Using my new Camera for the first time

Autumn, Borrowdale-Valley, Cumbria, Grange, Lakedistrict, Landscape, long-exposure, River-Derwent, tony-tomlinson-photography, UK

The proof is in the eating, so they say, so after waiting for several weeks to trade my old photography system and receiving my new, Its finally time to try the camera and lenses out.

The light as been pants for the last two weekends, but I had to bite the bullet and get out, so on a overcast, grey and damp day, I’m off to try out my new camera.

I headed for Grange, in the Borrowdale valley with the aim of looking for some compositions of the River Derwent as the water is crystal clear, along with a trek through the woodlands to capture some autumnal colours.

Once you have used one camera, you can use any, (so they say) and to a point this is true, but I soon ran in to muscle memory issues as I was instinctively going for buttons that I have been using for 20 years or more.

It will take time to become accustomed to the new layout, but the issues are not insurmountable, presently these minor issues are just slow me down a little.

tony-tomlinson-photography, om-1-kmII-camera

Photography wise, I was struggling, the light was pants, and I have missed the best of the autumnal colours, however I found a little beck with moss coloured rocks and brown autumnal coloured leaves scattered around the scene so I took a little time to compose a image. Not the best in the world, but a reasonably interesting one.

Autumn, Borrowdale-Valley, Cumbria, Grange, Lakedistrict, Landscape, long-exposure, Stream, tony-tomlinson-photography, UK

The river levels were low, a reflection of the reduced rainfalls recently, the lovely turquoise coloured pools drew my attention, but compositions were hard to come by.

I found one large pool called “Wilkinson’s Dub” which was a lovely colour, with a shrub on the far bank being reflected in the water, so I used a K&F polarizing filter to remove some of the glare to try and get a different type of image, this image is below, do you think it works?

Autumn, Borrowdale-Valley, Cumbria, Grange, Lakedistrict, Landscape, long-exposure, River-Derwent, tony-tomlinson-photography, UK

I then came across a disused quarry which provided some contrast to the remaining autumnal colours of the woods.

Autumn, Borrowdale-Valley, Cumbria, Grange, Lakedistrict, Landscape, long-exposure, Quarry, Slate, tony-tomlinson-photography, UK

As I trekked through Low and High Hows Woods I took a couple of snaps, one of a tree which, to me had a branch that looked like a birds face, can you see it?

Autumn, Borrowdale-Valley, Cumbria, Grange, Lake District, Landscape, tony-tomlinson-photography, UK, Woodland

OM-1 Conclusion:

Of course it will take some time to become fully accustomed to the OM-1 camera and its controls, I still need to customise some functions, but this will be done in time.

My main concern was one the quality of the images, as the four thirds sensor is substantially smaller than the full frame variant that I have been using for many years. I wont know the full answer to this question until I print a A2 sized print to make this assessment.

One big positive is that after two and a half hours lugging all all my new kit around in my backpack, I managed this with no issues, the weight saving was very obvious, long may this last.

 

Ullswater: My Nemisis

tony-tomlinson-photography, Ullswater,

Ullswater is a bit of a nemesis for me, I’ve visited it many times, but rarely have I come away with many portfolio images.

This weekend was a fine example, the forecast for Saturday was ideal, but my glass back ensured that I was unable to make the trip, so the second best option was to visit on the Sunday even thought he forecast was nothing special.

I arrived well before sunrise so that I could find a good viewpoint, but was hindered by the shear number of wild campers along the shore of the lake, not that I have any problem with them, its just that I like to keep my distance from the tents, especially being about so early.

A mooch about didn’t find anything worth photographing, just one blue hour panoramic image along the lake looking towards Pooley Bridge from Glencoyne Bay, I decided to convert this to black & white during post processing.

tony-tomlinson-photography, Ullswater, panoramic, black-and-white,Ullswater Panoramic

I then re-retraced my tracks back along the lake shore towards Mossdale Bay to find the boathouse.

I captured an O.K image from here where I tried to use the brickwork and character of the building to tell a story about the image. do you think I have achieved this, please let me know by way of a comment?

tony-tomlinson-photography, Ullswater, Boathouse,Ullswater Boathouse

From here I didn’t find anything worth photographing, so I drove up to Brothers Water to see if there was anything interesting there.

When I arrived at Brothers Water, the lakes surface was flat calm, but by the time I picked out a composition the wind had picked up causing ripples along the waters surface. So the waiting began, I was sure the wind would drop and allow me to get a nice reflection shot, waiting is the name of the game after all.

tony-tomlinson-photography, Ullswater, Hartsop-Dodd,Hartsop Dodd reflection in Brothers Water

I got chatting to a fellow photographer who was present, he being from Cockermouth and me from Maryport. We had a interesting chat about all this photography, then said our farewells.

As I was about to leave, I decided to get a shot of the lone copse of trees on the edge of the lake, this image was probably the best of the morning, see below.

tony-tomlinson-photography, Ullswater, Hartsop-Dodd, Copse-of-treesCopse of Trees

On reflection, another visit to Ullswater with no decent photos, flat light, and lack of compositions seen to this. This is why I see Ullswater as my nemesis, its a place where I rarely come away with anything special.

Still it was nice to get out again, as I need to make more of an effort and start getting out into the landscape more often.

Many thanks for reading, stay safe until the next news article from me.