my ‘one frame’ post is one I captured at the seaside village of Torcross in south Devon this weekend and not the quintessential seaside scene of which there were plenty but a candid image of a gentleman enjoying a Sunday morning with his newspaper.

With cloudless blue skies above, the light was quite harsh, creating some dark shadows, the perfect recipe for a monochrome edit, needless to say I was happy with the resulting image.

Out with the Canon S100

I would have been out for my normal early Saturday photo walk today but was looking forward to receiving another bargain ‘older’ camera for my slowly increasing collection, however the postman decided to ignore the polite note I had put on the door asking him (or her) to knock loudly, instead giving me one of those annoying red cards to tell me I wasn’t in!’

With rain forecast for most of the rest of today, I decided to head into town, not something I normally do on a Saturday but I wanted to get out for some fresh air and to stretch the legs.

Deciding on just the S100 and a spare battery, it was good to have just the minimal gear, as it turned out, having the smaller camera was just perfect for what turned out to be a really fun shoot.

Approaching the city centre, it was clear that some sort of event was happening, as a small crowd had gathered, encircling a group of Morris dancers, as they performed.

With no huge camera around my neck, the small S100 went unnoticed as I milled around the gaps in the crowds taking pictures of the colourful costumes and dance routines.

As I made my way around the city, other groups in varying costumes were also performing, this was a great little spontaneous shoot!

As the dancers had come to the end of their shows, I was able to catch groups of them heading to other parts of the city, this is when the predicted rain began to fall, even better for some moody street scenes.

In the space of less than an hour, I had taken a good number of shots, I was pleasantly surprised at just how well the S100 had performed in dull light conditions.

A reawakening

It has been a while since my last blog entry, those never ending grey days of March had left me somewhat disinclined to write, my literary creativity suspended in a state of belated hibernation.

Perhaps it was last weeks return to British summer time and the thoughts of longer hours of daylight that triggered a more positive mindset and a desire to write about today’s photo walk.

Even though today was yet another overcast day, I was keen to embrace whatever hand the weather gods had dealt me, it was a metaphorical reawakening.

My ongoing ‘project’ of shooting with older cameras continues, however I have sold the Leica X1 and DLux-6, for a healthy profit and invested in a Lumix LX100, which is finding a regular place in my bag alongside my LX5.

More and more, I have found that I like to use the LX5 for monochrome images, I like the way the CCD sensor renders the image, so I have also saved a custom setting on the LX100 to shoot monochrome which I tried out for the first time today, I was not to be disappointed.

As with the LX5, the LX100 has a dedicated aspect ratio dial, this is something I use regularly, perhaps because of it not being a feature hidden away in the depths of numerous menus.

I have made plans for another outing tomorrow, hopefully my writers drought is over, as I look forward to the coming months.

One frame – Light and patterns

Since I have decided to carry a small digicam in my workday rucksack, I leave for work a few minutes earlier just to allow for any potential stoppages to take photos, even at silly O’ clock in the morning.

With a healthy student population attending the University, Exeter has several purpose built student blocks throughout the city, one in particular is opposite the bus station where I await my transport to work.

The light in the canteen of the building along with the stencils on the glass made for an image that was too good to pass up, it may or may not work, in monochrome it most certainly did.

In all honesty, I was not expecting the shot to have come out so well with such a small camera, but the little Canon S95 has delivered one of my favourite low light images ever.

Black and white with the ‘5’

I am due to be moving house at the end of the month so I should really be getting my head around packing more boxes to make my life a little easier and what better way to start, by deciding to go out for another local camera walk!

In my defence, it was just after six thirty AM, my customary first brew of the day was already history and I am sure my neighbours would not be happy with too much disturbance at that hour on a Sunday morning anyway.

As I was so pleased with the new (but old) LX5’s images from yesterday’s outing, I decided to take just this camera and a spare battery, this diminutive little camera easily fits into a pocket, so for the first time in a very long time I, I did not even take a camera bag with me.

A few of the reviews on the LX5 had suggested that the in camera dynamic black and white picture profile was very good, so I have set one of the camera’s custom presets to shoot with this profile in JPEG only, I decided also, to make full use of the ‘5’s ability to shoot in the square format at the flick of a switch.

An additional post will be made in the coming days of the colour images from today’s sneaky outing but I was keen to share the images from the black and white perspective, before I begin the onerous task of sorting and packing for my impending move.

