My pics

[Felon]

Please appreciate and understand that right now....I hate you

Had a tough couple of days, decided to go to Mono Lake yesterday, but the snow was incredible - almost a foot deep in places, only just managed to make it there in a Jeep Wrangler with snow chains, unfortunately the light was almost non-existent, so resorted to the Lee 10 stopper and as stronger composition as possible to make something that worked, hard going in those conditions though.

Today I was back in Death Valley again, I've always wanted to photograph the mud flats, however they're very hard to find and generally kept secret - there are a few locations for these in Death Valley, however after hammering various photography boards, books and google earth - I finally found them. Totally awesome place, it's like walking around on a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.

 

[Drollic]

I can't actually imagine what those mud flats are like in person despite the great photo.

 

[Felon]

I can't actually imagine what those mud flats are like in person despite the great photo.

Yeah, it's a really weird environment - it's like walking on a massive jigsaw puzzle, all of the 'bits' are basically like thick paving slabs, and they wobble around when you walk on them, the gaps in the photo about are 3-4 inches wide.

Here's a 'behind the scenes shot'

 

[Phate]

Fantastic stuff

I just flew back. I need to import my shots from Seattle, I didn't have a chance to shoot much!

 

[matthewwhitton]

Yeah, it's a really weird environment - it's like walking on a massive jigsaw puzzle, all of the 'bits' are basically like thick paving slabs, and they wobble around when you walk on them, the gaps in the photo about are 3-4 inches wide.

Here's a 'behind the scenes shot'

Fantastic location! I am going to California on May 4th and was wanting to shoot this place, any chance that you could pm the Google map location please?

 

[Felon]

Fantastic location! I am going to California on May 4th and was wanting to shoot this place, any chance that you could pm the Google map location please?

Sure, send me a message via trust and i'll let you know, all I ask is you don't post it anywhere publicly, as it's very fragile and it'll end up being wrecked by hoards of selfie takers.

 

[matthewwhitton]

I have sent you an email, thank you.

 

[Felon]

Went for a drive up to Big Sur park on the west coast today, doing some more exploring tomorrow, Pfeiffer beach was nice, a little bit rammed but fun nontheless, not the best I ever took - stood with about 10 other photographers lol, my worst possible scenario

 

[Felon]

Up in Bryce Canyon at the moment, lots of snow and hardly any people at all - it's incredible in the snow, went show shoeing too, incredible place.

 

[olv]

I'm continually impressed by your dedication to get out to these places, nice work. Stunning location. Something about the sharpening in these most recent two looks off, the detail is there but they look a bit strange, over sharpened perhaps compared to usual? Not sure, might just be my eyes!

 

[Felon]

I'm continually impressed by your dedication to get out to these places, nice work. Stunning location. Something about the sharpening in these most recent two looks off, the detail is there but they look a bit strange, over sharpened perhaps compared to usual? Not sure, might just be my eyes!

No it's not your eyes, I was thinking the same thing last night but you're right and I actually can't figure it out lol.

Initially I had the resize image setting set incorrectly, however I've fixed that (to automatic) for some reason the images look perfectly fine in photoshop - but in Chrome they look weird and low quality.. Chrome does something weird, where it displays the image differently, as though it's enlarging it - as it's literally twice the size in chrome as it is in photoshop.. How different apps display images differently is something that I've never really understood.

I had another go at processing them, they're a bit better but still not perfect, to be brutally honest - I've never really been happy resizing down from 8k to 1k resolution - it's very difficult to keep the detail and resize..

Resize workflow is simply this;

Initial sharpen - (unsharp mark 30-40%)
Resize down to 1024px
Again resharpen (25%)

 

[Phate]

Yes Chrome is rendering images weirdly lately. But Lightroom does have a setting for web browsing or similar which seems to help

 

[Felon]

One from Lake Powell tonight, from around Alstrom point, nice evening overall - sat eating trail mix and listening to the prodigy (RIP Keith) whilst watching the sunset over Gunsight Butte (in the background) and Navajo mountain right at the back.

 

[Felon]

So it's been a random last 6 years, after the above photo was taken - I focused on my career and almost emigrated to the United States (Los Angeles), however a year later (2020) we all knew what happened.. Everything changed, I ended up marooned in a foreign country for almost 2 years, (Ireland) half of it in Lockdown, ended up with depression, long story it sucked. For a long time I didn't feel like doing much in the way of hobbies or traveling, but things are on the up and it's time to get back on the horse.

New delivery today (I don't **** about )

Initial impressions are WOW! I was shooting the Phase one gear - then I moved to the Sony A7RIII which was amazing, this thing is just on another level, the build quality of it - it's like holding a tank, amazingly made piece of kit. I'd been eyeing one up for about a year, so knew pretty much everything about it before I pulled the trigger - will be shooting it with a 28mm to start with, (22mm equivalent) I might add something wider later.

