Innholdsfortegnelse for 1/7/25 i Amateur Photographer

What a varied menu of delights we have for you this week! We lead with the winners of the Weather Photographer of the Year contest, which proves once again that there is no such thing as bad weather when it comes to photography. We feature a photographer making cyanotypes with x-ray images taken on the US/Mexico border, and talk to another who has spent five years photographing cowboy culture across North and South America. Our classic cameras expert John Wade peers into the strange world of binocular cameras and we test the camera on the latest foldable phone from Honor. If you don’t already, may I suggest that you kick off the new year by taking out a subscription to AP and saving yourself some time and money? Details are…

NIKON has released new firmware (version 5.10) for its flagship mirrorless camera, the Z9. Aimed at pro movie makers, the updates include a new shutter mode, allowing the user to set the shutter angle to one of 15 steps between 5.6° and 360°. This eliminates the need to select a shutter speed whenever the frame rate is adjusted. Z9 users can now change the colour of the zebra pattern display, too, as well as customise the size, transparency and position of key displays such as the histogram and wave-form monitor. See bit.ly/z9newfirmware…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Repository for posterity I’m a long-time amateur photographer, recording landscapes and family life, and it has provided great joy as a hobby. I have shared the memories with my children, making a book and archive for each. However, I think about my 80-100,000 general photographs and wonder just what I might do with them. I have recorded UK landscapes and travel photos for around 50 years and as I reach the latter stages of my life, I’d be keen to know if there is a repository for them that may serve some use, perhaps having open source to academic or social documentary purposes in the future. It would give me some comfort that the images that I created, cared for and kept can be useful. Are…

Apologies in advance for writing about one of my own pictures again this week, but it is pertinent, to me at least, for a couple of reasons. On the day I’m writing this it is Tina Turner’s birthday. She would have been 85 today. Happy birthday, Tina. The picture is also suddenly significant in my life because we recently finished renovating our house and this is one of three images my wife chose to get enlarged to 80cm, mounted on board and hung on a wall in the lounge. I should be delighted (and I am) that my wife has picked some of my pictures to decorate our house – one’s other half finding a use for the labours of our cameras is surely one lofty ambition of countless photographers.…

HOLLIE LATHAM HUCKER Technique Editor Hollie speaks to winners of Weather POTY, who share their tips GEOFF HARRIS Deputy Editor Geoff interviews pro photographer Anouk Krantz about her project on cowboy culture AMY DAVIES Features Editor Amy brings us a feature by Noelle Mason who creates cyanotypes of surveillance imaging JOHN WADE AP’s expert on vintage cameras and photo history looks at the weird world of binocular cameras NIGEL ATHERTON Editor Nigel tests Honor’s Magic V3, a vertically folding phone with a tablet-sized screen ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor In Accessories, AP’s resident chief reviewer tests some impressive photography gloves…

We are a diverse bunch here at AP and don’t always agree on everything. Indeed, debate should be encouraged in photography. As Mao said, ‘let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend’ (not that editor Nigel should be compared to a communist dictator!) So I am pushing back against the more wild-eyed claims in recent articles on AI, particularly John Bridges’ lament that ‘Generative AI “photography” will be the death of photography as we know it’ (AP 31 December) and Jon Stapley’s call to boycott Adobe (bit.ly/adobeopinion). If a dystopian AI future is looming, nobody seems to have told the camera firms. Leica has just recorded the best-ever results in its history, while I don’t see the Japanese makers issuing profit warnings as AI-generated photo-realistic imagery…

● £43 (£54 including shipping) ● otexoutdoors.com.au Specialist photography gloves may look like an overpriced luxury, when you can easily buy a pair of nice warm gloves on the high street for a fraction of the price. But if you shoot a lot in cold weather, they can make a huge difference to how easily and comfortably you can operate your camera. OTEX is an Australian company that’s new to this market, with its first offering promising a compelling set of features at a keen price. So what, exactly, do these gloves have to offer for photographers? Fundamentally, they aim to tick off everything you might need from a pair of gloves when out shooting in wintry weather. They’re designed to be warm, waterproof and windproof, while incorporating fold-back tips…

David Holmes Google works fine if one knows how to use it. Sarah Swan Photoshop Express, and sometimes Snapseed. Steve Walker I have a Samsung Galaxy, and the Gallery app has a very useful and quite powerful editing app. I used to use Snapseed, but haven’t needed it for a while now. Z70 Photography @z70photo I use the Lightroom app as I have a Creative Cloud subscription, but only for quick edits on the move. Paul Pearse Snapseed, very good, simple, easy to undo edits and lets you keep original. Lucrezia Herman Snapseed, Hipstamatic, SKRWT/4PNTS/MRRW, Slow Shutter. Never use pre-sets in the first two, but have developed my own layers/combos. Mike Weaver Lightroom and Snapseed... I tend to use Snapseed for quick on-the-run edits to get a shot posted on…

COSINA has released the Voigtländer 28mm f1.5 Nokton Aspherical for Sony E mount. This fast manual focus lens has 10 elements in 8 groups, along with a 12-blade iris diaphragm for attractive bokeh, minimum focusing distance of 0.28m and all-metal lens barrel. It’s on sale now at £769. Also released is Voigtländer’s 90mm f2 VM Apo- Ultron lens for Leica M mount. This apochromatic lens reduces axial chromatic aberration to close to zero, claim the makers, while Abnormal Partial Dispersion glass is used in 6 out of 8 elements for high optical performance. It’s only 63.3mm long, and on sale now for £749. See www.robertwhite.co.uk…

£25, Bluecoat Press, 320 pages, Softback, ISBN: 9781908457882 Now in its sixth edition, the annual competition run by the British Journal of Photography (BJP) is as superb as ever. This year for the first time, the book is produced by Bluecoat Press, which is now part of the same group as the BJP. That means that it won’t look the same as the others on your shelf if you’ve been collecting them, but I love the new design. The edition now lies flat when you open the pages, making it a great experience when you’re reading at a table and want to really spend time looking at the photographs. It also means that nothing gets lost in a pesky crease, either. As for the photos themselves, there are 199 portraits…

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 website. Build single or multi-image frames with a few clicks of your mouse and select from a wide range of frames, window mounts and glazing options. Each frame comes with a three-year guarantee and FREE P&P within the UK. Visit thispicture.co.uk Solitude in the Shadows by Dobrota Viorel-Daniel Canon EOS 70D, Canon 17-55mm, 1/80sec at f/4, ISO 100 ‘We are living in a world where we are surrounded by big buildings, and we live in shadows and solitude. I have a big passion for this approach of photography, architecture with bold…