Thanks for your comments, very encouraging, I have been experimenting with the LR presets but in the end just did my own. I think I prefer this alternative to no. 4 taken a few seconds earlier:


I was on a headland when I spotted this in the distance so grabbed the 70-200mm at full stretch and rested it on a low wall, then had to jump back in the car as the rain came racing over!

Thanks both, David I will try the filters and I was surprised to see what effect the colour temperature slider had. HarisF1 you are right about the last one, curiously it could have not needed a conversion as the original file is monochromatic despite being shot in colour. I have a couple as the light was changing so fast but I think I overdid the darkening. As for my dislike of b/w photos, to me colour is life and rendering a normal scene like flowers or landscape in b/w is like sucking the life out of it, if that makes sense. The ones I have selected were shot in conditions that rendered very little colour if any but the atmosphere appealed. It can become rather pretentious especially in street photography, but just rendering something in b/w doesn't make it artistic there has to be the core of a good image and a well-considered reason to render it as such. I have no problem with b/w photos by people like Ansel Adams and others from before colour became available, that was the medium available at the time and the technical processes just involved exposing a light-sensitive material; my friend summed it up nicely: "Color film/sensors are for taking pictures of colors, b&w is for taking pictures of light." I think it boils down to the appropriate use of the materials at hand, I love for instance the etchings of Norman Ackroyd link which have a softness reminiscent of collodion wet plate photos and hard to reproduce otherwise without "faking" it.

Anyhow here are a couple more from the archive newly converted:

I have always expressed a dislike of black and white photos where the option of colour is available; an oil or watercolour painter doesn't paint in monochrome, that is the preserve of media such as charcoal and pen and ink, so to my mind a colour sensor falls into the same category as a palette. I especially like images which use colour subtly although very rarely achieve that myself. However whilst trying and failing to process Hamlet (below) I couldn't satisfactorily resolve the amber light thrown by the floodlight so in desperation I switched to black and white and I suddenly thought it finally works. This has led me to try the same treatment on a few other photos where there was hardly if any colour present and I had been struggling to achieve something, so here they are and any comments would be welcome.









Having discovered that the K1 will take black and white photos in RAW I am resolved to look for suitable subjects and try a more authentic approach.

I got a Humanspace mesh chair from John Lewis, my old cheapo office chair had no give along the front edge so long hours of pressing against my legs probably wasn’t doing any good. I also tried a very expensive American mesh chair but this one was much more comfy. Only thing is it skates over a wooden floor like it’s on ice and Gill ended up halfway across the landing but I am fine with it.

Glad to see you got sorted, for the head conversion you might need an anti-twist washer (there is a proper name for it but I cannot remember it); the Manfrotto stem has a ridge to stop twisting so if your new head doesn’t correspond then you need one - Photospecialist were helpful for that. Also I ended up using Locktite on the thread as it can come loose after a while, and since then it’s been fine.

As for the cable release it’s on the opposite side so not an issue using with the L plate.

Just when everyone is supposed to be planting trees to help relieve floods Warwickshire CC has uprooted a half mile avenue of mature trees just to widen the road into Leamington Spa, resulting at a bottleneck where it narrows again. I do wonder where they find these boneheads.

Since when did we start giving storms names? A bit of wet and windy weather and we go all hysterical although if I had been flooded or decapitated by a falling tree I might feel rather less sanguine.

And here is my expensive bracket. It looks like Gareth's fits more snugly on the side but this one allows access to the ports. The vertical bit is also detachable so you can just have an extended Arca Swiss plate - useful for fine sideways adjustments in close-ups.



I cannot believe how dusty the camera looks in these, time for a good clean! And finally the Sunwayfoto adaptor which holds both types of plates.

A while ago I was in Portishead but didn't have time to explore so I went back last week. I don't know whether it gets many visitors as most like me race past on the M5 to somewhere else, but I was pleasantly surprised by the urbane scene of the former docks. The whole development is attractively done with cars parked discreetly away so everything is pedestrian, with small green squares forming a link between the marina and the rest of the town. There are dockside cafes and shops and at the estuary end a charming cluster of colourful old houses in narrow streets, called the Barbican. I can imagine that living in one of the flats with raised private courtyards overlooking the water would be very pleasant, with just a short stroll to the amenities. Anyhow, here are some shots I took to record the place.

The Sunwayfoto head conversion plate I bought from Photospecialist takes both Arca Swiss and Manfrotto plates so no need for new plates. Having said that I leave the L bracket on the camera almost all the time now.