Canon EOS 5Ds and 5Dsr

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a Canon Experience Day, with the chance to try out Canon’s two high resolution cameras, the EOS 5Ds and 5Dsr. Helping out, were two Canon Ambassadors, David Clapp and Tim Parkin, along with Canon Representative, Rob Cook.

Hound Tor

Normally when trying out gear, you get a quick few minutes at trade shows and don’t have a chance to take images away with you. However, the idea of the Experience Days, is to really gain some experience with using the equipment available. It wasn’t just the camera bodies either, with a range of lenses also being available to try out. I was also able to try out the bodies with my own lenses and use my own memory cards, so that I was able to examine the images and compare to my own equipment in full resolution.

Conditions weren’t ideal for showing detail, as conditions were very foggy, but it was still possible to practice landscape photography in the more demanding conditions found in the Hound Tor area of Dartmoor and later around the abandoned barn at Emsworthy.

I started off using the EOS 5Dsr for a few hours around Hound Tor, coupled to the highly rated (if difficult to perfect) TS-E 24mm tilt and shift lens. Despite it now being a few years old, this lens really showed what the 5Dsr can do, showing a high degree of resolution and detail. My own EF 24mm f/1.4 was also able to show additional detail, when compared to what my 5D MkII can achieve.

Hound Tor

After a foray into Widecombe for a late lunch, we moved on to Emsworthy Barn. This is an old abandoned barn, situated amongst traditional drystone walls. By this time, I had swapped the 5Dsr and TS-E lens, for a 5Ds and a 16-35. This combination was visibly less sharp, even in the extremely foggy conditions (which may actually have exaggerated the difference) and I was also able to make a direct conparison between the two bodies, using my 24mm lens. This location enabled me to take some images, I don’t often get a chance to try out, as I would normally be wary of heading to the moors in such conditions alone.

Emsworthy Barn

As the light dropped, it was time to head home. It was a very interesting day and a rare chance to try out equipment, I may consider purchasing, before I take the plunge. It has also given me a new perspective on the current very high resolution cameras on offer and rather than get a second MkIII as backup, I would be more inclined to go for the 5Dsr instead, as the price difference is relatively small for the resolution advantage gained, particularly, as I could even see the difference in detail when viewing at 50%, the zoom level I use to estimate print sharpness and detail. The various crop options and ability to use at a lower resolution for many shots, would lessen the impact on cost for computing power and storage space, making it a more sensible choice, than it may otherwise have been.

Latest Visit to the Aigas Field Centre

A couple of weeks ago, I made one of my regular trips to Scotland. As usual, I had two stopovers in the way to my final destination of the Aigas Field Centre. The weather turned out to be about the most favourable so far. I’ve had good weather in the past, but it was too good, with very harsh lighting. Often though, the weather has been pretty wet, with a low cloud base. This time however, it was pretty much perfect for a landscape photographer, at least on most days. While there were some wet periods, on the whole, it was showery, with constantly changing lighting conditions, with just one day being extremely wet (complete with flooding).

As has become fairly standard over the past few trips, my first stop was at a small Lake District village called Watermillock at the Brackenrigg Inn, which overlooks Ullswater to the south. The single rooms are quite small, but the food is among the best I’ve tasted. Often, the weather in The Lakes is pretty wet and there was some flooding when I arrived, but the sun was shining, with enough cloud cover to give some interesting skies. I dutifully drove down to Pooley Bridge and walked along the southern bank. It wasn’t quite as straightforward as I’d expected though, due to the flooding. Firstly, I tried photographing the river in flood, but I couldn’t get a composition I liked, so I continued to the southern bank, where I’d photographed before, ready to capture the sunset. The path I had taken before though, was completely flooded, so I had to take the higher path, until I could find a place to descend back down to water level and away from the trees. The flooding in my chosen spot was obvious, with a number of trees surrounded by water. The sunset wasn’t the best, but I managed to get some shots I was happy with anyway.

