Innholdsfortegnelse for 28-mar-15 i Amateur Photographer

THERE is an undercurrent of nostalgia in several of this week’s features. Matt Emmett’s intriguing images of industrial ruins (pages 20-24) offer remarkable glimpses into the decline of once mighty and powerful structures that have been abandoned and left to the ravages of time. Levi Bettwieser spends his free time developing rolls of film left in old cameras, then prints the images and publishes them on his website, like the ‘lost’ and ‘found’ postcards in a newsagent’s window. Who are the people in the images? Are they still around and, if so, do they recall those frozen moments in time? Did they miss the photos? Finally, we review a camera with its heart very much in the past. The Leica M-A harks back to the days before automation and batteries.…

Timed to coincide with his receipt of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award by the World Photography Organisation, Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt is given a double exhibition of platinum prints at London’s Beetles & Huxley gallery. The exhibition will be the first opportunity in the UK to view large-format platinum prints of Erwitt’s most celebrated photographs. The Elliott Erwitt: Double Platinum exhibition includes examples of Erwitt’s most recognised street photographs and portraits. Here we see one of his many celebrated images of actress Marilyn Monroe, captured on set and at home, taken throughout the 1950s and ’60s. The show runs from 28 April-27 May. Visit www.beetlesandhuxley.com for details. Words & numbers The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention Julia Margaret Cameron British photographer (1815-1879) 70 Number of…

FORMAT: Power’s Practice Mark Power will be presenting a talk on his career at Magnum and his life in photography as a part of Photoforum next week. It’s sure to be an edifying evening, so book early. Thursday 9 April, www.formatfestival.com/events/formatphotoforum-mark-power Beyond Dreams Chuck East’s enchanting images of butterflies are on display at the Grant Bradley Gallery. Delicate, haunting allegories to the beauty and fragility of nature, they are well worth catching. 4 April-2 May, www.grantbradleygallery.co.uk Enter APOTY Time is ticking to get your entries in for Astronomy Photographer of the Year, so keep watching the skies. Remember, there’s a prize on offer for the best newcomer, so this is a perfect chance to try a new kind of photography. Closing date 16 April, www.rmg.co.uk London Veil | Paris Veil…

If you have wanted to try out the Sony Alpha 7 II, or the new Zeiss Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 lens, then there is no better place than the Sony stand at The Photography Show. Held at the NEC in Birmingham from 21-24 March, the Sony stand will be packed with the latest cameras, lenses and accessories, and will be staffed by a knowledgeable team of Sony experts. If you want to know more about a particular camera or feature, or ask a question about a lens or accessory, head on over and they will be only too happy to help. And if you are looking to purchase a Sony camera, then London Camera Exchange and CameraWorld will also be at the show. If you can’t make it, don’t…

Email amateurphotographer@timeinc.com and include your full postal address Write to Inbox, Amateur Photographer, Time Inc. (UK), Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU LETTER OF THE WEEK Generation game My father, uncle and their friend, Mr Broadbent, were keen photographers, and Amateur Photographer magazine was always an integral part of our house. Mr Broadbent wanted to enter a photograph to the magazine and I remember, as a four-year-old, all the photo sessions – having to get my straight hair permed and put in large rollers because he wanted a little girl with curls. He was delighted when it featured in the magazine, in the 14 June 1950 issue, which I still have, as well as some of the photos (see right). My father taught me a lot about…

Protect your gear Cameras and lenses with weather sealing are great for shooting in derelict buildings, which is a big reason why the Pentax K-3 works so well for me (see below). Take care when changing lenses and use a sturdy, weather-sealed bag to protect your gear. The right camera In 2014, Ricoh Imaging UK invited me to become a brand ambassador for the Pentax K-3. After making the switch from a Canon EOS 7D, I was astounded at the marked improvement in definition the K-3 gave me. Its weather-sealed body and lens makes it perfect for the dusty and damp spaces often found in abandoned locations. Bring extra lighting I use two portable and very bright Scurion lamps to help banish the shadows. I get good results using lamps…

