Hasselblad Studio Day

Today I went to one of Hasselblad's studio days, this one in London.

I spent about three hours there trying out a camera - a H3D with a 50 megapixel back, together with a selection of lenses and finally was shown how to use their software to process the images! The results are incredible, the detail in the images is fantastic - I want one!

The guys were great and I thank them all! There was no sales pitch at all, they just wanted us to try the gear and they supplied a great model for us to photograph. All in all, it was a great experience!

Now all I need to do is win the lottery so that I can get myself a camera and some lenses!

Valley of Fire!

Today is our last full day in Las Vegas and we drove 50 odd miles away to the Valley of Fire, so called due to the colour of the rocks in the valley. Geologically, the area is incredible with different strata layers being different colours and types of rock. The red is a sandstone and has been eroded to leave an incredible pock marked set of rocks...

The red sandstone is several layers down in the rock layers, but in some areas, like the Valley of Fire, the top layers have eroded away and the red rocks are exposed.

There is a road that runs through the middle of the valley with side trails running off into the rocks, which we naturally explored. One has to be very careful when getting out of the car, as there are rattlesnakes, scorpions and venomous spiders living in the rocks!

On the way back we called into Arlen Ness motorcycles - Wow, did they have some great bikes there! Unfortunately no pictures....

Photos from the Valley of Fire in 'Landscapes'

Las Vegas

We've been here for five days now and my views about Las Vegas haven't really changed - it's not the place for us!

We went to see the Grand Canyon, a 540 mile round trip and when we got there, both of us suffered with what I think was altitude sickness, so we didn't stay very long, or see very much of the canyon, which was a great shame! There is one panorama of the south rim in 'Landscapes'. It is disappointing, as the canyon is so vast and we couldn't see the river...

Yesterday we went to Red Rock Canyon, which is just outside Las Vegas. The term canyon is a bit misleading, as it was more of a valley, but the place was interesting and I took lots of shots, which I've stitched together to make some large panoramas, one of which is in 'Landscapes'.

Las Vegas

Our first day in Las Vegas and I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed. It is very busy, very noisy and very hot!

We went for a drive to see some of the area and ended up at the Hoover Dam. The water level is very low, probably due to the time of year and as it was so hot - 36+ we didn't stop to walk around, I just grabbed a couple of quick photos and then got back in the car!

I have a photo in 'Landscapes' which shows the dam and the new bypass road that is being built behind it - very clever engineering!

Yosemite!

Yosemite, what a great place!

Day One - We drove to Mariposa Grove to see the sequoia trees. Although I took many photographs, none of them do justice to these great trees. It is so humbling to consider that these trees are unbelievably old and how much the world has changed during their vast life span.

When we left Mariposa Grove, we drove to Glacier Point, where the views are absolutely breathtaking. The viewing area is around 7,200 feet above sea level and a vast panorama dominated by Half Dome meets the eye. There is a hanging rock - which we were not allowed on - below which is a 3200 plus foot drop to the valley floor. Again, photographs cannot really do justice to the incredible view!

The two destinations took the whole day to explore, but what a day!

Day Two - this time we drove north to the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and O'Shaughnessy Dam. The dam was built to supply both water and electricity to San Francisco, some 160 miles away. The water travels down a pipeline and is gravity fed all the way. The spill from the hydro-electric generator is a sight to see, jetting out from one side of the hillside straight across the ravine where it hammers into the opposite wall.

On the return journey we stopped in Yosemite Village where we looked in the Ansel Adams museum, although it is really a shop - great to see his work in large format prints, especially as so many of his pictures were taken around Yosemite...

We also were lucky enough to see and photograph a Blue Jay!

Day Three - a lazy day, we drove down to Mariposa and had a look round there, then drove back to the hotel to chill out for a while - when I say chill out, I mean it, into the room and on with the air-con - it was very hot out there! Later, we drove up to Yosemite Village to see El Capitan, Half Dome and the other peaks in the area, before heading for Las Vegas tomorrow...

Day Four - an early start and we left the hotel, driving right through Yosemite, on a road we hadn't travelled. We drove over 50 miles before reaching the other side of the park, seeing some wonderful vistas, but unfortunately no bears - we had really hoped to see a bear on one of the days, but were unlucky... We are now in Las Vegas after a very long drive - just under 500 miles!

Thoughts from the visit to Yosemite are that I would love to return in June when the rivers and waterfalls are in full flood and the roads will have opened (clear of snow) to give access to view and appreciate nature at it's finest. I have started to design a 6 x 17 panoramic camera and I would want to have that completed and with me, so I could hopefully better capture some the beauty of this wonderful place.

