So the mystery holiday destination was Malta. We spent most of our time in Valetta, which provided by far the best atmosphere and shooting conditions. I highly recommend it if you’re into street photography and crusty architecture.

This trip was a leap of faith for a few reasons …

First, I left my SLR behind. I can’t remember doing that since I bought my DSLR in 2007. Although I complain about the size and weight of an SLR kit, I usually take it along anyway because it is so versatile – it’s the zero sacrifice camera. But not this time.

Second, I took only one focal length. My Leica M6 with the 35mm Summicron and the Sony RX1 – on loan from Sony – which also has a 35mm fixed lens. Both fitted in my Think Tank Retrospective 5 shoulder bag with room to spare for my Sekonic light meter, which I think I used three times max.

Valetta used to be under British rule so they have British postboxes and phone booths. Weird.

Third, I shot mostly film. It’s my first holiday shooting film since 2002 and my first holiday shooting a rangefinder. I really had no idea what I was doing or what the results would be like. So yeah, leap of faith. And you know what? I had fun. When you’ve no way of knowing whether you got the shot, all you can do is look for the next shot, and before you know it you’re click click clicking away and re-cocking the shutter with reckless abandon (I say reckless because damn, film is expensive nowadays!). I’m not saying the photos were as good as they might have been – just that it was fun taking them.

I admit it was very nice having the RX1 as backup in case I ran out of film or my camera jammed (actually that happened once). But even in situations where I was unsure of the lighting I pushed myself to use the Leica and make a guess how to get the shot without the reassurance of instant results. The exception was night when the film I had was too slow to shoot with. In those situations the RX1 came into its own. All up I shot four times as many frames on the M6 as I did with the RX1, and the RX1 numbers are skewed by the fact I could stand there and take 5-6 shots of the same thing until I was happy.

This is what happens when you mess up loading the film onto the spiral. Crunched it good. I still like the shot though.

The pictures here are all shot with M6 on the first day, when I still had Ilford Delta 100 in the camera and needed to spend it quickly.

I developed this one myself when I got home, and I’m really impressed with how much resolution Delta gives you while still packing a punch in the contrast department. These are all straight off the scanner – so I haven’t worked any local contrast magic on them. Delta 100 seems like a good match for the modern rendering of the Summicron, which I sometimes think is a bit wasted on grainier film such as Kodak Tri-X.

Anyway, the next batch will be colour – I shot Kodak Portra 160 and 400 for the rest of the week.

Cheers.

The post A little Delta in Valetta appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

This is a picture of a film camera shot with a digital camera then processed to look like it was shot with film. The joys of modern post-production.

The real surprise is that it was shot with a Sony RX1, which I am lucky enough to have on loan for a short time. Processed in Lightroom 5 beta with VSCO film to look like Ilford Delta 3200. I’ve no idea whether it actually does because I haven’t got round to shooting any real Delta 3200 yet. That M6 you’re looking at is loaded with Delta 100 and I’ve only shot five frames of that.

So the sun has finally made an appearance and it looks like Spring might be arrive after a truly miserable few months in London. Hopefully this means more time for shooting and the longer days will certainly help. Things are still very busy so not much to show you yet but hopefully I can get a steady stream of pics going onto the site and post more regularly from here on in. I am also going on holiday soon so expect a post from … well you’ll see.

Lots of good things coming up though. I’ve been asked to do something on my film workflow, so I will write a couple of posts about that. I’ll review the Fuji XF1 point and shoot, and possibly the RX1.

I’m also going to start rewriting my gear page to include mini-reviews of each camera I’ve owned over the years.

Speaking of gear, there’s a few things to note. Aptina has announced a third generation of its 1-inch sensors, so if you were disappointed with the quality of the Nikon J3 and V2 sensor, maybe hold off upgrading till the new models hit the market. They’ll also be capable of 4K video if that’s your thing.

The Nikon Coolpix A has hit the shops and I had a chance to have a play with one. Build quality is great, refresh is smooth as you pan around the room but the autofocus, though reliable, is not fast by mirrorless standards.

