Had expected to be in Dieppe…but…

….. the ferry did not run due to the high winds and in any event other personal matters intervened. Will probably give ferry crossings a miss until summer next year, but in the meantime have booked a few days away in the Peak District in October. I was thinking great scenery, and autumn colour - we shall see.

In the meantime have rejoined a local photographic club/society - Eastbourne Photographic Society. I was a member many moons ago when meetings were held on Friday evenings which was a difficult day for me, and in the end, I stopped going. Now meetings are on a Tuesday it is much more convenient and I am enjoying re-connecting with people I know from before as well as with new people.

Finally I am awaiting the delivery of a Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD lens for my Nkon Z6ii. Bought the lens used from MPB at a good price and with their usual great level of service. Unfortunately MPB’s service has not been matched by the courier who it appears might have lost the parcel! To be fair their customer service staff have been really good in keeping me informed, but I would rather have had the lens - especially as I waited in all day for two days when it was supposed to have been delivered.

Been a lot going on recently, but……

…………..shortly off to Dieppe for a few days and taking the Leica Q2 as the only camera. Fingers crossed and some images soon.

Ebooks

Over the years I have on occasion put together some Ebooks, partly out of interest and partly put some of my images “out there”.  Apart from two they are all related to my photography.  The exceptions are “Images of WW1” where the photos were taken by my grandfather, and “The Walk” my attempt at a short story.

I don’t claim that they are at the pinnacle of Ebook publishing, not do I claim that that the images are at the pinnacle of photography, but, they may be of interest and they are not expensive.

They are available as Ebooks via Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/ , or via Apple’s Ebook store.  Some are available as printed editions via Draft2Digital - https://draft2digital.com/

Try searching in any of the above sites by my name (Paul Powici).

Titles include -

Black & White Landscapes

East Sussex Woodlands

Five Star

Images of Assisi

Images of Brighton

Images of Eastbourne & Beachy Head

Intentional Camera Movements

My Leica Q2 Story

Passing By

People and/or The Street

Photographic Abstractions

Photography & “Haiku”

Seen In The Streets

The Power of Black & White Photography

Change of system

As documented in earlier posts I had an OM-5 system alongside my Leica Q2.

The OM-5 system was great in many ways, especially being small and light so easy to carry around all day, and image quality was (generally) acceptable, but……

…….there was an indefinable something which meant it and me did not get on together.

So, after a lot of thought, we have got divorced and I am now the proud partner of a Nikon Z6ii together with the Z 24-70 f/4 S lens.

A Nikon was the first “proper” camera I bought many many years ago and I have always had a preference for Nikon over other brands.

So far am very pleased with it although a steep learning curve.

None of this means you would feel the same about the OM-5 and in many ways I would recommend it.

Options

I recently took an image on the seafront with the Leica Q2 and have tried various processing options. So the first image below is the original “as shot”, the second has a strong S curve, and the third is a black& white conversion. Strangely I like them all!

Eastbourne seafront as shot

Eastbourne seafront with strong S curve

Eastbourne seafront black and white conversion

Leica Q2 image quality

I continue to be blown away by the image quality from the Q2 with the 28mm F1.7 Summilux lens. These two images, whilst nothing special in themselves, show what I mean!

London shop window

London coffee shop

Madeira and the Ancient Forest at Fanal

Just back from a restful week in Madeira with just the Leica Q2. Had been looking forward to visiting the ancient forest of laurel trees at Fanal having seen images of the atmosphere when there is mist/fog.

The ancient laurel grove is one of the last remaining examples of Europe's original rainforest, which dates back thousands of years and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its biodiversity for special characteristics.

Really interesting place but unfortunately no mist or fog whilst I was there as this image shows -

Fanal forest - Madeira

Experimental images

A lazy few days but I have been trying out very high key images with the OM System OM-5.

Interesting and have potential (at least to my eye).

You can see the images on the “Experimental “ page within the Images section.

Update - less pleased with these (on reflection) than originally.

The Lake District

Just back from some time away including a short time in the Lake District using only the Leica Q2. The more I use it, the more I love it, although, of course, it has limitations.

I had thought the 28mm lens would be “just what was needed” for the fantastic views around the lakes, and indeed in many instances it was. However there were many occasions when more “reach” would have been useful to capture a particular aspect of a scene rather than the grand vista.

But the image quality from the Q2, along with the sheer joy of using it made it a very pleasurable visit.

These two images may give an idea of what I mean.

Airline carry on

Will shortly be off to Funchal for a short break. Main luggage will go in the hold and have been thinking about what to use as a carry on - my Wandrd 6L Rogue and my 3L VSLGO sling bags would both be ok size wise, but with little or no extra space for passports etc, iPad, etc.

I came across the American Tourister Urban Track backpack range and bought a 14” version. Either the Wandrd or the VSGO would fit inside with a small amount of space still available, it has a laptop/iPad compartment and a small zipper front pocket which I could use for passports etc. It has straps to be able to carry it as a backpack, and a luggage pass through to fit it on top of a suitcase handle, as well as water bottle holders

More importantly it meets the under seat carry-on requirements.

