Posh word for collection of images, it’s also the default name for a gallery that a nice plugin for wordpress creates. It’s called ‘Easy Photography Portfolio‘ from a company called Colormelon – they create a number of paid WordPress themes etc, but this portfolio is free!
I’ve been looking for a decent gallery for WordPress for a while – I think I’ve found it now. Still testing but on the whole it does what I want – it could do with a few tweaks to fine tune the look but considering the complications of other plugins this one is easy. (It could be I’ve not found what to tweak yet!)
Click on the Portfolio link in the right side menu widget.
For this most season I’ve stuck to Film images as that was my primary format. Now with the X-Pro 2 I’m mixing both film and digital images for the competitions. Neither of my entries got ranked in the top 3 last competition (3rd Quarterly)….
…..however the digital (Concrete Junction) was highly commended. Hopefully the mono entries will be more successful. I know the judge shoots film, but that hasn’t swayed my decision to enter a film scan, if anything the projection does tend to spoil the images – I’m tempted to get hold of a cheap projector to see they turn out.
Had a bit of spare time today, it’s a Saturday after all – so I’ve fired up the XP pc and SCSI scanner in an attempt to catch up with my images taken in November…..
Spun burning wire wool
A bit of strange one this, a number of Igers folks have been playing with light and my mate Andy May (Alpha.brum on Instagram) is probably the local master at it. Anyway, common convention for these shots are a reasonable decent iso (200-400) and long exposure, colour obviously. But me not being conventional decided Film, ISO 50 at that (Ilford Pan F 50) and the film in question is black and white. It’s been processed a bit, but overall I like it.
The rest of the shots are from November’s trip to London for Callum’s birthday. Shot with both Ilford Pan F 50 and Ilford HP5 Plus.
Just got a couple of 35mm films to scan, those are a bit easier as I can do 6 images in one go. The 120 format is a bit more of pain as it’s single frame only.
Whilst i’m in the mood for danc updates, here’s another one.
Film, once thought of a past media has recently had an upturn in interest, I personally think I’m responsible for that upturn – or at least a very small localised Yardley based upturn.
For most of 2017 I switched back to film, getting bored of my Eos system – and to be honest I didn’t miss it. I was mainly using my Medium Format FujiFilm GA645zi.
Fujifilm GA645zi Medium Format Film Camera
Used with a mixture of Colour and mainly Black and White film I’ve had an enjoyable year. I also dug out my old Eos 50E which used on a couple of holidays. Strange thing using the 50E worth about £20 with a £1700 EF24-70 f/2.8 mkII L lens. It’s been a good thing to go back to film, thinking about the image before shooting and having to wait for the result. It’s good to step back from time to time I think.
Anyway it’s not all anti digital, I still scan and digitally manipulate the images as online is usually my area to share. If you want to check out my Brum_Film instagram account, check the links on the side bar.
Water Taxi, Paignton Devon – Fujifilm GA645zi
So what to do with a collection of:
Eos 1D MkII, Eos 6D (Mk1)
15mm Fisheye
100mm Macro
24-70mm, 70-200mm, 135mm, 200mm, 300mm Zooms
3 flash guns
Well, I sold them (except the ancient 1D)- all traded/sold for a figure of around £3,500.
O.k. if you price it all up I’ve lost money – but have I? Most of the kit is over 5 years old and had plenty of use. I’m not going to get precious about camera kit values – none of it is a rare old Leica so why bother. (Although I’m sad to see the 15mm Fisheye go – it’s a marmite lens I know, but I loved it. but I’ll check out some of the SamYang 3rd party Fisheye lenses at the Photography Show (NEC) in March.)
Besides I have a new toy….
Fujifilm X Pro 2 and Instax Share SP-2
Why mirrorless? why not to be honest – I tried the Fuji XT2/X Pro 2 out at the photography show (NEC) last year as was impressed. I was looking at getting one last year, but Mom and my bike crash kept me busy for a while.
So it is any better than the Eos system? Well probably not, but the advantages are the smaller size so I can take both the film and digital system out together. Carrying less is one thing my film Fuji has taught me.
Under Spaghetti Junction, Birmingham – Fujifilm X Pro 2 – in body Black and White ConversionStairs, Solihull – Fujifilm X Pro 2, B&W conversion via Lightroom
The EVF is different, but it works. The hybrid Optical/EVF is a bit of a gimmick, but it works well until you get a long lens on it.
Currently I have just the kit lens, but the quality is superb – possibly not the L series quality of my EF24-70, but at £600 it’s a bargain.
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L Mk II – Vs – Fujifilm XF18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS – Size Matters? (possibly, but weight and £1000 cheaper helps a lot!)
The camera plays nice with the Install Share SP2 printer (prints Instax Mini instant prints) so that’s another bonus. I’m still getting used to the quirks of the system, 20 years of Eos use makes my figure memory go to the wrong places. Just need a few more outings to reprogram the digitals.
So the annual trip to a photography show is now complete (this year it changed from Focus to ‘The Photography Show’) – actually surprised how busy it was for a weekday. For a change I wasn’t overly bothered about kit, nor did I have any intention of spending large amounts of cash.
The show itself was much the same as Focus on Imaging – which isn’t a bad thing to be honest, though the main difference was a couple of stages where every hour or so Pro togs would talk about their specific genre of photography. I did sit through a wedding show which mainly comprised of the professionalism of the photographer – which was a better talk than it initially sounded.
First up for me, was the Canon stand – like a moth to a flame, or me to an Apple Store I’m drawn towards the Canon Stand – probably some blinded fanboy loyalty, or most likely cos I own a chunk of the Canon Eos system. My only temptation camera wise at present is the EF135mm f/2 L – so I’d thought i’d have a look. The results aren’t anything spectacular (it’s indoors at the NEC!) but I had a brief play…..
Tube thingsEos 1DX and 24-70MkIISome bloke looking at things, colour down to me not playing with white balance and leaving it on auto – possibly the NEC lights might be an issue also
So there you go, Canon sorted. The one stand I wanted to check out was the Bessel Lighting stand – mainly as I wanted to speak to Tony Rabin who was demonstrating their kit. I’ve met Tony before at YPS and I do plan to visit his studio for Lighting and Model shoots. After a brief chat I finally got round to purchasing a remote trigger. I do own the Canon ST-E2 remote trigger, which is fine – but limited (distance) so I bought a £19.99 remote and £9.99 tripod/hotshot adapter. One trick with this is set the connected flash up as a master and reset as slaves and they all work fine. With this adapter you loose the E-TTL capability and have to use manual, but for studio settings that’s normal anyway. I’m tempted to eBay the ST-E2 and spend the cash on some soft box stuff from Bessel.
Light Things
The picture above is just a test of the setup. The first EX580 MkII is connected to the hotshot adapter and the remote receiver is connected. This flash is setup as a master (and for space reasons I’ve stuck the front in a roll of packing tape). The other EX580 MkII and EX430 Mk1 are setup as slaves. The primary flash triggers the other two automatically. The 580 MkII’s were set with a flash rating of 1/128th and 430 was set to 1/64th (both at their respective lowest flash setting).
