I can't escape chickens...

After my foray with the slow zoom I was back at the mart with my fast zooms this weekend. It was poultry auction/show day on Saturday and I wanted to try my dreaded 70-200mm out at the show. I'm using this lens more and more these days, although I still don't approve of it! I'd be happier if it was a 50-150mm, but those only seem to be available for  crop sensor cameras on which they have an effective zoom range pretty much the same as a 70-200mm on a non-crop sensor. C'est la vie.

Despite my reservations I found it pretty useful, and even at shutter speeds slower than the usual recommendations for hand holding the vibration reduction did its job and got me sharp pics. Just as well because in artificial light any speed faster than 100th of a second results in widely fluctuating white balance issues.

What I most dislike about longer focal lengths is the way they tempt me to shoot candid pictures from a distance. The old 'sniping' approach. It is useful for throwing backgrounds out of focus though.

No matter what lens I'm using I try to be upfront about taking photos of people. Occasionally it pays to be unobtrusive. Early in the afternoon the light started to get interesting in places when the sun was low enough to shine trough the slatted end walls of the shed.

My other lens was my fast standard zoom. 24mm at the wide end is as wide as I like to go except in exceptional circumstances. Using the slightly clunky flippy screen is something I'm doing more and more of, but the way it works it is a spray and pray procedure when it comes to catching fleeting action. Every now and then it pays off though.

Just as I was thinking I had nothing fresh to get pictures of at poultry shows I got two. One of a bird being taken from a pen for judging, and one of a judge filling in his judging book. One taken with the longer lens, one with the shorter.

The auction proved far less productive. The only slight change was altering my viewpoint by sitting on the planks the auctioneers walk along over the sheep pens. The public are not supposed to stand on them so I didn't push my luck. Also I have a terrible sense of balance and would probably have fallen off anyway... Not a major difference to previous efforts, but a little. Again the longer lens was useful.

Lacking much in the way of inspiration I tried a few off-the-wall ideas which didn't work.

Clichés are hard to resist at times. As is a black and white conversion.

Between this visit to the mart and the one previous I had been out and about looking for sheep in the wild. Well, in fields. I was in search of sheepscapes with a few ideas in mind. I got close with one, but wasn't 100% happy with it. What I'm looking for is variety of landscape away from the flat expanse of the marsh. Something to keep an eye out for when tootling round the countryside, I suppose.

Short winter days don't make it easy to have opportunistic journeys in search of photographs. On Friday I did manage to call in at the sand dunes on my way home from a work related task to see if I could find the Herdwicks spending their winter there. I've photographed them in the past. Not the same sheep, those will have been chops or mince a while back. Conservation grazing is all the rage these days. The way the anti-meat and anti-farming lobbies are working it might be the only way livestock will survive into the next century - that or on heritage farms, preserved to show future generations what life used to be like in the way we have coal mines as tourist attractions.

The light was flat and dull, meaning that when I did find the sheep (gimmer lambs by the look of them) there wasn't much point trying to take any photographs. I did, of course, just in case I forget to go back. And there was one chance which arose that had to be taken. It might not add anything to the big sheep project, but it's not a bad picture.

Today the sun shone, but I didn't get out until later than I ought. With nothing in mind I ended up at a nature reserve where there was another flock grazing for conservation purposes. Last time I'd looked in they were in an inaccessible area. This time I was surprised to see them blocking the footpath along the bank. Unsurprisingly they had the lowering sun behind them as I approached causing me problems as it wasn't lowered enough to provide 'interesting' light.

By the time I had walked past the sheep and returned things had improved and the sheeps' fleeces were rim-lit. With some careful exposure and some fiddling on the computer I got one passable picture. In both cases the 70-200mm was in use. I do seem to be getting the hang of it at last. Whether that is a good thing remains to be seen. I really don't want to be relying on it all the time.

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Inspiration

Every now and then I click a link which takes me to a website I should have found sooner. Last night was a case in point and I spent longer than expected reading bits and pieces on Peter Marshall's re-photo.co.uk. I'll no doubt be returning to read more. While I was there I realise that Marshall sometimes uses a slow zoom on the same model DSLR body I use, and high ISOs when required. I resolved to give that approach myself today at the auction mart.