KIT LIST Ordnance Survey map It’s worth exploring this remote area, which has many footpaths and byways. OS Landranger and Explorer maps are ideal for navigating in the countryside, with clear information on rights of way and terrain. Rucksack When out and about on foot, a rucksack is usually the most efficient way to carry your kit. Choose a dark-coloured rucksack with well-padded shoulder straps and a water resistant design. Colin Roberts Colin Roberts is a specialist in landscapes and nature. He has received a number of awards for his images, including International Garden Photographer of the Year and the RHS’s Photographer of the Year titles. colin robertsphotography.com BROUGHTON Down is one of the gems of rural Hampshire, and an ideal spot if you want to escape the hustle and…

There’s something about human nature that makes us want to collect things. Be it stamps, sports memorabilia or cat ornaments, there’s something for everyone. But sometimes what starts out as an innocent spark of curiosity will lead to an all-consuming addiction. This is exactly what happened to Levi Bettwieser, who has amassed more than 2,500 rolls of film. Far from being your typical compulsive hoarder, though, Levi’s obsession is more altruistic than most: he is on a mission to save forgotten photographs. ‘It started out of curiosity,’ reveals video producer Levi. Born and raised in Idaho in the USA, he has so far developed around 1,500 rolls of film. ‘I’d be in thrift shops or at car-boot sales and I’d find these old cameras and see that there was film…

Lowepro ProTactic 350 AW ● £170 ● www.lowepro.com Michael Topham tests the smallest backpack in the ProTactic series At a glance ● Four-access-point design ● Cradle-fit pocket for 13in laptop ● ActivZone ventilation ● Tripod and monopod cinch straps ● 308 x 230 x 430mm external size ● 270 x 160 x 385mm internal size ● Fits most airline carry-on size limits ● Weight 200g ● 13in laptop compartment ● Weather-shield cover UNLIKE most backpacks that give you a single point of access to your kit, the Lowepro ProTactic has been designed to offer ultimate accessibility. As well as the quick-grab openings on either side, there’s full back entry, as well as a hard-shell top lid that provides instant access to your DSLR and long-lens combination. The rather unsightly horizontal…

Sigma is one of the longest established third-party camera-lens makers, having been in business for more than 50 years. Yet while even recently it was best known for budget alternatives to the camera makers’ own optics, over the past few years it has been steadily transforming itself into a premium manufacturer fully capable of making lenses as good as, if not better than, the major camera makers’ own. Indeed, its extraordinary 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A is so good that we named it not just Fixed Focal Length Lens of the Year, but also our overall Product of the Year at the 2015 Amateur Photographer Awards. This means that the new 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A for full-frame DSLRs comes to the market with significantly heightened levels of…

Just over two years ago, Nikon released the D800, along with its more specialist sibling, the D800E. The difference between the two was that the D800E had its anti-aliasing (AA) filter incapacitated. The result of not having a functioning anti-aliasing filter is that images gain a little more acuity with respect to fine detail, but the downside is a greater propensity to aliasing effects, such as moire and jaggies. Some photographers find these quite objectionable and others don't, so Nikon dedded to give them the choice. But why did Nikon adopt the strategy of strategy of disabling the fitter, rather than just omitting it? The answer lies in production economics. The second half of the anti-alias filter also forms the cover glass for the sensor package. Had Nikon dispended with…

British triumph A close-up of a fruit fly (above) has clinched victory for British photographer Neil Porter in a competition organised by the Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photographers. Neil, who also works in IT, used a Canon EOS 650D to fend off more than 660 images to win the Up Close Photographic Competition. Entrants were asked to submit shots of scenery, or animals living in their natural environment. Visit www.sinwp.com for more details. dp3 Quattro Sigma’s dp3 Quattro high-end compact will go on sale this month, priced £899.99. Features include a 50mm f/2.8 lens designed to deliver the 35mm equivalent of a 75mm optic. A 1.2x conversion lens, the FT-1201, will cost £149.99. Drone database Amateur drone users should be compelled to register their device on a database…

AN AMATEUR photographer from Leicestershire says he’s been stunned by the reaction to his photo of a bird formation – taken handheld – since he sent it to the BBC’s East Midlands Today programme recently. It’s an image that any professional wildlife photographer would be thrilled to have captured, let alone a self-taught amateur who has never taken a photography course in his life. Such is the apparent incredulity over Steve Houghton’s amazing photograph of the ‘starling-shaped’ murmuration taken at Rutland Water earlier this month, that Steve says some ‘keyboard warriors’ immediately turned to social media to dismiss it as a fake. ‘I still don’t use Photoshop. It was a genuine image,’ Steve told Amateur Photographer. ‘It was a case of “right place, right time”. People who know me more,…

