Coming Friday. My new OM System OM5 II in Beige/Sand to go with my collection of MFT lenses, such fun. The ultimate compact and mobile outfit for walkabout/adventure photography ...

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A fabulous photo day out at Marwell Zoo which occupies the grounds of the former Marwell Manor and where the old house itself Marwell Hall, with its connection to Jane Seymour of Henry VIII fame, still stands ...

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Coddiwomple; USA colloquial: verb: to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination ...

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Quite often when I want to capture great close-ups of one of my favourite subjects, flowers, there is a challenge to be able to approach them physically close enough to use a traditional macro lens. That's when I reach for a closer focusing tele-zoom lens like my 40-150mm f4 Pro (80-300mm crop factor equivalent) used typically on my ultra compact OM-5 MFT camera and start making tele-zoom close-ups ...

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Do lenses have to be razor sharp to create interesting images? No! Thus do images, by extension, have to be sharp to be interesting? Absolutely not, indeed sometimes by preference not. Plus what is sharpness anyway? It is after all a perception, not an absolute and thus subject to interpretation ...

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I loathe post processing, adjusting settings, moving sliders back and forth, masking, zooming in and out, spending endless hours editing and previewing images in front of a computer screen is a huge pain. It is one contributing factor as to why I don't use digital much and continue to use mostly film for my photography ...

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Twenty five years on, I still love my Contax G2 electronic rangefinder 35mm film camera outfit. With a body and lenses wrapped in titanium, a clever combination electronic rangefinder plus an exceptional set of Zeiss prime lenses, the G2 system has not been equalled in all the long years since its introduction. It remains peerless ...

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There is an old saw about there being three types of people in the world, "the Wills, the Won'ts and the Can'ts", which is equally applicable to each of us in the photog domain ...

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Jouissance: noun: physical or intellectual pleasure or delight. For instance that engendered by engaging in the art of taking photographs, of capturing moments, the time spent behind the camera...

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I have a love of photographing places, devoid of people, using the technique of absent presence as I have said before. So why do people insist on stepping into shot?

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Jokul Frosti or Jack Frost (my namesake) to you and me, painting the trees with a deep hoar frost on a dull old day. Don't be a fair weather photographer as many of the best opportunities for interesting pictures present themselves in less than clement weather.

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I have an approach to the photographic art which can best be defined as going walkabout with my vision switched on and my camera in hand. It fits perfectly with my genre of photography, that of representing the genius loci of places I like to explore.

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When I manage to make a photograph that is pleasing to my eye, for whatever reason, and I sit and admire its tones, textures, shapes, forms, use of light and all the rest of the gubbins then often a sobering thought will cross my mind.

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There is much written about the 'rules' of composition, long lists like the top ten, fifteen, twenty tips of great composition. Who can remember them all? We need something much simpler for practical use.

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I like using film, accordingly I like using my F80 with which to shoot it, I also like using my Nikon prime lenses that go with my F80. I really like the end results I create with them. What's not to like?

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Turns out one of my favourite lenses to use with my F80 film camera has become my 85mm f1.8. This so called portrait or short telephoto lens seems to fit with my "minds eye" vision which often tends to mentally crop out the near foreground of a scene to focus in on a subject.

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Anyone who knows me well understands that I am a bit of a 35mm rangefinder camera aficionado, favouring cameras from the likes of Contax, Zeiss and Leica, constructed of such materials as titanium, magnesium and duraluminium alloys. So it may come as a bit of surprise that one of my favourite film cameras in my collection is an SLR, in fact a Nikon F80, made extensively out of engineering grade polycarbonate which is camera marketing department speak for plastic.

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As I was sitting here this morning chatting about the disposable nature of modern digital media. The consensus was that everything has become commoditised, short lived, transient in value. In respect of photography, in the early days a real photograph was a precious physical item requiring time, money and skill to produce. It was a highly valued, treasured thing of longevity. Now we create millions of digital images all the time mostly of little consequence, quickly forgotten and lost in the profusion of the many. Digital photos are simply disposable items of fleeting value.

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It's that time of year once more, when the bluebells appear in swathes in ancient woodland with their heady wild hyacinth scent and lovely deep blue-violet flowers. Mind you a few can have white or pink flowers too but mostly they are blue. They are a photographers delight but also provide a great challenge to capture their true colour just right!

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Wandering around Milestones once more, travelling light with my RX100 VII compact camera demonstrating its impressive capabilities in some very low level light conditions typical of most museums, designed to help conserve the colours of many of their precious historical artefacts.

Amazing the quality that can be squeezed out of a 1" sensor camera.

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One of the very best 21mm lenses ever made is the Zeiss Biogon 21mm f2.8 designed for the Contax G Series of cameras. In a world where superlatives are vastly overused and thus devalued, this lens is genuinely stunning.. ...

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There has recently been a big resurgence of interest in compact digital cameras just at the point when most of the big makers have got out of the business of making them having made the judgment that the market for them was dead! Those who have kept the faith continue to clean up as a result and the used market is booming for these little beasties as a result as well. As for me I still have and continue to use with much enthusiasm my lovely little Sony RX100 VII, last of their now discontinued compact camera series!

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As with many museums these days Milestones, whilst still delightful, is not what it once was. Time was when it transported us into a world of yesterday, evocative of a bygone era of local industrial heritage and how we used to live. Now it has succumbed to the modern need to provide endless "what's on experiences", to be a place of "child friendly" entertainment, to be big event driven. Heritage watered down, oh dear!

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