My next stop was one of my favourite places, Glencoe. As usual, I stayed at the Clachaig Inn, near to Signal Rocks and next to the River Coe. It is a prime place for ramblers and mountaineers, so has a much more informal feel to it that I like. The food is more pub-style, than restaurant, but still pleasant to eat. Again, the weather was perfect for landscapes and I was able to get one of my favourite images of the year. The sun broke through the clouds, lighting up the surrounding mountains, leaving the River Coe in enough shadow for me to reduce the shutterspeed enough to get good motion of the water.

After just a single night at the Clachaig, I drove to my final destination, the Aigas Field Centre. I’ve seen a few changes amongst the Rangers over the years, but they are all very friendly and knowledgable. The food is also very good and there is always plenty for even the largest of appetites and the centre is worth a visit, just for that. It has become my escape from a busy and stressful working life and is now pretty much a second home to me. If I lived closer, I would probably visit more often than I do, but the drive is simply too long for more trips. As usual, my reason (or rather excuse) for going was a masterclass photography workshop that was being run by the renowned Scottish nature photographer Laurie Campbell. Even though, I probably don’t really need his tutelage anymore as such, I always pick up some piece of useful information, simply by his proximity and by seeing him at work and he has become a friend over the years. The Masterclass Photography workshop, is as much about learning fieldcraft as photography and it is this that is one of my main reasons for attending. Another important reason, is to visit areas I like to visit, have time to stop photograph and not have the stress of driving long distances. The Aigas Estate is also well worth a visit, with a large range of different habitats and wildlife. In the spring and summer, it is possible to see ospreys and other raptors on the estate, as well as many different small passerine birds, with various wildfowl and other winter birds arriving in the autumn. There are also a number of resident mammals and herpetic fauna, including pine martens and badgers, not to mention red squirrels. I have spent around four and a half years trying to get a photograph of  red squirrel I am happy with, with very little success. However, on this trip, they were very visible, with a number of youngsters running across the lawns around the arboretum. With a little judicious baiting, they performed admirably and at one point three different individuals were in close proximity.

There are a number of local straths and glens surrounding the field centre, including Strathconon, Glen Cannich and the more famous Glen Affric and Glen Strathfarrar. These are all good for seeing golden eagles and each has their own landscape. Glen Affric is known for the remnant caledonian pine woodland and has special recognition for its importance in the natural habitat of the Scottish Highlands. Very few other glens and straths can offer such a fine example and once the autumn colours are produced, it is nothing short of breathtaking. Sadly, we were a little too early to see it at its best, as the colours weren’t yet in their full glory, but a visit to Strathconon produce some better colours. Stathconon is the complete opposite to Glen Affric in some ways. It is a good example of imbalance in fact, as the forestry commission has a strong presence and there is alot of evidence for overgrazing by red deer, with quite alot of erosion of the slopes. However, the colours around Loch Meig, near the bottom of the glen were just getting to their best and the almost still, sunlit  evening made for some spectacular reflections, so much so, that we were late for dinner. There was just enough of a breeze to blow the leaves, without disturbing the water.

We also went a little further afield, visiting the Falls of Shin, to see the leaping salmon and trout. Numbers weren’t large, but there were enough for some photographic opportunities. Another trip took us along the Farr Road, ostensibly to look for signs of black water voles, but also to look out for red grouse and to see some ancient preserved pine roots, evidence of how the moorland once looked, before human intervention.