Digital camera sales have been in steady decline for years, while smartphone figures have gone through the roof – and continue to grow. So it’s hardly surprising that camera manufacturers have been eyeing the mobile-device market and considering ways they can grab a piece of the action. One idea they’ve launched is a smart lens that attaches to your mobile. Sony, Kodak and, more recently, Olympus have launched such devices and they all follow a very similar concept. Smart lenses (like the Sony QX1, below) connect to the smartphone via Wi-Fi and/or NFC and use imaging sensors, lenses or lens mounts and other components of existing conventional digital cameras. However, apart from a shutter button, they offer very few external controls and no screen. Instead, the connected smartphone’s display is…

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014 competition and exhibition is packed with stunning wildlife imagery. But look at little closer and you’ll notice that many of the winning photographers and finalists are choosing to use fl ash in a number of creative ways to achieve distinctive images. These photographs would be impossible to capture with just ambient light, and the flash helps produce unique images in their own right. To find out how some of these award-winning images were achieved, we delve into a few of the stories and set-ups behind a selection of these stunning photographs. Wildlife Photographer of the Year Wildlife Photographer of the Year is co-owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Worldwide. To see more of these stunning images, visit www.nhm.ac.uk. An exhibition of…

The Fujifilm X-A2 is the perfect choice for those looking for their first interchangeable-lens camera. Offering a number of advantages over a similarly priced DSLR, the much more compact body of the X-A2 makes it the ideal camera for those looking to make the step up from a smartphone or compact camera, while wanting excellent image quality from a camera that’s not daunting to use. Shoot picture-perfect selfies Thanks to the 175° tilting LCD display, the Fujifilm X-A2 lets you easily compose and capture high-quality self-portraits. The eye-detection AF is automatically activated when the display is rotated, so you don’t have to worry about out-of-focus selfies either, with the X-A2’s AF system focusing in on the eyes for professional-looking results. You can even set the focus so that it homes…

Urbex forums Join a forum that specialises in urbex photography. Find an abandoned structure local to you that you can shoot. Post the pictures to the site and consider writing a trip report. Most people in the community don’t share location information with anyone new to a forum, so research your own locations to trade with others. Ask if you can join people on a trip they may have planned. Do your research Know the lie of the land before you go. Research a secluded parking spot, the best direction to approach the site from and where the various shots are within the site. Google Maps, Street View and Flickr are all great tools for this. Ideally, speak to a photographer who has shot there already. Cover all ground Abandoned…

Lighting The site is worthy of a visit at any time of the year, but the line of sunlit trunks shows up best when the trees are bare. I like to use a 28mm lens – a moderate wideangle that creates a feeling of depth by showing the trunks, the byway and the hedge fl owing neatly away into the distance. For a different take, it’s worth trying a telephoto, which will shorten the perspective and crop in on the scene, making the trees appear even more tightly clustered. However, the key to this view is strong oblique lighting, which models the shape of the trunks and makes each one stand out in profile. I’d recommend using a polariser, which adds to the overall contrast by darkening the blue sky.…

Dodging and burning PHOTOGRAPHER Jay Maisel is quoted as saying that the three most important aspects of street photography are light, gesture and colour. Steve Campbell’s photograph is certainly strong on ‘gesture’. It is a wonderfully caught moment, further helped by the interaction of the two young women walking past. I recomposed this photograph by selecting a crop that focused on including all the key components: the ice cream van with the person in the gorilla suit, the two women, and the ‘Ice Cream Van Only’ road marking in the foreground. Cropping out the lamp post would have looked odd, so I decided to keep it in. Lighting was an issue, but after localised adjustments I was able to balance the tones to produce a better-exposed version in which the…

