Innholdsfortegnelse for 5/21/24 i Amateur Photographer

One of the best things about photography is that you can get great photos anywhere. Andrew Fusek Peters shoots amazing action photos of garden birds from the comfort of his kitchen. This week he shares the secrets of his success. If you prefer buildings to birds, don’t miss our tips for how to win the Urban Life round of our Amateur Photographer of the Year competition, and don’t forget to enter your best shots. Also this week we feature the work of acclaimed Bradford-born documentary photographer Ian Beesley, whose black & white photos of the north of England are the subject of a new exhibition. On the kit front we take a look at the exciting new Fujifilm XT50, and a new smartphone from Xiaomi with a stunning, Leica-badged camera.…

Alongside the X-T50, Fujifilm has launched a new premium kit zoom. The Fujinon XF 16-50mm F2.8-4.8 R LM WR is essentially a replacement for the venerable XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS. It’s very similar in size, but now boasts a wider angle view and gains weather-resistant construction. However, it has a shorter telephoto end with a smaller aperture, and it lacks optical stabilisation. This makes the lens less well-suited to use on older X-system cameras that lack in-body stabilisation. In design terms, the lens follows a familiar template. Along with zoom and focus rings, there’s a clicked aperture ring, which like the firm’s other variable aperture zooms, is unmarked. Setting a small switch to its A position enables shooting in program or shutter priority modes. For filters, there’s a…

From August to October 2022, around 38,000 visitors climbed four flights of stone steps at Salts Mill to see the exhibition Life: A Retrospective by Bradford-born social documentary photographer Ian Beesley. It’s not bad for a lad who was invited to leave school for an accumulation of misdemeanours. Those misdemeanours included a visionary prank putting potassium permanganate crystals in the gusset of the school swimming captain at a gala so that when he dived in, the swimming pool, along with his private parts, turned bright purple. The headmaster advised Master Beesley to pursue a career more suitable to a boy of meagre talents. After Life, which was supposed to be his segue into retirement, Ian continued to receive emails and messages about the exhibition, asking what and who else might…

When you’re photographing urban life in all its variety, you are naturally concentrating on angles, shapes, juxtapositions, and timing. It’s all about camera technique and developing those visual skills and reflexes that can make street photography so compelling. But light plays a big part too. When you’re shooting in urban environments, the light can change constantly, from the sunny side of the street to the shady side, from interiors to exteriors and from narrow alleyways to grand plazas. The light can be a key part of the composition, whether it’s creating strong, graphic shapes that lend your images impact or whether it’s setting the mood or the feel of the scene you’re capturing. Often, the camera will capture the scene just as you intended, with all its contrast, colours and…

● £200 ● uk.tenba.com Most camera backpacks follow the same few formulae when it comes to accessing your kit. But the Tenba DNA 16 DSLR backpack is a bit different. Rather than having a conventional flap-type opening on the front, side or back, it unzips and pulls open from the front. This lets you get at your camera and lenses from above while the bag is upright. The bag is a two-section affair, with the bottom half for your camera kit and the upper part for personal items. Its camera module measures 26cm wide, 20cm tall, and 13cm front-to-back, with plenty of repositionable dividers help make the best use of the available space. I’ve also used the lower section to carry a small shoulder bag instead. Tenba suggests the bag…

ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor Our chief reviewer brings you his initial impressions of the new Fujifilm XT50 ANDREW FUSEK PETERS Technique tips for how to take dramatic shots of garden birds in fight or flight PETER DENCH Ian Beesley’s latest exhibition is for the fans who want more. He talks to Peter Dench AILSA MCWHINNIE Acting Features Ed Ailsa is also our APOY manager and this week we’re launching Round 3 JOSHUA WALLER Online Editor Joshua tests the CFV 100C, a new medium-format digital back from Hasselblad AMY DAVIES Features Editor Amy tries out the Xiaomi 14 Ultra smartphone, which packs an impressive punch…

Round three Urban Life This category offers huge scope for creative, dynamic shots, whether you’re drawn to grand, traditional structures or sleek, contemporary works of art. And don’t forget that urban life isn’t only about the buildings in the environment – the people are what make it, too. So you can also enter classic street photographs, where humans interact with their environment to create quirky moments that are here one moment, and gone a split second later. Anywhere people congregate to live, work and socialise is the perfect subject for this round. Your guest judge Your guest judge for Round Three, Urban Life, is Peter Dench. Peter is a UK-based photographer, writer, presenter, educator and curator – and frequent writer for AP. Accolades include a World Press Photo award for…