I also had some time with the Fuji X100s and I have to say I just don’t agree with all the people raving about this camera. Yes the focus is faster than previous models but by no means as fast as the Nikon 1, Olympus or Panasonic cameras and the electronic viewfinder continues to suffer from sluggish refresh rates making it wobble as you pan around the room and it STILL freezes the action when you initiate focus. The X100 didn’t actually have this problem as it was a more conventional sensor, but now the X100s has moved over to X-trans, which has great quality but seems to be underserved on the processor side, it has that same stickiness as the X-Pro1 and XE-1.

If you believe the rumour mill, the X-Pro1 will be updated this year with a processor that can actually take care of this problem so for me that’s the model to get, as then you can use your Leica lenses with that trendy new split image focusing feature they have on the X100s. Nice.

In terms of my own gear I wasn’t happy with the film scans I was getting from the V750 so I have finally relented and picked up a Nikon Coolscan V on ebay. Yes, that’s right, the same model I sold a year ago. I paid more than I paid the first time around but less than I sold it for, so it could have been worse I suppose. Anyway only done a few scans with it but I’m already thrilled with the results and now feel like I can actually reap the benefits of film in terms of quality.

That’s it for now. Hope you’re getting some sun wherever you are.

The post Light returns to London, Coolpix A, Fuji X100s and other stuff appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

It took me weeks to shoot this roll of Portra, partly because I’ve been so busy and partly because London’s weather has been so foul and dark this past month that there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity for colour photography. It then took me another week and a half to get the film processed, as I don’t do my own colour chemistry.

These were shot with Kodak Portra 400 35mm film, on my Leica M6 with the 35mm Sumicron f2 ASPH. It’s a killer lens but one that I feel is a little wasted on my setup as I’m unable to get much detail from my flatbed scanning setup. Any sharpness you may perceive in these shots are the result of an unsharp mask applied after scanning. Still, it’s great to be able to shoot straight lines without having to edit out the lens distortion in photoshop. Can’t say that about my Nikon glass sadly …

Still, you can see what a difference shooting with film makes in the colour department. Portra has a magenta bias that instantly evokes a more natural connection with the world.  It’s funny how our perception of time is tied to the way things were recorded.

You can shoot somebody today with Portra and, provided there are no visual giveaways, people will believe the shot is at least 20 years old. Although Portra itself is a newer film. In the image above you can see how the warmth of the morning sun has been interpreted. It’s a little overdone here but that’s basically down to colour correction in the scanning process. These are all quick scans on default settings – none warranted a more time consuming effort in my view, though I did get some great portaits that aren’t shown here. Kodak really knows how to do skin tones.

To the right you can see the incredible dynamic range film can absorb. On most digital cameras the bright sunlight coming through the ceiling would have blown out those areas of the picture. And, if it hasn’t, the shadow areas would be dim and noisy. Not here: even using the camera’s simplistic spot meter the entire scene is well exposed – if anything a little under exposed, but there is plenty of detail everywhere.

Again I love the colours here – my scanner has made the whites a little blue (easy to fix given more time), but the transition through the tones is buttery smooth and the colours have a very natural look that isn’t trying too hard for saturation nor going for that fashionable desaturated look.

Again – love the Ferrari red but my scanner has made this a bit blue – in fairness it was a very grey day and I think Portra is balanced for natural daylight so it fares better in the sun. So it’s probably a little bit the scanner and a little bit the film.

If you’re curious, I’m using Epson Scan for these pics – but for the keepers I go back and do them again using Silverfast 8, which allows you to tailor the scan and colour correction for the particular film you are using. I scan at 2400dpi because although my scanner says it does 6400dpi, I’m pretty sure the native resolution is 2400dpi. That gives me an 8 megapixel file. Not great for printing but fine for the web – and I can always get a frame drum scanned if I want to make it into a billboard

For now, it’s back to black and white. I’m trying Ilford Delta 100, which should give me much finer grain while hopefully not losing the punch I got from Fuji’s Neopan 400. Still plenty of Portra in the fridge, though …

The post Portra palette: My first roll of colour with the Leica M6 appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

I thought it was time I stopped making excuses and started posting pictures. These are from Auckland, New Zealand, taken with my girfriend’s D7000 after a night out. Let me know what you think.

Surprisingly, I came away from NZ with a lot of great personal snaps and few serious pictures. That’s because, this time around, it was the right kind of trip with the right kind of priorities. Some of the most stunning days we had were the days I didn’t touch my camera. There’s always next time.

