Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/09/2021 i Amateur Photographer

Most of us will always remember where we were and what we were doing when we first saw those images of the World Trade Center 20 years ago this week. Certainly the many photographers who were there to record it won’t forget, and the images they took will never be forgotten as they are now part of our collective visual history. This week we talk to some of those photographers about their memories of this event, the fall-out from which is still being felt today. Most of those iconic images were shot on film SLRs – digital technology was in its infancy and phone cameras barely existed. How photography has changed in so short a time! Today there are arguably better alternatives to the now-digital SLR but this issue we…

TAMRON has officially announced the Tamron 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD (model B061) for Sony E-mount cameras. It offers a 16.6x optical zoom range, and gives a 27-450mm equivalent focal length (in 35mm equivalent terms) on APS-C E-mount cameras. This lens is the world’s first 16.6x optical zoom lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras. The AF drive system uses Tamron’s VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) linear motor focus mechanism which is said to give rapid performance as well as quiet operation. The minimum object distance is 15cm at the wide end of the lens giving a maximum magnification ratio of 1:2, which gives impressive close-up shooting potential for a zoom lens. The lens also features Vibration Correction (VC), Tamron’s name for optical image stabilisation. There’s a 67mm filter thread on the…

Underwater Alex Mustard Nikon Alex Mustard is an underwater photographer and marine biologist. His work is particularly well known from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest, featuring in 13 different portfolio books over the past 20 years. In 2018, he was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to underwater photography. Visit www. amustard.com. I AM AN underwater photographer and I use the Nikon D850 and D5 as my main camera systems. But I’m no blinkered fanboy. In fact, I’ve also been shooting with mirrorless cameras for a decade and in 2012 was one of the first photographers to be awarded in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest for a mirrorless shot. I’ve shot Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic mirrorless cameras extensively in the field.…

Marcy Borders by Stan Honda Freelance photographer Stan Honda had been contributing to the press agency AFP for five years at the time of the attacks. Living in Manhattan, he was able to get to the scene quickly to document what was going on. He describes that morning here ‘ONE OF the other AFP photographers called me and suggested I get downtown. I took the subway line from close to where I live down to the city hall exit. While I was in the subway, the second plane had crashed. So, when I got out, there were hundreds of people just standing looking at the Twin Towers. There was smoke coming out of both of them, which confused me because I had only heard about the first crash. ‘We had…

I am a big fan of using the Olympus Pro Capture feature to photograph leaping salmon. It helps eliminate dependence on your reaction time, and acts like a time machine saving images to a revolving buffer when you half-depress the shutter button. When the action happens, and you fully depress to take your shot, it can save up to 35 frames in the buffer at that point and can fire at 60 frames per second. That is a lot of pictures but means you capture the action around half a second before you pressed the shutter button, so capturing that fleeting action that would be impossible to get unless you randomly fire bursts in the hope of a lucky capture. There are two Pro Capture settings – low and high.…

At a glance £259-289 body only at mpb.com, used condition ● 16.3-million-pixel, APS-C-sized X-Trans CMOS II sensor ● ISO 200-6400 (extendable to ISO 100-25,600) ● 3in, 1.04-million-dot LCD ● 7fps high-speed mode Now a couple of generations old, the Fujifilm X-E2 still boasts high performance in a compact body. It boasts good low-light performance, and uses the same 16-million-pixel X Trans CMOS II sensor as found in the Fujifilm X100S advanced compact camera. What we said ‘The X-E1 was a particularly successful model in this series, and Fuji has sensibly decided against a radical overhaul with the design of its successor, the Fujifilm X-E2. Instead, the X-E2 is marked out by 60 smaller improvements and refinements, including a newly designed X-Trans CMOS II sensor, built-in Wi-Fi and an improved EVF…

