Two variations from Rochester

The Seven Dials Rapscallions were present in force at the Rochester Dickens Festival in December 2014.They are wonderful character actors, who really convey a sense of Victorians living on the ragged and bloody edge. Phil and I were lucky enough to get some of them to pose for us.

The problem, as always at a street festival, is to put the characters in a context that tells the story in an effective way. The pictures here were taken in the middle of Rochester High Street. As you can see in the originals, below, the modern context is anachronistic, jarring and distracting. So when I shot this, I had the idea in mind of making composites of the characters against a suitable simple background. Phil is, of course, the compositing maestro, but it really isn't something I particularly do. However, this was a good stimulus to give it a try.

Leaving the festival, we stopped along the way back to the car to photograph various walls and side streets that we could subsequently use as backgrounds in compositing -- and got a lot of funny looks in the process :-). Photographing the background on the same day means that the lighting was rather similar; I used the same lens as I had for the characters, so the perspective should look similar both for both character and background. In this case, I used the 24 mm f/2.8 AF-D lens that Phil had kindly lent me for the day. The 24 mm lens is not a classic portrait lens: used close in, it distorts and gives an exaggerated perspective to the subject. But the great thing is it lends an air of unreality to the image that contributes to atmosphere.

Both these pictures were made just by placing the character (cut out of the original image) on the background, and making separate monochrome conversions in Silver Efex for foreground and background. I tweaked local contrast on the character primarily to grunge up the skin texture, and tried to increase the sinister feeling by selective darkening around the edges of the background. Simple, but quite effective, I think.

The backgrounds were easy -- the walls and streets just needed straightening and cropping to shape. The characters -- well, cutting characters out is more difficult for me. Not being a regular compositor, cutting characters out of the background is the least of my skills; there is an added difficulty in that the plane of focus was very narrow on the characters eyes, meaning that some of their clothing was actually slightly soft. However, Topaz Remask made short work of cutting the characters out. I followed the method shown in one of their tutorials, and it worked like a charm.

My thanks to the two actors featured here, as well as my apologies. They don't look nearly as sinister in real life!

Anthony’s Favourites 2014:part 1

Probably my favourite picture of the year: two Lancasters, British and Canadian, with their escorts approach Beachy Head at low level

I’m going to divide this year’s favourites into two parts:

1 will be aircraft

2 will be general photography

This year has seen a coincidence of several anniversaries with aviation links, as well as some new or visiting aircraft that I’ve not seen before. 2014 has seen the 100^th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, the 70^th Anniversary of D-Day, as well as the 50^th Anniversary of the Red Arrows. Not only that, but we’ve had a tour from the Canadian Heritage Museum Lancaster (giving us two in the air at once with the BBMF Lanc), as well as other significant aircraft such as a pair of Polish Fitters. There’s been a seeming rush of new replicas around too, such as a Travelair Mystery Ship, a Mew Gull and two BE2c aircraft.

The pictures here are all reasonably large files (1400px or 2000px on their longest side), so worth clicking on to view large.

I’m a big believer that with blog posts, in general, less is more, but, really, I find it hard to edit this selection down much further. So, there’s about 26 pictures – ten or so more than I’d originally meant to assemble. I’ve also not tried to duplicate too many aircraft types, but sometimes it just can't be helped :-)

On with the show!

To start with D Day commemorations at Duxford, end of May.

The D-Day anniversary brought out large numbers of aircraft with connections to the invasion. Multiple Dakotas (C47) appeared at various events, including these on the flight line at Duxford in May. That day, they commemorated the parachute jumps onto the continent, including this demonstration from the Parachute Regiment.  Duxford would be much diminished without Spitfires, so here is MH434 still low after take-off. Finally, the Duxford-based Wildcat made a very welcome return.

The return of Biggin Hill

I was delighted at the return of an air display at Biggin Hill for the first time in a few years. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great, so I got few pictures that could stand out. But the Typhoon display with plenty of jelly air was great.

RIAT in July: really too many pictures, but what can you do?

 50th Anniversary fly past by the Red Arrows with representatives of 4 other team: the Breitling jets, the Patrouille de France, Patrouille Suisse and Frecce Tricolori.