The first two pics are from the Britomart complex, which is Auckland’s new (I say new but it’s almost 10 years old now) underground train station. When they built this there wasn’t much of a public transport network connected to it, so it didn’t really get the foot traffic envisaged. But now they have a few trains running up and down the city and it’s starting to come together.

What you’re looking at above is the ceiling, and those circles are the glass floors of fountains above ground, which during the day are a source of daylight for the station and kind of cool to look down through if you’re browsing the shops above.

The last picture is some kind of sculpture-cum-fountain on a new part of the waterfront they developed for the Rugby World Cup a couple of years ago (it’s kind of NZ’s Olympics equivalent in terms of infrastructure investment …). You can see the Sky Tower, which my brother helped build not so long ago, in the background.

Let me know if you guys want metadata on this stuff, by the way. I used to do that for my older blog posts but have dropped the habit. Happy to put it back in if it’s useful.

The post Auckland at night, in black and white appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

I spent half an hour playing with the new Leica M today, with and without the viewfinder, using both the rangefinder and live view.

I have a few observations:

1. It’s big. Really big. It dwarfs my M6 and if you removed the grip from many consumer DSLRs you’d find they are smaller than this camera.
2. It’s heavy. Goes with the above really – those top and bottom brass plates can’t get bigger without being heavier.
3. The live view is more Fuji X grade than Nikon 1 grade in terms of smoothness of refresh rate etc. That said, it’s great fun to focus using the live few peaking … you almost think it’s some kind of breakthrough feature until you remember it’s been on other cheaper cameras for years.
4. The sound of the shutter and the way the camera feels when it fires will have you reaching for your wallet. Those of you who read my blog know that for me shutter sound and feel is a big influence on how much fun a camera is to shoot. This is the best I’ve come across. It’s discreet yet makes a solid clunk that you feel through the camera body and damn, it feels good. Maybe not £5100 good, but good.
5. Features like live view and the optional electronic viewfinder bring an immediate expectation of autofocus. It’s very strange looking at a live display and realising nothing is going to come into focus until you grab the lens and turn it. Still, the features will be great for extreme focal lengths not covered by the optical viewfinder, using Leica R SLR lenses (pictured above) or using the EVF to look down on the camera when it’s on a tripod etc.
6. The controls and build quality are beautiful. Everything is perfect.

That’s it. For more detail try Steve Huff’s blog.

The post First hands-on thoughts about the Leica M appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

Further proof that Nikon is serious about its 1 system. This 32mm f1.2 lens was announced in January, but these are the first images to surface on the Nikon USA website. As you can see, it looks like a quality piece of glass with a nano crystal coat and what appears to be a manual focusing ring! (UPDATE: Not so sure about the latter – the other two Nikon 1 prime lenses have this design too, but it’s just moulded plastic and doesn’t actually do anything.)

To put this in context, Nikon hasn’t made an F1.2 lens since the manual focus days. Their smaller lens mount has been a challenge for engineers who have to include things like image stabilisation and silent (ish) focusing motors inside the lens. No doubt it will be overpriced, but it’s an encouraging sign.

Nikon 1 cameras have a 2.7x crop factor, so this is a portrait lens with an 85mm equivalent. Once it arrives, Nikon users will have access to 27mm, 50mm and 85mm equivalent primes, though the 27mm f2.8 is definitely the weak link there.

Nikon V1 kits still going cheap on Amazon if you’re tempted. You can read my review of the Nikon V1 here.

The post Nikon V2 with 32mm f1.2 appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

Today was all about street shooting – I had my Leica, five rolls of Kodak Portra and a map plotting a route through East London’s best street art and markets. I almost made it out the door, too.

The thing is – Londoners will understand this – it was three degrees and gloomy as hell today. I wanted to get out and shoot, but the prospect of wandering around east London freezing my ass off for a few shots that I wouldn’t see till weeks later when the film was souped and scanned left me lacking motivation.

So, rather than review the day’s work here we’ll just have to find something else to talk about, like the Nikon Coolpix A announced at Focus on Imaging this week.

I didn’t make to Focus – was too knackered after Mobile World Congress and to be honest there wasn’t enough new gear there to warrant a four hour return trip to Birmingham on my first Sunday off in three weeks. Selfish of me, I know, but there it is

Last year there was the Fuji X-Pro1, Olympus OM-D, Nikon D800 and D4, and the Canon 5d MK III on display before they hit the shops, to name a few. That was a trip worth making. This year, not so much, but Nikon did surprise us with the Coolpix A.

