Gear / Equipment

Gear / Equipment Photography Travel

Don’t mean to drone on!

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Not much doing lately and I feel bad for neglecting the blog. Well, it’s not totally neglect, it’s a kind of “off on holidays” and other things I wish to do over the summer. Potentially big changes are afoot in terms of life as a photographer and human. Stay tuned for more info! 😉

That said, I have been active away from the blog and social media. So here’s the low down:

Bought me a drone!!!!! DJI Mini 4k. Sadly, I bought it just before the DJI Neo was released, but I’m happy with the purchase. Been goofing around and learning how to use it. I can see myself using it more for photography than for video, but I’m going to do a bit of both and tinker with it. Here’s a sample shot I took in Wales over the summer:

Snazzy! I like how easy it is to fly and the unique perspective I get from aerial photography. I’ll admit I was very nervous about buying/flying a drone, but it’s so simple really. I’m glad I took the leap and bought it.

I got a new camera coming too. MORE GEAR!! LOL … well, more … and less. I sold off a bunch of old lenses and stuff to finance the purchase. I’d bought a Lumix GX800 as a 2nd walk around camera so I didn’t have to carry the hasselblad all the time. However I’m just not happy with it. So I’ve swapped it out for a Leica T Type 701 (photos coming soon!) and a Summilux 23mm f2 lens. It’s wider than the Hassy, so it’ll give me a different perspective. Plus it’s a lot more compact, so I will use it as my goof about camera … and it’ll go to Thailand with me.

Shit! I forgot, I bought more gear! LOLOLOL … I traded in my ancient GoPro for a DJI Action 3. I’ve got two DJI products now (Action 3 and Mini 4k drone). They make good kit! The Action 3 is amazing and so versatile. I’ve got a waterproof mount for it and will take that snorkelling in Thailand too. So the Thailand trip is shaping up to be super busy – regular street photography throughout the day, drone photography some days and a few nights, and the Action 3 for goofing about and snorkelling. The snorkelling will be part of day trips, so I hope to get a good chance to photo and video the islands with the drone as well, when I’m not in the water.

Will add photos of the Leica when it arrives and the Action 3 in a future post when I’ve actually used it.

So that’s the news. A nice break over summer with some photos (mostly on the iPhone) and some on the Hasselblad as well. Those will be a future twitch stream and blog post.

Finally, I returned to photo streaming tonight. Had a blast going through 15 year old travel photos and chatting with viewers. I was loving the nostalgia and laughs of some of the crazy shit I got up to with my mate Craig in Australia.

Thanks dude! LOL

And here’s my fave photo from the stream:

Colours are gorgeous! Check out my streams if you’re bored: www.twitch.tv/davidtheaussie …

Gear / Equipment Photography

Hasselblad X1D

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A quick ‘snap’ of my main camera. After 15 years of shooting Nikon, I decided to move away from DSLRs and their gamut of lenses to a more simple but high end kit. I decided also that I wanted to get back into medium format photography. I still have my Hasselblad 500cm and that’s going to become a regular piece of kit in the future, but since I was thinking of my Hasselblad, I decided to stay with that brand and make it my mainstay for the next few years. The X1D is not a fast camera. It’s not super responsive and it doesn’t shoot high frames per second. But what it does do is produce 100 megapixel images that are crazy sharp, highly detailed and have gorgeous colour. It’s paired with a 45mm f3.5 prime lens.

This kind of camera gives up a lot of conveniences that are so easy to get with modern DSLRs. I can’t zoom. I can’t ‘spray and pray’ to ensure I get the exact shot. It takes time to boot up. The battery life is a bit rubbish. I can’t quickly change my focal point. I’m still figuring out the menus.

Why would I do this to myself?

… for the challenge!

That’s what I want. I want to push myself. I want a camera that feels like a film camera in that photos are slow, deliberate, thoughtful and well timed. I want to make sure that I’m mindful of my surroundings and the moment. I want to make sure I’m experiencing the photos I make as much in the action of making them as well as the resulting image that I get to share.

And that’s why I love this camera. It’s not perfect. It’s older. It’s a bit cantankerous at times. But I love having it in my hands. I love walking around with it. I love taking my time and composing photos. It’s how I used to shoot film and I feel like I’ve lost that vibe. The Hasselblad is helping me recapture it.

I’m having a lot of fun and I’m making some amazing photos.

Gear / Equipment Photography Travel

Buddhist Thailand

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Last October I visited Thailand. I took the Lumix GX800 again and was super happy with some of the photos it produced. The last two Lumix related posts are because I found the images tucked away on my home storage server and edited up the images that I’d not really touched from last year on that camera.

Gear / Equipment Photography Travel

National Arboretum – Day Out

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The weather was clear but the wind was chilly. It’s a good enough reason to jump in the car and find a place to explore. We settled on the National Arboretum (https://www.thenma.org.uk/) located north of where I live. It’s a huge place with hundreds of memorials to various wars, conflicts and those who’ve given their lives across a multitude of causes. While it’s a sombering place, it’s also a lovely grand park to walk around, with statues, signs, monuments and lots of hidden nooks and crannies filled with lovely memorial tokens.

I ended up with a few photos I liked, but the one above is shot of the day. I was shooting with the Hasselblad X1D and 45mm lens. I did have a polariser on for most of the day.

On an unrelated note, shooting with the Hasselblad has presented a few logistical issues that I did mention on my editing stream. I moved 50 images to my server so that I have redundant backups. The problem is that 100mb files quickly rack up the file sizes!!

Yeah, that’s a lot of memory! I’m going to quickly burn through the 4TB I have on my server shooting with this camera … that said, the images are glorious and lovely to work with!

Gear / Equipment

Cameras

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An older photo from 2010 with the cameras that I bought while I was in South Korea. Left to right is a Nikon FM2 (with 50mm f1.2 lens), Hasselblad 500CM (80mm f2.8 lens) and Leica M6 with a summilux 50mm f1.4 lens.

I still have all of these cameras … I haven’t shot them for a while, but my future plan is to either get access to a reliable developing and scanning shop, or find the space to do my own negative developing and scanning at home.

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