Might be worth a look if you have the same issue.

Apologies…..

….. for the gap in posting. Have been very busy and away from home, and will be for the next week or so.

Hopefully will have some images/thoughts to post soon.

OM System OM-5 and Seville & Cordoba - Part 2

Been slowly working through my images from Seville and Cordoba and continue to be impressed by the image quality from the OM5. Just a few more images to show you what I mean.

Been a while….

…..since my last post. Other things have intervened including trying to find some old missing images. Eventually found a solution which may help others.

Some years ago I used the Apple Aperture programme for all my imaging work. Sadly Apple discontinued Aperture in favour of Photos. I could not get on with Photos and moved to Lightroom Classic (as it is now called). So far so good especially as Lightroom included a plugin to enable the transfer from Aperture.

But then disaster struck. Nothing to do with Aperture or Lightroom - all to do with a moment of madness entirely down to my incompetence in not thinking things through. The result being I “lost” a large number of images from Lightroom, along with their individual backups, and the Lightroom “backups”. I managed to rescue a few images from other locations, but eventually ran into the issue of needing an old image which was no longer on the system anywhere, or so I thought.

But a week or so ago, was clearing out the large amount of old “stuff” in our loft and came across an old external hard disk I had totally forgotten about. That disk contained old Time Machine backups from years ago, and after managing to access it, i discovered one of the backups was the very very old Aperture library file!

But Lightroom has moved on and will no longer import images from Aperture! Eventually discovered that Photos will do so! So what has followed and taken hours and hours, was to import from Aperture Library into Photos, and then export from Photos to a temporary folder from which I could then import into Lightroom. Actually an easy, if long winded, process, as it appears Photos does not like importing too great a number of images in one go.

So I ended up with some 3000+ images imported into Lightroom, all of which needed cataloging, and still need keywording which will take many more hours.

So what are the lessons.

Firstly think things through before acting - in fact think them through twice.

Secondly backup everything somewhere before acting.

Thirdly, one day, those ancient backups could be useful if you can find them.

Fourthly don’t have moments of madness or incompetence!

And now back to keywording.

Today’s thoughts

Been out a lot recently with the OM System OM-5 and loved it. Great little (i.e. small) camera and happy with the results.

But yesterday went out with the Leica Q2. Obviously a very different camera at a very different price point, but there was just something about it that meant using it was such a joy.

Have been trying to think what that “something” is. Obviously image quality was great, but I was equally happy with the OM-5 images, so it must be something else.

I was trying to explain this to a friend and the best analogy I could come up with was that a low cost “basic” car will do what you want and get you from A to B. But if you compare it to making the same journey in a top of the range car of the highest quality you would still get from A to B, but the experience of doing so would be so much greater, in terms of comfort, quality of the driving experience, etc, etc.

And, to me, that is what the difference is, The build, the controls, the lens, the images, and in fact everything about the Leica Q2 just screams quality. All that just makes the photographic experience so must better.

I will continue to use both, and both have their place, but the Leica Q2 will hold a “special place in my heart”.

OM System OM-5 and Seville & Cordoba

Just back from a few days in Seville (with one day in Cordoba) with the OM System OM-5 and the Olympus 12-45mm f/4 PRO lens.

Overall really loved the small size and low weight of the setup, which fitted easily in my VSGO 3L sling. Image quality was good as the weather was mostly bright and sunny, but the few images I took in lower light conditions showed some noise.

There were however a few downsides. I tend to leave the camera switched on when out, with the OI image share app running so as to capture GPS data - not sure if this is the reason but the battery life was disappointing. Also I found a few settings had changed without my noticing presumably as a result of the camera rubbing or “bumping” as I went along. I tend to leave the focus spot in the centre, but a few times it had moved to a corner which I had not always noticed. Similarily I tend to set exposure compensation set to -3 to preserve highlights, and a few times that had changed. The lesson, I guess, is to double check before taking the image.

Both cities were great. The difference to me that Seville is more of a modern city, whilst Cordoba has more of the “Spanish Olde World”charm.

Still working on the images, but these “snapshots” should give a feel.

Cordoba

Seville

Seville

Street photography

As mentioned earlier I had (and still have) an interest in street photograph. The first one of my most favourite images and was taken in London. It shows a scene outside a wine bar/coffee bar late one afternoon. I love the expression on the man’s face.

London

Lucca, Italy

Eastbourne

VSGO 3L Sling Bag - a few thoughts

As mentioned in one of my earlier blogs this was a recent purchase to carry my OM System OM-5 together with the 12-45 and 40-150 lenses.

It came extremely well packed in a “high-end” looking black box, with the bag inside a thinks plastic(?) bag inside. Gave a very good first impression.

Straight out of the box my first impression was how “thin” it was until I realised I had to loosen the straps on the bottom of the bag to allow it to expand to full width.

It is a black colour (which I prefer) - mostly just black although there is some diamond shaped patterning on the front.

