As I Xi It v2.3

While shooting in Valencia last year, I somehow managed to knock the AF/MF switch off on my 10-20mm. It’d spent the last year or so being held together with tape, I had suspected that it would set me back an arm and a leg to repair but when I finally got round to enquiring about it last week, I was plesantly surprised to find that Sigma would send me a replacement switch for £13 (incl. p&p). Paid yesterday, arrived this morning. My previous dealings with them a few years ago were positive. I’d dropped the 10-20mm face forward into the concrete somewhere out in rural China, sent it in upon my return and it was repaired and back in my hands within two weeks. Can’t fault  Sigma for service.

Before and after

In light of my recent post on de-cluttering, I’m in a bit of a quandary over my film photography equipment. While they have proved to be a worthwhile investment, they have been sitting in dust covered boxes for a while and I can’t think when was the last time I had used any of it. I think I’ve put perhaps two or three rolls of 120 through my TLR camera in the few years I’ve had it in my possession and I can’t see myself taking it out any time soon either.

I love my Oly analogue kit, it’s robust yet svelte compared to my digital gear. Film, while little used, has a certain je ne sais quoi about it, however, it’s just too time consuming. Perhaps that’s a good thing, you’re forced to slow down and think about every image you make rather than spray and pray which there is a tendency to do with digital.

So, the dilemma lies in whether to keep the old school kit or to flog it?

Came across this via Petapixel today which I thought was worth sharing particularly as I’d recently been to the Occupy London site at St. Paul’s. The media often misreports what’s really going on and this just goes to emphasise that you really can’t believe everything you read or see.

It is however nice to see that under these staged conditions, that the more health and safety conscious ones are wearing hard hats and hi-viz, but hold on a minute, where’s the protective eye-wear to keep out shrapnel from the colliding rubble? Shoddy risk assessment.

Photojournalism Behind the Scenes [ITA-ENG subs] from Ruben Salvadori on Vimeo.

The thing about protests is that they’re never just about one thing. While at ground zero of Occupy London at St. Paul’s, I noticed a whole plethora of other issues that also jumped on the bandwagon like climate change, war, nuclear power stations and prostitution.

I just love that DoF!

Oooh, buttons

Oooh, speakers/mic

Oooh, aluminiumy

Oooh, homey

Some indoor macro fun.

My macro lens had been suffering with AF issues for the past year or so, it gradually got increasingly sluggish as the months wore on. I first noticed something wasn’t quite right when it wouldn’t lock focus properly last year in Singapore, but put that down to using it in low light. More recently, when trying to take photos of my chinchilla, it would often not lock on focus at all even with a bit of manual assistance. I’m not sure how it could have occured as it rarely leaves the house and that was its first trip abroad. It’s never been dropped or abused in any way.

So, I decided to take it down to Fixation in Vauxhall and I’ve got to say, I’m pretty impressed with the service. It’s like having a brand new lens, focuses perfectly and smoothly. As I had suspected, it was the AF motor that was at fault and has been replaced. Total cost of the damage, £178.38 (parts + labour + VAT@20%). I’m just haemorrhaging money these days. *sigh*

Test shot in the car

The iPod's seen better days

No problems focusing up close

Eye poppingly sharp even at f2.8

Welcome home

Last night had moderately clear skies so I gave the startrails another go, this time with my 40D and fisheye lens. Pic from 58 stacked images with a bit of levels adjustment. ISO 100, f/8.0, 2.5 mins, 3 secs intervals.

Fisheye startrail

I wanted to do some startrail photography when I was in Dartmoor but it was just too cold and I just wanted to snuggle into my sleeping bag with my many layers on. Anyway, this evening, I thought I’d do a test out in the yard. It wasn’t the ideal weather conditions for it since there was some high level cloud but I figured I’d give it a go anyway. Decided to use the 350D with a 50mm prime along with the timer remote. It was as easy as setting the thing up and then leaving it to its own devices.

The remote was programmed to take a 1 minute exposure with 5 seconds interval in between shots. This pic was composed of 80 images stacked together using Startrails.exe and the final image meddled with in Photoshop. Compositionally, it’s not brilliant and I think in future, I’ll set the white bal to tungsten. Unfortunately, if you look carefully, you can see that some airplanes got in the way, nethertheless, it’s probably one of my more successful attempts. In the past I went with a single long exposure image and it just blew everything out what with the light pollution.

Urb' trails

On an unrelated note, I saw a really bright shooting star this evening while setting up. Unfortunately, it was just out of frame. To date, I’ve seen three shooting stars (Swedish Lapland, Dartmoor, London) , caught two, lost one.