 Spiral descent: Solo Turk F-16

 Polish Fitters

 Frecce Tricolori singleton

 US Navy FA-18

 Swedish Gripen turning in the rain on the Sunday morning

 Making its on clouds: A400M

 The Italian Airforce Tornado display was one of the best I've ever see from this type

 

I'd not seen the A-11 AMX before: this is an Italian aircraft

 The Textron AirLand E530 Scorpion N531TA was also new to me

 ... as was this P-8 Poseidon

And now - as they say - for something completely different: Headcorn

 I made several trips to Headcorn as usual, to hang out on the fence with Graham, Colin and Len: it is amazing the variety of types that come through. As an example, here is an Auster AOP6 WJ368.

In commemorating the outbreak of the First World War, there had been an attempt to re-create the first flights of the aircraft of the BEF to France. The weather was bad enough that it never happened as planned, but one of the BE2c aircraft made it to Headcorn. This record shot of it is a stitch of 4 overlapping pictures at 200mm f/4 to get a bokeh-pano to isolate the aircraft a little from its background.

Old Warden

 The Mystery ship

 A pair of Mew Gulls

 The DH88 Comet

Chilton DW1: this made a UKAR picture of the week

I made two trips to Old Warden to see displays put on by the Shuttleworth Collection, the second one with Martin. The restored Comet looked amazing!

I've blogged about the Shoreham Airshow previously, so I won't include any of those pictures here, but otherwise the Vulcan and Dragonfly in front of Lancing Chapel would certainly be here.

Finally, a couple of night shots.

I only made it along to one of the Northolt Nightshoots this year: this picture shows the Qinetiq Alpha and a Hawk T2. Best viewed large as it is a stitch of multiple overlapping shots: I'm showing it here at 2000px wide.

 Finally, the Spirit of Kent runs at the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar. UKAR chose a different one from this set as a picture of the week, but I do like this picture. As with the previous, this is a multi-image stitch, so best viewed large (just click on it).

All in all, I've had great fun this year photographing aircraft. About 3 months to go before everything gets going again: can't wait!

Saudi Tiffies and Tonkas: "God bless you"

Saudi Typhoon coming in to land - "God Bless You" lettering

I keep promising myself not to take any more pictures of aircraft against grey skies - and particularly not grey aircraft. But, sometimes, what can you do?

The last couple of weeks have seen "Exercise Green Flag 2013". This has been an exercise where the Royal Saudi Arabian Air Force sent over some Typhoons and Tornadoes to work with the RAF. As soon as I heard this, I could not resist, and booked time off work. In the end, I only spent two sessions at Coningsby (where both nations' aircraft were based), a morning and an afternoon. My friend Graham (Flickr: NaCl1) also booked time for it and he very kindly pointed me at the best places for viewing.

Saudi Tornado 7507 afterburner takeoff

I've put a set on Flickr if you want see more pictures.

It's the first time I've seem quite so many current aircraft launching at once -- multiple Typhoons and Tornadoes going off both morning and afternoon, and begin to return only an hour or so after takeoff. There was also a Falcon which, as I understand, it acts as an ECM aircraft.

Saudi and RAF Tornadoes taxiing before takeoff

Afterburners for takeoff: : ZA600/EB-G 41 Sqn

For me, the Saudis are a rare occurrence over here, and it was a pleasure to see them. The RAF themselves were extremely accommodating to the many visitors who wanted to take pictures, and were concerned to make sure that visitors had a safe and productive time.

Crew waving at spectators during taxi (Saudi Typhoon 7507)

The aircrew themselves seem to be happy too -- they cheerfully waved at all the visitors, and even appeared to take pictures from the back seat.

Backseater in RAF Typhoon (ZK380/BG 29 Sqn) appearing to photograph the visitors down below. This is a >100% crop resized to show the backseater. The aircraft was on a performance takeoff on full afterburner.

 I was amazed at the number of visitors from the continent -- Lincolnshire appeared to be an extension of Holland.

RAF Typhoon taxiing in front of photographers

The return of the D300

Margate, across the beach to Turner Contemporary. 8 image stitch.