The strap is fully adjustable with a quick release buckle, but there is not a shoulder pad. Given that at 3L I will not be carrying that much so probably not an issue. Interestingly the straps attach to the main bag with an elasticated section at both ends which gives some give/stretch in much the same way that a neoprene strap does. The straps have a double attachment at each end and at one end that can be released to give some give to the main bag opening or to allow an umbrella (for example) to be attached to the bag. So far I have found the strap to be comfortable.

On the rear of the bag there is a zipped pocket with a central divider which has pockets for SD cards sewn into it. Obviously given it is only a 3L bag you could only store slim items in this pocket (I have a microfibre cloth and spare batteries), but would be equally suitable for passports, travel documents, a wallet, etc.

On the front of the bag there is a lift up flap (held closed by a magnet) which reveals a larger front pocket with a key holder inside. This is larger than the rear pocket and could be used to hold filters etc. without a problem. The magnetic closure includes a coin shaped disc which attaches magnetically and is designed to be used as a “screwdriver” for tripod plates etc. A clever idea.

On the bottom of the bag are two straps to attach a tripod or whatever.

The main compartment is quite simple. It comes with two velcro dividers and has a slip in pocket at the back. My OM-5 just about fits with the 12-45 attached and there is space for the 40-150 to stand upright as well.

So my overall impression is very positive - great small size, seems very well made, clever extras like the “screwdriver”, YKK zips, comfortable to wear, great design, and appears to be water resistent.

Of course I would like it to hold more (there is a 6L version) but what I wanted was a small bag for wandering around and it meets that criteria very well.

I have not had the bag that long so cannot comment on how it will stand up to wear, but am very hopeful given my overall impression.

My import workflow

I use Lightroom Classic for most things with an occasional use of Photoshop and Radiant for particular purposes. Mostly I work on my Mac desktop, although I also use Lightroom for iPad on occasions.

Initially I import my images from the SD card directly into Lightroom in the desktop folder organised by year and month. This is setup to import the images into my main image folder on the desktop, with a second copy automatically sent to an external drive (also organised by year and month) - as both the desktop and the external drive are backed up to Time Machine, on a second external drive, I effectively have three copies of the images. I then work on the images in the main image folder, so even if I delete an image from that folder when culling new images a copy will still remain on the external drive. For files from the Leica Q2 I automatically apply the David Farkas Laica Q series preset which I feel gives a better starting point than a “pure” Leica RAW file. For all files I automatically add the Keyword “To be completed”. I then have a Smart Collection that holds all images with that Keyword so I can easily find those images I need to finalise. Obviously I remove that Keyword when I have finished the image.

I should explain that within Lightroom Classic I have a number of “Collections” in an hierarchy organised by subject, place, person, subject, etc.

So on import the files are automatically held in the year and month structure, but the current import will also show in “Previous Import” under the Catalogue heading.

I then go through all the images and delete those I obviously will not be keeping (remember a copy will remain on the external drive). I then “link” the files I am likely to keep to the appropriate Collections so that they sync with Lightroom on the iPad.

I then edit the files - deleting any that I missed, or later decide, I do not want. My editing workflow will be the subject of a later post.

Generally this has served me well, although there is an annoyance around how Collections sync to the iPad. For example on the desktop I have a Collection hierarchy structure as follows: Places - UK - Sussex - Eastbourne. If I add another town under Sussex it syncs to the iPad but as an entirely new top level Collection rather than under Places - UK - Sussex, and has to be manually moved.

I should perhaps also mention that I use both Keywords and Colour labels at a later stage to further refine the details of the image. As an example there could be an image of Eastbourne pier which would be organised under Eastbourne. I might also have an image of a pier in another location. I would add the Keyword “Pier” to both so as to enable me to search for all images of piers regardless of the location. I use a Colour label to show where I might have “published” the image - Flickr, Stock Agencies, etc.

What to take?

About to be spending a few days in Seville and Cordoba - hopefully both will be great photographic locations.

But it is a a few days break with my wife and not primarily a photographic expedition (as has been made clear to me).

Originally I had thought I would take both the Leica Q2 and the OM-5, but then decided it had to be one or the other, primarily to save weight when walking around.

But which? The Q2 for image quality but only a 28mm lens, or the OM-5 with both the 12-45 and the 40-150, which would cover a range of focal lengths but with a lower resolution sensor.

As at the time of writing this I have decided on the OM setup to cover the widest range of situations, but, still think I will miss the sheer joy of using the Leica,

Bags

Like many photographers I seek the Holy Grail of camera bags and have bought, and then sold, more than I care to remember.

Currently I use three bags depending on the circumstances and what I intend to use.

The biggest is a Mindshift Backlight 18 litre backpack. A great bag. Big enough for both my Leica Q2, as well as the OM-5 and two lenses. Extremely comfortable to wear with space for extras.

If I am only taking the Leica I use a Wandrd Rogue 6 litre sling bag. Another great bag - not too big and not too small, and very comfortable to wear.

Finally if I am using the OM-5 I use a VSGO 3 litre sling bag. Just big enough - literally “just” with space for a few extras. Very comfortable.

Would highly recommend any of these all of which are also available in other sizes.