Finally it was time to leave and to say goodbye to some friends in their final season at the centre. Unfortunately, I had left it too late to book a room at the Clachaig Inn for a couple of nights, so I was forced to look for another stopover. I chose the Isles of Glencoe Hotel, a pleasant hotel in a prime location, on the banks of Loch Leven, at the bottom of Glencoe. While the room was very nice and the food was good, it was a little too formal for my purpose, as I wanted to eat when I was ready to eat, instead of having to plan when to have dinner, early in the day. The locale was spectacular though and the changeable weather made for some dramatic landscapes. I produced a number of images I was very happy with, but one in particular stood out for me, making it two standout images for the trip. The final day, as I was just finishing my breakfast and was about to go and get ready for the drive to Ullswater, the mist started rolling across the loch from the direction of Kinlochleven. I quickly grabbed my gear to a high vantage point overlooking the loch, deciding on a short telephoto lens, grabbing a number of shots, looking towards the nearby mist beyond Eilean Munde, before heading towards another vantage point looking towards Ballachulish Bridge.

Finally, I headed off back to Ullswater, where the weather had closed in, so it was a restful night at the Brackenrigg before I headed home, from what had been a very successful and enjoyable trip, with a number of significant images.

Canvas Prints Displayed in Somerset

For those living in Bridgwater, I currently have two framed canvas prints on display in the window of Armoury Gallery in St Mary Street. Sized at 28×18 inches, they are large enough to give justice to the images, without being too large for a normal sized house and are priced at £145. There are a further two framed prints available inside the gallery for the same price, along with some A4 mounted prints on Hahnemuhle fine art paper, priced much lower.

Photographed at Kilve Beach.

Photographed near Porlock Weir.

Bridgwater Canal

Last Sunday, I decided it was about time I went out again. The lighting was pretty much perfect for some shots I had been planning for almost two years, but had always found somewhere else to photograph. A few miles outside of central Bridgwater, the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal passes a pub called the Boat and Anchor Inn, near the Huntworth Business Park. It isn’t anything out of the ordinary as far as canal-side pubs go, but they do serve very good food and of course offer nice beer. I didn’t visit on this occasion though, as I wanted to catch the low sunlight lighting the pub buildings and the canal. However, my memory was a little faulty and the angle I was looking for wasn’t possible, so I concentrated more on the canal, where the light was ideal.

While I was photographing the first of my chosen views, a dog walker stopped to say hello and mentioned that they were showing the canal on Countryfile on BBC1 later that evening. We chatted for a while, with him stating that he hadn’t seen them filming, but I thought it was slightly ironic, that I’d chosen that evening to photograph the canal.

Evening at Quantoxhead

Yesterday evening, I decided to visit Quantoxhead on the Somerset coast. Rather than try to find my way to the car park at East Quantoxhead, I decided to park in my usual place at Kilve and walk along the cliffs, exploring different views along the way. It was extremely windy, possibly even gale force, so photography was challenging. I was able to get some shots from low to the ground from the top of the cliffs, but it wasn’t as straightforward when I got to the beach. There was spray everywhere from the waves crashing against the rockshelves, so though I attempted shots looking west, which could have been very dramatic, the sun was reflecting off the water, causing flare problems, which were exacerbated by the spray. Looking east had other issues. The formations of the rockshelves allowed more dramatic compositions than nearby Kilve, but a wideangle view was essential and there was the problem. The angle of the sun in relation to the cliffs to the east was perfect for getting my shadow in the shot. I did make some attempts, none of which was very successful. I was able to get a few usuable shots, but beyond that, I came away with plenty of ideas, so at least it was a useful scouting mission. Even the idea of a sunset in a different location failed, as the strong winds blew in a shower just as sunset was approaching, hiding the sun.

I then decided to walk back along the beach, as the tide had retreated considerably, to look for any fossils that could be photographed. I only found one nice ammonite, but it was partially covered in sand, with no water handy to wash it. I did have one adventure though on the way. Just as I was walking along a particularly steep rock shelf, a gust of wind caught my rucksack, which pulled me round, causing me to first slip, then trip. Luckily, as my wrist was bending back at a slightly awkward angle, I slid down and my hand sunk in some sand, saving me from a broken wrist. Other than some bruised knees and shin and a bruised ego, I came away unscathed.