 As I have blogged previously, my Nikon D300 developed a fault towards the end of last year where the mirror locks up. Around Christmas time, it became unusable and I decided to buy a Nikon D700 to replace it. Since then, the D300 has sat neglected, only occasionally coming out for one or two single shot pictures. But it gnawed at me. It is such a good camera, and has been such a good friend to me for 115,000 exposures that I could not just let it sit.

I had had a rough estimate from Fixation last year for replacement of the sequencer unit that stops the lens down after the mirror flips up: it was that that seemed to have gone. They also recommended replacing the shutter since it got to the point where they see failures, and replacing it at the same time as the sequencer would save on labour costs and the price of a set of rubber seals (these need to be replaced every time the camera is opened).

So last week, I bit the bullet and sent into Fixation. It returned only two days later - a fast turnaround I appreciate greatly. With an almost tangible sense of relief, I opened the box that it came back in to find that it was in fine working order.

Now that I have both cameras working, I can't help comparing the two. The D700 is definitely my go-to camera for whenever I would want to work on a tripod, or if I want to use full frame lenses (like my 105 mm f2 AF-D DC) to get the look they are intended for, or if I want to shoot at essentially unlimited high ISO.

At first sight, they do not look that much different, but I can feel the difference in weight and bulk when simply walking around with them. There's something about the size and weight of the D700 that is just too bulky and heavy for comfortable carrying over extended periods.

There is also something about the controls on the D300 that I find easier: moving a focus spot around is much quicker and more instinctive for me on D300 than the D700. Not too surprising, I suppose: after 115,000 exposures, you would think I would be used to the way the D300 is set up.

Last Sunday, I went with the family to visit the new Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate (which Martin and Phil have blogged about previously) to see the Turner exhibition: the D300 came with me, with just the 18-70mm lens.

We decided to go by train for a change, not least because it's no quicker to drive (an hour or so in the car), and from where we live it was only £5.50 per person on the train for a saver ticket. Walking from the station, I could not resist shooting a panorama, shown above, across the harbour to the gallery.

The gallery was busy but not heaving, so I was able to enjoy the exhibition greatly. Rodin's Kiss was on exhibit on the ground floor too: a major centre of attention.

Grabbing a Kiss

So now I feel like I really have the best of both worlds with the two cameras, one crop frame and one full frame. Definitely very happy with the feeling of an old friend returning.

Change in the air

Two cameras with the same size sensors, and 100mm lenses.

Anyone who reads the photo blogs can't help be struck by a feeling of "all change". I regularly scan the blogs by a number of photographers whose work I admire, and who, at the time I came across them, all used digital SLRs. If they are in any sense representative, the sands are shifting.

I was struck by the reactions to the recent announcements of the Nikon D4 and Canon 1DX. These are the new top of the range paparazzi and sports shooters dream machines: full frame, plenty of megapixels, see-in-the-dark sensitivity, high-quality video, blah blah blah. Joe McNally has given the D4 a terrific review and has shown both in pictures and video that this is a device that can deliver in spades. I've no doubt that both D4 and 1DX will do exactly what their manufacturers claim. The collective saliva glands of the professional users should be on full gush. And yet....

There seems to be a disproportionation going on. For instance, Kirk Tuck's businessman's conscience got to him and he cancelled his order for a 1DX and decided to spend the money on marketing instead. Meanwhile he is now using smaller system cameras (Nikon 1 series and Micro 4/3) for some of his professional jobs. Similarly, Thom Hogan makes the point that the smaller system cameras deliver the kind of image quality that got professional work published not very long ago, but without the burden of carrying huge size and weight. Carl Weese on TOP demonstrates that micro-4/3 cameras can yield images capable of being printed at least as big as I'll need in the immediate future.

On the other hand, David Hobby has gone in the other direction and decided that digital medium format suits his needs for image quality, without the requirement to machine gun the subject. Digital medium format has long been a mainstay of Lula, and Mark Dubuvoy has just published a very nice essay making the point that even with smallish output, medium format is likely to beat smaller formats every time for quality.

