John Gough Photography
Remembering / John Gough / Sony 6300
It was the Remembrance Ceremony in Bedford this morning.
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
V&A Photography Gallery
When I visited the Photography Centre at the V&A. I was looking forward to something different and exciting. A real celebration of photography. A national treasure trove of the very best images. However, I was disappointed. The V&A Photography Centre is just a museum space with photographs.
The V&A Photography Centre was opened earlier this month to celebrate the Royal Photography Society collection of photographs, joining the V&A’s national collection. Both these archives are massive, and it is very sad that this national collection is not available to view. So it is some consolation then, that the V&A have rescued around 600 objects, and they are on view at the gallery.
The V&A blurb boasts that the new galleries revolutionise the way photography is presented. So I was expecting more than two rooms in the corner of the V&A with pictures on the wall and cameras in glass cases. A lost opportunity, to be more off the wall.
I know the V&A is a museum, but does it have to devote so much of its’ limited space to the first hundred and fifty years of photography. The last 70 years of photography are when cameras became more portable, and new genres of photography were let loose. Although there was some extraordinary recent photography, Martin Parr and Linda McCartney included. There were walls devoted to early photographs, but no mention of a smartphone camera or social media. Lots of Brownies, but no Huawei or Instagram
This exhibition at least recognises the importance of photography, and the V&A Photography Centre is to be extended to twice the size by 2022. So it has time to change, and space to grow into.
Around 1.8 billion images are captured each day. So every two minutes we take more pictures than ever existed 150 years ago. Essentially that is the V&A’s dilemma.
I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.
Fujifilm X-T3
Just what is Sony up to with the launch of the Sony a7000? Normally so assured the company seems to have got jittery about the launch of their new replacement for the Sony a6500. First, we heard speculation that the launch may be at Photokina earlier this month, then the launch date was confidently predicted to be yesterday the 16th October. But nothing. Sony is being very tight lipped.
Sony is used to being years ahead with their cameras. The launch of their full frame mirrorless Sony a7III threw the industry into despair and forced both Canon and Nikon to respond with $2000 full frame mirrorless cameras of their own.
The forums and rumour mills have been bubbling with the prospect of the Sony a7000 with a spec which would blow existing APS-C cameras out of the water. Sony is used to having an upper hand. It is their ethos to be ahead with stunning technology. Sony has the advantage of being able to leverage the technology which is being developed across the corporation and bringing it to bear in new products. So perhaps the launch of the Fujifilm X-T3 has taken them by surprise.
In many ways, the Fujifilm XT-3 delivers the functionality and specification we expected on the Sony a7000. As DPReview commented, ‘this model is way more than an upgrade; rather, it’s a dramatic step forward’.
Specifically:
Sony will have to pull out some stops to beat this mindblowing spec. Furthermore, the rumours are that Sony is moving away from the Sony a6500 iconic design, back to a central prism type viewfinder layout, no at all dissimilar to the Fujifilm XT-3!
So it may be that Sony is in a dilemma, do they launch a me too Fujifilm equivalent, or do they get back to the drawing board. Rumours are that the Sony a7000 may now be delayed to 2019.
I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.
Primitive Multiple Exposure / John Gough /Canon 6D
A week or so ago I attended a Bailey Chinnery workshop in Hastings. The workshop was run by Valda Bailey and Doug Chinnery. It concentrated more on the creative process of photography rather than technical information, and traditional composition etc.
This paragraph from their website sums up their approach:
So it is our goal that these new Creative Growth workshops will have a more intense focus on artistic development. We want to help you open your mind to think with greater freedom, develop your own style, forge your own path. It is our hope that they will facilitate your progress as an artist and you will come away creatively invigorated and inspired.
The workshop I attended was for one day and concentrated on creating abstract images in camera using multiple exposures, and Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). I was interested in using multiple exposures to create background layers in Photoshop. However, I was quickly impressed with the possibilities of creating multiple exposure images as pictures that stood upon their own.
I don’t want to go into the technical bits. However, if like me you did not know if your camera even had multiple exposure functionality. Then follow this video:
Multiple exposure photography lays one image on top of another in camera. The camera software averages out the exposure values so that all layers are visible. It requires considerable skill to turn a set of random shots into a meaningful image.
There are endless possibilities to create shapes, abstracts and impressionist art, as this work by Valda Bailey illustrates.
There is a wonderful ‘in the moment’ quality about photographing a location in this way. Valda Bailey told us that she will spend at least an hour before she picks up her camera. I can understand why. It requires intense concentration to take several images in a sequence that will work together to form a finished photograph.
I have only been experimenting for a few days as you can see from the example at the top of the page. There is more work to do.
I mentioned recently that I had visited the London Nights exhibition at the Museum of London. Some of the images on show are amazing and encourage you to walk around your neighbourhood at night to see just what your camera can see.
This article in the British Journal of Photography showcases the exhibition, and a new FullBleed film produced in association with British Journal of Photography and the Museum of London, which explores the exhibition through the eyes of its curator and a selection of exhibiting photographers.
I, of course, loved the 50’s images with men in gaberdine macks, smoking on street corners under gas lights, but with over two hundred and fifty images from over sixty photographers, there is something for everyone.
Curbar Edge / John Gough / Canon 6D
The way to really appreciate Curbar Edge in the Peak District is to get there at dawn, and if you are lucky with the weather, the sun will rise behind you throwing the rocky outcrop into relief creating memorable photographs.
We did just that last week. Thanks to Clive Williams at Bedford Camera Club for organising the event. We set off from home at 4.00am and arrived just as the sun was rising at 6.45.
Curbar Edge, in the Peak District, is a high gritstone escarpment offering spectacular views across the idyllic countryside of the White Peak.
