Lloyds of London, Leadenhall St EC1 – 16mm f333 wide-angle pinhole lens, ISO 51,200, 1/40 s

This blog post will look at:

• Photograhic journals
• Wise words from the English photographer Joe Cornish
• The new Texture Slider in Lightroom and ACR
• Pointing a spotlight on my new workshops coming up
• Quick and easy money saving tips
• Fujifilm XT-2 for sale

Maintaining a photo Journal

I started inkjet printing in 2005. The only reason I know this is because I went on an RPS printing workshop with Tony Worobiec FRPS in March 2005. That day I started a photographic journal that has continued ever since. I still have all my journals that are a useful source of aid memoir. I would encourage you to start and maintain a photographic journal. There are no prescribed contents you just write down the things that are of interest to you at the time.

I did find over the years that the contents of the journal moved from the technical to the artistic side of photography. This move happened once I got over the problem of “how to” generally in the Photoshop workflow.

The quotes from Joe Cornish that follow were written down in April 2007 in my journal. Unfortunately, I did not write down the source of the quotes. The additional bracketed words are mine.

 “As an artist your responsibility is to your personal vision, what other people make of it is up to them.”

“First and foremost, artists are trying to express themselves: what they think, what they see and what they believe.”

“A work of art is an expression of an idea. Illumination of an idea (may) not necessarily explain it fully. Pictures that reflect an inspiration rather than simply provide information (are preferred).”

“Any good work of art has truth or beauty or preferably both.”

I am sure we all aspire to these high ideals and must protect our own personal vision of our individual photographic style.

New Workshops for 2019

I have been working on a couple of new workshops that I hope you will find interesting. Also, the website has been updated with dates for existing workshops such as the 1-day Introduction to Composition and Get the best from the wide-angle lens workshops etc.

Over the past three months, I have been playing around with pinhole lens of various minute apertures.

Gloucester Docks 3 – 50mm pinhole lens. variable aperture 0.10mm, f 500, ISO 12800, 1/25s

I am offering a one-day introduction to pinhole photography called “The Easy Guide To Taking Digital Pinhole Photos” a workshop at Gloucester Docks on Tues 10 Sept and Sat 2 Nov 2019.

I have a number of pinhole lenses of Canon and Fuji X mount that you may like to borrow on the day if you do not have your own pinhole lens.

Capturing Stillness and Movement Photo Workshop

I’m currently working on another new workshop to be based at Theatreland in Birmingham. The focus of the workshop will be to capture stillness and movement in the same frame with a hand-held camera. This type of photography relies on image stabilisation either within the lens or camera body to help keep still objects frozen.  I have been working in this style over a number of years and have built up a portfolio of pictures containing stillness and movement.

The first part of the workshop will be to test how slow a shutter speed you can handhold. From there, we will make the most of the wide array of available subject matter in Theatreland.

The planned date for the Capturing Stillness and Movement Photo Workshop is Thurs 7 Nov 2019

This workshop is not available to book yet because I have not been to Theatreland to take the pictures for the website. I plan to go to Birmingham very soon when the light and sky are conducive to picture making.

If you are interested please keep a look out for the completed webpage.

A park bench in Royal Leamington Spa at dusk before a camera club talk, 10-24mm f4 lens @10mm, f5.6, ISO 800, 1/8s

Adobe adds new Texture Slider to Lightroom and ACR

Adobe has announced the addition of a new Texture slider to the latest updates for Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). According to Adobe, Texture is the result of user requests for a way to smooth skin without reducing image quality or spending large periods of time making adjustments.

Mobile device money saving tips

Here are a few hot hints to help save you money with your mobile phone and digital camera.

Most of us are not technocrats, I certainly am not. Mobile gadgets work as if by magic. The inner workings or settings of these devices are left in the hands of the product R&D team for the most part. Most consumers like me have blind faith that their best interest is being looked after and protected by the product manufacturer. How naive we are.

Saving digital camera battery power

We all know that digital cameras eat battery power for breakfast. Absolutely every function of a digital camera is somewhat reliant on the consumption of the battery. Therefore, it makes sense to disable those functions requiring power that are not in constant use. More up-to-date digital cameras will have Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth connectivity installed. By default, these two functions will probably be enabled.

To extend battery life between charges I strongly suggest turning these functions off unless you are using them.

Conserving mobile phone data usage

Mobile phone data usage comes in two types: background and foreground. Maybe without your knowledge, your apps are using your data allowance in the background, this is potentially costing you money.  This situation applies to both Android and Apple phones.

Therefore, I suggest you go to your phone settings for each app and turn off the use of mobile data in the background. This will help to extend your mobile data allowance. Hopefully, this will make your allowance go further.

Whilst on the subject, if you are a BT customer you can download the free BT Wi-fi app that allows free connection to 5000 BT hotspots (from within your allowance) thus helping you to get a connection when and where it is required.

For sale – Fujifilm X-T2 Body £599

I have a well-used Fujifilm XT-2 body and MHG grip for sale. The reason for the sale is I now use two Fujifilm X-H1’s (with In-body Stabilisation). My XT-2 is in full working order with a clean sensor and is complete with all the original accessories and packaging.

Charger Battery Strap Manual Original Packaging Front Body Cap

The camera has the latest version 4.30 of the body firmware. The exterior of the body has a small number of minor cosmetic scuffs. I thought I would offer it here just in case somebody is interested before I get a quotation from MPB.com.

If you are interested please email me at info@andybeelfrps.co.uk