Thanks David

Great stuff... yes, very much look forward to catching up at some point in the New Year...

Best

Hi David

Thanks vmuch for this... great to hear from you... I hope this finds you well and in very fine fettle indeed...

Ah, thanks for considering it, and a shame you can't make it... yes, am running 4 workshops for Light and Land over the next couple of weeks... a couple of Creative Photography (ICM/Multiple Exposure) workshops in Bristol and Bath (with Astrid McGechan), the Shooting Water one in Wales, and a two day residential course in Northumberland (with Verity Milligan)...

They all sold out within the first couple of days on the L&L website, so never had the chance to post them here unfortunately - there have been a couple of last minute cancellations on a couple of them due to illness, hence the post...

I'll be putting some more together for L&L in the new year, so will post those here as soon as I get some confirmed dates... I also run one-2-ones in and around the South West, so if you ever did fancy coming out on one of those, do give me a shout (could definitely head up to Wales Waterfall Country with one of those...)

More details here: https://billwardphotography.co.uk/workshops/...

Hope that helps... wishing you all the best, and catch up soon...

Best

Hi all... I hope this finds you all well and in very fine fettle indeed. Just a quick one: a place has just become available (due to last minute cancellation) on the "Shooting Water" workshop I'm running for Light and Land next Thursday 9th December.

The workshop is in Wales Waterfall Country (around Pontneddfechan in the Vale of Neath, approx 45 mins north of Cardiff), and will centre around the jewel in the crown of the area, Sgwd Gwladys, one of my favourite places in Wales: it's a small group workshop, and a great opportunity to investigate the wet stuff in all it's glory.

Full details on the workshop on the Light and Land website.

Do pm me if interested, or follow the links to the Light and Land website above...

Thanks and best

Thanks Karlo, Peter, Steve and Jonathan…

Yup, each to their own, as always 😄…

Best

Thanks Peter Gareth and Karlo...

Karlo, that's really interesting... not something I'd heard of before... hope your son's better now... but will def keep my ear to the ground on the subject...

Yes, I think the OVF vs EVF is definitely a "thing"... have tried having a look through various EVFs on mates' cameras, and really don't like it at all, particularly for landscape photography... if I'm given a choice of looking through an eyepiece and seeing either the actual scene, or an electronic approximation (however good it might be), I'll be taking the real live scene every time...

There's always a temptation I suppose for whatever the bright shiny new thing may be at any particular time, but as I mention in the article, I think the K1ii, and pretty much all Pentax cameras since the K5, remain technically really strong...

From a landscape photography pov, 36mp, weather sealing, in camera shake reduction, decades of compatible lenses and OVF as a package outspecs pretty much anything out there that I can see in the mirrorless field as things stand... certainly at a comparable price point... by some distance...

Cheers all

Best

Cheers Rob... yes, am doing a Northumberland seascape tour (with Verity Milligan) in December... my home patch... really looking forward to it...

Yes, agree re your thoughts re Canon/Nikon future proofing due to phasing out of lenses/mounts etc.... I know a pro Canon shooter who has just switched to mirrorless for precisely that reason...

Best

Cheers all... hope supply problems have been ironed out and you've managed to get your hands on one... 😉... I think single issues can be found here if you haven't had any luck thus far...

It was a really interesting exercise... not something I'd consciously sat down and thought hard about before... and certainly not in category terms ie DSLR vs Mirrorless... as you know, I've used Pentax cameras for over 20 years... I really like the camera I have (Pentax K1ii), the lenses that come with it, and I really enjoy using it... it absolutely does what I'd like it to do... so for me, job very much done...

One of the things I've noticed being discussed as a big positive for mirrorless as a category (particularly wrt Canon), is the arrival of In Camera Shake Reduction (or In Body Image Stabilisation - IBIS)... this isn't a category feature though... Pentax DSLRs have obviously had it for years... and as I mention in the article, I particularly like a real viewfinder (which is a DSLR category feature, the silver bullet for me)... plus weather sealing as standard... all a pretty potent combination... the only caveat I suppose I'd add is were the Mirrorless category feature set to diverge, and advance, markedly for what I primarily use a camera for (landscapes, partic water, and multiple exposures), then I suppose I might have to have a bit more of a think at some point down the line, but frame rates/focussing speed isn't really relevant to what I tend to do, and for me, there's always going to be the issue of the viewfinder... it also depends of course on where the DSLR category (and Pentax) goes next in terms of innovation...

There's definitely some market movement, though... I was helping run a workshop the other day (am running my own these days, and also for Light and Land from December onwards), and of the 6 or so participants, 4 had crossed over to full frame mirrorless, one to micro 4/3... whether it's market fragmentation, or wholesale redefinition, remains to be seen... as ever with photography, very much each to their own I guess...

Thanks again all, and catch up soon...

Best

Greetings all... many apologies for radio silence my end... have been mighty busy on a number of fronts recently...

Just a quick post to say that I've written a short article in this week's issue of Amateur Photographer. It's part of a feature on photographers still using DSLRs, and they asked me for my thoughts, particularly wrt Pentax.







Do pick up a copy and have a read if you have a mo...

Hope all well with everyone...

Best

Bill

Thanks Haris, LoadofTripe, Peter, Philip, Gary, Antony, David, Nigel, John, Steve, Serge, Rob for thoughts and comments re these...

David and LoadofTripe: re no.1, yes, interesting, no smoke and mirrors I promise, just one shot. Lined up the blossom with the last rays of the sun, and exposed for the highlights. The dynamic range of the K1ii did the rest: recovered the (comparative) shadows (in this case the blossom) in Lightroom. I always shoot raw, which helps.

Gary: yes, huge apologies for lack of radio contact. Have been very busy on a number of fronts, including the day job, which has been very welcome indeed.

John and David: yes, was all about connecting the foreground to the background this project... the present to the future, if you like.

Steve: yes, I rather liked number two at the time. Unlike the others, it was taken on a flat light low cloud day. So more about the form of the branch itself, this one. Thanks also for the thought re with rather than of. That's very perceptive, and a conscious decision I suppose on my part to head in that direction. Very much a project about life, rebirth and the future (with the kind help of some very amenable blossom).

Serge: thanks as ever for your detailed thoughts, and for spotting patterns, almost sets, within the set. Always enlightening and much appreciated. Yes, there's a mood to 4 that I really liked... side-lit by direct sunlight. Went looking for something similar elsewhere, but didn't quite manage to find again (not with this set anyway). And 7 and 9 as you say were vmuch about their apparent "shadows"... bit of a "tremp d'oeil", as I think you say over your way, and part of the general idea of the set of (mostly) connecting the foreground to the background, the present to a (hopefully rosier) future.

Thanks again all for taking the time and trouble to leave thoughts and comments. Always appreciated my end. Have been very busy indeed with the camera over the last few months on various ideas... just a question of working through everything my end and putting some sets together... eventually!

Best

Greetings all. I don't usually photograph flowers very much (apart from dandelions). I just don't tend to notice them particularly... not in a bad way, I'm just usually thinking about something else.

But this year, I've really been struck by the blossom. It's been absolutely gorgeous. A combination of many things I suspect: the physical stuff of lockdown, staying local, really looking at what's around you, but also the softer side of it, the sense of hope and looking forwardness that this particular spring seems to have brought with it, that sense of rebirth, the longing, the yearning, for better times to come... er, hopefully.

So. This is a project about that. All of it.

All taken with the Pentax K1ii as ever, and various lenses: DFA 70-200, PLM 55-300, 1.4 Teleconverter.

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All thoughts/comments very welcome as ever...

Thanks and best