Framedlight

Of course it's the time of the year for macro photography, so I dusted off the 105mm lens and sallied forth into the garden. Last year I bought a really cheap (around £40) ring flash so used this on a few too. I hope it justifies the expense!!

Ian and I spent a little time in London on the way through to see the London Salon exhibition in Croydon last month. We were operating in the St Paul's, Millenium Bridge, Tate Modern area, a part of London much photographed. And so I took all of the pictures here with my Fuji XE-1 in multi exposure mode and added a little blur in as well to give a different look to the pictures.

Still going with the infrared theme, I visited Chartwell a little while ago while Alan was riding in a London cycle event. I could have wished for better light as it was overcast and dull and I could not go in the house as I had the Hettie dog with me. The following are taken using the Nikon D800e and the 24mm PCE lens. I rather like mixing the monochrome and the colour together to give muted tones and a degree of blur where the foliage has moved in the wind during the infrared shot. For comparison I am posting the infrared images, converted to black and white and the combined monotone and colour ones.

In the middle of May I spent 4 days staying near Salford Quays while Rene, my ma-in-law was having a knee op at a hospital in Manchester. I did not have much time for photography but took the Fuji XE-1 with me. I have now bought a 3 stop neutral density filter and holder from the Cokin A series and an adaptor so that I can use Nikon lenses on the Fuji. I am reluctant to shell out the cash needed for the Lee filter system for these cameras, but I do need to get some more ND filters as 3 stop is not enough.We have a very old tiny Nikon 135mm lens, all manual and the second to last shot is taken using this. The first 4 shots are taken of the quays at sunset and the last is the exciting view from my hotel window. The rest are of the Lowry building. The dog was with me so I could not go inside. Strangely while I was there a siren sounded and hundreds of students walked from Media City into the space outside the Lowry which was their muster point. They were apparently involved in a fire ala...

I have bought three infrared filters, of different wavelengths for my camera and as most of my lenses on the Nikon camera are 77mm it is fairly easy to use the filters on any of them. With the zoom lenses I get a hotspot in the centre of the picture, as I have found with the Fuji XE-1 system where I only have the 18-55mm zoom lens. Fuji lenses are really expensive and I would like to add some primes but am reluctant to buy in fully to two systems. If I went travelling again I might consider it as there is such an advantage to a small camera if you are trekking. The first 4 pictures are infrared with a 720mm filter using the Fuji and minimising the hotspot in Lightroom. They are of Arkesden church and my house. The last 3 are using the Nikon with again a 720nm filter and my 24mm tilt shift lens which is manual and leaves no hotspot whatsoever. They are a combination of IR and colour images, produced in Photoshop and just of the local countryside.