Happy New Year all! I know the usual “what I did in 2023” posts can be a bit dull. I’m guilty of rarely reading them myself, so I’ll keep this one short. I feel like this year revived my photography passion a little bit, which is a nice contrast to the past few years of creative doldrums. This is likely down to a few factors – my partner has been suffering with health problems for the last 3 years, which were finally relieved with surgery in the later half of 2023 (yay!). It’s easy to overlook the effect that can have on wanting to create, especially when the process of taking photos involves ..read more

This weekend I made the trip up to Edinburgh to visit my brother and his wife, who moved up to Scotland a few years ago. They live about 20 minutes outside the city, and we spent a lovely chilled weekend catching up, playing games and eating Scotland’s finest cuisine (butteries and haggis). On Sunday we visited Blackness Castle, which sits on a peninsula jutting into the Firth of Forth, with a great view of the Forth Bridge. It was built as a fortress in the 15th century, and over the years had been added to and continuously used as a defense point, right up until World War 1. It’s roughly boa ..read more

LARP, or Live Action Role Play, is a game enjoyed by people all over the world. If you’ve not heard of it before, think of Dungeons and Dragons, but MORE SO. You make a character, create a backstory and an outfit (often multiple outfits), and meet up to follow a plot set out by the creators of your specific event. I’ve been attending Empire LARP by Profound Decisions for a couple of years now, and have always been impressed by the amazing photographers who attend and record the players and events. I thought I’d give it a go, especially now I’ve picked up the small and easy-to-use Fujifilm X-T2 ..read more

After the success of the 50mm Kamlan manual focus lens I bought recently for my Fuji X-T20, I thought I’d see what the manual focus market had in a wider flavour. I’ve tested superwide lenses before, notably a 17mm Tamron lens I had fun with back in 2017. It was only fitting that I returned to the same place for the first outing of my new 12mm Samyang F2 lens – Kilve beach in Somerset. Suuuuuuper wide The beach is an ideal place for fossil-hunting, as it’s covered in ammonite fossils. The soft slate and cracked sedimentary rock erode quickly, meaning there is always something to be uncovered ..read more

First off, I love a novelty camera. Pink Hello Kitty camera? Yes please. Tazmanian Devil point-and-shoot? Obviously. It’s only because of the increase in price and age-related reliability decline that I’ve not got my hands on a Game Boy camera yet. But the camera I’ve been carrying around for the last couple of weeks is no novelty, despite its tiny size – the Pentax Auto 110. The 110 film format was introduced in 1972 by Kodak. It’s cartridge-based, which means easy loading – a small window in the cartridge lines up with the lens to allow light in, and it’s almost impossible to mess up (even o ..read more

In a previous life, I sold small motorbikes and scooters to the public. Not the beastly 4-cylinder behemoths you associate with Hell’s Angels, or the POwer Ranger-coloured sportsbikes so beloved on the track, but the kind used every day. Small 125cc engined scooters were the most popular, and we mostly sold the big names – Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda etc. The mantra told to customers (rather self-servingly) was to “stay away from the Chinese crap” – namely, the Lexmoto, Sinnis and Kymco brands that were starting to filter over to the UK. At the time, these manufacturers were generally regarded as ch ..read more

This weekend I went on holiday with a friend, to Thetford Forset. It was a lovely break, really relaxing, and another chance to test out my new Fujifilm X-T20. I had varied subjects to point the Fuji at, with a mix of wildlife (a muntjac deer, various birds and a hare!) all sighted over the weekend. We also went for a couple of long stomps through the woods, stopping to poke at ferns and flowers along the way. A sprig of pineSquirrel! I managed to test both the Fujifilm X 15-45mm lens and the Pentax 50mm lens (with adaptor). The two photos above were taken with the 50mm, and while the pine nee ..read more

I said to myself when I got my new Fujifil X-T20: “I’m not going to use old lenses, I’m going to embrace The Future and Autofocus” … I lasted a couple of weeks before I caved and bought a K&F Concept PK-MX adaptor, and let me tell you, it was a GREAT decision. I struggled to attach it at first, but after giving it some welly, it fits pretty securely. I had to switch the body settings to “shoot without lens” as well, then I was good to go. The focus peaking on the Fuji makes it SO EASY to use a manual lens with the Fuji body. I’ve used focus peaking before, on my Pentax KS-2, but it didn’t ..read more

Hello, much-neglected photoblog! Sorry for not updating in so long (it’s not you, it’s me). I’ve recently bought myself some new gear, and sold off a lot of the film stuff I had, in an attempt to simplify photography for myself and make it fun again. Will it work? Who knows. My new toy is a Fujifilm X-T20 with a couple of lenses, which I bought for event photography and general walking about. I’d always heard great things about the Fuji X line, and even from my early tests, I’m finding the X-T20 fun and simple enough to use, even for a simple film idiot like myself. I took it along with the 15 ..read more

I’m selling my beloved Bronica SQ-A kit, as I just don’t use it any more, and it’s too good a camera to sit in a drawer until the end of time. It’s served me well over the years, and is all in working order (with the caveat of the metered prism, which was bought as working but I’ve not had time to actually use it!). Comes with two Bronica lenses, the 80mm f2.8 and 50mm f3.5, a speed grip (amazing for using handheld), 120 film back, waist-level finder, and lots of extras (see photos). All items show some signs of wear, but it’s a complete kit that allows you to shoot 6×6 120 film almost as eas ..read more