iJourneys

John Gough Photography

Canon September News

by

Canon September News: The Canon R3

Finally this week after considerable prelaunch publicity the Canon R3 was announced in a burst of Canon September News. We had got most of the details right, except we did not know the price which will be £5879 in the UK, putting this camera clearly in a professional space.

Canon R3 Specification

A recap on the specification.

  • 24MP Stacked CMOS Dual Pixel AF sensor
  • 30 fps Electronic shutter
  • Eye Control AF and a 5.69M-dot electronic viewfinder
  • AF with subject recognition for humans animals and vehicles.
  • Low light capability: AF rated as working down to -7.5EV (with F1.2 lens)
  • Both CFexpress Type B and UHS-II SD slots
  • Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
  • Canon’s new Multi-Function Shoe to which new accessories e.g. flash and mics can be fitted.
  • A one piece magnesium alloy body design, integrated with a grip section
  • Weather and dust resistance which is the same as EOS-1D.

Will the 24MP sensor be enough? This is what we wait to see.

Canon R3 Eye Control

This is a feature that cannot be demonstrated because you have to see it with your own eyes! In the video below from the irrepressible Chris Nichols and Jordon from DPReview, do their best, but we cant wait until these guys get their hands on a production model to see how it really performs. However, it feels like we are at the start of a new big change in camera design, and the old joysticks etc for moving the focus point around a screen, will seem so twin lens reflex in just a few years time.

That is if eye control works of course. If it does for wildlife shooters, this is a gamechanger.

Other Canon September News

It looks as though Canon is looking at both ends of the market, with the launch of the RF16mm f2.8 lens for just £319.

Excellent for vloggers, but also amazing for stills photographers with so many creative possibilities. As a documentary and street photographer, I cant wait to get my hands on it.

I use the RF35mm every day.

This video from Gordon Laing gives a preview

There is also a new 100-400 RF zoom at f5.6-f8 at £699. It seems a bit slow but considering the stabilisation on the latest R5, R6 and R3 then you have to ask why we need big glass. On the other hand, this lens may be a compromise too far. Let’s wait for the reviews.

Below Gordon does another excellent preview of this lens.

Canon’s Remarkable Prediction

Thinking about both ends of the market, there was an interesting snippet on Canon Rumours. Which was that Canon will announce a new R camera in January that is “going to annoy a lot of the [Canon] fanboys”.

What could this mean? A Canon R MkII, or a new Canon RP. My thinking is the latter as Canon may want to take on Olympus and Fuji with a smaller but fully functioning full frame or APSC mirrorless camera. This could replace the M-Series and bring their mirrorless cameras together in the R Series.

Remember you heard it here first!

Cliché Photography

by

Cliche Photography: Buttermere / John Gough

Cliché photography is about lack of imagination. Taking the pictures that everyone else takes. That can be location, genre, or processing. It is copying the photographs that others have taken before.

When I was in the Lake District earlier this year, I could not resist taking the lone tree at Buttermere. I had to queue, because there were other photographers in front of me, setting up their tripods. This is a very popular view. Try a search on Google, and you will see that lots of photographers have been there before you. Thousands of photographers each year take that same view. I agree all the images are different, and there are lots of different versions, but essentially they are all the same scene.

So is my version unique? I have changed the sky to one that was not there and added a texture effect to the foreground. So is it still cliche photography?

Cliché Photography: SLPOTY

Well, the Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year competition (SLPOTY) is so fed up with receiving submissions from just a few places that they have banned images from certain locations from now on.

These are the most popular and most photographed views in Scotland. SLPOTY maintains that 80% of their submissions are just from these 19 locations!

Cliche Photography: SLOPTY

So if you want to enter their competition you will need to find a unique perspective.

Isn’t Photography About Fun

I applaud the SLPOTY in trying to promote diversity but isn’t photography about fun. It is exciting to discover beautiful landscape images, find their locations and attempt to recreate or put your own take on familiar scenes.

I am going to Scotland next month and I look forward to tracking down the nineteen locations that the SLPOTY have banned and putting my stamp on their ‘honeypot’ beauty spots.

It is now so easy to find these locations and explore the views that other photographers have taken, by using books like these. These guides include instructions about how to get there and even where to park.

and

If you are a serious photographer and want to become Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year, then avoid the popular beauty spots, but if like me you want to come back with some cracking shots, buy the books and shoot the clichés

Velvet Lensbaby Lenses

by

Velvet Lensbaby Lenses create glowing ethereal effects in camera, which are often difficult to reproduce in Photoshop. By changing the aperture the effect can be controlled from pin sharp to very soft.

Lensbaby was started in 2004 by Craig Strong & Sam Price in Portland, Oregon. The Lensbaby Velvet 56 arrived on the market in 2015, followed by the Velvet 85 and the Velvet 28. The series is available for multiple camera mounts: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Pentax, and Fuji cameras.