The Coolpix A is a point-and-shoot camera with an APS-C sensor of similar spec to the D7000 SLR but minus the optical low-pass filter which gives it extra resolving power, and a fixed 28mm equivalent lens (18mm in other words). Nikon’s calling it the professional’s point-and-shoot and given that 28mm focal length, which requires you to get right in people’s faces, this isn’t one of those situations where they use the ‘pro’ word to sell consumers.

As always with Nikon’s products, the Coolpix A will attract some controversy. If it’s a response to the hugely successful Fuji X100 and its imminent successor, the X100s, then it lacks a viewfinder, though an expensive optical viewfinder is available for the hotshoe. It also makes no attempt to match the X100, X20 or even XF1 on their retro good looks, although the silver Coolpix A is reminiscent of some older Nikon point and shoot cameras. It is smaller, though. In fact it’s the smallest camera yet to house an APS-C sensor, which could be a Nikon’s way of giving Sony’s RX100 and the Fuji XF1 the finger. But both those cameras have zooms and are therefore much more useful even if their image quality isn’t up there with the Coolpix A.

The 28mm focal length isn’t for the light-hearted, either. Most street shooters use a 50mm or 35mm lens – Sony’s full-frame RX1 and the X100 have settled on the latter (let’s keep crop factors out of this for now), but many Leica owners and other street shooters own a 28mm because it allows you to get in tight and give your photographs the feel of journalism. The problem is, you need pretty big cojones to achieve this as most people don’t really appreciate having a camera jammed in their face. I salute Nikon for targeting serious shooters, but I’m unsure how big this market is going to be.

The thing that worries me more personally is the use of an older sensor (they just announced the D7100 so why not use that sensor?), older chip (Expeed 2 instead of 3 or 3a) and absence of any of the excellent Nikon 1 tech. The fact that in all of the marketing materials Nikon fails to mention ‘focus’ or ‘focus speed’ even once makes me worry that the Coolpix A will be a dog in the focus department. One of those horrible cross-bred dogs with short legs and congenital asthma. Clearly there’s no phase detection a la Nikon 1, so we’re looking at contrast detect autofocus, something Nikon has sucked at with its SLRs. Ever tried to focus a D7000 using its contrast-detect mode? Dog.

I hope I’m wrong about this – Nikon says the Coolpix A is for street shooters and slow autofocus is pretty much a deal breaker in that department. They must know this, and in my experience Nikon simply doesn’t make bad cameras.

All of these concerns are amplified tenfold by the price you’d be paying for this camera. The Coolpix A costs a grand. Sterling. Oh wait, actually it’s £999 – my mistake. It’s the camera that fits in your pocket while leaving you out of pocket.

A grand for a point and shoot camera with a sensor borrowed from a 3-year-old DSLR. A grand for one focal length which is useless for portraits. Let’s try a relative comparison: The Coolpix A will cost only £100 less than the Fuji X100s which has a brand new sensor (X-trans II), phase-detect autofocus, optical AND electronic viewfinders, and the option to adapt the focal length to 28mm. The X100s is also a sexy camera. Yes, it’s considerably bigger than the Coolpix A, and miniaturisation should always be priced in as it has been with the £2700 Sony RX1, but still … this is a stretch.

People will be even more reluctant to pay this given the volatility of Nikon prices lately. The Nikon V1 started life as an £800 camera – it’s now £280 online. The D600 was given a list price of £1950 in September last year. It now sells for £1400. The D800 earlier that year was £2600, it now sells for £1929.

It was ever thus, you might say, and the X100 admittedly sells for half its original retail price, but it took a lot longer to come down and if anything this was a result from competition within the Fuji X lineup from the XE-1 and XF1. By comparison, the OMD is only just starting to come down after holding at £1000 for a year. And when you think about what the OMD gives you for the money … the Coolpix  A sounds overpriced.

Nevertheless, I’m very curious about this camera. If its focus is up to scratch and the lens is as good as Nikon says, it could be a better option than the X100 and Sony RX1 in terms of stealth and portability. It may not have the retro style of the Fuji, but it looks just like a point-and shoot (because it is), so people won’t react the way they do to other cameras. It’s one of the real ironies of photography – people are less concerned if the picture you’re taking of them is likely to be crap quality, and the person taking it clueless.

