Six Seasons Of Change
I wrote a few weeks ago about the relocation of my gallery from the Ironbridge Gorge to Church Stretton and while that was possibly the most significant change (until our imminent house move in just one week’s time) there have been quite a few other changes that have come about in the past eighteen months. Most of these are with regard to my workflow and the small tweaks to my equipment that have helped this evolution happen.
It may be unique to photographers, this constant comparing of equipment as we search for the best way to express ourselves through image making. I might be wrong but I don’t think I’ve heard other artists arguing around the best brush, canvas, make of paint etc and yet the ongoing friendly ‘banter’ between users of Canon/Nikon, Mirrorless/DSLR, Wooden/Metal field cameras, Film/Digital roll on through the years. Camera companies depend on it of course, I’m pretty sure if a competition is won by someone using X equipment or if a YouTube celebrity films themselves using Y equipment then sales of those items rise in the weeks that follow. That would explain why one such influencer here in the UK recently got their hands on £50,000 worth of high end digital equipment to try out while another in Canada was able to play with $25,000 of Fuji medium format gear for a few weeks. In over twenty years I’ve used many different camera systems and accessories but there have been a few companies that I’ve stuck with all along because they provided exactly what I needed, until this past year and a half when I felt the items in particular weren’t living up my expectations.
Filters
I started using Lee filters way back in 1998 when I invested in a filter holder, a set of neutral density grads and for some crazy reason, a landscape grad set comprising a blue, yellow and sepia grad (none) of which were used more than once. Shooting with Fuji Velvia slide film from the outset the ND grads were essential in enabling me to control skies etc and of course once I transitioned to Large Format and used a one degree spot meter they became an essential tool for expression in a scene. At that point I was carrying two 0.3 hard grads, two 0.6 hard grads, a custom made 0.75 nd grad fading to 81b warming and another 0.45 nd grad fading to 81a warming, more often than not it was only the foreground colour that needed controlling in a scene. I would still be using Lee now if I wasn’t regularly shooting closer to the light which is something that my move to Sony mirrorless cameras six years ago enabled me to do. I began to notice a degrading of clarity and contrast in many of the images I made around sunset/sunrise and some unusual shaped flare artefacts akin to water marks on the files when I came to post process them. A couple of years ago I decided to invest in a Kase 3 stop (glass) reverse grad to help where particularly strong light close to the horizon needed controlling and was struck by the clarity I was getting from the image files made while using it. So, having returned from Scotland last Autumn and been disappointed with a few degraded files using my Lees I invested in the Kase K9 holder system and a couple of two stop grads. Sadly they don’t produce a one stop hard grad which is definitely my favourite and most used option so I opted for a 0.6 soft and a 0.6 medium. With hindsight I should have got either a 0.6 hard instead of the soft as the soft and medium are very similar and I would say they both lean towards the softer end of the scale. I find the Kase holder and adaptor rings so be a bit more fiddly to work with than the Lee which lasted me over twenty years and is still doing it’s job for some else now. So, a few more tweaks needed to get the flexibility I had with Lee but no doubt the quality of the glass filters is a huge step up from resin.
Tripod Head.
This was a no brainer. In twenty years I’ve only used two tripod heads, both Manfrotto 410 junior geared heads which served me brilliantly. The control of movement that a geared head provides is essential in my opinion but having tried an Arca Swiss ball head once in an attempt to travel light I can’t believe that anyone would want that level of anger and frustration to be part of their workflow. A geared head has you working in a fluid, relaxed way that plays it’s part in the feel of your images. The second 410 head I topped off with a Hejnar Arca Swiss adapter to fit the monorail on my Cambo Actus. The main issue with this combination was the weight, the head was a solid as a rock but felt like one. I’d been using Benro carbon fibre tripods since a Gitzo mountaineer fell apart in my hands in 2008 at Elgol without any issues so opted to get their GD3WH geared head. This has proven to be as sturdy as the Manfrotto (so far) including being dropped, the massive advantage being that it weighs half the amount, perfect for the mountain photography I haven’t had time to do this year.
Camera Bag
My first camera system; a Pentax P30T 35mm film camera with a couple of hideous non Pentax lenses went straight into a Lowepro Nature Trekker bag which was recommended by photographer friends. This was quickly upgraded to a Pro Trekker as I gathered together better equipment and then up to a Super Trekker when my large format set up outgrew that. I had the Supertrekker for about fifteen years and sold it on when I moved away from LF about three years ago. It was a bit mis-shapen and threadbare in places but had served me really well. I then got a Pro Runner 450 aw but was a bit disappointed with the build quality compared to the previous bags I had used and didn’t provide the flexibility that my new camera set up required. An F-stop Tilopa with large icu wasn’t enough and was immediately sold again complete with tags and I went back to using an old Vango 70+15 ltr rucksack with a few foam pouches for my camera. For day to day use I got a Lowepro Whistler 450 which is nice and light but with not enough padding or capacity for longer days or overnights. Their Powder BP 500 proved too small and uncomfortable too but I was hearing more and more positive words about Shimoda Bags. Having used a Shimoda Action X70 for over a year now I am very pleased with it and so far it feels as robust as my old Supertrekker. It’s a touch heavier than I’d like with lots of features that I don’t need. I cut every piece of excess webbing etc off my old bags to reduce weight but many won’t be chopping this bag up. Many of the features such as the ‘cartridge’ loops on the shoulder straps do seem surplus to any requirement I would have though. The fabrics are good and with a secondary zipped layer of protection provided by the core units’ own cover I don’t foresee any issues with much beyond the kind of rain I probably wouldn’t be out in anyway. It would certainly expect it to get my camera through a heavy shower or day of constant drizzle. As with my other equipment changes I generally come to the realisation that I’m happy with what I’ve got when I stop trawling online for alternatives. The only question here; do I invest in an X30 for day to day use or save a bit of money stick with my Lowepro Whistler?
Sony A7r4
I’ve owned five* Sony A7r cameras now, all were bought second hand and I’ve been seriously impressed every model. To give a brief history I bought a Panasonic Lumix GF1 12mp 4/3rds camera many years ago after losing my very expensive Schneider zoom viewfinder on the Isle of Luing off the coast of Argyll. The viewfinder was an essential piece of kit to help with trying out compositions prior to committing to setting up the camera. At over £600 to replace and not being covered on my insurance I opted to get a lightweight camera instead mainly to try out ideas but also to take images that wouldn’t work on my Ebony. The original A7r was only slightly larger than the Lumix but was capable of making images that I really wanted to print. I’ve had each upgrade since ( should have skipped the 3) and each new model has been slightly bigger, more robust and has performed better. When I looked at the files I got from the A7r4 I was struck by how much smoother and cleaner they looked than those of the previous models. I’ve owned it for ten months now and married to the Sony 24-105 G and 100-400 G Master lenses it’s a powerful piece of kit. Sadly this year I have yet to make a trip outside of Shropshire with my camera but have been busy within its borders. With the gallery move and now an unplanned house move over it’s definitely time to take it up to Scotland, over the border into Wales and somewhere cold, white and pointy too.
*My first one got dropped and repaired. It didn’t seem to work properly afterwards though so I bought a second A7r body only to discover that it was just a damaged SD card in the first that was causing trouble!!!