Photography, random posts and very little about kebabs.
A few years ago, when I was bored I drew up a fantasy lens list. Now a few years later I’ve revisited the list again…..
So in a few years the list has increased slightly in size but gone up by £10,000 – but most of that is due to version 2’s of some of the lenses. So from the original list I’ve only managed to buy one (EF200mm f/2.8) – hoping for a lottery win.
If you’re a photographer or like me someone who occasionally pretends to be one you may already know the name. Mifsuds are a small independent photography shop, located in Brixham.
I’ve bought from them in the past and today traded some stuff in for a new lens (EF 200mm f/2.8 L if you’re interested), but the post isn’t about that. It’s more about the shop, as the title it’s something we’ll probably never see in Birmingham again.
The shop is a treat:
Stock – lots of it (although not the lens I wanted – they are ordering it and posting it to me)
2nd hand gear (some of mine now!) – plenty of options
Staff – Staff that have knowledge/interest
The closest thing we had recently was Jacobs, although a chain (now sadly gone) they had a similar setup. Previous to this, probably back in the 90’s we had the Camera House. There were some regional fairly grumpy photostudios with a small photographic sales section bolted on (thinking of one near Acocks Green). It’s a fairly sad state of affairs that a city of one million can’t support a decent photo store.
I don’t know if Birmingham could support a Midsuds – I guess the mindset of us Brummies is the cost is king, maybe we value the cost over service?
Really the point of this post is visit your local ‘Midsuds’ spend money there – when they’ve gone all we’ll be left with is Jessops and Currys/PC World/Comet.
If you’re interested Mifsuds can be found here:
27-29 Bolton St
Brixham
South Devon
TQ5 9BZ
and online here: http://www.mifsuds.com
Just in case anyone was wondering what happened. Well weather happened, you may have noticed. I made a decision not to do anything near Kingfishers (not that I managed to see any) as they are probably having a bad enough time with rain, increased water levels and probably a more scarce food source.
So until things improve I’ll keep well clear.
Time is a healer, but for dodgy versions (we’ll say no more) of photoshop – time certainly isn’t.
Things change, I’ve changed and it’s time to look forward. However looking forward with Adobe can be expensive, certainly when the future is prefixed with the initials CS. I’ve ranted about Adobe’s software costs before, and whilst Lightroom is now a much more sensible £100 it’s still the exception. CS6 is great, I know I’m trying it.
But CS6 has a problem. It’s £667, Adobe’s banking system still hasn’t worked out exchange rates yet, so in the US it’s $649 which is £413 (ex Vat) – ok the ‘real’ UK price is around £500 – which is still bloody expensive, but less of a kick in the nads. Suddenly something I once discounted as being utterly stupid is now looking sensible. It’s an Adobe subscription for Photoshop. Currently around £17 a month or just over £200 a year. Spread over 3 years its about even with the initial purchase price. But this is Photoshop, they’ll be a £200 upgrade if I bought it, so it’s looking even ‘cheaper’.
So what’s it like then, sort of like this….
On the face on it, it looks much the same – although with the darker interface that Lightroom introduced to me. It’s smooth and fast (running on a Mac Mini – i5 2.3 ghz, 8gb Ram), still copes well with a number of images thrown at it. Slight tweaks to the UI are taking a little while to get used to. It would be nice if it went completely full screen like Lightroom (maybe it does, I’ve just not found out how to yet). My actions I imported from CS3 seem to have a manual element to them – but on the whole happy with the application. So much so that I’ll kick off the subscription once the 30 day trial is up.
Some random images I was messing with….
Found some nice features in the Save for Web module – seems now you can add a bit of info in the JPEG file. So a Copyright notice can be there – will look to see if further manipulation is possible.
The title has a dual purpose today (which is unusual for me), Project Kingfisher is a nature area stretching 11km along the River Cole (in Birmingham). It’s name would imply that Kingfishers are here. Now, I’ve never seen one – though a blue flash once on the said river might have been. So today I’ve decided to try not only to see one, but photograph it.
The weather is looking better today, so all I need to do is kit up. The day hasn’t started off well, as last nights attempt at charging the 1D MkII battery has result in a rather flat bit of plastic. So a slight delay to the mornings shoot. I’ve still got my 5D MkII, but my preference for fast moving birds is the 1D – so I’m having to wait (contemplating why I didn’t get a couple of clone batteries on Ebay).