18 January 2018 - Aviators and acrobats

The birds who visit our garden are an endless source of entertainment and I keep some binoculars beside the kitchen window at all times to aid identification. Today we had the usual range of aviators in the garden - lots of goldfinches plus the odd greenfinch, half a dozen blackbirds and a solitary robin. Shooting through the kitchen window I was able to catch them all on camera, although it was a bit of a challenge as yesterday's bright sunshine had long since gone.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

This afternoon, staring aimlessly out of the window, I noticed we had an additional visitor - more of an acrobat than an aviator. Most days this squirrel scoots along the back fence (the theme from Mission Impossible always passes through my mind when I see this!) but it rarely ventures further than that. Today though he or she whizzed up the bird feeder tree to nab some tasty morsels from the fatballs. I know technically grey squirrels are vermin but I couldn't help admire this one's grace as it scaled the tree and I don't mind too much, as long as it only makes the occasional raid on the bird food!

View fullsize

17 January 2018 - In search of subjects that fly

When I awoke this morning the sky was a beautiful shade of blue and featured an unusual golden orb. Of course, what I was seeing was the sun, but it's been so long since we had a sunny day I'd almost forgotten what that looked like! I certainly wasn't going to waste this opportunity so I headed in out in search of some flying subjects, with which to test the focus tracking on my new camera.

View fullsize

I headed first for the Fowlmere RSPB nature reserve, not far from here. My hopes were high that I might find some bird life to photograph among the chalk streams and reed beds. Sadly I was mightily disappointed. With the exception of a lone swan, who remained stubbornly in the water, I barely saw a single bird. The walk did me good though and it was wonderful to be out in the sunshine, even if there was a cutting wind which was, of course, the probable reason why the birds were in hiding.

View fullsize

View fullsize

After a couple of hours I gave up and drove the short distance to Duxford in the hope that I might find the odd metallic bird to photograph. Here my luck was in - as I walked out of the visitor centre a Spitfire was revving up its engines, ready for take off. I dug my camera and long lens out of my bag, legged it over to the flight line and snapped away. After  spot of lunch I emerged back into the sunshine and found, to my delight, that the Spitfire was going out again - my luck really was in. I'd been hoping to shoot the odd mundane private plane so this thoroughbred was a huge bonus!

View fullsize

The resulting photos were something of a mixed bag. That said, I was shooting into the light a lot of the time and my panning technique is horribly out of practice after a winter with no aircraft to aim at. However, there were some successes. With some more practice and greater familiarity with the camera's controls no doubt things will improve- I just need to find more suitable subjects to photograph!

View fullsize

16 January 2018 - Random meanderings

After a morning spent thoroughly refreshing the portfolio over on my website (you can see if here if you'd like to take a look) I wanted to get out of the house for a short walk while there was some light. I ended up in Saffron Walden where I simply followed my nose. In one of the shopping streets I found a dog tied to a post while his owner was inside one of the shops. He was shivering in the cold wind so I went over to say hello and tried to offer some warmth and a good fuss. He seemed very grateful and obligingly posed for a photo, with one paw raised in a very cute manner. Fortunately, when I passed by again half hour later he'd gone so I hope his owner had taken him somewhere warmer.

View fullsize

I used a daguerreotype preset for this picture - it seemed appropriate for the nostalgic look

I continued my meanderings, heading past Oliver Cromwell's former headquarters towards the church. By this stage the low winter sun was throwing some beautiful shafts of light towards the high altar. The way it was falling across the steps and ornately carved wooden gates was simply beautiful and I figured there was a photo to be found there for this week's 'shape and form' theme over on the Photoblog forum.

View fullsize

Finally, having checked my canine friend had been reunited with his owner I walked back towards my car. On the way I passed a new chocolate shop so I stopped off for a warming hot chocolate which was absolutely delicious!

View fullsize

15 January 2018 - Lateral thinking

I've noticed over the years that blackbirds don't generally take food from bird feeders, unlike the bluetits and goldfinches who frequent our garden. Instead they scuttle around the earth below, picking up the crumbs dropped by those feeding overhead. In recent weeks I've often seen as many as six blackbirds, bickering over the leftovers and chasing each other around the flowerbed.

View fullsize

Since we replanted our birdfeeder tree into a more upright position and reorganised the feeders though, a few of these intelligent birds have used some lateral thinking. They realised they can stand on one of the branches to reach the fatball feeder, from where they can scoff much tastier and larger morsels of food. This particular branch is now frequented by a steady stream of blackbirds, all stuffing their beaks with high energy food, to keep them fuelled through the tough winter months.

