Untitled

This picture and the previous picture are from a couple of recent rolls of film. Both have reminded me how much I like black and white film, not just for the results, but also the process.

After the ride

Well, we finished and survived the Way of the Roses! The ride was actually longer than the 170 miles due to a diversion on day two. However, the first day was far, far tougher. The first half of the ride, east to west, is very hilly and we also had to contend with a headwind strong enough to require pedalling downhill as well as up! Added to this was on off ain throgh the day and a torrential storm during the last hour of the ride. This latter reduced visibility to the point where I was briefly just following the yellow blur of a colleague’s jacket and he was later trying to follow my tail light. However, we all made the halfway stop at the Half Moon Inn in Sharrow, near Ripon, and it was great that our colleague with MND was able to join usduring the evening.

The second day was much easier, although we cycled well over 90 miles. The weather was kinder and the route is much flatter with only one big climb. Even the climb is less steep and we enjoyed a long (12 mile) downhill run and some good group riding on the flat roads. By the time we reached Bridlington, Fish and Chips were well and truly earned.

So far sponsorship is over £6,000 and we were delighted to learn that this is a meaningful amount to the MNDA, as they do not receive the level of support that some other charities enjoy. Once again, if you want to sponsor the MNDA then please either use the link in the previous post or donate directly to them. MND really is a cruel disease.

Mike

Way of the Roses cycle ride

Last year one of my colleagues was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. This weekend I am riding the Way of the Roses with a group of colleagues in support of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, which has proved a great support to my c0lleague and his family. MND is a terrible disease and we all hope that the little we can do will be of some help and encouragement to our colleague and others.

The Way of the Roses is just over 170 miles and includes the very significant climbs over the Pennines and into the Yorkshire Dales. We will be completing the route over two days, Friday and Saturday, all being well. If anyone would like to support MND association financially, then you can sponsor the ride at our just giving page on the link here.

Thanks

The best lens…

Leaving Skye

On holiday I suffered a camera failure when the power switch on my Ikon jammed in the off position. This left me with my mobile phone, a Nokia N8, but wasn’t a great inconvenience as I was not really on holiday to take pictures anyway. Interesting using the phone as an alternative to a low profile camera and framing without being able to see the lcd:)

Meanwhile, I ran across this old Mike Johnstone article on the ‘best lens for a Leica’, dating back to 2004. Not sure much has really changed.

A quick Hebridean impression

 

 

 

Water’s edge

Machair

Kayaking

Not too busy, even on the beaches

To Harris?

Kicking around

It was the wind’s fault!

Building with care

Just a few moments

Clouds gather

The cooking pot

Evening falls

Looking back and forward

Before the Beinn Lee Hill Race

When he’s gone, you’ll have to walk!

It doesn’t look steep here

But it is…

Almost at the top

I can see for miles…

and miles

North Uist – land of pools

We must be nearly there now, please

At last

Harris in shroud

Hotel and leisure complex for visiting crabs

Mooching

Jacob’s ladder

Storm brewing in the north

A wet day calls for desparae measures

But has later benefits

Over the sea from Skye

Au revoir

No big camera’s. No real intent to photograph. A few films also, waiting to be cut up. A lovely couple of weeks.

An experimental journey

A few weeks ago I travelled from Newcastle to Leeds by train and took advantage of the journey to experiment with some pictures , many of which have significant degrees of motion blur – through a train window at 100mph… This is one picture from York station that I enjoyed. I’m working on editing the set to something reasonable and will post a link to slideshow when I’ve finished. My first cut was quite long, around 40 pictures, and I am working through a thought process of how many to include. In a sense the question is one of greatest hits or a more immersive presentation that accepts pictures that do not stand on their own. My inclination is towards the latter, if only because memories of journeys comprise so many many impressions apart from the highlights. A bit like life really.

Monochrome inkjet printing

I’ve recently managed to spend a bit of time making print profiles for a couple of papers and my Epson 3880 printer. The papers are Ilford Gallerie Gold Fibre Silk (an old favourite) and Fotospeed Platinum Baryta (a new to me paper that I like very much, apart from the price!). One area I’ve felt could be improved for some time is in setting ink limits carefully and separately for mono and colour printing. In colour printing it is often helpful to maximise the size of the printable gamut. It seems this is usually achieved through relatively high ink loads. However, maximising colour gamut often leads to difficulties with shadow separation that are very hard to address. This can be particularly frustrating in mono printing as the profile doesn’t just sort it all out for you!

I spent some time printing and measuring targets with different ink loads and eventually settled on using a setting with 20% less ink for a dedicated RGB profile for mono printing (or lower saturation colour) and have now printed a few prints using the full ink setting and profile and the low ink setting and profile. So far the low ink settings are working well to produce visibly bettter mono prints, with more shadow detail and an appearance of better linearity o smoothness through the whole brightness range. The prints appear slightly lighter, but my main independent tester approves the mono specific prints in every case.

Another, preferable, monochrome rainbow

Things you shouldn’t do:)

Rainbows in black and white

Shooting directly into the evening sun…

It’s all grist to the mill

Field curvature – or why the ZM C-Sonnar is soft in the corners

I was playing iwth the Zeiss ZM C-Sonnar the otehr day and noticed some significant curvature of field ide open and close up. No wonder the mtf is so poor* in the corners! This was taken at f1.5 (focus on the middle apple) and about 0.9m. Just look at the branch coming towards the camera that remains in focus right to the edge of frame!

 

* the mtf curve is a function of the lens’ design. The lens is one of my favourites, but this amused me.