skullfunkerry

Thanks chaps. That's my favourite too; I've ordered a print of it from Saal Digital

Afternoon everyone! I've not been around much lately, but I have managed to get out with my camera a few times. Spent the day out and about around the Essex & Suffolk coast with a few friends last weekend. We shot the sea defences at Bawdsey beach, abandoned boats at Pin Mill, and the Dovercourt lighthouse. All in all it was an excellent day, and I got a few shots that I'm really pleased with. There are a few more on my Flickr, but here's a handful:

A friend of mine has started a small leathercraft business, making wallets and bags. I asked him about a wrist strap for my camera, and he's done me proud! I sent him the Peak Design anchor clip, and he's built the strap around it in the colours I wanted. I'm very happy with it. No affiliation, other than he's my friend, but if anyone fancies something similar then he's at https://www.mjhleather.co.uk/ :)

Oddly enough, I posted this on talkphotography as well and although not many people commented, nearly all the comments there prefer the lighter one. I think I do too actually, although I think a third edit might be in order, slightly darker than the original but not as dark as the second one...

Thanks @Fogey. I had to look chiaroscuro up, I've never heard of that before.

I spotted a cool tangle of branches in my local woods the other day, and went back to get a shot of them. I spent a while editing the RAW file (which is unusual for me, I generally tend to use the jpegs straight from my camera), and got a shot I was really happy with - the first image below. Then I had a play with it last night and made it darker and generally more "contrasty". I genuinely can't tell which one I prefer; I feel like my favourite version is whichever one I'm viewing at the time. Any thoughts or opinions?

Wow, thank you very much!

Absolutely stunning

Thanks everyone. #1 was my wife's idea: the photo on my iPad was the famous Hubble one

Had a play with a lightbulb and a lens ball on my iPad in the dark. Very pleased with these

Family afternoon out yesterday, my wife and stepdaughter spent the afternoon looking for fossils and I wandered around with my camera. There really wasn't much there to shoot, the light was very flat, but I got a few shots that I like. I was using my X-T30 with a proper shonky old Helios 44-2 which I picked up from eBay for about £20. It's definitely not the sharpest lens I own, and the colour reproduction is a little washed out, but I have a real soft spot for it

I find it very moving too. I can’t really explain how it makes me feel, but both times I’ve visited I’ve felt like I could stay there for hours, literally just gazing at it. And yes, when I’m working away I always take my camera bag; I usually have an evening or two to myself so I like to research what might be good to see, or sometimes just wander around a city with my camera, seeing what I can find. I’ve never heard of that before: just looked it up now. Added to my list of places to see, too!

Was working in Sunderland earlier this week, so I had to visit one of my favourite artworks, the Angel of the North. After that, I had a little wander around the Quay area of Newcastle before I got dinner. All shot on my X-T30, the long exposure is with the Fuji 18-55, the fisheye is my TTArtisan 8mm and the two Newcastle shots are with the 7Artisans 35mm F/0.95

Love that! It's very evocative; I can almost hear the traffic as I look at it

Stunning photos, as always Paul. I'm fascinated by spiders, but I'm also quite scared of them... I can hold a tarantula, no problem at all, and giant beetles etc don't faze me in the slightest, but a spider like that would get the heart rate up... yes, I know that's ridiculous! I always think it's very strange that a creature can have that many eyes and yet no face!

Yes, that does sound cool!

I very rarely wear them myself now; I spend most of my time in t-shirts and hoodies. They're definitely a rarity these days. In can't even remember the last time I saw a shirt for sale with double cuffs.

Took these with the TTartisan 7.5mm F/2 Fisheye lens. Minimum focus distance is tiny, it works really well for stuff like this.

There are three emus on that wall - here’s the other one:

I met up with a few guys from a camera group I'm in on facebook at the weekend and we had a wander around Southend. There was a street art festival in the summer which I didn't get to, but luckily a lot of the art is still there, and untouched. I just took my new 7artisans 35mm F/0.95; it was a bit of a grey day so I was a little bit worried about camera shake, as there's no IBIS in my X-T30, but with such a wide aperture I was able to get fast enough shutter speeds that it wasn't an issue. All in all I'm really impressed with the lens: I said in an earlier comment to @Clicker that it wasn't the sharpest, but having spent more time with it now I'm very happy with the level of detail, and I love the shallow depth of field. The aperture ring is declicked, which wouldn't be my preference, but it and the focus ring are both very nicely damped, and feel great in the hand - Polly you mentioned that your friend's aperture ring was a little loose: that's definitely not the case with mine. Colours are good too - I did boost the blacks and the contrast slightly in a couple of these, but most of the shots I took looked great straight out of the camera

That second picture reminds me of a train set I had when I was a kid

I like it so far Polly; it's definitely not the sharpest lens I own but it has character, that's for sure! It sharpens up a bit if you stop it down, but the Fuji 18-55 covers everything I need in that area - I only got this lens for the bokeh so it's all good The aperture ring is declicked, which isn't my preference, but it doesn't feel too loose; although I'm probably not the best judge of that as I also have a really shonky old Helios 44-2 where the aperture ring moves if you look at too hard The focus ring is *perfectly* damped, though

Morning everyone. Bought myself a 7artisans 35mm F/0.95 as an early Xmas present so I was playing around with bokeh... I accidentally created a two-image tutorial on the importance of good lighting! I hope you're all having a lovely Christmas and you're all more like happy Chewie than grumpy Chewie All the best for 2023!

All the best to you too. Hopefully the health issues are under control now, and next year you'll be able to get on with enjoying life properly again!