The shot was taken as part of test I did on a 28mm vintage lens that was loaned to me by a Flickr friend Simon's Utak. The lens is quite slow with a maximum aperture of only f/3.5 which doesn't compare favourably to other 28mm lenses of the era. But Simon, who is a true expert when it comes to vintage lenses, insisted I should try it because he saw it as a very capable lens which renders both sharp and in a very pleasing way. So I took it out for a walk around a local lake to give it a try. The lens checked out and Simon was certainly correct, it renders beautifully. I was lucky also because this picture was taken shortly after a heavy downpour which was followed by a break in the clouds and some unexpected very gorgeous light.

Sony A7ii
Asahi SMC Pentax 28mm f/3.5
Mercers Park, Redhill, Surrey

Tags:   Asahi SMC Pentax 28mm f3.5 Mercers Park Redhill Sony A7ii

© All Rights Reserved

The much photographed (by me!) Prospect Place apartments at Battersea Power Station, designed by Frank Gehry architects. I cannot resist this fabulous building and return often to see if I can find a new angle.

35mm photography
Leica R6.2 SLR
Leitz Vario-Elmar-R 80-200 f/4.5
Kodak Color 800 (scanned image converted to B&W)

Tags:   Leica R6.2 SLR Leitz Vario-Elmar-R 80-200 f/4.5 Kodak 800 colour film for disposable cameras Battersea Power Station Frank Gehry architects architecture on film B&W Black and White Film Film Is Not Dead film photography Analogue I Shoot Film Stay broke shoot film

© All Rights Reserved

An image that has been languishing on my hard drive for a year now. Taken at Newhaven on a wild weather day.

Tags:   Olympus OMD EM1 Mk2 Olympus PRO 12-100mm f/4.0 Newhaven oystercatchers stormy weather beach

© All Rights Reserved

I was going to call this shot "Double Edged Sword" because really, that's what it represents to me. Let me explain. This is from a roll of film I shot ten days ago on a bright sunny day in London. The old film camera I was using has a meter in it which seems to be accurate judging by the other shots I got with it that day. However here I had stepped into a significantly darker area under a bridge and silly me, I didn't re-meter to expose for the reduced light. The result: a very dark underexposed picture full of shadows, in fact nothing like what the actual scene looked like.

But of course we always talk about happy accidents and this was definitely one of those moments for me when I saw the scan. So I like the reduced colour palette and the brownish tinge to the shot (which is exactly what came out of the camera by the way) and the silhouette of the young lady walking, and the red strip light, all good. So why "double edged sword" you might ask. Well, the severely underexposed shadow areas were so completely full of grain and artefacts as to render the shot almost unusable. So I ended up with an image that due to my own mistake came out looking great but also, because of that same mistake, was virtually unusable. I couldn't rescue it in Photoshop but as a last resort I took it into Nik 6 Dfine which is a specialised noise reduction app that I admit I very seldom use. But somehow, and I have no idea how, somehow it worked a bit of magic and smoothed out those really bad areas. It's still not great but at least I feel like it's now good enough to post.

35mm film photography
Yashica FX-3 SLR
Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 lens
Kodak 800 color film (from a disposable camera)

Tags:   she walks alone London under tower bridge Bermundsey dark silhouettes Yashica FX-3 SLR Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 Kodak 800 colour film for disposable cameras Film Film Is Not Dead Analogue Stay broke shoot film happy accidents

© All Rights Reserved

When I go on my annual golf trip to Spain every autumn I stay in a friend's house in a room on the 2nd floor. The room has a large terrace and this was shot from that terrace one evening as the sun was setting looking west over a number of properties. These sunsets are gone as quickly as they arrive but can be so beautiful for those moments they exist.

Tags:   Leica Summicron-R 50mm f/2 Olympus OMD-EM10 Spain manual focus vintage lens on mirrorless camera

© All Rights Reserved