Photography and thoughts from photo boffin, Peter Finch.
Since closing my photography tuition business and website in 2019, I have trialled a few different platforms to publish my photography and thoughts as tutor emeritus. None really suited my requirement for flexibility and contingency, so PhotoBoffin.co.uk is back!
You can expect photo posts, photography articles and perhaps tutorials. At some point, I may even offer one-to-one tuition again. We’ll see.
This is Getliffe’s Yard at Leek town centre in the Peak District. The image was taken at 3:15pm on the 1st of June 2021 and developed from a single RAW file with Luminar AI.
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This is another scene I shoot regularly when on holiday at nearby Blackshaw Moor.
Previously, I’ve gone for a low and ultra-wide angle (my default with most shots) from the right side in order to capitalise on the offset diagonals as lead-in lines and a perspective feature.
Things change over the years, and I just couldn’t find my usual angle with the current arrangement of traders’ units and their street furniture. So, I decided to go for a straight-on symmetrical composition (well, as symmetrical as it can be). But still low and ultra-wide, of course.
By comparison, this latest shot is less of an intimate, interior composition and shows more context of the exterior, frontage and location.
I’m quite pleased with the results.
Comments welcome 🙂
This photo was taken at 2:40pm on the 30th May 2021. It was shot as a single RAW file and developed with Luminar AI.
After long-lasting Covid restrictions and unusually cold weather, spring eventually arrived for our Bank Holiday break at Blackshaw Moor, near Leek in the Peak District.
The walk around the intersecting canals at Denford, near Deep Hayes Country Park, has been a favourite of Gill and I for decades now. And I’m happy to say that Gill managed the walk without using all her available “spoons” (see my previous post on stroke recovery), so she wasn’t too tired afterwards. The covid restrictions and lockdowns have really thwarted her opportunities for the required stimulation for recovery, and this, one of her favourite walks, served her well!
I’ve photographed this scene several times before, and my favourite shot was from November 2016, shot with a Zeiss 16-70mm lens (at the wide end) that later failed and was deemed unrepairable. The reason I like this particular shot is because of the interesting foreground autumn leaves, and the more barren tree not overlapping with the distant trees, as it does when in full leaf.
The latest 2021 version, however, has taught me that the best focal length for this shot, to get everything where you want it – lock gates visible without overlapping with the swings or tree – is 12mm (APS-C – 18mm @35 equivalent).
Ideally, I would return in November to take the shot again, with gradely Autumn foreground fettle, at 12mm. But we daren’t do icy weather holiday trips since the Caravan and Motorhome Club stopped clearing snow and ice (I wrote an article about this on my old website in 2013). I have always considered this to be a rather stupid, potentially dangerous, self-destructive policy that has deprived the club of late autumn, winter and early spring bookings and revenue!
We have taken the risk, of course, but we have been caught out in some very dangerous situations in snow. Now we simply daren’t go caravanning when there’s a possibility of such weather.
So for the foreseeable future, a full-leaf scene, as shown in the main image at the top of the post, is the only option for me.
Comments welcome. And I would be particularly interested to hear from @CandMclub 🙂
This is, of course, the main lake at Englethwaite Hall Caravan and Motorhome Club site, as featured in my post last year, Autumn Therapy at Englethwaite Hall.
It’s now six and a half months since we were here last, and our first caravanning trip since, due to the long and arduous England Covid 19 lockdown 3.
Continue reading “Spring Therapy at Englethwaite Hall”
This is the lovely railway station platform at Grange-Over-Sands in the Lake District.
The photo was taken at approximately 3pm on the 21st September 2019. I recently developed this file again with Luminar AI, and I am quite pleased with the results.
Continue reading “Railway Station at Grange-Over-Sands”Since Adobe made lightroom subscription only, I have trialled many other RAW development and photo editing software packages, including On1 Photo RAW and Luminar.
Luminar seems to be getting more coherent and more inline with what I expect from RAW development and photo processing software, with each incarnation.
Continue reading “Luminar AI or On1 Photo RAW?”
This is the Menai Bridge crossing the Menai Straight which separates the isle of Anglesey from mainland Wales. The photo was taken at around 3pm on the 12th August 2020.
I took a few exposures bearing in mind the dynamic range and options for HDR processing and other exposure compositing options.
Continue reading “Sun Over Menai Bridge”
This is the main lake at Englethwaite Hall Caravan and Motorhome Club site, near Carlisle in Cumbria.
The photo was taken at 12:45pm on the 14th of October 2020 and recently developed with excellent Luminar AI from a single RAW file.
Continue reading “Autumn Therapy at Englethwaite Hall”