While the more affordable Nikkor Z MC 50mm f/2.8 is a very good lens, a focal length of 105mm is a more popular choice for macro photography because the longer working distance is more practical. It means you’re less likely to throw a shadow over your subject and there’s more room to use artificial light if you need to. It’s also a good focal length for other subjects such as still-life and portraiture. The Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S is also weather-sealed and comes with image stabilisation, which is useful when the lens is used at more standard focusing distances or for close-up rather than macro photography. In addition, there are a few handling refinements such as the dedicated control ring, which is handy for controlling aperture quickly…

Pearly Family by Reg Speller Pearly Kings and Queens attending a service at St Mary’s church in Southwark to mark the retirement of Reverend CJ Barker, known as the Coster Bishop of Old Kent Road, 11 September 1938. Pearly Kings and Queens, often known simply as ‘pearlies’, have been a symbol of the working-class in London for more than 100 years. It was first associated with Henry Croft, an orphan street sweeper who wore a sequinned suit to draw attention to his charity fundraising endeavours. A memorial, referring to Croft as ‘The original Pearly King’, was unveiled at St Pancras Cemetery in 1934. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural resources. Tracing its origins to the founding of the London Stereoscopic Company in 1854, today…

PROLIFIC author and photography teacher Michael Freeman has launched a new foundation course on LearningWithExperts.com, with a strong focus on developing visual literacy and improving composition. ‘The course stresses the visual and thoughtful techniques of photography, not the technical, because all modern cameras, including smartphones, take accurate, well-exposed photographs,’ says Freeman. ‘The old idea of there being beginners, amateur enthusiasts and professionals is outdated. You don’t need to know the details of camera equipment and “rules” to get started. You simply need to want to take good (or better) pictures.’ You can get 15% off with the code APLEARNING15.…

KIRK Weddle, the photographer who took the shots for Nirvana’s classic Nevermind album, is being sued by Spencer Elden – the baby who featured on the album cover. Elden, now 30, has launched a suit against a number of parties, including Weddle, the surviving members of Nirvana and other parties, accusing them of sexual exploitation and child pornography through usage of the image. In the suit, Elden states that his ‘true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor which has been distributed and sold worldwide from the time he was a baby to the present day’. He goes on to accuse the parties of causing him ‘extreme and permanent emotional distress’ as a result of the album artwork, and interfering…

13 Sept 1986 AP TOURED the country for many years with a variety of roadshows, most of which centred on taking pictures of models. Columnist Joe Partridge was delighted to inform readers that one of AP’s regular models, Alison Slack, had just been crowned Miss United Kingdom. Joe described her as ‘one of the most pleasant and professional model/dancers I have ever worked with’. His advice to AP readers who had photographed her on the recent ‘Lenses in Action’ roadshows: ‘Look after those negatives – you won’t be able to afford her as a model now.’ Elsewhere in the issue AP’s John Dixon pitted Polaroid’s new Image instant camera against the Olympus AF-1, a 35mm compact. What was the verdict? ‘It’s impossible to make a direct comparison between 35mm and…

A roar followed by clapping drifted across the car park as I stepped out of my car. I had arrived at the Falls of Shin in northern Scotland. As I walked towards the falls, oohs and cheers drifted up from the viewing platform. The salmon were running, attempting to leap up the waterfall, and the spectacle – one of nature’s finest – was being enjoyed by a large crowd of people. Many of us will be very familiar with nature documentaries that show salmon leaping into the jaws of grizzly bears. Britain may lack bears, but we do have some outstanding locations to photograph leaping fish. When Atlantic salmon return to the river of their birth to breed, they head back to those same headwaters where their lives began. This…

● £199 bag only, £279 photography bundle ● www.wandrd.com WANDRD is a relative newcomer to the photography market, but thanks to their stylish, urban look and rugged construction, its backpacks have grabbed plenty of attention. Redesigned for 2021, the all-new Prvke 31 is well-sized for travelling with your camera. But if you need something even bigger, there’s the Prvke 41 backpack, while the Prvke 21 is more compact. Available in black, green or blue, the Prvke 31 is sold by itself or as a ‘Photography Bundle’ that includes a customisable camera cube. The exterior is made from waterproof tarpaulin, which gives it a tough yet smart wipe-clean finish, and Robic 1680D ballistic nylon for durability. Although the backpack opens like a clamshell using the zip on its rear, there’s a…

