My first post in December and I’m back with a couple of photos and a large bag of excuses. I became the newest splitter at the end of November when I left my old job and started a new one. I think either I underestimated how busy I’d be or grossly overestimated the ‘settling in time’ I’d end up taking because it’s been crazy pretty much since I started. Sadly, updating the blog has been far from top priority although it’s always stuck in the back of my mind. It doesn’t really help either that I haven’t been taking any new photos of late. Above are two shots from Powerscourt Gardens taken in October. I imagine the place looks a little different now.
Tag Archive for 'gardens'
Been on a bit of an analog thing of late, thanks in no small part to the quantity of velvia scanned some weeks back. No updates in a while because I started a new job a couple of weeks ago and outside all of the settling in, trying to remember as many new names as possible and all that, I haven’t been hugely inclined to udpate the blog. These three were taken with the Diana fisheye lens that Julie got me some time ago for my birthday and/or Christmas. To tell the truth, I’d never successfully used it on the Diana before and it spent much of it’s time on my 5D thanks to the EF adapter that came with the gift.
I completely blew these out too but after some scanning luck and some wild slide bar wanging in lightroom, I got a somewhat acceptable outcome. Not to everyone’s taste I’m sure. Subject wise, they are of course in the botanic gardens in Dublin on one of the last (or possibly the last) photowalk I attended up there while the place was under a blanket of snow about this time last year. The increasingly dark and cold evenings reminded me of these photos and have made me hope that the snow either stays away for as long as possible or doesn’t come at all this year.
Maybe some ‘novelty’ snow on Christmas Eve/Day. After that, I can’t be dealing with it.
Not very wintry but it was the next shot on the same roll so what the hell. The inside of the greenhouse at a much more friendly temperature.
While Julie was doing her “turn this way, turn that way, smile” thing in Iveagh Gardens last weekend I took the opportunity to tag along and skulk around the gardens getting better acquainted with my X100. It’s not quite there, but it’s getting there. I spent most of the day at ƒ2…
I’ve only used the thing in jpeg mode so far but I’m quite liking how good Lightroom is to the files. Specifically what it’s doing when I apply a black & white preset to it. It’s bloody lovely. It also means that I haven’t run into the reported slow write times that people are seeing when using RAW, nor have I had to buy a big, expensive, super fast SD card to put into it. Yet anyway.
As you can see, I’ve already developed a habit of having my finger slightly obscuring the lens. It’s a bit of a learning curve going from a 5D with a 24-70 on it to something the size of two iphones taped together. The autofocus distance is going to take me a while to grasp. In AF mode it’s got a minimum focusing distance of 80cm. However in MF mode, you can focus down to about 40cm. Some people are saying you can get lower than that. I’ve been relying on the AF assist function (AFL/AEL button on the back) when in MF mode but it doesn’t seem to give any indication of when it’s achieved focus. Unless you leave the beep on of course. Using the EVF seems to make it easier to distinguish what’s what in MF mode. The OVF makes one tend to just hit the shutter button and hope for the best.
We’re getting along, I just need to start pointing it at more stuff more often. It’s going to be introduced to Cork over the weekend and see how that goes. Until then, my lovelies.
It\’d been so long since I last used the macro lens, I forgot what it was capable of when focusing manually.
From the second Botanic Gardens photowalk that took place earlier today. Weather was quite a bit milder than the previous walk. The macro lens that I haven\’t used in what seems to be about 2 years came out to play again.
Getting ready for the Botanic Gardens photowalk later this month. It\’ll be a bit different than the January walk. A few less inches of ice and snow for starters.
From a little bit earlier in the year at the Botanic Gardens photowalk. Chubby little fecker.
I can\’t get home tonight, or tomorrow night or possibly the night after. There are places I\’d rather be and people I\’d rather be there with. Also, happy 2nd birthday glasseyalley