So, I guess we’ll wait and see what the reviews say. If the price drops quickly, we’ll know the sales have been poor. In any case, it’s good to see Nikon is still in the game and not resting on the success of the Nikon 1 system.

The post First thoughts on the Nikon Coolpix A appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

Yours truly with the M6

I find it as punchy as the Kodak Tri-x I tried before, with a nicer grain structure. However, it seems much less forgiving of exposure, and any shots that were slightly under came out pretty flat.

As for the Leica, well it’s a learning process and I am still very slow. Setting the exposure for every shot is a bit of a pain and makes me wonder whether I should have plumped for the M7, which has aperture priority auto, instead. But I like the mechanical shutter of the M6 and everything else about it, so we’ll see how it goes.

Mayfair’s a nice part of town if you haven’t tried it out. Wedged between Park Lane, Picadilly, Oxford St and Regent St, it’s quiet at weekends because many of the shops are extremely high end and don’t bother to open. It has no real through roads, apart from maybe New Bond Street, so you can weave your way through and discover new corners. It’s also home to the Leica Store, on Bruton Place, if you’re interested If you get bored, you’re only a few blocks from the heaving crowds and shops of Oxford St.

Next I am giving colour a go – so expect some Kodak Portra 400 shots, but that will take more time to turn around as I don’t have the chemicals or the time for colour processing at home.

The post Photo walk: Mayfair with Fuji Neopan 400 and the Leica M6 appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

But I’ve always been fond of my Domke F-3X and for a while I used the F5-Xb for my Sony NEX-7 and Nikon V1 when I had them. They’re both great bags with a lot of character, but seriously lacking on the quality of internals and attention to detail in terms of extra pockets etc – areas where Think Tank have pretty much obliterated the competition.

It seems this has not gone unnoticed by Domke, who have so far prided themselves on keeping the same bag designs over decades. Now they’re teasing a ‘new generation’ of Domke bags, with four ranges to choose from: The Journalist (that’s me), the Adventurer (that’s me), the Metropolitan (totally me), and the Visionary (no wait, that’s me).

However, an updated Domke F3-X with luxurious internal padding for my precious Leica glass and places to put the light meter, filters, lens pen, SD cards etc? That’s something I’d be very interested in.

So hurry up, Domke. Show us what you got.

Oh and by the way – new addition to the gear. An Artisan and Artist ‘easy glider’ strap for the M6.

The post Could Domke’s ‘new generation’ bags lure me from Think Thank? appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

I had the good fortune to see this exhibition as part of a private function at the gallery, so it was less of an ordeal getting round the pictures than it can be at London’s big galleries.

Viewing the Taylor Wessing prize winners and exhibitors is a bit like reading the British Journal of Photography. You get the feeling there is a very small club running these things and that they have decided on a particular visual style which comes through year after year in the winners and the pictures they choose to exhibit as part of the show.

It is not a happy visual style.

If I had to choose a word, I’d say bleak. The judges like unsmiling faces, subtly desaturated with film-like tones and surroundings that, most of the time, defy any graphic or evidence of compositional skill. Gesture is all when it comes to the Taylor Wessing Prize, and so long as the gesture you’re capturing is, well, bleak, you’ll do just fine.

As always there is a sprinkling of nude pictures – you wonder what the acceptable length of time is to look at these as you stand there alone with a glass of champagne in your hand. One picture which gives a direct view of the naked subject’s genitals seemed lacking an audience all evening: most people moved awkwardly on rather than linger and have to discuss it with a stranger.

There was some good stuff, to be sure, but I found the aesthetic similarity to previous years tiring. It’s as though photographers have learned what the judges are after and started to game the system. There was also an unashamed favouritism for celebrity – I doubt a snapshot of Ai Wei Wei with his cat and a portrait of Mo Farah with some bog standard rim lighting would have made the cut were the subjects unknown. This is hardly surprising in an exhibition where the captions run tediously long and the viewer is denied any information about technology or technique. Not a scrap of metadata – give me Wildlife Photographer of the Year any day. Photos work better with a story, but you’re not supposed to judge them on that basis.

