iJourneys

John Gough Photography

Canon EOS R Street Photography Set Up

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New Baby / John Gough / Canon EOS R

 

I like street photography because you can walk out of your front door and start taking pictures. Well, that’s not true because where I live in a village in the UK, there are not that many people about. Unless it is the day of the village fete or harvest festival. Anyway a short drive away, there are streets, people and loads of photo opportunities. On the face of it, the Canon EOS R is not an obvious choice as a street camera, but on closer examination, it is right on the button. So what are the Canon EOS R street credentials?

Canon EOS R Street: Lens

Prime lenses are ideal for street photography, they are generally smaller and lighter than zoom lenses and usually have wider apertures. As a result, there is no need to ramp up the ISO to avoid a blurry shot or too narrow depth of field.

Zoom lenses also make you feel furtive and more like a sniper than a photographer. So a 35mm lens is ideal. It is probably the most used street lens there is. Wide enough to capture detail from the right distance, and so as long as you have the nerve to shoot close up it is ideal. Otherwise, try a 50mm lens.

It just so happens that Canon has a lovely 35mm lens designed especially for this camera. It is the Canon RF 35mm f1.8 Macro STM Lens.

I waxed lyrically about this lens here. The EOS R and this lens make a consummate camera combination. Small enough so that finding the shutter button does not involve keyhole surgery, and compact and light enough to carry all day.

Remember mixing it in the street can easily knock the camera from your hands, so take my advice and use a wrist strap. This is what I use:

Canon EOS R Street: View

Canon EOS R Flippy Screen

An articulated screen is now almost a must for street photography. OK, Cartier Bresson did not have one, but we no longer use film either. An articulated screen has two advantages. Firstly, you can shoot from the hip, which is a far more hip vantage point than eye level. Secondly, lifting the camera to your eye is like shouting your intent to take a photograph. Using a discrete flip out screen is far more incognito.

The Canon flippy screen is especially good for this. It opens outward so that the screen is just left of the camera. A picture can be taken by just touching the screen, and using the electronic shutter rather than the mechanical one makes this camera completely silent. Your finger does not even have to go near the shutter release, and there is no sound.

Canon EOS R Street: Set Up

Most street photographers would normally recommend P or Programmed Automatic for street photography. You can set the ISO and then the camera will calculate the best combination of aperture and shutter speed. This works well most of the time, but there is a Perito Principle at work here. Usually, 80% of images are passable and around 20% result in some motion blur or lack depth of field. Fortunately, on the Canon EOS R there is Fv mode, which is a customisable P mode.

Fv Mode

Fv mode is like Programmed Automation but it is possible to switch between the shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance, in the viewfinder, using just the top mode dial. Change any one value, and the others change automatically. This is massively quicker than manually changing the mode from Av, Tv, P, etc. Just do it in camera. This is ideal for street shots, where there is no time to fiddle with the camera, and any fiddling would just draw attention to yourself.

Touch Screen Shooting

To enable a touch screen shutter release. CAMERA 5> Touch Shutter> Enable> Use the icon on the screen to toggle between  ON / OFF (the camera will focus on the area touched)

Silent Shooting

To silent beeps when focussing etc: WRENCH 3> Beep> Disable

To enable the electronic shutter: CAMERA 6> Silent Shutter> Enable

Focus Beam

To disable the focus beam that assists focus in low light: AF 4>AF assist beam firing> OFF

Save Settings

To save these settings WRENCH 6> Custom Shooting Mode (C1-C3)> Register Settings> Custom shooting mode> Register camera settings to Custom shooting mode> OK.

Not the Obvious Choice

So this camera is not a Leica M10 which many purists would see as de rigeur for this type of work. No, this camera is better than that.

Where I Buy

I buy my equipment from Wex because of their exceptional customer service. I once returned a camera after 30 days, and the next day they called to return my money to my account. Their prices are always competitive and they offer good prices on the trade in of your used gear


Photo London 2019

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Photo London 2019 / John Gough / Canon EOS R

As a photographer going to an exhibition by Don McCullin or Martin Parr is uplifting and inspirational. What though if you could see the best work from hundreds of great photographers in one place. That would be amazing, and that is what Photo London which is now on at Somerset House in London delivers. Art dealers from around the world, gather to sell prints from the best photographers in the world.

Collectors can be seen buying photography at phenomenal prices. Not yet quite the price of paintings by the greatest, but obviously photography is now a sound investment. It has taken a long time but photography is now part of the art mainstream, as demonstrated by the partnership of Elton John and David Furnish with the V&A. 