So maybe, things really are changing. Where digital SLR's reigned recently, the small system cameras are an alternative with the real benefit of small size and weight. And medium format retains an unchallenged appeal for those who really need the ultimate in quality (if you don't have to ask the price).

All this prompted me to get out my OM2n from the box it lives in, at the back of a cupboard. At the moment, it comes out a couple of times a year for me to run a few rolls of B&W film through; and then I put it away again when my jaw sags at the price per frame of developed film. 

Putting it up against my recently acquired D700 made my jaw drop as well. How have we got into this situation? The D700 is a monster by comparison. A brilliant camera, vastly more capable in pretty much every respect than the OM2n, but just a monster in size.

When I bought my OM2n in the early 80s, I chose it because I knew I was going to the Himalayas fairly soon after and wanted something small and light to carry. At that time, the prevailing design theme was to make small, light, robust cameras for serious photographers: Nikon FM/FE, Pentax MX/ME, OM1-4 etc. But with the advent of digital, the idea of the small, lightweight, robust serious camera seems to have got lost. The sensor in the D700 is the same size as that in the film cameras I've listed here. The D300 is another "serious" camera, but with a smaller sensor, and still about the same size and weight as the D700 (well, a bit lighter but not much). Why do they have to be so big? I'm not picking on Nikon alone: Canon and Sony's full frame cameras are pretty similar in size.

The other reason that all this comes to mind is that at New Year I went for another potter in the Embankment area with a bunch of Leica Luggers. I borrowed my friend’s M4 with a 50mm Summicron. Smaller, lighter and more discrete than the D700. But then again, my film days are mostly (even if not entirely) over.

Nevertheless, the D700 seems to me to be inescapable. Wonderful image quality, reliable and fast focusing with the ability to accurately track the subject. Somehow, I can't see myself with a Nikon V1 attached to the end of the 200-400 mm zoom at Fairford. For the moment, for me, the digital SLR remains the essential minimum.

But with the advent of the compact system cameras (Sony NEX, micro-4/3, Nikon V1) things are changing. Not full frame sensors yet, but maybe one day. The Leica M9 is a lovely compact full frame mirrorless camera, but unfortunately, I have to ask the price. Now, it may have a small sensor, but how about the rumored OM-D?

... And in with the (old) new

A pigeon for an audience. Nikon D700, 105mm AF DC at f2

 My four-year-old D300 has developed a major fault. It started at RIAT last year: the mirror occasionally began to stick up, especially during bursts in continuous high-speed mode. Not a big issue at the time, because it was only very intermittent.

After RIAT, I took it into Fixation who diagnosed a problem with the sequencer unit. They recommended replacing it, along with the shutter since at 110,000 shutter actuations it was getting to the point where they see those shutters failing. But adding together the price of the new sequencer and shutter units, together with a set of seals, labour and VAT made the D300 look like a car with 110,000 miles on it. So the question was – an expensive repair or a new model?

The Duxford Autumn Air Show in October saw the sequencer problem getting worse – to the point where the camera became more or less unusable in burst mode. In fact, I got sufficiently few pictures that are worthwhile from that Duxford show I've not bothered posting any on Pbase.

And over Christmas, doing some family portraits – not in burst mode – the problem get worse still. Every third exposure the mirror locked up, requiring a fairly complex reset going via live view and switching the camera off and on again.

In effect, I was without a camera. Decision time.

Nikon Rumours has been carrying increasingly detailed previews (allegedly) of the successor to the D700, the D800. Now, I have been very interested in the idea of the D700 or its successor, because I believe that the time is right to move on to a full frame sensor (more on that later). But, the D800 is forecast to be 36 megapixels and to cost the best part of £3000.

A taste for loose boots

It's quite rare for me to print larger than 18" x 12", so 36 megapixels is a complete waste on me. And for £3000 I'd rather take the family on holiday. As much as I would like more megapixels, in practise as long as I can get a pin sharp 18" x 12" print, I'm happy. The D300 gave me those just fine, so 12 megapixels does me. (Not only that, but for the projects I’m planning over the next 3-5 years, I will be presenting mounted prints at no more than 20" x 16" – so the reality is that I won't be printing most of my  important stuff at more than 15 inches on the long side, which is pretty much the exact size that a D700 image gives at 300ppi). So, the long and the short of it is that for a full frame camera, a D700 would give me sufficient pixels, 1 to 2 stops of better ISO performance than the D300 and the ability to use the majority of my lenses as they were intended for a sensor size equivalent to a 35mm negative.