I can’t recommend this one. Two or three standout shots and a lot of British mid-winter realism. I’d rather see pictures of nobodies that give me ideas than safe cultural reinforcement.

The post Exhibition: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize appeared first on Bede McCarthy Photography.

I have a new job

In November I switched to a reporting/writing role at the paper I work for. This means longer hours and a lot more work-related reading, which means much less time for photography. This had the immediate effect of killing my blogging stone dead. The job is an amazing opportunity and I get to write about tech (which as you may have gathered from this blog is about half the fun of photography for me … or is it? Read on), but it’s a steep learning curve and it will take a while before I can get back to serious photo work.

I spent December in New Zealand.

I know what you’re thinking, photography heaven, right? And it really is. New Zealand has a clarity of light that can only be found in, well, countries with a lot less shit in the air. Oh and a lack of O3 in the atmosphere helps too (though on balance ozone deficiency is not a good thing!). I had a lot of leave due and a grave family illness calling me home. I will not leave it so long again.

I will have a few pics to share, but mostly this trip was about being with family and seeing friends for the first time in four years. So the D600 saw a little action, but not much, and for one blissful month I ignored the internet, which partly explains the no blogging. It will take me a few more weeks to sort the pics so I’ll throw a post together when they’re done.

Gear changes

The picture says it all, right? Oh yes, this is happening. To bring you up to date:

Last year I sold the Fuji X-Pro1. Paris was really the clincher – four days of shooting in September and I barely used it, preferring instead the D700 despite it being a pain to lug around. I really liked the X-Pro1, and I wanted to use it, but it just doesn’t suit my style of shooting.  The EVF is second rate and the OVF is all about blind faith, as you’ve no way of knowing for sure the right part of the frame is in focus. Frequently, it isn’t. And yes, it is slow. Even after the version 2 firmware update. I’ve found that people who shoot Canon 5Ds are happy with the X-Pro1′s focus speed. That’s because the 5D mk II was a slow-ass camera. I come from Nikon AF-S, and the X-Pro1 just won’t get you there if you’re shooting on the street or in the studio. For landscapes, it’s incredible – just check out Flixelpix’s stuff. I’m not alone in this view – Steve Huff has made similar remarks. I held onto the camera for a while, out of emotional attachment, but when the XE-1 was tipped I knew I had to sell it immediately or lose a lot more money on the transaction. I also needed the money to cancel out the D600 upgrade. So I sold it, and now the X-Pro1 retail price has dropped, the XE-1 is out and the second-hand market for the former is not pretty. It was the right call. These cameras do not hold their value. Despite all this, I still have a soft spot for the Fuji X range, and on several occasions considered picking up a limited Black X100 when the price tumbled late last year. However, I figured the replacement couldn’t be far away and at CES this month the X100s was announced. On paper it addresses every complaint I had about the original and I’ll be looking to try one out.

Another change is that on my birthday I was spoiled rotten, and now have a nice rotalux deep octa for my Elinchrome strobe. This is going to be huge for portrait and product photography and I can’t wait to get stuck in with that thing.

So, after a year of experiments I got back to one camera and started spending money on books instead. I’ve been reading Michael Freeman’s books on composition, Magnum Contact Sheets to see how the greats did it, and a ton of other stuff about technique. It’s no compensation for daily shooting but between changing jobs and the short winter days in London, it’s better than nothing.

Hang on a tick! What about the … the … and all that …

Oh you mean my LEICA? And the FILM? I thought you’d never ask.

I’m going to shoot film. Not exclusively, but hopefully a hell of a lot. And I’m going to shoot it on my lovely Leica M6, which I bought from a little shop in New Zealand. I’d been keeping an eye out since attending a class at the Leica Akademie in Mayfair last year, but the digital Leica’s are super expensive and sure to drop a grand in value once the new M hits the streets this year. Too risky. An M6 is a different story. It works without a battery and, provided they still make film, will perform the same function in twenty years as it did 14 years ago when it came out of the factory. Even better, its pixels are the size of molecules!

