Gibson Mill.

Gibson Mill near Hebden Bridge is like a film set. It is much photographed, in all weathers, at all times of the day and evening. It sits below Hardcastle Crags, next to Hebden Beck which would have originally been the source of power for the mill. The estate including the mill, was donated to the National Trust by Lord Saville in 1950.

It is a regular spot for me and my partner to visit. Given my current situation, it also has limited disabled parking spots which enabled us to actually get there! Autumn is probably my favourite time of the year for photography and the estate and mill look fabulous, particularly on a sunny autumnal day. I travelled light, taking my Nikon Z6 II, two Viltrox primes and an adapted Pentax 100mm f2.8 vintage lens. The three primes covered the focal range from 20mm to 100mm and still I had to work for the shots.

I could have taken the 24-120 with the FTZ II adapter but weight was important. Even though I have become accustomed to shooting with large DSLRs, I am still taking it steadily using a single crutch so excessive weight unbalances me. The Z6 II and a small prime is roughly half the weight of my D700 and 24-120 lens. It makes you wonder if going fully mirrorless is the long term goal but I love shooting with DSLR cameras.

You go all in with a camera manufacturer and it has many benefits. Batteries, menu systems, lenses (even if adapted) all sync and you choose the camera for the look it produces. The D810 has more megapixels but also a different look to it than the Z6 II. The D700 is like no other camera I have ever used but the operational essentials are Nikon. I know my restriction is temporary and I’ll be back shooting with the heavier gear soon but until then, I am more than happy using the mirrorless camera. I went from film to mirrorless, only discovering the joys of it a couple of years ago.

Ultimately, It doesn’t matter what gear you use, It is down to the landscape/subject/location you are shooting. Gibson Mill is a joy to shoot at. Combine that with great company, excellent weather and decent accessibility, It proved to be worth the visit.

On The Cusp.

I’m writing this on a dank, grey early December morning. The sky is featureless , light drizzle hangs in the atmosphere and winter has arrived. We generally think of winter being snow covered, crisp and cold. Winters in the UK are more like today as a rule. For the next four months, many days will seem like today. It can be a challenge for a photographer who takes most of his shots outside. It’s not that the weather is so forbidding, more like unappealing. Maybe I’m a lightweight outdoor photographer, easily put off by grey skies and some rain. Christmas is beginning to loom and weight of expectation and frenzy sit in the corner, quietly watching me.

I like Christmas but find it hard to deal with. This will be the first year in my 59 years on this planet, where my mum is no longer with us. My family are spread and my two daughters have new babies. It’s a magical time for many and I do get that. The transformation from autumn to winter is indeterminate. One day it’s bright orange , yellow and brown leaves, brisk cool air ; and the next, cold air, bare trees and grey skies. There is a beauty in a bleak winter landscape and I’ve taken some of my favourite photos at this time of year.

I’m undergoing a sort of seasonal adjustment , one that leads me eventually to think ‘ok, it’s winter now, how do I make the best of it?’ Eventually is maybe the keyword in that last sentence. I’m sure in a day or so, I’ll be more at peace with the familiarity of winter. On the cusp of winter marks change. The run up to Christmas, the realisation that this will be the norm until spring creeps in, is something I think we maybe all experience. It runs deep in our souls however preoccupied, how busy we are. There is some part of us that feels the change of the seasons even if we don’t always acknowledge it.

Give it a couple of weeks and the focus will be on presents, decorations, preparations for the ‘big day’. I will be in organised mode trying to make sure another Christmas can be successfully navigated. A few dry days, some good moody skies and no immediate plans to scupper, will give me that chance to get out with my camera and capture the bleak beauty of December.

Autumn Walk.

Birch Tree - Panasonic S5 + Panasonic 24-105mm f/4

I have a lingering, annoying cold. It has been here nearly a week and it’s getting me down. I have missed opportunities to go out and capture the majestic displays of autumn. I haven’t been feeling overly positive of late, and having to sell my Leica to recoup some funds, only made this worse. As someone who suffered with clinical depression for several years, it is always a worry. Am I slipping back into the darkness again? Is the black dog trotting his way up the garden path? I think it feels more physical health related this time and hopefully when this bloody cold goes, I’ll perk up. That’s the excuses out of the way and now onto one of the two photowalks I have managed this week.

