Hi everyone, and I hope you are keeping healthy in these unprecedented times. Photography trips have had to be shelved until the last couple of weeks, and it has been great to get out into the countryside again. We're very lucky living where we do on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, with lovely country walks literally on our doorstep, and I have great sympathy for those folk living in cities and highrises who have been unable to travel. Let's hope the worst is behind us and some kind of normality returns.

Meantime I have started a new portfolio, Nature, to celebrate all the good things to be seen out and about. The first two images in there were experiments using old lenses from film cameras on my DSLR, using adaptors. Cherry Blossom was made a two minute walk down the road a few weeks ago (before the high winds blew all the petals away). The lens is a 1975 Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 manual focus which, despite its age, produces superb results.

The second one, Spring in the woods, was made using a 1996 Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8 lens from my treasured Hasselblad 500c/m (see it in my Technical section). The highest quality comes as standard, but the background bokeh came as a pleassant surprise!

Here's a link to the portfolio, and more will be added in the future.

In a moment of total weakness, which will no doubt be repeated, I have bought (ebay again) a 1956 Leica IIIf body, dressed it in a 50mm f/2 lens from a dealer (it was a good deal too) and added 90mm and 135mm lenses. Oh, and a second body too - another moment of weakness! I've added them to my Technical page.

I hold my hands up, no excuse except life keeps getting in the way - how time flies by! However, if the Coronavirus has a positive side, it is that many of us have a lot more time on our hands now we are 'confined to barracks'.
So I've finally done the bit of spring cleaning of the site that I've been intending to do for ages. This has involved flinging out some old images, bringing in some new and giving it a facelift.
I hesitate to promise a more regular blog post or two, but let's see how it goes.
I hope you find some images that you like here, and please do come back.

A bit like a slow moving old man (oh yes, that's me!) I've added some new photographs to various galleries, and created a new one - Infra Red. This following the purchase and conversion of a second-hand camera. I sent it away to ACS who did the tricky work, and I'm now enjoying experimenting with it and seeing how many tones of grey it can record. I hope you like the end results.

A bit late I know, but I am one quarter of this exhibition at Burton Constable Hall. Although it was due to finish on Wednesday 20th September I'm pleased to tell you that it has been extended to Saturday 23rd, so if you are in the area pop in and have a look. The hall itself is well worth a visit, as are the gardens.

You probably know how it is, setting out with good intentions, but then life gets in the way and bingo! years pass by in the blink of an eye.
I have no excuses - lots of things have happened, too many to list here, and you would only start yawning anyway. Suffice to say I am looking to revitalize things, starting with my indolence.
One of the main things to have changed (but not completely) is that I am doing more digital photography - eek! - having invested some of my kids inheritance on a full frame camera (Canon 5Ds) and a couple of lenses to suit. Having done the dead, I also finally did what I had been wanting to do for years, convert a camera to Infra Red. Well, I didn't, the experts at ACS did. And while I had been expecting to convert my old Canon 10D when I bought a second-hand 40D, then planned to convert the 40D when I got the 5Ds, I eventually decided that I had got so used to full frame that anything else was going to be 2nd class (yuk!), so bought a 5D Mk.III from a well-known internet auction site (called eBay) and had that converted. More kids inheritance gone. By the by, I heard on the radio today someone say they were going on holiday to ski. Turned out it wasn't winter sports but Spending Kids Inheritance. Nice one.
I'm really enjoying using these cameras, how good are they these days! Also I'm using my iPhone camera regularly when out and about, and using the Snapseed app for post-processing images.
However, dear reader don't fret, because I still enjoy going out with the big 6x17 panoramic, so the website title remains.
Proof in the form of photographic updates to follow, but meantime I'm happy to be back!