At a glance ● Uses standard 35mm film ● Accepts Leica M-mount lenses ● Fully mechanical operation ● 1-1/1000sec shutter speed, plus bulb ● Rangefinder-based manual focusing ● Manual film winding ● Price £3,100 (body only) Lenses used ● Leica Summarit-M 50mm f/2.5 ● Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 Asph I suspect that in the head office of every camera company there is a department dedicated to finding out what the competition is about to do. There will be charts of previous performance, patterns established to forecast next moves and a team of thinkers working on spoilers, outmanoeuvring and staying ahead of the game. Leica, it seems, moved everyone in that department to other duties when it ran out of competitors – probably when Contax stopped making manual focus rangefinders in…

Email your questions to: apanswers@timeinc.com, Twitter @AP_Magazine and #AskAP, or Facebook. Orwrite to Technical Support, Amateur Photographer Magazine, Time Inc. (UK), Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU ● EXPERT ADVICE ● TIPS ● TRICKS ● HACKS ● KNOW-HOW Language woes QI have just bought a Sony Alpha 7 camera, and after charging the battery I tried to use it. However, I didn’t get far, because the camera appears to have been made in Thailand, and it is loaded with Chinese/Japanese characters. How do I change the camera to English when nothing but Chinese characters come up? Can you help, please? Ken Norton A What you need to do is find the Language setting in the menu. I know this is a bit tricky, given that the menu…

‘Children Running, King’s Palace, Kabul’, 2008, by Thomas Stanworth It looks like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie: ruined mud huts, a burnedout palace, rutted and cracked mud roads. Cover the lower part of the picture with your hand and you will see this alone would make it memorable. Then cover the upper part instead. It’s another impressive picture, with the vibrancy of the little girl against the bleakness of the road. And yet, it’s not two separate pictures. Or maybe it is. The seamless integration between the two is what gives the image its strength. There is no real normalcy among these ruins. To be sure, children run and play, but childhood is a strange time. Think back to your own childhood. All we know, all we can know,…

Shooting in the rain When you draw back the curtains and see that it’s raining outside, the thought of picking up a camera and heading out might not seem that appealing. However, don’t let the weather put you off . There are plenty of subjects you can capture when it’s wet, and the rain gives a unique perspective to things that many photographers simply overlook. For example, landscape images that include foliage, rocks, trees and other plant life become far more tonally rich. Also, in urban scenes the reflections on a cobbled street or road can add much more drama to a particular shot. Most cameras should be fine in light showers, but do be aware that if your camera doesn’t have weather sealing then you shouldn’t subject it to…

THE OLYMPUS Stylus SH-2 has arrived with a night-shooting mode and image stabilisation. Olympus says the SH-2 is meant for shooting subjects that a smartphone would struggle with, such as fireworks and star trails. Sporting a 24x wideangle optical zoom and a retro-style casing, the SH-2 borrows a number of features from its higher-end cousins – most notably the five-axis optical image stabilisation system designed to cut blur caused by camera shake. The SH-2’s nightscape mode automatically turns off the flash and allows the camera to ‘focus quickly on a point of light against a dark backdrop’. There’s also a telephoto macro mode for extreme close-ups. The SH-2 has built-in Wi-Fi, allowing for transfer of images to a smartphone for sharing, as well as remote control of settings. It can…

An Era Without Memories by Jiang Jiehong, Thames & Hudson, £29.95, hardback, 192 pages, ISBN 9-780-50054-443-3 ANYONE who lives in a major city will know the familiar sight of looking out over the observable landscape and spotting innumerable cranes rising like alien war machines. This is perhaps no more apparent than in China, a country afflicted with an almost Sisyphean mindset regarding its infrastructure and relentless urbanisation. This beautifully produced book addresses this widespread destruction and reconstruction. More than 130 images, taken by 30 practitioners, showcase the art world’s response to China’s urbanisation, with each artist using a variety of mixed media to deliver their message. Documentary, digital manipulation, installations and breathtaking panoramas all come together to offer a thorough, although constantly fluctuating, view of modern-day China.$$$$$ Photographers At Work…

Hummingbirds became a special focus for me when I stayed for five days among these amazing birds in Brazil. Over time, I was accepted as part of their environment, to such a point that they began to rest on my head, ear and arm. This allowed e to ake images with a 100mmmacro lens, while the hummingbirds were feeding on a flower. I became fascinated by the characteristics of these amazing birds, with wings beating at an incredible 200 beats per second, which would require an exposure time of 1/10,000sec or faster to freeze the action. Ecuador is a hummingbird paradise and on a recent trip there I decided to capture these magnificent creatures using high-speed flash photography. I studied hummingbirds and their energy management at different altitudes in the…