If you get a chance go to Photo London it is on for another couple of days

The Joy of Bokeh

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bokeh

May Morning / John Gough / Canon 6D

At 7 am this early May morning the sun was up and flashing at a near horizontal angle through the trees. The temperature was a bit fresh, but in my local country park,  the opportunity to photograph wildlife, plants, flowers and trees was everywhere.

Blur were right:

 …morning soup can be avoided if you take a route straight through what is known as Parklife

but for me, it was not just blur but the joy of bokeh.

Canon RF 35mm f1.8 IS Macro Review

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Canon RF 35mm f1.8 IS Macro

The Canon RF 35mm f1.8 IS Macro is an important lens. It is the first non L lens for the Canon EOS R mirrorless line up. There was some derision when Canon introduced the initial lens line up for these cameras. They were big, bulky, heavy and very expensive. The RF 50mm f1.2, for example, weighs 950 g, does not have image stabilization and costs a whopping £2349. It is however by all accounts a brilliant lens.

That is why the RF 35mm is such an important lens. Small and light, with IS it costs £519. Hopefully, it is the start of a line of affordable lenses for these cameras. With the launch of the Canon EOS RP, a full frame mirrorless camera for just £1399 body only. Canon is signalling its intention of overlapping into the Fujifilm and Olympus space. To do this effectively it needs lenses that are fabulous and that cost hundreds not thousands.

Ken Rockwell Review

So how good is this Canon RF 35mm.

Ken Rockwell who to me is the ultimate reviewer said:

“This lens does many things and does them all well. It shows that Canon is really on the ball; this is a very innovative lens different from all the others.

It’s a little lens with big performance”.

That’s enough for me, this lens is good.  Read his review here.

 

 

Real Life Review

So what is it like in real life? I headed to Castle Ashby Gardens in Northamptonshire to find out. These are all JPEGs straight from the camera.

Landscape

A 35mm lens is ideal for landscape….

Landscape

Street Photography

…and street photography. Well sort of.

Street Photography

 

Image Stabilization

Image stabilization is 5 stops. This image was taken at 1/13th second, hand held. Looks sharp enough to me. There were critics who complained that the EOS R did not have in body stabilization, but the lens stabilization here is pretty phenomenal.

Image Stabilization

Bokeh

The bokeh on this lens is soft and dreamy, and the image as sharp as a pencil.

 

Bokeh

Macro

With a maximum magnification of 0.5x, you can fill the frame with spring blossom, and wallow in the fine detail.

Macro

 

 What is There not to Like

The lens is made of plastic, but it feels solid. A perfect partner with the Canon EOS R and RP

There is no lens hood. Buy one here at Amazon. I bought this one.

 

Conclusion

The new RF mount will enable new innovative lenses from Canon. The reduction in the flange distance between the sensor and the lens should mean that the new RF L lenses will be superb, and the non L lenses as proved by this lens will be great.

Could it be that in future a non L RF lens will be as good as a Canon EF L lens? I look forward to the technical comparisons.

Where I Buy

I buy my equipment from Wex because of their exceptional customer service. I once returned a camera after 30 days, and the next day they called to return my money to my account. Their prices are always competitive and they offer good prices on the trade in of your used gear


 

Peoples Vote March

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Some pictures from the Peoples Vote March in London on the 23rd March 2019.

Peoples Vote March / John Gough / Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / John Gough / Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / John Gough / Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / John Gough / Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / John Gough / Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / John Gough /Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / John Gough / Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / John Gough / Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / Sony a6300

Peoples Vote March / John Gough / Sony a6300

An Evening with Martin Parr

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Martin Parr

Last night I went along to the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, to hear Martin Parr talk about his life in photography.

These are just a few of the notes that I took away from the evening.

Obsession

His father was a fanatical bird watcher and every weekend Martin Parr would accompany him on birding trips. Parr admits that his photography is an obsession, a trait no doubt inherited from his father. However he is grateful, he believes that to be a successful photographer it has to be an obsession.

Projects

Projects I have always thought should have a beginning and an end date. Martin Parr does not always follow this rule. Although he has projects which have an end date, for example, he is currently working on a project which will be published as a book this year about people taking selfies. He also has recurring projects like the British seaside which he says he cannot resist, and keeps coming back to. This follows the success of his early book The Last Resort which was first published in 1986.

There are also longer term projects, for example, his love of photographing people dancing. This like his pertinacity to document the British class system, are continuing themes.

Colour or Black and White

Parr changed to colour in the early eighties. Even then colour was not a professional medium. Instead, it was more the domain of holiday snaps and hobbyists. I asked whether he had ever thought of returning to monochrome with the advent of digital. “I see in colour and photograph in colour” he replied, “I have no intention of going back”.