I've been playing around with it and did some 15 minute exposures at ISO64 - absolutely clean as hell, best long exposures from any camera I've seen, this is the X2D 100C 100 Megapixel BSI sensor (I think Sony make it).

It also has 7stops of built in image stabilisation, which is incredible - I can handhold a 1 second exposure and it's tack sharp, a real game changer especially for shooting scenes with movement in - but where tripods are a pain in the ass (waterfalls, etc)

Will be heading out this weekend, not sure where - I have a few ideas, but I'll see what the weather does before I book anything.

Then first week in May I have a 2 week excursion to Arizona and New Mexico planned, need to do a week in NYC first (for work) so might do some city stuff, but it's the desert I really want to see. Will use this thread as a bit of a blog for more images, and hopefully some other stuff as I'll be camping and doing some back-country driving, weather permitting.

 

[Felon]

Went down to Dungeness today for a first go with the X2D, it's such a strange place.

It's like a desert, bits of junk everywhere - old railway lines, knackered boats, engines half buried in the shingles, all overlooked by a nuclear power station.

As soon as I got there I tried the x-pan panoramic mode, which allows you to compose with a panoramic viewfinder - which is a godsend.

The 100 Megapixel sensor is incredible too, all of these exposures were multiple minutes - and the lack of noise combined with detail and the amount of 'meat' to the image is great, the amount of shadow detail and sky that can be recovered is amazing, pretty much 15 stops of dynamic range at ISO100.

These two images are of an old rail line it looks like they used to transport stuff from the beach to the road, there was an old railcart half buried in the ground, god knows how long since it was last used? 50 years?

There are lots of these little huts and sheds dotted about the place, the power station is pretty bleak - apparently you're not allowed to get close and take photos, (there's not much there anyway by the looks of it) kinda has a dystopian look about it though,.

 

[Ryan-3]

Was reading about medium format and the potential benefit over full frame not too long ago. Then I received an offer of a discount for an X2D 50 and see this... Universe wants me to do something.

great images those! It's what I like about having FF over the family's crop sensor cameras. I always manage to bring out so much more in the shadows than they can.

 

[Felon]

great images those! It's what I like about having FF over the family's crop sensor cameras. I always manage to bring out so much more in the shadows than they can.

Yeah, I mean bigger sensors = bigger pixels, they just handle low light so well, especially the latest sensors.

In the above pics, I think the middle image was a 4 minute exposure at ISO64, it's a little soft (due to it blowing a gale!) but there is literally no noise, it's silky smooth.

Also, the amount of detail I can pull out of the shadows and recover from highlights is a game changer, I can shoot a lot more without needing to exposure blend or use grads, which just makes life easier.

The only thing which can be a slight disadvantage over 35mm FF, is because the sensor is larger and the lens image circle is larger - the depth of field is reduced slightly, which is better for portraits, but for landscapes you have to be very careful with focus.

I'd say the main reasons I shoot MF over FF are:

• Quality - I used to shoot 5x4 large-format film, and I want the ultimate quality
• Printing - I also do some large format printing (big prints), so I do benefit from the detail
• Aspect ratio - I prefer the squarer format of 645 vs 3:2 (a personal thing)
• Dynamic range and low light performance is unrivaled.
• The lenses are all insane - sharp corner to corner, the only downside to this - is some systems have a limited selection to choose from and they're expensive - but my god are they sharp!

That said, MF is a luxury, it's not going to 'improve' your photography, it's just a better oven for cooking your visual recipes in

 

[Ryan-3]

As someone who uses manual focus Loxia lenses, wash your mouth out after that disclaimer!

Once I'm back from backpacking, if I ever do return... I'll probably be interested in going medium format as it suits the things that I shoot. The 50mp version with the same sensor size will gather even more light (and save me a few quid )

 

[Felon]

I'll probably be interested in going medium format as it suits the things that I shoot.

It's also worth looking at the FUJI GFX, which I think is using the same or almost the same sensor as the Hasselblads (All these sensors are made by a Sony factory anyway AFAIK)

If you're looking to get into MF on a budget - then the Fuji is certainly very very good - and because it's the same sensor you get that 15 stops of dynamic range.

 

[Ryan-3]

It's also worth looking at the FUJI GFX, which I think is using the same or almost the same sensor as the Hasselblads (All these sensors are made by a Sony factory anyway AFAIK)

If you're looking to get into MF on a budget - then the Fuji is certainly very very good - and because it's the same sensor you get that 15 stops of dynamic range.

Yeah I believe a large portion of the market use Sony sensors across crop, FF and MF!

Have been looking at their range. At lot of it will come down to the lenses available when I do venture down that route...