It’s been so and too long since I updated this blog. There’s no excuse. So, there is only one thing to do – Update, reset and begin again.
I nearly lost the murpworkschrome domain but managed to resurrect it, phoenix-like, from the ashes of letting it go. However, I’m back, with renewed vigour.
My Instagram account has grown fatter. I’m happy with a fair few of the photographs taken but I got lazy. Nearly all were taken with my iPhone. I want to do more than this so I’m buying a Ricoh GR III. I walk around and take photographs. If I don’t have to take a camera bag (I have two) then that is good. I don’t want people thinking I’m a photographer. The GR III gives me the ability to replace my smartphone with a smart camera. I want point and shoot intelligence and I think the GR III can give me this.
Latest
The latest photographs I took were the other day, driven by the lockdown / Covid-19 affected times
It’s one of the few things you can do!
Today however, it snowed! Now it’s brilliant sun. Once again, constrained by the viral climate, I’m confined to a small area of excursion
murpworkschrome is my new website and all my photography will be posted there. It will be my repository for my best work. So, visit it for monochrome, chrome, available light, nature, landscape, urban…
I’ve split it into two distinct streams so you can chose between
Bristol Street – Arnolfini. I visited the Arnolfini museum with mu but unfortunately, it was closed for some kind of refurbishment. The steps that would normally lead us up to exhibition space were to the left.
As there were very few people, this space opened up an opportunity and the light bleeding in from the doorway was cold, Winter light. It contrasted well with the vibrant vertical strip light. I’m really pleased with the copper-coloured pillar that is echoed in the lights across the harbour.
I’m really pleased with this photograph as it captures some of the essence of Street Photography. I feel it’s also one where colour is a strength and adds to the image, developing the narrative; cool, emphasizing a Winter’s day but contrasting with the vivid colour that is an integral part of the Museum.
I shall return to the Arnolfini and capture more images in the near future, no doubt with different lighting, as the days lengthen and Spring, then Summer arrive.
I took these photographs in Avebury back in April 2018. A very different approach was taken to each photograph but it is the land that pulls them together as a cohesive whole. I have visited here, many times with mu and we always find it a special place to spend time. The history is palpable. This Avebury in April showed a stark landscape brought about by the clouds that hung ominously, but didn’t rain.
Branches Discarded branches at the approach to the path, across from the stone circle. The path runs along side the stream, in front of Silbury Hill.
Rolling Hill A rolling hill, to the left as you walk toward Silbury Hill and on further, to West Kennet Long Barrow.
Stream at Silbury Hill The stream that runs at the foot of Silbury Hill was in full flow with clear cold water.
Silbury Hill Silbury Hill. A man-made hill in the prehistoric landscape.
Yesterday, I traded in my Fujifilm X100F APSC sensor, fixed 23mm lens camera and am awaiting arrival of a Sony A7 III Full Frame sensor with Sony FE 24-105 F4 G OSS lens. I got a good deal at Jessops and this helped with the choice of lens.
Bye 🙁
My decision was not because I was dissatisfied with the X100F. The Fuji is a great camera, excellent quality in image and build – it took beautiful pictures. It’s small form factor meant it could be taken anywhere and, as everyone acknowledges; it’s a great street camera.
I want to develop videography alongside my photography. The plan is to provide a documentary of our life on the canals and also capture the uniqueness of this environment; with murpworks Afloat.
Many people are developing excellent YouTube channels of their life and times on the canals, for example; Country House Gent, Robbie Cumming , Boatman Benjamin and Ben & Emelie’s Captains Vloggs but I want to take this in a different direction. One which will hopefully compliment these existing channels. I see the documentary parts being a more POV, rather than self-filming. I also want to incorporate filmic elements in its approach & feel.
To this end, the X100F was not a video camera. It can film in HD and it can use the film simulations that Fuji are rightly acclaimed for but looking to the future, 4K is the future. 4K is the future that is, until 8K trickles down the food chain and…
But You Got Rid of the Fuji!
In an ideal world, I would have kept the Fuji but in the real world; both financially (I don’t have the money) and spacially (I won’t have the space), I couldn’t. The Google Pixel 2 satisfies my Instagram quick upload capability and easily allows me to take a picture a day, manipulate it in phone (via VSCO) and post it.
My Nikon Df is a beauty to behold and I will use this; with the 20mm lens for Lanscapes and the 50mm for everyday.
The Sony will be for video.
Pricepoint
Why the A7 III? For its video capability at the pricepoint. Lots of people helped with the decision; people who I’d never met or seen before, in the form of YouTube.