14 January 2018 - Reaching a crossroads

It's strange how you can visit a place many times and not notice a landmark right under your nose. Every month I park up in the village of Knowl Hill to eat lunch before my rehearsal. The spot where I park is right next to a long footbridge, crossing the A4, yet I've never thought to walk across it. Today I put that right, walking up the steps to see what the view looked like. Staring across the fields I saw this chap walking his dog in the distance. I could see he was heading in my direction, towards a cross roads in the grass, where decades of dog walkers have followed the same path. I composed my shot and waited for man and dog to reach the spot where I wanted to freeze frame their journey. It may not be the most dynamic piece of street photography (or should that be field photography?!) I've ever created but it taught me to take more notice of the places I visit month in, month out.

13 January 2018 - Oh, for some sunshine!

I'm beginning to wonder whether my recent camera and lens purchases have put a curse on the weather. Since I bought the lens in mid-December we've barely seen the sun, and when it has deigned to appear I've been at work! Today was similarly gloomy but that wasn't going to put me off going for a stroll after my shift at Hatfield Forest.

View fullsize

Feathers tidied up, so it's time for a swim

Yesterday I attended the SWPP photography trade show in London. I had no intention of spending any more money but it did offer me the opportunity to meet up with sports photographer Ian Cook to ask his advice on action shooting with my new G9. He was incredibly helpful, suggesting tweaks I could make to the settings, including using back button focus. I've been aware of this technique (which separates focusing from the shutter button) but had never tried it until this afternoon. After a few minutes all at sea I managed to get my brain into gear and spent some time photographing the birds.

View fullsize

Coming in to land

Thanks to the apocalyptically dull light I struggled with birds in flight today but had more success with the geese on the lake. Of course, one of the forest robins was ever present, always hopeful of some crumbs, so I couldn't resist a quick picture, especially when he chose to land on a post just a couple of yards from me!

View fullsize

I think I can safely say my back button focus technique needs more practice but at least I came away with a few pictures. All I need now is for some sunshine when I have a few days off next week - fingers crossed!

12 January 2018 - Faces of Whitechapel

As I walked through Whitechapel this morning I came across some street art which just called out to be photographed. This area is a haven for such paintings but sadly I didn't have enough time to explore some more. I almost missed the second painting as the characters stood no taller than knee height - miniature men at work!

View fullsize

11 January 2018 - Company on a quiet day

I had a very quiet shift at Hatfield Forest this morning but fortunately a couple of the local robins popped by to keep me company. Naturally, I'd taken my new camera and long lens into work with me so I whiled away some of the quiet moments taking photos of my companions. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get to use this lens in good light (I've had it three weeks and barely seen any sunshine!) but the pairing acquitted themselves well in today's gloom. Once again, the camera's image stabilisation worked a treat, especially when paired up with the long lens, where the two stabilisation systems work in tandem. Fingers crossed for some better weather soon so I can really have fun!

View fullsize

View fullsize

10 January 2018 - Taking a test drive

I took my new camera for a thorough test drive today, with a trip into Cambridge. I was interested to get to know what the G9 is capable of so I headed first to Gonville and Caius College Chapel for some architecture photography.

View fullsize

The low light levels in the chapel were the perfect  for me to test the G9's in camera stabilisation and I found it, frankly, astonishing. I discovered I was able to take pictures at 1/5 of a second without camera shake - that's much slower than I've ever managed before! I also tried cranking up the ISO and found improvements over my GX8 there too. While it'll never be as good a full frame camera I'd be happy to shoot at ISO6400 if need be and that's plenty high enough for most situations.

View fullsize

I hand held this at 1/5 of a second - that shouldn't be possible!

One of the innovations I was particularly keen to try out was the G9's High Resolution mode. With this mode the camera's sensor moves inside the camera, shooting eight frames in quick succession, each slightly displaced by a small amount. The camera then glues all of these together, resulting in an 80 megapixel picture with much more detail. Not bad for a machine that's only got 20 megapixels to start with! Obviously the camera itself needs to be completely still so I grabbed my tripod and gave it a try. On importing the photos into Lightroom I wasn't wildly impressed. However, once I'd exported a JPG file it was possible to zoom further into the photo and maintain clear detail. I'm not convinced I've perfected my technique with this tool yet but I'm keen to try it again soon.

