Adventures in Toyland

The thing with new toys is they take time to get used to. You often have to give up trying to make them play like your old toys and find new ways of setting them up. That has meant quite a bit of messing about and taking rubbish photos. But every now and then something pops up and despite the unfamiliarities of the gear it turns out OK.

For some reason colour pictures which are almost monochromatic are often appealing. When they include light and texture they can be even better. The picture above also alerted me to a use for a feature which I thought I didn't like. When shooting raw with the aspect ratio set to anything other than the native one the screen displays the picture at the set ratio. But when it's reviewed the image includes the bits which looked to have been cropped out, but with them greyed over. However, when loaded into Lightroom the picture appears as it did when taken. Here's the useful bit. When you click on the cropping tool in LR the missing bits reappear! Somehow the camera must tell the computer to automatically crop from the entire file. It also embeds a lens profile which means there is no real need to correct any distortion the lens has.  Fiendish.

Now this is only a benefit for me because I always have the camera set to shoot in either 3:2 or 1:1 aspect ratio. In the shot above that meant there were extra pixels above and below the frame I had made. But I had made it with the signs on the fencingcut off slightly. By sliding the image down a tad I was able to correct my mistake without having to alter the aspect ratio of the final picture. This feature can also be used to correct wonky horizons without losing as many pixels as would be the case from a 3:2 sensor.

Now there are some photographers out there who think you have to use every pixel you've paid for. But as I bought the toy camera in order to shoot square pictures I allowed for that in advance. And 12mp is plenty for me no matter what. So by shooting what amounts to a 16mp 3:2 sensor I can correct minor mistakes with no loss of resolution.

Having discovered this helpful foible I put it to good use once more when I fell into my bad habit of framing people too low. I couldn't rescue as much of the clasped hands as I would have liked, but I certainly balanced the frame better.

With all the fancy tricks for focusing and the silent shutter I thought I'd try some street photography. Every time I try shooting from the hip I wonder why I bother. Although I like the off-kilter angles the method produces, all too often the compositions fall flat. Then again, sometimes you include something unexpected like the message on the board below.

Ordinarily I always have my cameras set to take one photograph per press of the shutter. Today I thought I'd try using the silent burst mode to see if that made a difference. The one decent picture I got doing that was the first frame in a burst! I'll be going back to one at a time again! It's not perfect, but I like the strangeness of this picture. 

Today's wanderings have convinced me to go back to photographing the things I usually do in the way I usually do. Which may well mean putting the toy away. Or at least saving it for when I need to use it's special features - the silent shutter, the flippy screen or the square format. As it takes up next to no room it'll be no hardship to cart it around with me just in case.

One thing's for sure. I compose pictures much better with my eye to a viewfinder. And for an electronic one the new toy has a pretty good viewfinder.

Looking on the positive side, I might have made some progress on settling on a new project. If only by eliminating one idea! I think I have also managed to accept a lesson I had learned long ago. That I give up too quickly. I spend plenty of time at the poultry shows and auctions, but on local 'projects' I tend to run out of steam after a couple of hours. Some of this is because I often make a late start after getting work out of the way. There's rain forecast tomorrow. I'm going to try to use that as a day of work and make Monday a day of photography. It probably won't turn out that way though...

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Flatfish time again

Having a natural break from a project sees me floundering again. I have three ideas, one of which I'm playing around with, but I can't find a good way 'in' to any of them yet. When I get free time I still get drawn back to the bloody beach. Today, however, put an end to that on a sunny weekend. The road was chock-a-block  and no fun at all. As a result it's been a week of unconnected pictures. Which I don't find very satisfying.

Things got so frustrating that I set up a 'studio' in my garage and set about photographing some of the objects I've picked up off the beach over the last few years. I was going to get clever with the lighting but found that the strip lights and window light gave an effect which I preferred. I might have another go to correct the things I don't like.

Firstly I'd light the background (a wrinkled old sheet), secondly I'd make sure the 'horizon' fell in the same place in each frame, thirdly I'd manage the depth of field better to keep the background equally out of focus in each frame.

Naturally enough I made a grid of twelve of the pictures.

I chose to use my 'toy' camera for this as it gives more depth of field than a DSLR. I'm not sure that was a wise choice. The fold down screen helped, but my DSLR has one of those. Being able to select different aspect ratios is one of the things I like about toy cameras. The square format was what I wanted for these pics and it's much easier to frame things right when the picture on the screen is already cropped than trying to guess.

After some discussion on Talk Photography about these pics I am going to collect more bottles. I have a few more than the two in the grid already.

