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Gear / Equipment Photography Social Media Travel

Scotland

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I’m so lazy! LMAO … I haven’t posted in a bit, but there’s been a lot going on, so I forgive myself! 🙂 We took off for Easter and headed to Scotland. I was super keen to flex the new camera setup and put my Sony A7R through its paces. I paired the body with a Sony 24-50mm f2.8 which gives me the classic 50mm look and the wider angles that I prefer.

I also grabbed a very cheap Helios 44m-4 to play with that super silly bokeh that this Russian camera is known for.

With kit in the bag, off I went to seek adventure and lots of photo opportunities. I was itching, honestly, to get back into photography. So this was an awesome opportunity for me to start re-acquainting myself with a passion that I’d long neglected.

Some long exposure of a famous location on a river whose name I do not remember.

Eilen Donan Castle (hope I spelled that right, sorry Scotland) which is quite famous for being a filming location for the movies Highlander and Bond film The World Is not Enough. The weather was clearing and I got some lovely shots.

The Old Man of Storr was another lovely location. The Scottish highlands had no shortage of beautiful hills, lochs, and scenery. I could have stayed for months!

As for the helios, well, I’m having to re-learn manual focus … so I did miss a few shots. But the shots I did nail are pretty fun.

Both shots above were taken with the Helios lens (in England before I went on holiday to Scotland). Have a look at how swirly the bokeh and backgrounds are. Pretty wild little lens and (for the price) awesome addition to my camera kit. It’s a specialty lens, which will only be used kind of sparingly, but it’s definitely fun. Oh, being a very old lens, it doesn’t fit Sony E mount cameras, so it has an adaptor on it.

Finally … I’ve decided to stream every Sunday now. I’ll be back this coming Sunday with more editing from Scotland (including some drone shots) and on days when I don’t have any editing to do I’m going to play Dinkum (an Aussie themed, Animal Crossing style game). So my Sunday streams should be a regular thing.

Photography Travel

Photo Stream – Photo of the Week

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First stream of 2025! W00T! Felt good to edit some photos. Most streams this year will be editing older photos from my travels, but I’m adding some variety – there will be some edits of newly scanned black and white photos, as well as occasional traveling I manage to do this year.

That said, last Friday I took a day trip to Cambridge and hoofed it around town for a few hours. I took around 50 photo using my Hasselblad X1D in 6×6 mode. I’m enjoying using square photos for street photography and it looks really fun when editing them. I streamed the editing for about an hour and a half, mixing in some IR photos I had left over from my trip to Malvern Hills in the Cotswold just before Christmas.

Photo of the Week goes to this shot. Absolute cracker!

A few more shots I liked …

and …

Photography Social Media Travel

Photo Stream – Photo of the Week

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Getting back into streaming on twitch every Sunday night to do some photo editing from my travels. If I’m perfectly honest, it’s the hilight of my week, as I get to revisit and relive my photography from my travels and time abroad.

Today I covered Indonesia, a little bit of Malaysia and a few from Brunei. I’d completely forgotten about the time I spent photographing a surfing competition (Medewi Board Riders) and took heaps of photos of the surfing and celebrations afterwards. Some great shots and great memories (that I’d almost forgotten!)

That said, I had fun going through the photos and doing a little editing. Shots of the week are below:

Top: Surf competitor.
Middle: Surfer girl on the sand.
Bottom: Postcard photo – Brunei.

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 crap 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!

Photography Travel

Photo of the Week

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I stream on Saturdays I also upload all my images to this site and export the video to youtube. As part of that routine, I’ll pick a favourite image for the week and add it to my site. I may forget or may not do this every week.

This week’s photo is from Goa, India. I spent about a week there lounging on the beach and doing very little. That’s the point of Goa … to forget about the world. As with all things in India, street kids are very open about begging. Most speak zero English and don’t even speak, they just walk up and put their hand out hopeful of getting something. This is not an indictment of India, it’s an incredible country, but just the nature of a place with incredible poverty mixed with fat white cashed up tourists!

This young lady walked up to me at a cafe and held out her hand. I indicated that I would give her some money if she let me take her photo. She was happy to agree and leaned on the railing at the edge of the cafe and let me take this snap. I got one photo – this one!

Sometimes your best photos aren’t planned. They’re not the ones you’re looking for and they’re not photos that you get 5-10 shots or more and pick the best of the bunch. Sometimes your best photo walks right up to you, you get a shot, and it’s beautiful!

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