‘ “I loved the single-use camera”, says Marnie. “I’ve learnt there really is more to a picture than the picture itself” ’ A few months ago I was asked by an organisation called Look Ahead (via The Royal Photographic Society) to facilitate a series of workshops as part of a photography project called Our Lens on Life. Look Ahead supports people experiencing homelessness in London and the South East, who may have mental health needs, substance misuse issues or physical health needs. Owing to various Covid restrictions and geography, the photography workshops were delivered via Zoom. The participants were each given single-use film cameras to document their lives from their own unique perspectives. We covered some basics such as composition, point of view and an appreciation of light but also…

Lily’s Butterfly by James Sullivan Sony A7III, Sony FE 85mm, 1/3200sec ‘This photograph was taken in the Physic Garden in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales. The Physic Garden in Cowbridge is an amazing collection of flowers and plants that have been historically used for medicinal purposes and they attract a large variety of bees and other insects. Myself and my daughter Lily, aged seven, went to try to capture some pictures of bees in flight to test out the capabilities of the A7III, a new purchase. However, the butterfly just presented itself onto this flower and we managed to snap it with a high shutter speed. I also like that the surrounding flowers are not perfect as it adds some drama and contrast to the shot; not all…

THE SHORTLIST for Weather Photographer of the Year 2021 has been announced, with 21 images making the cut from nearly 9,000 entries. The judging panel has chosen its top three winners in the main category, and the public is now being asked to select their favourites from the shortlist (which includes images from sometime AP contributors Michelle Cowbourne and Melvin Nicholson). You can vote at photocrowd.com/wpotyvote. Now in its sixth year, Weather POTY is hosted by the Royal Meteorological Society in partnership with AccuWeather. The overall winners of the three categories will be announced on 16 October at the virtual WeatherLive event, hosted by the Royal Meteorological Society.…

As this year marks the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster I wanted to share with AP readers an experience I had in 2018. The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power station happened on 26 April 1986, and it is estimated that about 8.4 million people were exposed to the radiation – it was the largest nuclear disaster ever, and it could have been even worse. I had been talking with some work colleagues about holidays and suggested that I would love to go to Chernobyl and photograph it, but didn’t know if this was possible. A quick Google search later and I found that, far from being a mad idea, it was actually very easy to travel there with guided tours from Kiev. I booked my flight and arrived…

As an Amateur Photographer subscriber for many years, I really appreciate the variety of articles and reviews, and uniquely the historical context that only AP seems to bring to photography. May I make a suggestion for an article or series of articles on non-consumer cameras? By this I mean that cameras of various types are used, or have been used, in a multitude of industrial and scientific situations: e.g. spy cameras on Cold War aircraft, industrial machine vision systems, spacecraft cameras and new image-recognition systems on self-driving vehicles. Some military cameras may be hard to find details for, but for many non-standard cameras (e.g. old TV video cameras, infrared or night-vision binoculars, astronomical cameras), there should be lots of information available. The multi-spectral imaging found on Earth-observation satellites would also…

My journey as a wildlife photographer started in the late 1970s shooting in black & white. I have retained a passion for the medium. The emphasis on tone and texture that comes from splashing water is well suited to the mono treatment. Not every image however deserves conversion, so I look for pictures that might have good contrast with interesting patches of light and shade. My chosen software for this conversion is Silver Efex Pro 2 in the Nik Collection by DxO. I like Silver Efex for the ability to scan lots of preset pictures to see which treatment might work best before making my adjustments. Depending on the image, I may use the dodge and burn tool to lighten or darken areas if I feel the image will be…