Photos in 'Landscapes' and 'Nature'.

San Francisco cont...

This morning, we caught the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf again, only this time we walked east towards the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a long walk in the hot sun and luckily we were free of fog! Eventually we arrived at the fort underneath the bridge and sat and relaxed in the shade for a while before starting back.

We walked a mile or so back and then caught a bus the rest of the way as by that time we were knackered! Then to the cable car and back to the hotel to rest our weary feet!

Another good day! A few more photos are in 'Landscapes'.

Tomorrow we are off to Yosemite!

San Francisco...

We arrived in San Francisco yesterday afternoon and today was our first day out exploring the city. Our hotel is near to the Powell Street cable car terminus and we walked down to watch the cable cars being turned round before catching one all the way to the other end at Fisherman's Wharf.

As we walked from the terminus we spotted the Duck Tour shop and booked a ride at 10am. The trip took us round some of the city and out in the bay as well. Our driver / guide, Greg, was very informative and entertaining and the 90 minute tour passed by very quickly.

After that, we walked round the area, including Pier 39 where the sea lions are - a smelly but very interesting sight!

We then walked to the Cable Car Museum and saw the cable mechanism and how the system works, before heading back to the hotel worn out through walking many miles.

Photos are in 'Landscapes' and 'Nature'....

Wingham Wildlife Park

Today has probably been the hottest day of the year so far and we went to Wingham Wildlife Park. I have added photos in the 'nature' gallery of some of the wildlife we saw there, from meercats to kookaburras, including a baby lemur and baby rheas which were just one week old! Enjoy!

Sellindge Steam Rally

A beautiful Bank Holiday weekend and we decided to go to the 40th steam rally at Sellindge today.

As usual the event was well attended, but I was a little disappointed with the amount of traction engines there. This was compensated for by the number of old cars, old motor bikes, old lorries and military vehicles.

When we arrived, the military vehicles were in the parade ground and it was good to see tracked vehicles as well as the other more common vehicles. I was particularly taken with the Abbott self propelled gun and got what I think is a good shot of it firing it's big gun! Photos of the Abbott and some of the steam engines can be seen in the 'events' section.... Enjoy

A beautiful spring day at Mote Park

Today being Wednesday, neither my wife or I work, so we went to Mote Park in Maidstone, Kent. It has been a beautiful spring day and we walked round the lake taking photos as we walked. In my 'Landscape' gallery, there are four images from the day. As well as using my D2XS, I took my Hasselblad and ran a roll of film through that to test out a 150mm lens I recently acquired - it will be interesting to see the results! I have discovered that the Hasselblad is quite slow to focus - my eyes not being what they were! I like medium format, but I think I probably need to change my 503CW for a camera with autofocus!! I'm thinking of perhaps a Mamiya 645 AFDII, or AFDIII. These cameras are more realistically priced that a Hasselblad H series and will take a digital back.... Time will tell!

It's bluebell time again!

It's that time of year again and the bluebells are out once more!

We went to Hole Park again and were not disappointed with the sight of thousands and thousands of bluebells! We spent a couple of hours wandering around the gardens, taking photos and enjoying the glorious weather....

I have added half a dozen images from the gardens in my 'Nature' Gallery - enjoy!

Update and camera designs

Long time no blog! I've not been taking that many photos recently. Due to a lack of funds, interest and extended holiday, we decided to give up the studio and that has meant that I haven't had anywhere to take portraits during the cold winter months. Now that the lighter evenings are with us and the temperature is climbing, I hope to start taking more portraits, but using different outdoor locations....

I have spent the winter designing a couple of cameras, one of which is partially made and the other mostly drawn up. I have just started on the design of a third camera too.

The one I have partially built is a 5 x 4 monorail camera which I am building specifically for photographing Canterbury Cathedral. Anyone who has been there will appreciate that one has to get quite close before one has an uninterrupted view of the entire building. This requires a very wide angle lens which causes severe distortion of the image. A monorail view camera will allow a wide angle lens to be used, but with all it's movements should remove the distortion....

The second camera is a 617. I like panoramic images and like the idea of taking them in the right format, rather than having to crop 'normal ratio' images to form them! I hope I am being clever as the intention is that the 617 body will fit onto the 5 x 4 body - using a special adapter plate - so I can use the view camera in 2 different formats.

You will probably have realised that both these cameras will use film! My intention is to scan the negatives and then use my computer to process the images. I have no intention of getting back into a darkroom!

The third camera which I am just starting to design in my head, is a pancake type which will use a 645 film back initially, though ultimately my aim is to get a digital back to use with it.

As the design and build of these cameras progress, I'll get more info posted on the blog, but for now, that's it!