Better Late Than Never

Well the title says it all, I’ve not posted since December 2021 so 4 months.

I have been keeping myself busy, I’ve got a day job which takes up a lot of my time, I’ve been shooting vintage lenses on my Fuji X-T4 & newly acquired Sony A7R III, I’ve been exploring mobile phone photography, some casual photography using a premium Point-And-Shoot camera, and reacquainting myself with 35mm film photography.

So instead of me waffling on I have put some of this work into some slideshows below, enjoy.

Vintage Lenses

Mobile Phone

Compact Camera

35mm Film

Walk from Titch Hill to Cissbury Ring.

As part of my preparations for my trip to Snowdonia next year I decided to visit Cissbury Ring. This is somewhere I haven’t been to before even though it’s almost on my doorstep so to speak. I could have driven all the way there as there is a car park on site but instead, I chose to hike from Titch Hill right outside Sompting. Although the distance was only 2 miles each way it still took me 40 minutes each way to hike there from where I parked On Titch Hill and back. Contrary to what some might think the South Downs isn’t flat on top and it’s not just chalk based there’s plenty of clay there too.

This was my second outing with my new Canon EOS R and this time I chose to field test the 24-105mm RF F/4 IS lens. I did get some shots that I am happy with though the IS didn’t perform as well as I expected so I had quite a few blurred shots which was disappointing, I think next time I will use a monopod to help with the stabilisation.

I think I may have to consider Tamron’s EF 35-150mm F/2.8-4 Di VC OSD as a possible alternative to the RF 24-105.

Belle Tout Lighthouse & Burton Mill Pond

Ok the new regime is in force so I decided I wanted to shoot the famous Belle Tout Lighthouse in East Sussex at dawn with the sun rising up behind it on Saturday the 14th of December. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, what did happen was I got there at dawn to find high winds (as in dangerous) & coin only pay & display parking for which I had no coins. What made it worse was the other cliff top location on the other side of the river Cuckmere valley was inaccessible as the access road was closed. So not a good start to the weekend, however my sat nav took me the scenic way there so I discovered some potential future locations to shoot next time.

Moving on to Sunday the 15th December. The weather was pretty changeable for the first half of the day, sunshine one minute & rain the next until the early afternoon when it settled. So looking at the potential of a good sunset I decided to go to a new location I’ve never been to before - Burton Mill Pond near Petworth in West Sussex. The last few miles of the route was a little treacherous to say the least, roads not wide enough to fit 2 vehicles side by side, lots of potholes & a lot of water everywhere. Once I got there the weather was just as I had hoped, the sun was beginning to set behind the South Downs & was lighting up the sky & clouds. I managed to get off a few good shots though they would have been better if I’d had a Circular Polarizer filter (one on order for next time).

So all in all a bit of a mixed weekend really. I have plans for next weekend already, so long as the forecast is correct Sunday will be the day. Finger crossed.