Gaining a Momentum and Eight Good Pictures a Year

Martin Parr admitted that when he arrived at a scene where he was going to take photographs, he would take lots of pictures. It is about getting into a momentum he said, so when that great opportunity happens, you are ready. He joked, that what we don’t see are the thousands of images he rejects. What was his hit rate he was asked? About one in ten thousand, or around eight really good shots a year.

Ordinary Things

In the early days, he would challenge himself to photograph things that were as boring as possible. He has always been interested in the mundane. The ordinary things later become extraordinary. He showed an example of a lady filling a car with petrol in the 80’s. Look he said the cars have changed, the pumps have changed and the fashions have changed.

Last Word

At one point during the evening, he said that it was his job to make fiction out of reality. That I think sums up his work.

Where to See His Work

He has a show Only Human at the National Portrait Gallery. There is also a book to accompany the event.

 

There is an exhibition of his photographs of in and around Manchester at the Manchester Art Gallery.

 

Martin Parr Manchester Art Gallery

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Martin Parr Exhibition Manchester Art Gallery / John Gough / Sony a6300

Martin Parr went to college in Manchester and his early work is at an exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery. During his career, he has visited Manchester frequently and explored northern life. The result is a large body of work centred in and around Manchester. The Manchester Art Gallery recently commissioned him to create, ‘a portrait of the city and its people in 2018’.

The joy of this exhibition is that all this work is displayed in one big space, where there is room to look at the photographs and see the development of his distinctive style.

 

Photography Show Birmingham

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Photography Show Birmingham / John Gough / Sony a6300

Just visited the Photography Show in Birmingham, here are my highlights:

The Fujifilm stand was buzzing with interest in the new X-T3 which feels good in the hand. Solid, good grip well balanced.

The Sony stand had little new to show. Last year all attention was on the a7iii which is still a cracking camera.

The new camera that Sony did have to show was the a6400 which is a work of art if you want a small inconspicuous camera.


Canon had the new mirrorless range which has kicked off with the Canon EOS R and RP. The RP is a surprisingly small camera, it is a shame there are no lenses that feel balanced to go with it, but on the stand they insisted there were lots more lenses in the pipeline. They also rubbished the view that the sensor in the RP was less superior to the sensor in the EOS R. Price tells you that this may not be true.

Every time I go to the show I am drawn to the Wacom stand. Do I need a Wacom tablet? Is it better than using a mouse with Photoshop? After visiting the stand I was still none the wiser. Lots of research required.

Intrigued by Matterport which is a reality capture system. Whatever was captured could then be viewed in 3D and VR. Makes you wonder whether soon we might be able to do the same with a smartphone!

I thought this was a neat idea, photo boards for still life backgrounds. I should think particularly useful for food product shots.  Especially pies.

I quite fancied an ONA leather camera bag. However, they are so pricy that you would need a Leica to put in it.

As it is I signed up for a year’s subscription to Digital Camera and took away a free Lowepro Slingshot 102 camera bag, which is going to be ideal for travel and street photography trips


This is great offer but if you cannot get to the NEC at Birmingham for the last day tomorrow (19th March) it is still available on Amazon. 

 

Beginners Guide to Photography

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Beginners Guide to Photography

 

I always thought I was a reasonable photographer. So a few years ago now I set off to the Lake District to take some magnificent landscapes. A few days alone with my camera would I thought nail some stunning images. It was a photographic pilgrimage which would turn into an epiphany.

I had a Canon EOS 450D with a kit lens and a map of the area. World beating shots would be easy. Perhaps I thought I could even win a competition.

The Result

The example above is the sort of thing I came back with.

I had been given a Landscape Photographer of the Year book which was my inspiration for this trip. However, my images did not bear any resemblance to the classy pictures in the book.

I had to make a decision. Should I ditch photography and take up bowls or gardening. Or should I immerse my self in photo geekery. Learn all I could and give it a go.

Beginners Guide to Photography

It was then I decided to change everything about my photography. To start again.

The list of what I needed to know was a long one. It would I know take me a long time. I set a goal to gain an LRPS from the Royal Photographic Society. This would be my benchmark.

It has been an iJourney ever since.

I was reminded of this tortuous period by corresponding with Joanna Thomas at Hobby Help. Her Ultimate Beginners Guide to Photography is just the sort of solid information I devoured in huge chunks during that time, and still do.

This book, How to Photograph Absolutely Everything: Successful Pictures from your Digital Camera was also very useful and a great start point. It is a bit dated now but no worse for that.

Where I Buy

I buy my equipment from Wex because of their exceptional customer service. I once returned a camera after 30 days, and the next day they called to return my money to my account. Their prices are always competitive and they offer good prices on the trade in of your used gear