One frame – Holding steady

When I first acquired the Canon S95 camera as part of my ‘older camera’ theme, I never thought that it would be the first camera that went into my bag on my weekend outings, neither did I think for one moment that It would find its way into my everyday rucksack on my commute to and from work, for those ‘just in case scenarios’ that always seem to happen when you never have a camera with you.

Yes, I have a mobile phone but this dinosaur likes the right tool for the job, to me using a mobile phone for photography is like using a screwdriver for tightening a nut!

Saturday’s trip finds me at Budleigh Salterton, a seaside town in East Devon, where finally we may just see a little welcome rain, after what has been a fabulous summer.

A strong breeze is giving an autumnal edge to the temperature today, as I watch the grey skies beginning to darken with more menacing clouds, perfect for some monochrome edits later in the day.

Just as I am taking a minimalist shot of the clouds rolling in, a pair of herring gulls enter the frame, courtesy of a particularly strong gust of wind as they quickly regain control and hold a steady height in the wind.

Would I have had this shot with my bigger camera? perhaps, but the smaller camera is always in my hand as it has so little weight and the fact that I enjoy using it so much.

One frame – and then there were three.

My camera collection has grown a little over the last few days, my recent outing with a Lumix LX3 that I had bought for next to nothing, prompted search for more digital compacts at reasonable prices.

While an online search was promising, a friend of mine mentioned he had a box of camera gear he was looking to shift and would I be interested?
Does a bear facilitate its lavatorial functions in the woods?

Long story short, I have four ‘new to me’ cameras in my collection, two of which had their first proper shoot yesterday, the others will have their day in the coming weekends.

The Canon G11 and S95 are both around 10-12 years old and fit my old camera theme very well, so I was looking forward to using them on today’s shoot.

While the S95 is very pocketable, the G11 is bulkier but both lighter in my camera bag than my trusty 5dII.

Keen to get out before the bank holiday crowds descended, I set out at just after 6am, a familiar route along the riverside for what was to be one of my most enjoyable photo walks.

I will post another blog over the next day or two of the many pictures I took today but my favourite was a minimalist image of 3 pigeons perched on top of one of the flood defence pillars on my route, the almost clear sky adding a good backdrop.

Initially there were just the 2 pigeons, as I approached, a third joined the avian meeting, which made me remember one of my favourite Genesis albums “And then there were three”

With the s95 in hand, the image was mine, I knew immediately it was going to be a monochrome image, the slight grain from the tiny sensor adding more character to the image.

I think the S95 will be in a bag with me at all times now, it’s small size is ideal, as I still prefer a camera to my mobile phone for images.

Hound Tor walk

After a short two day week, I have three days off plus the weekend to enjoy some well earned time off.

What better way to enjoy the time, than to head out to Dartmoor for a little shutter therapy, a trip to Hound Tor, famously said to have inspired Conan Doyle’s The hound of the Baskervilles.

Dartmoor folklore has it that the tors were hounds turned to stone by a vengeful witch, while fact has Hound Tor recorded in the Domesday book as ‘Hundatora’.

It is a pleasant September morning, with a noticeably cool breeze, with sporadic sunshine peering from increasingly thickening clouds.
I am barely out of the car park before the first shot of the day is in the bag, looking back towards the car park and the view beyond, a low layer of cloud hangs over the landscape.

Climbing higher towards the Tors, there are already a few climbers being shown the ropes (pun intended) with much encouragement from their instructors below, I watch for a while, take a couple of snaps and continue onwards.

Learning the ropes on one of the formations

The views from here are nothing short of breathtaking, I take several shots in close proximity, each added to my treasure trove of Dartmoor memories.

No trip to the moor is complete without at least a couple of moody monochrome shots, there will be no exception to that rule today, as Dartmoor does what it does best in having a complete change of mind about the weather, from bright skies and some gorgeous light to grey skies and a poor attempt at rain in the matter of a few moments but for all that, in all her moods Dartmoor will always be beautiful.

The last few shots from my walk back to the car park

I have only covered three miles today but it was always going to be more of a mooch and an explore rather than a full on hike, as usual, there are reasons to be back again as there are so many paths and trails to follow.

For all my trips here to the moor, I still feel that I have barely scratched the surface, what better excuse for continued exploration of this truly wonderful landscape.