If you go there, the National Trust car park can be found at Clodhall Lane, Hope Valley, S32 3YR. Climb the steps at the rear of the car park and follow the path.
I did not take a long lens, but I wished I had so I could have got a better shot of the villages and stone walled fields further up the valley. If you are lucky then the valley may be clouded over below you, adding to the drama of any photographs.
I used a tripod, and a wide angle lens, with a small aperture around f22 for the shot above. This ensured both the rocks and the valley were in focus.
Just through the morning gloom is Chatsworth House. With a longer lens and mist or snow on the ground, this could be a fabulous shot.
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
The Mirror / John Gough / Sony a6300
I was taking photographs in the City the other day following a visit to the excellent London Nights exhibition at the Museum of London. Although I am at heart a street photographer, I do think the urban environment offers fantastic opportunities.
It is possible to walk from the Museum of London to Moorgate, and into the Barbican on elevated walkways. If there is good light this raised environment provides creative ways to play with the sunlight, that cuts majestically through the spaces between the buildings. A shard of light, or the interplay of light and dark, with people walking half in and out of shadow, are one of the techniques that urban photographers have played with since Henri Cartier-Bresson in the 1930’s.
Today the swathes of glass offer fantastic reflections. As the picture above illustrates. I had to wait for some time for that shot. Waiting for a figure to occupy that first third of the image.
As I stood pointing my camera at the window, a security guard tapped me on the shoulder and asked me what I was doing. As usual, because this happens to me quite frequently, I have a well rehearsed response. I was polite, I engaged in conversation and offered him my business card. A business card is essential for any street photographer, I have managed to escape without acrimony many times this way.
Later, as I thought about it. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for whoever was on the other side of this mirror faced glass window. Probably it was an important business meeting or business deal which could have reached a dramatic climax. Then looking up the city bankers saw me prone, camera in hand, pointing it forcibly in their direction.
In that situation, I admit I too would have been indignant and summoned security. After all, I know what it feels like, I was behind that mirror once.
I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.
Sony a7000. Will it look the same as the a6000 series?
We don’t know what it is going to be called, there are rumours that it could be a Sony a7000. However, speculation is growing that after Photokina, which ends in Cologne on the 29th September, and before the PhotoPlus EXPO in late October 2018. Sony will announce an APS-C camera that is a ‘mini A9’. So a small light weight high spec’ camera with world class technology.
The camera world has been focussed on full frame cameras, with the launch of the Canon EOS R and the Nikon Z (pronounced like pee). However, they are following the lead of Sony with the launch of the groundbreaking Sony a7III. It is interesting that the narrative around mirrorless cameras has been changing. We have commented before that Canon and Nikon have launched big mirrorless cameras, and the ethos of small, light and portable had been lost. Instead, the excuse for big mirrorless cameras is that they are the platform for future advances in technology. Faster burst rates, closer integration with video, information packed viewfinders and subject tracking AF. What if Sony could pack all that technology into a small package Sony a7000?
So congratulations to Fujifilm in keeping the same form factor with the launch of XT-3, a small camera bursting with technology, which can be partnered with small high quality lenses.
Whereas we once saw the APS-C market declining as consumers moved to full frame, perhaps Sony see an opportunity with the Sony a7000, to create sophisticated cameras that will appeal to those that are more used to their phone, rather than a camera the size of a handbag.
By creating a flagship ‘mini a9’ with an APS-C sensor, which sat on top of the a6000 series. Sony would have created a unique range. Nikon and Canon would have nothing that could compete. So where do they go? Leave the market to Fujifilm, Olympus and Sony? Or as they have done recently, rush out their own models?
Sony is out for domination. In the mirrorless space, it looks as though they are going for a pincer movement
I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.
My Commute / John Gough / Sony a6300
I am delighted that the BBC have just used this image in their England Big Picture Series
I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.
Canon EOS R
We were not invited to a luxury hotel in Hawaii to see the launch presentation of the new full frame mirrorless camera from Canon, the Canon EOS R. However, what struck me from the limited specs and pictures we have seen, is just how big the new camera and the new RF lenses seem to be.
This is the Canon EOS R with the 50mm RF lens.
Canon EOS R
There were only ever two real benefits of mirrorless over DSLR’s. That is size and weight. Taking out the mirror mechanism enabled the camera to lose weight and become less bulky. An example is the Sony a6500, which is just one-third of the bulk of the equivalent APS-C sensor, Canon 7D Mark 2. It also weighs around half as much as the Canon.
Canon is not alone, both Sony and Nikon full frame mirrorless cameras have become bigger, as these manufacturers grapple with including bigger batteries to illuminate their power hungry electronic viewfinders.
Canon, however, seems to have lost the mirrorless ethos. Compared with their own similar spec DSLR, the Canon 6D Mark II. The mirrorless Canon EOS R, is 94% of the size and 87% of the weight. The question we have to ask ourselves is. Is this a mirrorless camera or is this a DSLR without a mirror?
Incidentally, this beefy shell has been achieved without a quantum leap in battery performance. Which is 330 shots, so spare batteries or a grip are essential.
Moving on to lenses, the Canon RF lenses which go with the Canon EOS R, are massive. Admittedly the RF 24-105mm f4L is similar in size and weight to the DSLR equivalent the EF 24-105mm f4L. However, the RF 50mm f1.2L is over 70% larger than the equivalent EF lens and 60% heavier. This new lens costs £2349 and does not even have stabilisation and neither does the camera!
The new fat RF 28-70 f2L weighs in at a gigantic 3lbs. That’s a lot to carry around with you on your next mountain trip. Plus there is no stabilisation so add a tripod.
This big camera and huge lenses change the mirrorless paradigm. No longer are these cameras fun, lightweight, and portable. They have returned to being Canon and sensible, like wearing a tie with shiny shoes.
I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.