Sony play in the video space with a lot of expertise there and I feel this 3rd generation camera will give me what I want. I was originally seduced by the pull of Cinema cameras like the Canon C100 (I couldn’t even afford to look at the C100 II) but at this level, it’s not just the camera, it’s the ecosystem you have to build for it to work – it ain’t cheap!
Obviously, there are better cameras out there for video/film, it would be ridiculous to think otherwise but as everyone is saying about Sony; “At that pricepoint, man!”.
I have the luxury (OK lack of funds) of not having a heavy investment in glass, so this makes me agile. This agility let me take advantage of Jessops‘ short term greater trade in deal and get in at the beginning of a new camera and a new lens. This hopefully means they each have a lifespan.
Owned a Sony Trinitron portable TV for over two decades
I also had the White Widescreen TV (when we had a bigger house to house it) for well over a decade
Own a PS4 which I’ve had from new
I’ve got a Sony Bravia HD TV thats well over a decade old and shows no sign of flagging
Other…
Never had a problem with any of these Sony products. They were/are reliable, good quality items.
There is always risk jumping in at the very beginning i.e. still waiting for A7 III to be released but I’m confident that this 3rd Generation won’t fail me.
And Finally
Finally, it’s a fast moving future
There will be the Sony A7S III out this year. It will have better video specs. The trouble is, I would be able to purchase it but wouldn’t be able to afford any lens to go with it
Nikon will release a Mirrorless camera. It will be very good. It will be expensive. I wouldn’t be able to afford a good lens for it
Canon will release a Mirrorless camera. It will be very good. It will be expensive.
I wouldn’t be able to afford a good lens for it
It’s been said before; “It’s that pricepoint!”
Image from https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/ilce-7m3-body-kit
I love this photo as it captures the fun of the snow. mu is clearly happy after braving the snowfall to place fatballs out for the birds. The ground was covering fast and any food sources would be impossible to find. I think Black and White for this photograph suits the subject, the contrast works. It doesn’t snow very often in Wiltshire and when it does, it rarely ever settles. This time it did to create a Snow Garden.
This was a last claw of Winter, within 48 hours it had all gone and was just a distant memory and #beastfromtheeast fell from photographs, tweets and posts as quickly as the snow. I still see the occasional pile by the side of a drive or road persists, packed hard by shovelling and impacted by road grit.
The snow came this year. Most years, down here in Wiltshire, we seem to be sheltered from the worst of the weather that affects more exposed areas. It was the combination of the Beast from the East and Hurricane Emma meeting, that dumped a thick white blanket. It caused chaos for 48 hours; blocking roads, closing railways lines and stations and grounding planes at airports across Britain.
Meanwhile, in a small village just off the Western edge of Salisbury Plain, I was given the opportunity to capture one of my favourite photographs to date.
Snow Garden
Snow Garden
Continuing the theme of Snow Garden, after the snow had fallen and lain in the grip of cold, I captured more shots in the garden.
I used the Creamtone B+W Preset in Lightwave to process these images and it gave them the feel I was looking for.
A Cold Frost Morning, travelling by train, looking out of the window as the day breaks from the iron grip of the cold
Cold Frost Morning
Cold Frost Morning
Travelling from Warminster to Bristol Temple Meads. At this time of year, the sun is still rising as I make the journey but all too soon, it will be bright and it will be impossible to grab such muted tones…
Contrast
Looking back to last September, the morning journey was bright and the action of the morning seemed emphasized. In February, it struggles to start. The contrast is stark.
Images captured on a Google Pixel 2. I think the slight reflections of the train window add to the mood, rather than detract as imperfect photography.
The steps upto a door is a re-visit of a photograph I took last year
I always see steps leading upto somewhere rather than down-from.
A Little Bit of Le Corbusier
These are in the Three Horseshoes Walk precinct in Warminster, Wiltshire. They are very utilitarian and unadorned, they conjure up thoughts of Le Corbusier, passing through and thinking “That wall’s a bit bare, I could spruce it up a bit. I know, a series of steps…”. He then moved on to some big commission for an important client, in some perfect setting, feeling like he’d put something back into the community.
When seen in context, below it looks as if you could pick them up and move them or even some kind of plain Trompe L’oeil…
Taken on 27 January 2018 at 16:38 on Google Pixel 2.
The gritty Winter’s day led me to manipulate this photogrpah from its original colour, into Black + White. Glastonbury Tor is iconic. It stands proud above the Somerset landscape as a beacon to anyone who looks at the world differently. It is a mixture of myth, magnificence, nature and man.
This won’t be the last time I will photograph the Tor.
