General Posting – Page 2

March 3, 2019

Final Quarter…..

With the league table very close after the 3rd quarterly I suppose I need to select carefully for the next round. My initial selections for both print and digital are below.

I’m not one to repeat images as mentioned before, but for the final competition a couple of returns are in order. Although strictly speaking only one is returning in its original form. 1st up are the prints. Paignton Pier was 2nd/3rd (I can’t remember exactly!) in the Mono competition so I can use it for the quarterly comp.

Fujifilm X-Pro2 – XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS – ƒ/11.0 – 18mm – 30 Seconds – iso200

The North Face image won the mono Digital completion, so I can use it again – but decided to enter it as a print this time. I’ve not got the print yet, so depending on the quality it might still be digital, but for now it’s a print.

Fujifilm X-E3 XF14mmF2.8 R ƒ/10.0 – 1/100 – iso200

Digital entries now…

Fujifilm X-Pro2 XF100-400mmF4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR ƒ/6.4 100.0 mm 1/7500 200

It’s a bit of an experiment is the above A380. It was well received on Twitter so I might just give it a go. I’m getting a print of this, so it might turn up in the print side of the comp – we’ll see.

Fujifilm X-Pro2 XF100-400mmF4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR ƒ/6.4 196.6 mm 1/8000 200

Another mist shot, now the danger here is the judge might determine one mist shot to be better than the other and reject one. So this one might change. An alternative shot might be the following Street shot (The Point) – although as an art form Street doesn’t seem to go well with some judges.

Fujifilm X-E3 14.0 mm f/2.8 ƒ/8.0 – 1/80 – iso200 – Fuji Acros mode +Yellow filter

February 5, 2019February 16, 2019

Competition Time – 3rd Quarterly (Transport)

An unusual 3rd quarterly this time as it’s a themed round. I was undecided about the prints as I was looking to have my 747 landing image, but couldn’t quite make it work ratio wise for a print. So a raid of my Lightroom library revealed some old train images from the (now closed I think) Electric Train Museum in Baginton (Near Cov Airport). I had intended to use the Maglev image, but wanted to check the print in Colour and Mono – decided Colour offered a better quality.

First the Prints:

Magnetic Levitation – the future of transport

Now the digital:

Slight late amendment – I didn’t think the 747 offered much so I’ve replaced the image with the Morning Flight above.

January 27, 2019

Competition Update

Pleased with the result of the mono competition. First up, I was placed first on the digital competition with my Selfridges image – Clovelly wasn’t placed.

Almost made it on the print side, however I was pipped to the 1st position by Cherie’s portrait. 2nd and 3rd was fine though. The images might make a reappearance in the 4th quarterly – I normally don’t add images a second time round, but as prints cost money it would be best to get some value out of them!!

May 30, 2018

Pier – May 2018 edition!

When by the sea I have to shoot some piers – Sadly Morgan was not around but Teignmouth was. I’ve taken images of this before, but with restrictions on time you can never have enough.

Teignmouth Pier – XPro2 – XF18-55mm – ƒ/18.0 – 18.0mm – 30 Seconds – iso200

Bit of a flat lighting day with a featureless sky, but the ND1000 filter from srbphotographic helped to bring out a bit of movement in the clouds and whilst the sea was relatively calm it managed to capture some of the movement there.

Image taken on a Fujifilm X-Pro2, using a XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS lens.

The exposure details are:
ƒ/18.0 – 18.0mm – 30 Seconds – iso200

The image was imported into Lightroom and tweaked a little (ie got rid of a few dust bunnies!) – then exported to Photoshop and run through Nik Efex / Viveza filter to bring out detail using the structure slider. I think the overall output is better in Monochrome then colour, hence what I’ve added to Flickr.

March 30, 2018March 30, 2018

Fishy – Samyang 8mm f2.8 UMC Fish-eye II (Fuji X Mount)

The fisheye lens is one of those marmite things – you know the analogy so I won’t bother. As I’m purely in the positive side of that analogy I’m back in the fisheye game – thanks to a 2nd hand purchase of a Samyang 8mm f2.8 UMC Fish-eye II.

It’s one of the gaps in the Fuji X system plugged by a few manufacturers so there’s no need for an OEM lens to be rushed out. In the fully electronic world of modern cameras the Samyang is a totally manual lens – anyone that’s ever used a fisheye however will realise this is a non-issue as you often shoot at f/8 and 1m to infinity so the world is pretty much in focus regardless. The only issue with a manual lens is the lack of Exif information being passed back to the body.

Construction wise, it’s a solid lens – well built, controls move well and the aperture ring is nice and simple. The lens hood is superb with a locking mechanism which Canon could have done with the adding to the old EF 15mm (although that originally came out in the 1980’s – so maybe I’m been too critical of them!). The odd bit is a clear plastic/metal underneath section at the base – looks a bit odd, but looks are unimportant as this is just a lens.

Image wise, I’m impressed. I’ve not gone down the pixel peeping route as frankly I can’t be bothered. For me it’s a great replacement for the old Canon unit.

Click on the images below for a larger view.