View fullsize

The level of detail in this High Res picture won't be obvious online but it's really quite impressive in person!

By the time I'd left the chapel I was pleased to see some really useful improvements over my two year old GX8. The additional stabilisation will be really useful when I'm shooting badly lit music events and should be really handy when shooting with long lenses.

View fullsize

Shopping for fruit

View fullsize

Phone calls in the rain

After some lunch and a good read of the user manual I set out onto the streets of Cambridge to try a little street photography. The light was deeply underwhelming but the camera acquitted itself well and I think I had more successes than usual in terms of accurate focus.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Looking through a myriad of posters on the railings for concerts of interest

Finally I wanted to try out the main feature I bought this camera for - tracking moving subjects. Obviously there were no sports cars or aircraft speeding through Cambridge so I had to make do with some more sedate cyclists instead! Again, the dreary light didn't do me any favours but I quickly realised the G9 is a huge improvement. I never got the focus tracking mode to work successfully on my GX8 but after a couple of minutes of practice I was already getting some keepers on the G9. There are many settings to be tweaked to perfect things but I can see it's likely to be a great tool for shooting moving subjects once I've learnt more.

View fullsize

Not the speediest of subjects but a handy way of trying out the focus tracking!

View fullsize

9 January 2018 - Less is more

The subject of camera sensor sizes is one that causes great debate among photographers. For years we were led to believe that the only way to go was a full frame sensor, although no doubt many medium and large format shooters would argue that their cameras are superior! I subscribed to this thought too and worked my way up to a full frame Canon camera, a 5D mk3. Then I bought my first mirrorless camera, a Panasonic GX7....

Using the GX7, with its tilting screen, electronic viewfinder and its smaller form factor I began to see there was an alternative. As many of you know, I spend a lot of my life travelling for work and I found the smaller size and weight suited me better when travelling on trains with lots of work gear. A couple of years ago I upgraded to the GX8 and absolutely loved it, so much so that I eventually realised I was using it much more than my Canon.

Yes, there can be a small impact on image quality in certain conditions but these are easily worked around and I found I was taking better pictures on my mirrorless as it enabled me to be more creative. Finally, last March, I decided to sell my full frame camera, although I kept a crop sensor body (the Canon 7D mk2) and a few lenses for wildlife and action photography.

Selling my 5D freed up some cash to buy a long lens and a standard zoom for my mirrorless kit. Over the months I've used these to expand the sort of photographic work I do with the GX8 and I've experimented with motorsport, aviation and wildlife with a good degree of success.  All the while I knew the GX8 wasn't really quite up to the task so I held onto my remaining Canon gear until something better came along....

Back in November Panasonic launched the G9, a new body aimed squarely at wildlife and sports shooters and my hopes were raised. I grabbed an opportunity to try the camera later that month and was very impressed - it's a big step up from the rangefinder style GX8. While the camera wasn't available until this week there have been pre-production copies out in the hands of working pros and it was the amazing work of Ian Cook that really got me thinking about buying one. When I made contact with Ian he described the camera as 'a beast' and his action photos show it really does the job when it comes to complicated action photography.

View fullsize

One of my first photos with my new camera - fortunately Lucy was feeling relaxed!

I've used my remaining DSLR less and less in recent months so on Christmas Day, instead of watching the Queen's speech, I ordered my G9 and began the wait for it to be released. It finally arrived today and I'm itching to give it a really good workout. Of course, the delivery man came late in the day, after dark, so I had to make do with photographing the cat again until I could get outside in daylight. I thought I'd also share a photo of the camera itself. It looks more DSLR-like than my GX8 but it's only a little larger and much lighter than the Canon. My plan for tomorrow is to visit Cambridge and try it out on a variety of subjects. Testing its action skills may have to wait a little longer but I'm going to make sure I've completely made friends with the focus tracking before my next visit to Goodwood for some motor racing.

So what's happened to my Canon, I hear you ask? Well, it's gone to a good home - my Dad to be precise! The sale of the lenses has more than covered the cost of the new camera (and the 100-400mm lens I bought last month) so I am now fully mirrorless and loving it! No more headaches and aching shoulders from lugging heavy gear around and I genuinely love the creative options my smaller gear offers. Who knows, I'll never say never about returning to full frame but I can't see it happening any time soon while I'm getting results that please me.