I stopped at Chellowdene on the outskirts of Bradford on Thursday this week. It is a place I have been to many times in all weathers, lights and times of year. Autumn is maybe where it is at its finest however. The rambling woods lead to two reservoirs constructed first in 1844 and then 1853, were built to supply fresh drinking water to the city of Bradford. They are very popular with dog walkers and locals wanting to stretch their legs. My late mum played in these woods as a child in the 1930’s. I wandered through the woods to the upper reservoir, stopping frequently to capture the beautiful burnished colours, crunching over a carpet of leaves. I felt pretty dreadful butt also determined to not turn round and get back in the car. The lure of capturing some seasonal colour was too much and also, I wanted to give my Panasonic S5, a runout.

As I have owned one of these cameras before, it felt familiar and comfortable. I forgot how well it performs and the level of detail you can recover from the raw files. It made me wonder why I had sold it for the Leica, given that they do share certain internal components, thanks to the Panasonic/Leica hook up. I was grateful for the in-body image stabilisation as my hands were particularly shaky thanks to the cold and general feeling of feebleness. It pairs very well with the 24-105 lens which also has image stabilisation. The Lens is probably the nicest kit lens of any manufacturer I have ever owned. Simple, effective and not overly heavy. It does the simple things well.

I am glad I managed to get out and get some photos. I am always happiest when I have a camera in hand. This is only marginally better than looking and processing the raw images. To see your photos come alive in Lightroom is a joy. The greatest moment for me in any photography, is the split second before the shutter goes. Can you capture what is not only before you but what you see as being before you. These for me are very different in that one is how the scene is and the other is how you envisage it could be portrayed. I am not a landscape photographer in any way. I don’t want to recreate the scene exactly as it is. I know many landscape photographers will manipulate their raw images to create a certain mood or bring out facets in the composition which I guess is where I am. I went for a darker moodier vibe this time, wanting the colours to pop but the skies and shadows to also predominate. When I’ve shaken this cold, I hope to get out again and do some more photos before the trees lose all their leaves and winter sets in. Sorry for the moaning and thanks for reading so far. Enjoy your Sunday!

Autumn Has Arrived!

I’m not a landscape photographer. I tend to find that most landscape photographers think like landscape photographers. They have a love of nature, of painting a scene with an image. I am in awe of many great landscape photographers for both their work and their dedication to it. To be fair, most types of photography attracts slightly obsessive people. You put a camera in the hand of photographer and they begin to imagine the perfect scene. I do have that need to create but I’m not fixed or have a strong preference to any form of subject. Autumn however, does bring out the landscape photographer in me. The mixture of vibrant colours as the deciduous trees, turn their canopies of green into browns, yellows, orange, red. The light is different this time of year as it can be bright but not as intense.

I like the freshness, that slight nip in the air. It can also be more of a lottery as to whether it pours down all day, blows a gale or produces a frost. I went out yesterday morning up above Gibson Mill in West Yorkshire. I had no intention of walking to the mill but knew that the path down offered several opportunities for some compositions. I went armed with all manual lenses as there was no need to focus quickly. My Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 Nokton Classic is proving to be a wonderful addition to my kit. It’s small, easy to focus and very sharp even when fully open. I also used my old faithful Pentax SMC 135mm f3.5 and Olympus Zuiko 50mm f1.4. The 50mm is proving to be a lovely sharp lens even though the focus throw on it is quite a lot more than my Voigtlander. The beauty of shooting manually on the Leica is that often, the process is quicker than trying to nail autofocus (an issue I discussed in my previous blog post). The beauty of using old lenses is the way they render colour. Pentax lenses seem almost tailor made for autumn as they can be slightly more subdued than the exuberant depths of colour you can get from Zuiko lenses. One advantage of shooting manually whilst out amongst abound rich colours and mist is that you take your time more. I am naturally impatient but autumn tends to slow me down. Less desire to nail one photo and then move on.

Early autumn is often my favourite time of year. There is still enough daylight to explore without the worry of darkness appearing. You don’t have to get up at a silly hour to capture a sunrise. There’s something more respectable about 7.30 am than the 5am starts in Summer. As a photographer, you have to be able to adapt to whatever season or weather condition you’re faced with but we will all have a preference. Mine is now and for the next few weeks before winter grasps us in its foreboding icy clutches. I’m determined to capture the moments before the weather/lack of light and general stupidity of the festive season, takes hold.