Towering industrial spaces, once noisy and busy environments, lie still and silent. A house that hasn’t seen an inhabitant for 30 years reveals its dank, gaping maw of successive collapsed floors within. Old establishments that used to see people prowling the maze-like corridors. Exploring these forgotten places feels like an ‘archaeological dig’ into our near past, bearing witness to these casualties of progress in a fast-changing world that cares more about television talent shows than concepts like ‘heritage’ and ‘preservation’. There’s a thrill in exploring an environment that allows you to step into a previously unknown world and discover something first-hand, taking your time and noting the details as you go. Having a camera with me allows me to prolong that thrill long after the building is gone. From the…

Enter the CityLife photography competition for a chance to make your name and photograph famous on digital screens nationwide WANT to bring your photographic talent to a nationwide audience when they are out shopping, travelling or socialising in the city? Amateur Photographer has teamed up with beframeus, the editorial brand behind digital screens, to offer readers a unique opportunity to showcase the very best in cutting-edge urban photography across billboards UK-wide. The winning entries will be displayed from Monday 4 May-Sunday 31 May 2015 on digital screens in train stations, shopping centres and on roadsides in the UK, creating a powerful outdoor photographic gallery that celebrates the vibrancy of life in the city. The judging panel will pick 80 images (40 landscape-orientation pictures and 40 portrait orientation) from the four…

Steve Jones talks to Jon Stapley about his RPS GoldAward-winning image of a young stallion After starting my professional photographic career quite late in life, as a wedding photographer in 2009, I decided I would like to take on a few additional challenges. My first distraction from shooting weddings had been pet photography, and while that continues to be a challenging genre for me I had long had a love of horses. It was an ultimate challenge of mine to enter and be successful in such a specialised and difficult photographic market. Luckily, I discovered a workshop run by the renowned equine photographer Tony Stromberg from Santa Fe, in New Mexico, USA. His style and his passion for horses really struck a chord and fired me up, giving me so…

Threave Castle 1 Brian won the Landscape category of the newly launched Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year competition with this image of a misty sunrise against Threave Castle in Dumfries & Galloway Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-40mm, 5secs at f/11, ISO 50, tripod, hard grad, ND filter Lindisfarne Castle 2 By converting this shot to black & white, we are able to see the full effect of the shadows cast on the castle by the lack of sun on the left-hand side of the scene of the castle on Holy Island Sony Alpha 7R, 35mm, 1/40sec at f/8, ISO 100, tripod, soft grad, ND filter Wall Holm Island 3 This is another great demonstration of just how versatile the morning light can be. Here we see it has…

Mechanical shutter The shutter curtain is made from rubberised cloth, and travels horizontally across the focal plane to create its exposures. Cable release A standard screw-thread cable-release socket is housed in the shutter button. There is no self-timer. Meter coupling The shutter-speed dial has an index slot for the hotshoe-mounted Leica MR-4 lightmeter. As far as I’m aware, this hasn’t been made since 1987. Hotshoe Modern flashguns can be used on the hotshoe when they are set to aperture priority or manual modes. Flash synchronisation is always on the first curtain. PC socket Older guns and hammerhead designs can be cabled to the PC socket on the camera’s rear below the hotshoe – as can studio heads. Dioptre correction Glasses wearers can choose from eyepiece lenses of strengths between -3…

Shift-lens pinhole Retired engineer Mike Rignall explains how to build a shift lens for a pinhole camera USUALLY the pinhole is fixed inside the camera body, but in a shift design it is attached to a plate that canmove vertically. The pinhole must be recessed in the moving plate, otherwise it will contact the front surface of the body. The pinhole-to-film spacing was set at 65mm, giving it a slightly wider angle of view than a standard 12-on-120 camera, with a working aperture of around f/200. This design used the 6 x 6 format, so the pinhole only needed to move vertically, not horizontally, thus alleviating the light-leak problem. The pinhole is attached to a large-area moving plate with light-trapping guides at either side, and the shutter attached. At the…