Let me just amplify those last points, as they are the reasons I want to go full frame. The D300 is a wonderful camera – no doubt about it. I never got colour prints from 35mm film as good as I've got from the D300: (lack of) skill of the operator, no doubt, but for sharpness, colour and tonality I’ll take a D300 every time. Not only that but it is possible to get a decent size print from 1600 ISO. And the focusing is excellent, as is the general build quality and weatherproofing. But, like any artefact of human enterprise, it has its limitations. 1600 ISO is about as high as I normally like to go, 2500 in emergency. I've done quite a number of night shoots over the last few years: they are great fun and I am going to be doing more (next one in March). When a helicopter is hovering by hangar light (like this or this), the sensitivity of the camera is at a premium. In general terms, for this kind of shot, doubling (or better) the ISO-availability would probably double the success rate.

Liam

The other point is lenses.  In all, I have more lenses for full frame (FX) sensors than I do for crop (DX) sensors. Two of my favourite lenses are the 35mm F2 AF-D and 105 mm F2 AF DC lenses. Although these are older designs, they're small, fast and lightweight. The 105 mm, in particular, is probably the sharpest lens I own, along with the 60 mm micro-Nikkor. For many years on film these two were my go-to focal lengths, with my Olympus Zuiko 35 mm f 2.8 and 100mm f2.8 primes. I kind of "see" with these focal lengths. The D300 has a crop sensor (1.5 times factor), so the 35mm makes a nice "normal" lens, but does not give me the angle of view I tend to favour for street work. Similarly 150 mm equivalent is quite limiting for portraits, and doesn’t suit me for street work. I'll have more to say about lens choices in a  future blog piece.

Blackfriars Bridge

Anyhow, the point of this rambling is that I made a decision that I wanted to go for a D700 at this point rather than spend the money repairing the D300. (When I can afford it, fixing the D300 is also on the list).

So, I found a used D700 advertised at a reputable London dealer at a good price. It had being used fairly heavily but had a new shutter and new seals, so should keep going a good long time. Not only that, but the asking price was less than used D700's in recent eBay auctions. So, I succumbed to temptation and bought the thing.

I took the D700 for a walk along the Embankment in London, to try to get a feel for how it works. In the end, I walked all the way from Lambeth Bridge along the South Bank to London Bridge and the Borough Market. It is always pleasurable to walk along there, as we have noted on this blog before, but especially with some new gear in hand.

January sun

I just pottered along taking touristy photographs (well, actually mostly photographs of the tourists). To my surprise and delight, the 105 mm was wonderful walk around lens. In fact, I was so enjoying this lens that I left the 35mm mostly unused until I got into the Borough Market, where the confined spaces made it my preference.

Taking a break, Borough Market, D700 and 35mm f2 AF-D

Opening up the files at home, they were lovely. Very sharp, and extraordinarily smooth. Everything, in fact, the D700 is supposed to be. Most of the reviews put the D700 at 1 to 2 stops more sensitive than the D300. I reckon it is the least two stops better in practical terms. Just looking at the ISO 6400 images, I would not hesitate to use that sensitivity on a night shoot to try to capture a wobbly hovering helicopter. Not only that, but there's loads of highlight detail to be recovered. As part of trying it out, I was deliberately exposing some images to push the highlights as far as I could. There are some images where brightly illuminated buildings across the other side of the river looked like they were completely blown on the camera's screen, but in Lightroom or Capture NX 2 there's a surprising amount of highlight detail to be recovered. Again, this is very much in line with the reviews, and completely lives up to my expectations.

Perhaps the biggest downside of the D700 is the fact that the 12 megapixels being spread over a larger area do not give the effective magnification multiplier that the crop sensor does with telephoto work. It would be very nice to have the D300 back in action for the start of the next airshow season. But I can't help feeling that they are additional possibilities in other ways that are opened up by the D700 will keep me more than happy.