I’ve been wanting to get back into film for a while. I need to stop checking my camera and start looking around for the next shot. I need to get back to the place where the fun was in the taking of photos rather than the viewing and editing. I know everything about Lightroom, and enough about Photoshop to do what I need to do. I know my Nikon DSLR inside out and know how to get results from it in every situation. I’m bored with digital, and I’m taking boring pictures. There is no auto on the Leica. I’m going to have to think about exposure on every shot. I’m going to have to use a light meter. I’m going to have to focus manually and learn to predict the shot so I can zone focus. And I’m going to do all this with one of the finest mechanical cameras out there. My M6 has a story. It’s not a very interesting one, but it has one, and when you’re buying a camera like this that’s important. The old guy who sold it to me also sold it to its first two owners. The second sent it back to Leica Germany last year, where they replaced the flare-prone M6 viewfinder with the newer MP viewfinder. (In my warped mind that makes it a special edition.) This camera has been loved and looked after. But it hasn’t been used much, and that’s where I come in.

I started 2012 with the latest technology money could buy. The Nex-7 and Zeiss 24mm lens. I’m starting 2013 with a camera that was made in 1998, a second-hand lens and even a second hand case I picked up for £79 from The Classic Camera in London. (They are £220 new; bargain!) I’ll even process the film myself – my girlfriend bought me all the hardware for Christmas. Darkroom in the bathroom, anyone?

The only slight bummer is that on my return to the UK I noticed a problem with my lens, which I’d acquired for what in hindsight was a too-good-to-be-true price on eBay. So, instead of playing with my new toy (ahem, tool), I’ve been sitting on my hands while my lens was sent back to Leica in Germany for a service and repair. The good news is, they repaired it for free so it was still a bargain and I’ve just been told that the lens will be back in the UK next week. In fevered anticipation I have been reading up on shooting film and practising opening, reeling and loading film into the developing tank in pitch darkness. I just need a few more chemicals and I’m good to go.

Film is going to be hard. I’m going to feel like a beginner again. But I’m also going to be surprised again, and I can’t wait for that.

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It showcases some of the best photographs of animals complete with the story behind the picture and, for the gearheads, all the metadata you can eat. Some years are better than others, but this year the focus was back on the animals and I think the lineup was really strong.

I got a bit of extra insight this year by attending a preview event the night before the opening. We were treated to presentations by four of the featured photographers, then taken to the gallery where more photographers were standing with their pictures, happy to talk to anybody about their shots. It was a really nice way to see the exhibition and learn about the lives of these photographers and the lengths they will go to for an original angle or perspective.

It’s open to anybody – just keep an eye out next year and buy a ticket. This year’s exhibition runs till March 23, 2013. I recommend going at night, when the museum is at its best. I think they offer night viewings once a month.

The layout has also been improved this year, which keeps (most) people moving in the same direction for once.

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Anybody who has dabbled in camera equipment knows these purchases are almost always unnecessary. Recovering GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) addicts must justify each purchase carefully. Did I need to replace my D700? No. Can I justify the upgrade? I think so, yeah. Here’s how:

1) Opportunity

I got an amazing deal. Over the years I’ve learned a lot about Amazon’s pricing techniques, and I’ve formed the habit of placing items on my wish list and just keeping an eye on the price. Every now and then they will do something silly to move stock along. One afternoon shortly after the D600 release, when other retailers were selling the D600 for £1950, Amazon dropped the price to £1600 for a few hours. I pounced. Even with subsequent discounts by other retailers, this is a good price. I think it will still be a good price in a year. Shortly after I made the purchase, Amazon raised the price £300.

2) Cost of upgrade

I just sold my D700 for £1000. It’s a little less than I was hoping for, but aggressive discounts on the D600 and D800 have hit prices of second-hand D700s – that’s the way it goes. Even so, this puts the cost of my upgrade at £600. So, £600 for the best sensor on the market, a 30 per cent reduction in weight (and thus corresponding increase in use), 100 per cent accurate viewfinder (D700 was 95 per cent) the ability to shoot video (D700 didn’t), a switch to SD cards (macbook takes ‘em – no more card readers), and a bunch of smaller features that will help with shooting. This is affordable. Once I sell my compact flash cards and reader, that cost will come down further.