Lensbaby Velvet Soft Focus

Soft focus was once considered a technical flaw. However, it has now become a creative tool for photographers. In the past, it was only possible to achieve this by putting Vaseline on a UV filter! Lensbaby changed all that.

Many photographers also experiment with vintage lenses to attain a charming dreamy look. Velvet lenses do the same thing. The more you open the aperture the dreamier the effect becomes. Starting at the edges and working into the centre, the blur becomes more exaggerated with each aperture ring click. As the aperture is opened, the depth of focus also decreases and at ƒ/2.8, the whole image is a gentle mist.

At these wide apertures, it can look as though the image was painted. Lensbaby advocates insist this look cannot be created in Photoshop. However competent you are with layers and Gaussian blur. This unique effect may be down to the glow the lens will impart in some lighting conditions.

These are some examples collated on this Pinterest board.

Practicalities When Using a Lensbaby

When using a Lensbaby lens it is back to basics, because your camera will not recognize the lens. The lens has no electronic coupling. As a result, the aperture cannot be changed using the aperture control on the camera. To change the aperture it is back to using the aperture ring on the lens.

The lens works best in manual mode, although aperture priority can work on some cameras.

The focus is also manual. This is easiest with a mirrorless camera or using live view on a traditional DSLR. Note that the camera will not store camera settings with the metadata.

The Velvet also does not have an automatic diaphragm, which on modern cameras opens the aperture to its widest setting once the lens is mounted on the camera. As a result, the lens aperture closes as you stop down, and the view gets increasingly dark.

Which Velvet Lensbaby to Choose

Lensbaby Velvet 56

Although this is primarily a portraiture lens, the lens is a ‘nifty fifty’ with glowing ethereal characteristics. It has a 1:2 macro ratio, making it perfect for misty flower photography.

Lensbaby Velvet 85

A short telephoto portrait lens, capable of 1:2 macro photography with a minimum focusing distance of just 24cm. So ideal for nature close ups.

Lensbaby Velvet 28

A wide angle lens ideal for landscapes and travel, but with a 1:2 macro facility.

Why Buy a Lensbaby Velvet

There is a movement back to simpler photography. Creating effects that can be created in camera, and which do not need layers of Photoshop in post production. Techniques like ICM, multiple exposure and vintage lenses.

The Lensbaby range is right on trend. If occasionally we do not always want to see our world with hard, sharp, twenty twenty vision, then the Velvet Lensbaby takes us back to a more gentle era.

Christine Ellger Flower Photography

by

I am constantly looking for inspirational flower photography, and recently I have been loving the work of Christine Ellger.

BIOGRAPHY
Christine Ellger was born in Germany in 1948. Her interest in photography was heightened with the advent of digital photography and the infinite possibilities it offers in terms of processing. Since she retired in 2010, Christine Ellger has been continually photographing the world she has been discovering on her travels. She collects photographs and subsequently retouches them, conferring a magical aspect to them stemming directly from her imagination. The originality of her work is thus based on its fantastical and hyperrealist rendering. At first glance, the spectator cannot make out the photographic technique used. Hyperrealist style is the identical reproduction of a photograph as a painting. This painting is often so realistic that the spectator comes to question the very nature of the work. This well and truly applies to Christine Ellger’s bewitching world. 

Christine Ellger is known mainly for her fantastical composites but she has a considerable catalogue of flower photography. I have collated her beautiful flower photography here. Like her composites, they have a dreamy ethereal quality.

The learning for my own flower photography is:

  • Usually single flowers and pairs
  • The flowers are close up and fill the frame. On some only part of the flower is shown
  • The square format usually works well
  • Dark backgrounds and use of texture and light. The backgrounds include several dark colours.
  • Plain background and textured flowers rather than textured backgrounds and plain flowers.

Brilliant

Hyper Collage Photography

by

Ysabel Le May Hyper Collage Photography

Hyper collage photography has developed out of collage, which has long been a technique used in both art and photography. Man Ray was an early exponent of photography collage in the 1930s. Jump forward, and we are all aware of the images created using Photoshop layers to build composites. Often to create fantasy effects. Andrea Hargreaves is one of my favourite artists using this technique.

….but what is collage? The Museum of Modern Art defines a collage as: a “technique and resulting work of art in which fragments of paper and other materials are arranged and glued to a supporting surface”.

Hyper collage photography is a technique that combines multiple images that are manipulated using Photoshop. For example, Jim Kazanjian uses the technique to combine photographs of different architectural features to create fantastical buildings and landscapes.

However, what has grabbed my attention. Are photographers that are using natural phenomena to create fine art hyper collage images.