Another benefit of toy cameras is for shooting in black and white. The viewfinder looks like a tiny black and white telly! I still prefer to use colour, but I am getting an irrational urge to do a short project in black and white. Sometimes it seems appropriate for certain images. But I'm not sure I could sustain it for a prolonged period.

Some pictures are almost monochrome when processed in colour.

It comes down to tools for the job. The toy camera has one really useful function for taking candid photographs. A truly silent mode. The only sound is that of the aperture blades closing and opening. With the screen flipped down and the camera at waist level it's surprising how close you can get with a wide angle lens! There's always a price to pay with anything, it seems. The price with the electronic shutter is that under fluorescent light it gives horizontal bands on the pictures.

Shooting at waist level gives a different look to the world, no matter what is being photographed. And I'm quite struck with the novelty of the square format at the moment. I just can't find a project to use them for. As soon as I go back to a real camera, however, that big, clear viewfinder and the subtlety of the tonal gradations in the files makes me wonder why I bother with anything else. No doubt my ideal camera will be made when I'm to decrepit to use the thing.

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Give it a rest?

The line of least resistance is always the easiest one to take, and going to the beach has become a habit. Even when I head that way fully intending to go elsewhere I spot something that makes me think it's worth one more visit. Seeing the lifeguard's hut in place on the sea wall on Saturday was too much temptation to resist. It'll be there all summer so I should have stuck to my guns. That said I did get to update my picture of their vehicle near the pier, and get a decent shot of the warning notice when the tide had come in. Nothing fresh and interesting though.

The original idea had been to go round town and see if I could get inspiration for a new project. All that happened was I indulged my urge to photograph traffic cones. When I am faced with bright sunshine it always strikes me the pictures I take always look like someone else had taken them. This shot of cones has the added bonuses of a bike and a pigeon. What more could I want in a photograph?

As it turned out I did what I usually do in town and photographed boring stuff. Then I went to the art gallery to depress myself looking round the annual open exhibition of dull and duller paintings and photographs.  Strange how the subconscious works though. When I reviewed my pics from the wandering I had a bit of a red and white thing going on and paired a couple of pictures up that I htought worked together. Someone once said that if you are going to include words in a photograph then you should intend them to be read.

I ended up back at the pier, which I always think should be a source of photographs but just doesn't get me interested. I gave up.

Sunday and I was determined to give the pier a serious look. I didn't get that far. The sandplant was bristling with twitchers, so I pulled in for a look around. It proved less interesting than I'd hoped. However, although no more work had been done to it things had changed. At least it looked like some rubbish had been dumped in it. Photographing there with blue skies and sunshine made a change, but I didn't stop long.

In the car park I saw a pick up with an empty trailer on the back. I guessed someone was out beyond the marsh on a quad. Like a fool I put my boots on and went for a look. It's a long walk, and slippy towards the end of the track. Searching my archive when I got home it surprised me how much mud has accumulated in less than five years. Where that was hardcore by the posts which mark the end of the track is now very muddy indeed.

Then:

Now:

There was indeed a quad out on the shore. Showing a vehicle going through water helps convey movement. Otherwise it can look very static. A quad is a very good idea for going far out on the shore. I was knackered when I got back to the car and couldn't face doing any more walking, so called it a day.

All that sunshine over the weekend and nothing achieved. I still can't settle on a project. The ideas I have seem like they'd make for decent photographs, but they don't have much to say or aren't the sort of subjects I want to learn more about. The beach people project keeps me interested because I have a bee in my bonnet about the beach belonging to the people and not to its self appointed custodians. Poultry keeping keeps me interested because I'm always learning something new about chicken husbandry and the fancy.

One thing's for sure. I'm going to have to drag myself away from the seaside or I'll end up fiddling about at the edges of the beach project. Time to trawl my archive and see if anything grabs my attention.

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Time for a change

Spring arrived with a vengeance this weekend. Warm sunshine did worked its magic and transformed the beach into the seaside with people tramping through mud in unsuitable footwear to reach a sandy spot to pitch their windbreaks. The traffic was prolific too, making the journey to and from the beach painful. I guess this all combines to provide me with a natural break for my beach project.

"Trudging slowly over wet sand"

Saturday was off-putting enough, but at least I had the experience of being in the middle of a swirling mass of Old English Sheepdogs! This madness resulted in one half decent picture. On the whole I took very few pictures over the weekend, deleted most of them, and got nothing to add to the project.

A short while back a mention of Adobe Spark appeared on one of my Twitter feeds. Investigation revealed that a branded version is available to use for free. So I've been giving it a try as a means of presenting short documentary projects. It's all been a bit suck it and see, but with some preplanning I'm sure I could make a decent job of it for something. What I've done so far can be found at Beach Life.

