France 2022 Timelapses

By shendyNo Comments
Having upgraded from my Fuji X-T20 to an X-T4, I was able to take two digital bodies on holiday - mainly because I specifically wanted to try some timelapses. I've already posted the lightning clip on the France 2022, at the gite post - I wasn't thinking of that as a timelapse while I was taking the photos, but the ones here were all specifically planned as timelapses. This first one is a pretty good evening sequence heading into sunset (but facing east), with some nicely ominous clouds repeatedly gathering and clearing.57 seconds: 1710 images, 1/500 sec taken every 3 seconds.Started at 18:05, running for 90 minutes.Samyang 12mm lens (18mm equivalent). https://vimeo.com/825190287 This one was taken one lunchtime, facing north with the weather coming from the west - a nice set of rolling broken clouds.33 seconds: 1011 images, 1/2000 sec taken every 7 seconds.Started at 11:55, running for 2h15m.Samyang 12mm lens. https://vimeo.com/825190373?share=copy This was on the afternoon of the same day, facing east - a new...
Read More

France 2022, there and back again

By shendyNo Comments
These are from the journey down to the gite and back - we always drive, and have started to spend a few days on the way. We could drive all the way to the gite in one go but there are other bits of France we want to visit and it breaks things up a bit - it's 400 miles from Caen/Ouistream to Bordeaux but it's autoroute the whole way and actually quite an easy drive. As an aside, we bought a "Bip n Go" device, which enables you to use "Telepeage" on the autoroutes, meaning we didn't need to use cards to pay the tolls - roll up to the Telepeage lane and the device will beep and the gates open. So easy, it made the journey a lot less stressful for SWMBO, who always had to manage the tolls given the tickets etc are always on the left. It cost something like €20 to buy and activate, and something...
Read More

France 2022, at the gite

By shendy1 Comment
After missing two summer holidays in France, for obvious reasons, it was wonderful to go back in 2022. Given we had 2 years without a holiday, we chose to go back to somewhere we've been before - the same place as 2019, just north of Fumel. A large gite for two people, but quiet and comfortable. The Gite Gite sky, fisheye lens This set are general shots from around the gite - and of course it includes some photos of what we ate. Flowers etc Rose detail One of the main features of the gite is the sheer amount of flowers, mainly roses, around the place.There's also some of the other plants, and some butterflies. Skies Sunset clouds As usual, I spent quite a bit of time photographing the sky - we had some good skies for looking at the Milky Way, but we also had a couple of ISS passes.Some of these aren't as sharp as I would expect - the Fuji X-T4 is the first camera I've...
Read More

France 2019

By shendyNo Comments
We'd been to the same gite in SW France for the last 4 holidays, but this time we booked late and it wasn't available. The one we went for this time was a bit more expensive, but absolutely lovely - and huge for the two of us, given that it can accommodate 16 people!The gite was booked via Halcyon Leisure - we've booked with them since 2000. We really didn't do very much at all - I took a couple of trips out to take photos in Fumel and at Chateau Bonaguil, but that was about it apart from going out to buy food and wine. The first set of photos are from the gite, with a couple from one of the trips out. The second set are images of the sky.Disappointingly we didn't have many good sunsets at all - just in the last half of the second week. Mind you, the main reason for the lack of them was because there...
Read More

Further Adventures in Film

By shendyNo Comments
Following on from the posts earlier in the year about getting back into film (see here and here), I thought I'd give a progress report after having bought the Hasselblad. There's also the Intrepid 5x4 to consider.Once thing that's quite interesting is how little 35mm I have shot (with one exception, which we'll come on to later) - it's mainly been medium and large format. But when you've got a Hasselblad, why wouldn't you concentrate on that? The HasselbladI managed to cram the Hasselblad into my luggage when I went to Amsterdam, but somehow managed to mis-load the roll of B&W film I shot - no idea how I managed it, but it meant I lost half of the film images from there.The next block of photos are from Caen Hill Locks (see Day Trips), which I think worked well - exposures all looking pretty good. On that note, the photos I took at the Pershore Confetti Fields weren't so...
Read More