Fine Art Hyper Collage Photography

Ysabel Le May

I first came across Ysabel le May at the Saatchi Art. Where her work sells for upwards of $4000.

She is based in Texas and her art has been exhibited all over the world.

Ysabel Le May can be summed up simply: W.O.W. It stands for ‘Wonderful Other Worlds’, which she creates through the process of hypercollage. 

Saatchi Art

She photographs the natural world and uses collage to piece the images together to create a fantastical depiction of nature. She calls her images baroque tableaux.

The video above demonstrates the process she uses.

Lisa Frank

Lisa Frank is an American artist who describes her work as looking to communicate those momentary flashes of connectedness with nature.

She creates tapestries and still life composites using natural materials.

It is my purpose to draw the viewer into a local world as it hasn’t been seen before.

Lisa Frank

You can follow her process here.

Cas Slagboon

Cas Slagboom is a Dutch artist. Again he uses natural objects but often combined with human figures to create a fantasy feel.

For me, photography is more than capturing the perfect moment. Every time I try to capture my astonishment with a single photo, I am disappointed. This was not what I want to see and feel. It is larger, more complex, more diffuse. I have to bring all those fragments together. In compositions in which they together tell a story that transcends my understanding. So, that every time I look at it, I can be surprised again.

Cas Slagboon

All the photographic technology we have to capture our world in images may give us idea that we really see it. ………I use modern technology to find a language that exceeds the photographic moment, so there is sufficient room for the complexity of what we call reality.

Cas Slagboon

Summary

I included the two quotes from Cas Slagboon because they sum up my own feelings. That it is difficult to capture the reality of the moment with just one photograph. I have been experimenting with the Pep Ventosa style of photography and mixing abstract and reality to capture what we really see and feel.

Hyper collage photography is just one more technique on that journey.

May and June Images of the Month

by

May: Bluebell Wood / John Gough
June: Flower Meadow / John Gough

My Images of the Month for the past couple of months demonstrate the importance of preserving nature. Especially preserving nature where plants, insects and animals can survive.

The number of insects in my garden in Bedfordshire, UK has declined horrendously over the past few years as farmers spread chemicals on their fields, and developers gobble up green sites for building. Loss of habitat is a major contributor.

Overall, 76% of the UK’s resident and regular migrant butterfly species declined in either abundance or occurrence (or both) over the past four decades.

Butterfly Concervation

Insects are declining at around 1% each year. That means an insect apocalypse in our children’s lifetime.

Canon EOS R3 Features

by

We have researched all we know about the Canon EOS R3. The launch is about 2 months away, for what will be Canon’s fastest mirrorless full frame camera. The EOS R3 is going to be the go to camera for sports and wildlife professional photographers for years to come. To get this right, Canon is going for some pretty awesome features.

Although the R3 will probably be too expensive for many amateurs, some new features do give us an indication of how camera technology is progressing and what we might expect further down the line for Canon mirrorless cameras.

Canon EOS R3 Features:

So let us look at what is new.

Stacked CMOS Sensor on the EOS R3

The R3 will be the first EOS camera to feature an entirely new stacked BSI CMOS sensor. The advantage of this type of sensor is the fast readout speed. This boosts the camera’s maximum shooting rate. With no mirror constantly flipping up and down, mirrorless cameras are pushing burst shooting rates ever upward, but now with this sensor they have just got quicker.

Faster readouts also mean faster autofocus. So fast that it happens in the blinking of an eye. This means shooting 30fps with full AF/AE tracking using the electronic shutter. Canon claim that even at this speed there will be ‘minimal distortion’ of the type usually caused by a rolling shutter.

So this begs the question why do we need a mechanical shutter?

Eye Control AF with the EOS R3

Yes, autofocus in the blinking of an eye. Look at a subject and the AF will follow your eyeball and focus on what you are looking at! This feature is going to be the most talked about subject of all. in the R3 reviews.

The original technology was first seen in the 22-year-old Canon EOS-3 film camera, but never progressed to digital. One of the problems was the tracking of eyes through glasses. What about sun glasses? 

This is the rear of the Canon EOS R3 and it can be seen just how big the viewfinder has to be to accommodate this technology.

Canon EOS R3 Rear View
Canon EOS R3 Rear View

Capturing Movement with the R3

Canon insists that the R3 can master fast movement. This will not only interest sports photographers in the Grand Prix arena, but wildlife photographers capturing birds in flight. Canon eye tracking is already good with the R5. It will be amazing to see an improvement in this area.

Canon R3 Sensor Size

Rumour has it that the R3 will be priced around $6000. Below the Sony A1. Why? Well the A1 has a 50.1MP sensor. We don’t know the size of the R3 proposed sensor, but it could be that the R3 will have a smaller sensor. Perhaps as low as 20MP to enable sports photographers to quickly transfer images from the touchline.