Testbench CAMERA TEST The Hasselblad 907X CFV 100C is a unique medium-format camera that is as beautiful as it is expensive. It costs nearly £7,000, but it’s easy to see why. It’s based around the CFV 100C 100MP medium-format digital back, which is set up to work with both older Hasselblad cameras, and the 907X body that accepts XCD lenses. This provides a unique solution that can breathe new life into old medium-format cameras, while also allowing you to use Hasselblad’s latest mirrorless optics. The CFV 100C back is, like the older 50MP CFV 50C, compatible with most Hasselblad V System cameras from 1957 onwards (SWC excluded). This means you can use it on 500-series bodies, with popular models including the 500C, 500C/M, and so on, up to the 503CW.…

Tech Talk It’s a common ailment for a particular type of photographer to be obsessed by specifications. I have to admit, I’m not immune from this. The camera review industry feeds this approach to camera selection, producing comparisons between products concentrating almost entirely on numerical data. For them there are two advantages of this approach. Firstly the numerical data is relatively simple and inexpensive to gather. Secondly, it’s much easier for the reader to compare numerical values as against nuanced opinions. The reality of complex products such as cameras is that performance aspects that can’t be captured as simple numeric values are often central to the usability and usefulness of them. This became very plain to me last year when I bought my first action cam. It’s a market I’m…

7 daysA week in photography AP picture of the week Fall Down, Spring Forward by Aden Howard Canon EOS R5, Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG OS HSM Art, NiSi Ti Pro Nano Landscape Enhance Circular Polariser, 1/50sec at f/11, ISO 800 (six-image focus stack) ‘A 3am wake-up call and drive from Cardiff to Gloucester was met with a worthwhile find of this forestry covered in a scented carpet of wild garlic, for as far as the eye could see. It was definitely worth the tired eyes the following day!’ Instagram: @aden_howard #appicoftheweek Win! The AP Pic of the Week winner will receive a beautifully framed print of their winning image worth up to £100. If you Love it, Frame it! ThisPicture.com is an experienced, high-quality framing company with a unique, easy-to-use…

I used to think all photographers wanted to be original and to produce work that would really make them stand out from the crowd. With time I came to realise my assumption was just an assumption. Not all of us have that kind of burning desire, and many are very happy to follow in footsteps, to replicate ideas and measure success by how close they can get to pictures they’ve seen before. I also came to realise that that’s quite okay, and not everyone needs to be breaking new ground to enjoy their photography. In fact, it’s a lot less stressful that way. Being new and original, fresh and exciting, is still the ideal for many of us though, and we constantly strive to formulate new ideas. Photography is getting…

Fujifilm has unveiled a new, relatively affordable medium-format camera, the Fujifilm GFX100S II. It’s built around a new 102MP CMOS II sensor, although this isn’t the same high-speed chip from the more expensive GFX100 II flagship model. The two cameras will now form Fujifilm’s entire medium-format camera lineup, with all previous models effectively being discontinued. Key features include a base sensitivity of ISO 80; 16-bit HQ raw recording; subject detection and tracking; 7fps continuous shooting; and 8 stops of in-body image stabilisation. A pixel-shift multi-shot mode gives a choice of 100MP or 400MP output, while files are recorded to dual UHS-II SD card slots. Video recording is available at 4K/30p resolution with 4:2:2 10-bit colour. There’s also support for both ProRes and BlackMagic raw output over HDMI. In terms of…

7 daysA week in photography Staying with all things film, Analogue Wonderland, Kodak Film and a ‘top secret’ partner to be confirmed are organising ‘The Big Film Photowalk’ on 29 June. The event encompasses more than 40 photo walks across the UK, starting at midday, and is claimed to be the biggest outing of its kind. Attendees will get a guided tour from a local film expert and a complimentary roll of Kodak 35mm colour film, which Analogue Wonderland will then develop for free (it does cost £12 to join the photo walks, however). Photos taken during the walks will be also be entered into a competition. See bit.ly/awphotowalk.…

About Karen Karen usually photographs musicians and, thanks to her parents, grew up with a love of music. See more of her work on Instagram @kazmcb2023. Favourite subjects I enjoy portraits, and the way they show the changing ‘landscape’ of someone’s life. I love the images reproduced here, too; the decay on these old vehicles is stunning. How did you get into photography? A friend lent me his camera, but I accidentally broke it. He told me, ‘If you can fix it, you can have it.’ I couldn’t get it mended, so I bought one. I was instantly hooked. What do you love about photography? That it gives me the same feeling now as it did when I was little. I love how you can turn around, see something, and…