Menu
July is the time we get together with old friends for a week of fishing and hedonistic self-indulgence in Scotland. These friendships date back to the ‘70s in Johannesburg and since our many happy times together there, everyone has made their homes elsewhere, most back here in the UK.
So, this week in Grantown-on-Spey is a wonderful chance to catch-up; six days of hopeful casting for salmon and in the evenings, reminiscences, story telling, great meals around the huge dining table and lots of Scottish Communion Wine. And for me yesterday, a painful, fully clad tumble with rod and wading stick into the very chilly waters of the Spey itself.
The least said about that, the better.
Most mornings I‘ve been out early, camera in hand – shooting the countryside – usually with some good results. Yesterday however, the light was very poor and I managed only one good shot, which I’m still fighting with – the telephone wires really don’t add anything to the picture.
This morning dawned heavily overcast and with rain forecast, I opted to stay around the house and catch up with some reading. But as most of you will know only too well, the gentle snick of a shutter is an addictive thing and with only the scudding murk outside, I decided to use this silent time (it’s usually only me up and about so early) for some photography of the huge house we rent for these annual Highland gatherings.
These are the results – all shot with the Fuji X-Pro2 and Fuji’s 16mm f1.4 used wide open.
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
Hello Mr Perton
I was discussing cameras with Pascal Jappy. He adores the Zeiss optics so he prefers the Sony bodies. Meanwhile I have a love hate relationship with my Fuji XT-1 sometimes great and when most needed some flaws. Friend with the Sony AR7-2 is always on his post production LR-6 to get great pictures, I do not have the time to look at computer screens for hours.
The Fuji XT-2 (sibling of the XPro-2) will be out in september
A simple question: how would you rate/compare the new sensor in your Fuji to the old one? I had some problems adapting to the parallax induced AF in the XPro-2 with the 23mm 1.4 Fuji lens so my results were very erratic for the few hours I had that camera in my possession. Many thanks
Gianfranco
Gianfranco,
I love the X-Pro2. It’s rugged, predictable (does what I expect – lots of cameras don’t) and the new sensor is brilliant.
Let me guess, Paul – the weather’s lousy, and you couldn’t bear to leave the X-Pro2 on the desk! Demonstrating how true it is, that there’s always something to photograph. I was most impressed by the shots with fabric etc – it does seem that Fuji has nailed it with their colour filter array, I can’t see any sign of moiré – which (gauging the difference between “moiré” and “no moiré” from the cams I’ve tried out) frees up the optics, to provide a sharper picture.
Which is a “good thing”, in the words of the English authors Sellar & Yeatman (“1066 and All That”, etc). Moiré is not a problem in most shots, so why have a filter that takes the edge of image sharpness on ALL shots, for the sake of the few that need it?
Paul
It looks like a nice place. Though being a bottoms up sorta guy . . .
Could you give us some abstractions looking up at things? You know the mouse eye view.
There is no such thing as boredom when you have a camera. Just an opportunity to try something different.
Nicely done! Color would have been a distraction.
PaulB
Ha! Clearly you don’t have six decade old knees…
Almost. 5.7 decade old. But not 6. 😉
When I was younger I used to crawl around and roll onto my back. But now that getting up may involve a Chiorpractor, I use a monopod with the camera upside down above the floor. Plus I’m trying to work out mounting the camera on a remote control car.
PaulB
No – mine are edging towards 7 & a half decades, Paul – so I really appreciate tilt screens that can face in all directions. Regrettably, only one of my cams has one – both the others have fixed screens, or their SLR viewfinders.
jean pierre
Check out cameras that have phone aps.
Two years ago I was at the Pebble Beach Golf Course for the big car show, the Concours’ d’Elegance, and I met a gentleman who was close to 70 and had an Olympus EP-1 mounted on a tripod head at the end of a 12ft (4 meter) long section of plastic pipe. He had the camera tilted down and used the Olympus Ap for his iPhone to view his image, focus, and make the exposure. This let him get above the crowds.
PaulB
OMG – well I suppose the Americans live by the creed “the bigger, the better” or “America IS the biggest”! I couldn’t fit a 4 metre pipe in my camera bag, and I don’t imagine they’d let me on the plane with it anyway. If I ran into someone behaving like that, it’d supercharge my hatred of “selfie-sticks”!
I keep reading articles by pros who think I should happily drop on my front & shoot from an altitude of 8 cm. Yeah – not bloody likely! The devil will arrive at work on ice skates, before that happens!
Jean Pierre
He was very courteous to everyone around him. He always had it vertical and held close and I never saw him adjust the camera so he must have used it once or twice before. 😉 Though I am sure he got the pipe at the local hardware store. It was the small diameter (25mm) pipe used used for lawn irrigation.
If you get flustered by selfie sticks you would have really have been amazed by the guy (also about 70 yrs old) carrying the ladder. Yes an 8 Ft (2.6 m) fiberglass ladder with a ball head and Nikon D3 on the top. He also carried it vertically when moving about. Though he had the best scam for making his images. He would wait until he could get right next to the line separating the displays from the public to open his ladder, then he would ask the display mechanic or a near by security guard to help steady him on the ladder. Most are happy to help as they don’t want him to fall into the display or on the car, and he is happy because they are not in the camera’s field of view.
If you should get the opportunity to attend the Concours at Pebble Beach, plan to be on the grounds when they open at 6:00am. This will be your best chance to move about with your (selfie stick, pipe, ladder, etc.) to make photos. This is also when the light is really good. As when it gets to be between 10:00-10:30am 50,000 of your best friends will start to show up. And by Noon everyone will be there, making any kind of creative photography impossible.
ROTFLMHAO – and no, I’m not going to translate that !!!
Slowly, I am coming to terms with selfie sticks. Despite an innate loathing of them. Also cellphones – ditto. I don’t appreciate being smothered by someone else’s “opinions”, so I shouldn’t be a hypocrite and do it to other people. As long as they don’t get the way of a good shot 🙂
If ever I went to Pebble Beach! Even before I saw your suggestion, I was already thinking “how early in the morning do they open the gate?” Only time I was involved in a car show, I did something similar – my own car was one of the exhibits, and I took full advantage of the privileges that gave me to photograph whatever I wanted before the gates opened and the public swarmed in.
One card that I’ve been able to play, from time to time, is the fact I live on the other side of the world. (I have no sham or scruples about it – it’s quite true anyway). If you say that to someone in charge, and look suitably forlorn, and explain that you’ll be on a plane out of the place the next day so this is your last opportunity etc etc – sometimes, they shut the gate and give you a guided tour, which is magic – especially if you love available light photography.
Done that (the “I live elsewhere”) myself. It’s very useful 😉