UPDATE: We are now pretty confident that the sensor size will be 24MP

Just a thought, but what if the size of a sensor in the future is no longer linked to image quality? What if Canon’s new sensor is low in megapixels but has stunning image quality? Maybe through the use of new technology, perhaps even AI as employed on camera phones? There has been considerable research going on into this phenomena over the past few years. What if Canon has cracked it?

Canon EOS R3 Summary

What is quickly becoming apparent is that the R3 is an expensive specialist camera with awesome technology. It is not an amateur camera. We will not be seeing many at the local camera club outing to Clacton. However, what we can expect is that many of its new features will be headed for a Canon camera near you in the near future.

LRPS Examples

by

LRPS Examples
An image from my LRPS panel / John Gough

LRPS Examples lists winning submissions from RPS members who have successfully passed the LRPS qualification.

The LRPS is a qualification from the Royal Photographic Society, which confirms that you are a competent photographer. How though do you know if you are a competent enough photographer? One way is to take a look at other winning portfolios.

The RPS require ten images, which must work together as a panel. The RPS show some successful LRPS example submissions on the qualifications pages of their website.

The better you can judge whether your work meets the standard. The more confidence you can have in submitting your own work.

Examples of Successful LRPS Panels

We have curated panels from RPS members who have shared their success on their own or others websites or social media.

LRPS Assessments

Now that the RPS has resumed assessments at their HQ in Bristol and other locations around the country, now is a good time to think about your LRPS journey. If your photography is as good as the thirty LRPS example panels above then you are on your way.

My LRPS

It was the first real photography project that I ever undertook, and achieving the LRPS felt like a big deal. Joining a camera club was a good move for me because it taught me what the judges would be looking for in terms of technical excellence, and I hope I have helped others with this one big tip.

Life in Lockdown

by

Hands, Face. Space. Life in Lockdown / John Gough / Canon EOS R

Like many other photographers, the coronavirus pandemic was an opportunity to document what will hopefully be a unique time in our lives.

This was the third lockdown in the UK, it started in January 2021, but it is estimated that life will not be fully ‘back to normal’ until the end of June when some travel restrictions to other countries are still likely to remain.

The series of images, Life in Lockdown are here.

The Canon EOS R3 Is a Beast

by

It is no coincidence that it is the Olympics this year in Japan, and that Canon are putting out teasers about their new sports focussed camera the Canon EOS R3.

This is What Canon Say About the EOS R3

A camera designed to capture the fastest moving action in a way never thought possible. Specialised for capturing objects moving at high speed. Built to meet the demands of professional sports users with ultra-responsiveness, high sensitivity, reliability and durability.

This is What We Know About the Canon R3

Well, this is what we think we know, not much has been officially announced:

30fps

A whopping 30 fps shooting with continuous AF. That is compared to the 16fps on the flagship Canon EOS 1DX MkIII and the 20fps on Canon’s top mirrorless R mount camera, the Canon EOS R5.

BSI CMOS

A new BSI CMOS sensor. To interpret, this means that the sensor is backside illuminated. This improves low light photography. It is a technology that has been used on smartphones since the iPhone 4, but has been difficult to introduce to larger sensors.

Stacked CMOS

It is likely the new sensor will be a stacked CMOS sensor, like that announced for the Sony a9. As this video explains this allows much a faster readout from the sensor to achieve these amazing shooting rates with continually updated auto exposure and AF.

The new sensor will likely solve the stretching of images caused by rolling shutter distortion. As Canon put it, ‘minimal image distortion when using the electronic shutter’. This means that mechanical continuous shooting will become a thing of the past. It could even mean that mechanical shutters go the same way as those old fashioned mirrors.

Viewfinder Update

Another advantage could be, that the electronic viewfinder (EVF) can be updated in almost real time, and therefore begin to meet the performance of optical sensors. This is one of the reasons that pro sports photographers have been slower to move away from traditional DSLRs than other pro photographers.

Eye Controlled Focussing

Eye controlled AF makes the old joystick seem positively medieval, but Canon is promising that by looking through the EVF you can use your eye to control the focus point. Subject tracking and even eye tracking are now so advanced that it makes you wonder how this feature will work?

Plus Canon are promising that their AF algorithms will now track other subjects as well as faces and eyes. My bet would be on racing cars.

So What About the R1?

We were thinking that the next camera to be launched by Canon would be the Canon EOS R1. A replacement for the top of the range Canon EOS 1DX Mark III. However, the proposed Canon EOS R3 is intriguing because it is what we thought the R1 would be, but it has not been designated as the R1. The R5 and R6 have slotted into the lineup as replacements to their DSLR equivalents

So what will the R1 be like?