It seemed to work pretty well. At ISO 10,000 it does pay to get the exposure right as lifting the shadows does make them quite grainy with some colour noise. But for web viewing, even quite large, the results are fine. Certainly for reportage/documentary/photo-journalistic uses. Much better than I'd ever have got with black and white film under the same limited lighting conditions.

The real upside to using the slower lens was that depth of field was increased. At times I was even stopping down to f8. Technically I've made a breakthrough by overcoming my reluctance to use much higher ISOs.

Seeing pictures which capture the experience and work visually, without being too run of the mill still remains a struggle. I see one or two.

Using the flip down screen for lower angles shots proved its worth once again. The problem is getting the focus right, although using smaller apertures made life a bit easier. Especially at wider angles. Close-ups of sheep are usually pot-luck with getting the eye in focus.

I tried the slow shutter speed 'trick' again. It'll work one of these days. There was one frame I wish I'd had a faster shutter speed.though. Sod's law!

After today's exercise I might give my superzoom a try in the mart's dim light at some point in the future. Although that might bring the temptation to snipe the dread candid 'character' shots.

Another website I found last night, maybe from the one I mentioned earlier (I forget the link trail I was following) was Life Force Magazine. I had a look through it today and enjoyed much of it. Not surprisingly the photo essays on fishing and farming topics appealed most. Whenever I get a bit stuck for motivation looking at the kind of photography I like usually does the trick.

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Autumn light and other stories

Because the clocks had gone back I set off early last Sunday in the hope of finding some sheep with a backdrop of autumnal colours. The sun was shining, so I was full of confidence. I even found some sheep in field with a footpath running through it and some golden leaves beyond. Sheep being sheep they weren't for posing where or how I'd like then the sun disappeared. When the cloud moved away and the light was gorgeous my camera froze. I got one half decent picture which almost fitted my concept. Ideally it would have been a group of standing sheep. One recumbent sheep had to suffice.

Out of the wind back at the car I sorted the camera out. which was a relief. The sun had swung round by then, however, and was no longer lighting the leaves in the sheep field so I headed off elsewhere.

Autumnal sunshine on golden leaves is very alluring. Against my usual impulses I pulled over and tried to make a trraditional(ish) landscape picture or two. Pleasing in their way, I suppose - after quite a bit of fiddling on the computer.

As I was about to get back in my car I saw the light on a tree trunk on the other side of the road. Much more my type of 'landscape' picture. It still took me a few frames before I got the one I was after.

As autumn speeds towards winter the sun stays lower and lower. This means there's no need to get up early to see striking lighting effects. especially when there's a slate grey sky. Something I'm a sucker for.

Why some people are hung up on photographing only beautiful landscapes is beyond me. I get the impression that it's not photography that interests them, not even picture making, but simply looking at 'nice' views which they just happen to take photographs of.  It's the subject that concerns them, not the picture. For me photography is all about making the stuff I see, anything and anywhere, fit the viewfinder frame in a way that makes a picture with some sort of visual structure. That's not to say that there aren't times when merely recording something is enough. There are. But if both can be combined in one picture that produces something else. I don't manage it often, but it's what I strive for.

To me the picture below is as well worth taking as any of a mountain reflected in a glass-like lochan. Certainly it's more complex, in formal terms, as an image than most landscapes. Although I took it thinking about the abstract qualities of shapes and colours it also serves as a document, and maybe (if one chooses) as a comment. It's certainly not just a picture of a fence.

Most of my photographs, I would claim, have a documentary nature of some degree. And when they are primarily intended to be documentary I still try, but usually fail, to give the pictures a form which works in that abstract way. Cartier-Bresson referred to good photographs having a geometry to them. This is something which is more complex than the usual the 'rules' usually applied by amateur photographers. Leading lines, rule of thirds, that sort of basic nonsense. But there are other ways to make pictures work than shapes and colour. It's this way of approaching photography which keeps it interesting for me. Repeating the standard formulae would bore me stiff!

I was late getting to yesterday's poultry show, the judging was already under way when I arrived. This time I tried a slightly bolder approach, getting in closer, which I think was a good move. Hopefully I'll give it another try in a fortnight at another show.

