366 Project Month Ten - When life intereferes

As well as a single photo per day in September, I also gave myself a restriction on the use of lenses. For the first ten days I used a standard 55mm prime, the second ten were taken with a telephoto 70-200mm zoom, and the final ten were taken with a wide-angle 16-35mm zoom. One lens that didn’t get a look in was my 85mm, so my initial plans for October were to put that through its paces. However, sometimes life gets in the way.

366 Project Month Nine - Single Shot September

After two months of no set theme, I wanted to challenge myself more in September. With alliteration as my guide, I was trying to decide between Single Shot September, or Stranger September. In the end, I chose the former. The idea being each day I would take one photo, and one photo only. In my mind, I imagined an SD card at the end filled with exactly thirty photos.

366 Project Month Eight - An unwelcome surprise!

After a month of no set theme in July, I decided to follow the same routine in August. I didn’t feel like forcing myself to follow any set pattern. Little did I know, August had an unwelcome surprise in store for me that nearly led to me failing the project.

366 Project Month Seven - Footloose and fancy free

The end of June was a milestone, I was halfway through my 366 project. But, rather than feeling a sense of pride or accomplishment, I was tired. I felt in a rut, and I wanted to quit.

366 Project Month Six - Back to Sony

Back to Sony

On Wednesday June 1, I put away the little Panasonic GM5 I had been using exclusively in May, and brought out the Sony RX1RII. I was expecting a little period of adjustment to deal with the different controls, but what really blew me away was the moment I put the viewfinder of the RX1RII up to my eye.

The problem with the Nissin Air System - read before you buy!

If you’re considering to buy into the Nissin Air System, you should consider the following: if you've bought online or grey market, your product may be unusable with other purchases.

366 Project Month Five - Micro 43s May

After my time consuming April Portrait Project finished, I wanted an easier month in May. After considering Macro May and Mobile May, I finally settled on Micro 43s May. Alliteration was an important thing to consider in May.

Camera with bright 30mm & 85mm f3.4 primes that weighs just 500g and fits in my coat!

Late last year I picked up a Panasonic GM5 with the Leica branded 15mm f/1.7. I was really impressed with the image quality for the size and weight, but the moment I bought a Sony RX1RII I largely neglected it.

So, the question I wanted to answer in May was: can a camera costing a quarter of the price, and half the weight, of a Sony RX1RII really compete? Clickbait warning. The answer might surprise you!

366 Project Month Four - April Portrait Project

April - it was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. A month later, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about my April Portrait Project – the project to take 30 portraits of 30 different people over 30 days.

When I originally decided to make April all about portraits, the inspiration behind it was to actually make my photography life easier for a month. It would play to some of my strengths, and it would mean I no longer had to go out hunting for a new scene every day. In my head, I imagined mostly sitting back in my place, people popping by for a quick head-shot, and done. This didn’t happen.

366 Project Third Month - Travel

As February came to an end, I was getting more excited to be able to go back to the Sony RX1R II to take my photos. It was also going to be the first time during my 366 project that I would go on a holiday.

366 Project Second Month - Ultrawide

When I started my 366 project, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stick to the same camera and lens for the whole year, so I instead decided to take it month by month. In January, I often felt there were many cool shots I could have gotten if only I had a wider lens so in February I wanted to try shooting with an ultra-wide. I was expecting to be able to use the ‘gimmick’ of the wide to make taking a daily photo much easier. I was wrong.

Though it did come in handy sometimes.

Everything wrong with the Sony a7R II (that can be fixed via firmware)

When the Sony a7R II was announced it sounded nearly perfect. A cutting edge BSI sensor with great PDAF coverage, IBIS, large EVF all in a small, relatively lightweight body. Sony got all the hard bits, using the latest technologies, exactly right!

Unfortunately, when it came to the relatively easy bit of the user interface to access these incredible new features, they managed to completely bollocks it up.

Fortunately, many of these issues could be fixed in the firmware with no hardware changes required. This is my list of changes I think Sony should make to the a7R II to make it freaking awesome.

366 Project First Month - Initial Thoughts

A few years ago, I was considering the merits of a 365 project (a photo a day for a year). At the time I recalled a blog post, sadly no longer available, theorising that practising taking photos without purpose only results in practising poor techniques. The general consensus, and the one I subscribed to, seemed to be to focus on quality instead of quantity.