Thanks for reminding me Joep, I do have the 20mm, f/1.7 lens bought as part of the purchase of the GF1, a very nice lens but rather gathering dust, it lacks that retro depth of field scale that those lovely Voigtlanders possess, even if manually setting them using the depth of field scale takes a little bit of mental arithmetic to use on :43:. I waited until I could obtain a G1 as body only, so no kit zoom lens for me, well I did say earlier on in the interview that I was somewhat old fashioned. I’ll let you into a secret, I’ve got a Sigma 18-50, f/2.8 EX Macro zoom that I used with an Olympus E1, but don’t tell anyone, it will ruin my retro image :smile:.
At last Joep, my opportunity to detail my photographic reawakening. Outside of the school and university term time the field centre at Slapton runs courses aimed at either adults or families. In 2001 this country was in the grip of a foot and mouth outbreak (is that hoof and mouth in American parlance?), much of the countryside was closed and bookings were down. I was invited to sit in on a course entitled “Natural History Photography” run by one Adrian Davies, an author of books on digital techniques and a professional lecturer. The course started at the end of May just as the restrictions were being lifted (Adrian’s course is normally held in early August just as the recent one was) and some places that he was used to going to on field trips were still closed so I was able to suggest other sites that were open. Since then we have become firm friends and I have sat in on some of his lectures and accompanied the group on most of their field trips every year since 2001.
In 2001 Adrian covered the subject of digital photography for the first time on his course which he had been running at Slapton then for about 10 years prior to that. He had used one of the very first digital cameras in the UK, a Kodak DCS 100, the hard drive unit for which was housed in a separate shoulder mounted case. This was a 1.3 Mp camera based on the Nikon F5. In 2001 Adrian was using a Kodak DCS 620, now a 2 Mp camera based on the Nikon F5 but totally self contained.
I was using a 2 Mp Nikon Coolpix 800 borrowed from the field centre. I felt a trifle embarrassed using this tiny throw away looking camera on Adrians spare benbo tripod, until he took one of my photographs one evening, made minor adjustments to it in the latest Photoshop and then printed it off, what a revelation.
My immediate reaction when I saw the levels and curves graphs, particularly when the preferences were set to more sub divisions than the default 4 was to utter “Ansel Adams zone system” That’s not strictly true, one is linear, the other is log but it seemed analgous to me at the time. I was hooked. When Adrian discovered I had 6 x 9 roll film negatives he showed the group how to scan them in with a desktop scanner equipped with a back lit light box and I was well and truly converted, photography was back on the menu and my old negatives had a new life as well.
Being a natural history photography course close up, if not true macro photography loomed large on the agenda and I was set off in a new direction. A couple of Nikon coolpix cameras and a few years later and Adrian introduced the concept of raw output, I saw it’s benefits and so a further upgrade to a camera that could output in raw was made. I was never happy with pure digital lenses and their lack of manual setting scales, so when I discovered the :43: system and realised that older lenses could be used I converted and can see no reason to upgrade for some considerable time hopefully.
I’m producing work that I’m happy with and that’s what counts for me.
For those of you interested Adrian has a website
Adrian Davies Imaging: WELCOME
You might find one or two of his latest images rather similar to some of my latest postings, the view of the Quarry at Haytor was done independently of Adrian but must have been taken from almost the same position and the Golden-ringed Dragonfly which was found by the 16 year old naturalist/photographer who I’ve been mentoring was co-operative enough to let many of the group take photographs. I would like to think that at the end of the day Adrian and I share something of a similar photographic eye.
Well that is the story of my reawakening, I’m back in business photographically speaking. Whether I will ever return to some forms of street photography I don’t know, since returning to live in the UK I’ve always lived in rural communities, there are no more than 30 houses in the village I now live in and I feel in very alien surroundings when I make a rare visit to a large town or city.
Barrie