The show was one of the biggest the club has held with over 800 birds exhibited in the purpose built show hall. This time round the championship row pens had been revamped. Larger but fewer pens, with name plates for easy identification of the section winners, and floral displays to brighten the whole thing up. Awkward to photograph - with or without birds in the pens!

A few more pics here.

As I was feeling uninspired after the judging was done I thought I'd have a dummy run at photographing chicken feet to make a grid. To do it properly would require the birds to be out of the pens and standing on a clean surface. Better lighting would be preferred too. Whether I'll ever get round to taking this idea any further I doubt. Planning isn't my strong point...

A failed experiment

It seemed like a good idea at the time to take the little Fuji and use it to make some black and white pics at the auction mart. For one thing the lighting is inconsistent in colour, for another the camera is unobtrusive. Where could there be a fly in the ointment? Lots of places as it turned out.

I thought I could live with the slow autofocus. Even bypass it by using manual focus. That didn't improve the slight lag between pressing the shutter release and the exposure being made. Using autofocus I had forgotten about the other delay. The slow autofocus messed up a few frames by putting the focus somewhere unexpected when the shutter actually fired. Maybe a change of setting would cure that. But there'd still be a lag. This makes grabbing shots hit and miss. In this case, miss.

Hmm. Why is that in colour? It's in colour because when I got the files on the computer I converted one to colour and preferred it. Odd colours and all. I guess that black and white, for me, is to be saved for 'art' photography. The documentary stuff has to be in colour.

I did try some 'arty' stuff. Slow shutter speeds to get movement blur. Even then the lag factor messed things up for me.

All in all it was a bit frustrating. There's no doubting that for static subjects, or even slower moving ones, it can be a great camera. But for this sort of thing I find it awkward. At least for the sort of pictures I like to try for, and the way I like to take them. So my few better photos from today were mostly of subjects which didn't move much. With the odd exception.

I even succumbed to taking pictures of Herdwicks. They are very photogenic... And some pictures work better in colour no matter what.

There was another thing. Batteries. They don't last five minutes. What's more, the electronic viewfinder, while perfectly useable in daylight looks like a TV that's on the blink under some artificial lights. It's most off putting to see dark bands scrolling over the viewfinder. Those who are saying that DSLRs have had their day are jumping the gun in my estimation. Maybe the new breed of mirrorless cameras are a match, but they're rather expensive to try out only to find they aren't all the fanboys crack them up to be.

The non-technical lesson learned is that I'll have to up my game on the picture making front. I didn't come away with much more than snaps if I'm honest. I might have been concentrating on the gear instead of the pictures. But that's what can happen when the gear isn't intuitive to use, or what you are well accustomed to using more like. It was a valuable experiment to give the Fuji a concerted try out. But it#s back to the comfy old slippers of the DSLRs for me.

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Pretentious?

This idea of taking photographs in the wood in black and white has given me a bit of direction of late. Even if my  approach is a bit arty-farty. I've been deliberately trying to avoid photographing 'views'. Scenes which might look nice in autumnal colour. Instead I've been deliberately looking for more abstract images. Plays of light where the light or shade is the focus of the picture. Also pictures which aren't in focus at all but just shapes of dark and light and tones in between. Or playing around with deliberate over or under exposure - and flash. I'm really not sure where it's all going. Which is probably why it's interesting me.

I've also gone through my archive of older photos from the wood, converting some into black and white.

I'm beginning to get a feel for what I'm looking for. With a bit more perseverance and a little luck I might manage to get ten or twenty pictures which make some visual sense when pulled together. Definitely not there yet,so I'll keep ploughing along when I get a spare half hour.

Despite concentrating on black and white in the wood I switch the camera back to colour when I leave it. Somehow my way of looking switches too and I start seeing colour pictures again. Low autumnal sun provides a warm, contrasty, light which can make things look rather Egglestonian to my eyes. Or maybe just more like Kodachrome.

In the world of sheep it's tupping time. The ewes are gathered together in small flocks accompanied by their would-be suitors. Chances to make any pictures have been slim, and I must admit the wood project has distracted me - probably because it can be engaged in more easily. When I have managed to get close enough to photograph sheep without trespassing I've been in black and white mode there for some reason. and in 4x5 ratio mode too, making sheepscapes.

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