3) Investment in system

I own four Nikon lenses, three flashes, a GPS unit and a remote release. My partner shoots a D7000 and owns two other lenses. In terms of the time and money it’s taken me to build this system, it is irreplaceable. By making my next camera a Nikon, I get to discover these accessories all over again without spending another cent. As somebody who has dabbled extensively in other camera systems over the past year, I can tell you there is nothing more depressing than having to start from scratch with a new lens system, and there are many other accessories you can’t even get for other DSLR or mirrorless models. As a bonus, I’m now on the same battery system as my partner, so we can share a charger when traveling. It’s the little things …

4) It’s a hot camera

The biggest influence on my decision to get a D600 was spending time with it and a D800 recently. I had time to handle them both, check out new features and get a feel for the ergonomics. What surprised me most was that the D800 ergonomics are worse than the D700 – the grip is stubbier, the back is crowded, the exposure compensation button is in an awkward position, the camera isn’t significantly lighter than the D700 (especially if you’re still pairing it with a pro lens) and the shutter sound would raise the dead. Even as the price approached the £2000 mark (down from £2599), I was put off. The D600, by comparison, feels great in the hand, albeit less substantial. It’s smaller and lighter yet somehow leaves much more room for your thumb, and just fits. Its shutter, though not as durable as the D800′s, has the more discreet – and just cooler – sound of the D7000. I also think the D600 is a better looking camera. Don’t judge me.

5) One more thing

The D600 is small enough and light enough to take anywhere, especially when paired with a prime lens. This could be the camera that gets me back onto one system. If (it’s a big ‘if’) I sell the X-Pro1, I’ll have made money overall. I’m thinking very seriously about it, but I need a bit more time with the D600 before I make up my mind.

So there you have it, like a seasoned addict I have reasoned myself into spending more money on cameras. Something tells me that I won’t regret it this time. A month ago I wrote that if I had any sense I would buy the D600. Well, at that price, I’m prepared to be sensible for once.

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Freeman writes;

“Artifacts [such as blurred focus or broken composition] in photographs can work very well, but they do so by trading on what we know an accurately taken image should look like. In other words, to be successful and accepted, they can only be occasional. Willful disregard for the principles of composition and design can only be justified conceptually – by saying, in effect, ‘this is not a normal photograph’ … This is photography as conceptual art, and concept is being substituted for skill.”

If I quote more I’ll be in breach of copyright law, but Freeman had two basic points:

First, that this technique works best when it is employed deliberately, rather than out of ignorance. You have to demonstrate that you know what you’re doing before people will give you credit for doing something interesting with this style. It’s much like songwriting – people took Bowie’s more experimental work seriously because he’d demonstrated time and again that he knew how to write a number one hit. Had he opened with one of his concept albums, he’d have been ignored.

Second: that it will only be effective if you use it occasionally. This is where Instagram comes in. Its filters lend themselves to a casual, off-balance style of composition that is effective when used sparingly but is now endemic on Facebook and Twitter. Sadly, this is making lazy photographers of us all and removing this great style of photography as a tool for occasional impact.

There really are some cracking phone photographers out there – I see things on Google+ that blow me away. But from the second I lay eyes on those photos, the careful and deliberate nature of the composition – and the skill required to see and capture it – is obvious. I’d like to see more of that – especially in my own photography

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Basically it’s an infinity pool only a few millimetres deep with an irregular pattern of these discs, which are apparently LED lights that illuminate the fountain at night. Two full-grown trees rise from the pool, and atomisers at their bases turn the water to steam every fifteen minutes. Here’s a wider angle shot to give you more of an idea of it.

I’ll have to head back soon to see it at night. I could visit the Leica store which is only a few blocks away …  no? Bad idea?

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We spent half the day wandering the streets of Montmartre, then headed south for sunset on the Tour Montparnasse and a smattering of the Montparnasse nightlife. The Tour Montparnasse is the only tourist attraction I’ve ever visited that allows tripods, and they have a gap in some of the glass safety panels at eye level which lets you shoot glare-free vistas. Most photographers choose this ascent over the Eiffel Tower because a) you get pictures with the Eiffel Tower in them and b) there are no queues – it’s true!

We got there a little early, and that did pay off as quite a few people arrived for the blue hour and competition for the camera-friendly positions was fierce.

Having crossed all the cheesy stuff off my list, I’ll definitely head back to spend more time in the quiet backstreets of the southern and eastern arrondissements. I got to do some of that on Day 4 and really enjoyed the atmosphere.

* All shots are the Nikon D700 with the 24-120mm f4.

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