The toy camera continues to both please and annoy. The controls are frustrating in the extreme. I just can't find a combination of settings that makes it fit my way of working. If I'm not accidentally tocuhing the touch screen I'm pressing a button by mistake. The touch screen can be stopped form being touch sensitive, but then some buttons I use get switched to different functions. It's driving me nuts! And don't mention the lack of auto ISO in manual mode. Or the eye sensor that switches the screen off at inopportune moments...

The files are nice, for such a small sensor. Much better than any form the mirrorless cameras I've tried before.It's almost like having the set up I used in my old film days. One body and 28mm and 50mm equivalent leness. All of which I can get in two jacket pockets. I don't really need anything more. Apart from a couple of spare batteries. This is the biggest bugbear with mirrorless cameras. They eat batteries.

I have a project in mind for this camera where it's completely silent mode might be useful. I just have to force myself to leave the proper kit at home. Oh, and I might start using it for some video ideas. Eeek!!!

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Technology advances

Although I feel like I could do with a change of direction and to give the beach project a rest to refresh my brain I keep on getting drawn back to it. The weather over the weekend was dire. Rain, rain and a bit more rain. There were a couple of breaks and one coincided with low tide. I thought there might have been a chance to catch someone tending a net, but if anyone had had a net out overnight they'd been and gone. However there was a speck in the distance with some sort of trolley that seemed worth investigating. It was a youngish chap who had just given up trying to catch shrimps.The wind was too strong, stirring up the sand in the shallows and putting the shrimps off.

 

If the forecast hadn't been for even stronger winds he'd have been back on Sunday. When the rain stopped and the sun shone on Sunday this idiot grabbed an old camera and the lens that time forgot and hit the beach again. It was very windy. Despite the rain having soaked the sand the wind was drying it rapidly and sending it flying across the beach. I felt sorry for the small dogs having to put up with it at their level. Only the occasional gust made it sting my face. 

The near gale had brought the kite surfing madmen out and the lens was almost long enough to get some decent shots. But kite surfing action is not something I have much interest in photographing these days. The wind was really whipping up the sea and I kept having to clean my glasses and the front element of the lens.

I wasn't the only one out with a camera. There was a chap in a hi-vis jacket who I've seen there before. Like other wielders of strange white lenses he wasn't too approachable. So I took some pictures of him. One with a very feint rainbow in the background.

There was a weekender at Pontins and some inappropriately dressed ravers were wandering the beach. The beach is a place where anything can happen I didn't ask what was going on here...

I'm gradually getting to grips with the new toy. I've sort of sussed out most of its quirks and am now testing it's technical limits. In terms of ease of use it's better than the compact I bought for 'street' photography and in that department and technical performance it beats my fishing compact. So much so that I'm thinking it might find a place in my fishing bag. With that in mind I snapped up a rather well priced used telephoto zoom for it today and gave it a quick whirl at the still windy beach. Or I tried to.

As I was driving along the coastal road there was a heavy shower approaching from the west. I just made it to a parking spot in time to grab some snaps. The first with my 'proper' camera and a 'good' lens.

 Then some with the toy camera and lens. At these sizes there's nothing to choose between them.

Since I had my other toy camera sensor technology has advanced enough for me to notice. It's the same make of camera, the same sensor size, but the files are much 'smoother'. That's the only way I can describe them. The old camera's files were sort of 'chalky'. The colour gradations unnatural. The new toy makes much nicer pictures to my eye.

High ISO values in low light are better, but nowhere near what Nikon's full frame magic can work. In good light the high ISOs aren't too bad. Somewhere close to what an APS sensor delivered seven or eight years ago. Even the cheap lenses manage to produce enough detail to keep me happy. Maybe that's because I still judge things in terms of 400 ASA black and white film! This shot is at ISO 2500. It needed cleaning up a bit to remove some noise, and a bit of sharpening, but it's surprisingly clean. I'm sure it would print OK to A4.

Talking of printing, I ran some off last week to change the ones on my wall. What interested me was how pictures which didn't look all that sharp at 100% on the computer screen looked bloody sharp printed out at 15" x 10". Plenty of fine detail to be seen. And they weren't shot with the 'best' lenses either.

While I can't see me dumping the proper camera system, the micro four thirds will make a light weight option to carry around with the telephoto zoom on. It might not give me the shallow depth of field of a fast lens on full frame, but that's not something I crave, and for the times I want a focal length over 100mm it will suffice. The lens that time forgot isn't going to be got rid of. I might not use it much, but it has its uses every now and then. The lens that I forgot, however, is going to get sold. It might fund another toy camera. One with a flip round screen for easier self takes when fishing. I might even use the toy camera for some more serious video work!!

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