Just a Church

GR, f8.0, 1/250, ISO 100, RAW

Day 322 - Arriving in Vigan

When I took the night bus, I bought a ticket all the way to Laoag, forgetting how uncomfortable night buses are. So when the bus drove into Vigan in the morning, I had enough and decided to just get off here.

Day 315 - Last Day in Manila

I guess a bit of sunshine, or just the fact that I got used to the place, can make a difference as Manila didn't seem quite as run down today.

Day 146 - A Grey Day to Travel

It was another grey and cold morning with rain looming but thankfully it stayed dry.

Due to the grey weather, I did not stop often to take pictures and since I only really wanted to cover between 70-170km today, I did take it easy.

Getting to Quang Tri was petty quick and after visiting the famous church 'Our Lady of La Vang' there it was a quick drive to Hue to meet friends there and relax in the evening.

I will stay in Hue for New Years and a few extra days to chill and not be on a bike all day.

A Day in Edinburgh

What do you do if you fancy a whiskey and would like the real deal? Well, you take the evening train from London to Glasgow on a Friday and enjoy a proper whiskey in Scotland and get the ambience to go with it.
While there it is a good idea to stick around an also visit Edinburgh the next day so this is a series from my visit there.
Since this was an impromptu visit, I did not pack properly and only had my usual day to day things with me but the GXR A12-M with Nokon and Heliar 15mm lens was there and my Nexus 7, unfortunately all without a way to charge.

3:10 in Chesterfield

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/760, ISO 200, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)

The DOM

Before taking the train back to Amsterdam for my return flight to London, I had some time in Cologne and went up the Dom in Cologne and also for a wander inside the cathedral.

Reflection

GXR A12-M, f2.8, 1/100, ISO 3200, RAW, 80mm (Industar-61 f2.8 53mm L)

Clouds

GF1, f16, 1/1000, ISO 100, RAW, 56mm (Leica f2.8 28mm R)

Maybe not the best picture to introduce my new Leica lens for the GF1 but I liked how the clouds looked and thought it makes a nice picture regardless of the lens used.

One thing is certain though, only after you start using some good legacy lenses on the m4/3 cameras will you see their true potential. Even the highly praised 40mm Panasonic lens is very poor optically when compared to the Leica or the Voigtländer lenses. The contrast, the sharpness, the colors are all different and even my cheap Canon FD lens is superior to the native m4/3 lenses.
The only downside is that the new Leica lens and adapter weight almost more than the GF1 and 40mm lens together. It is worth however for the optical quality and also for proper MF ring around the lens instead of the stupid focus by wire system.

Crows on the Roof

GXR, f3.5, 1/1500, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm

Another picture from snow covered London. It is a lot nicer to have snow if you don't need to take public transport.

Greenwich Church

GXR, f2.5, 1/40, ISO 1600, RAW, 50mm

The new year started with great weather in London. It's been a sunny day so I went for a walk around Greenwich. Took some pictures but was not really happy with most. This I like best and cropped to the more pleasant 4:3 format, for portrait pictures I don't like the 2:3 format at all.

The Cross

GRD III, f1.9, 1/25, ISO 800, RAW

While walking past this church I had an idea for a picture. I saw this cross backlit in b&w with a lot of noise, almost like the scene of an old horror movie.
Well, aside from the proper backlighting I got the picture as I wanted by adding lots of noise in Photoshop and changing the contrast.

Before the Dawn

GRD III, f4, 3 sec, ISO 400, RAW

I had to catch an early fight so while walking to get the bus I came across this churchyard. The light was very strange, especially what the camera made out of it. At first I thought of using it in b&w but decided against it, instead I tweaked the white balance a bit more to get these quite surreal colors.

Humped Crossing

CX1, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 148, JPG, 93mm

I took only a handfull of pictures today. I was mainly writing the rest of my CX1 review diary and had to reinstall my notebook. I thought I try Windows 7 on it but I could not find all drivers because it is a bit too old.
This is one of the few pictures where I actually use the flash on purpose for the effect it gives or as fill light, in this case I used it for both.

The Time Will Come

LC1, f2, 1/20, ISO 100, JPG b&w, 28mm

Went around Kings Cross to take pictures today. I always thought there is nothing worth taking pictures of in the area but there are a few nice hidden places around. Like the Old St. Pancras church where I took this picture.
The LC1 is a very nice camera for the weekend, would not want to carry it around every day and the AF is still way too slow.

Window

R10, f4.1, 1/570, ISO 80, JPG

After the yesterday's assignment it was time to take it easy and relax a bit today. I went for a walk around Blackheath since it was nice and sunny to take some pictures. I decided to take the R10 with me since it is small and different than the cameras I used yesterday. This picture shows the pretty good dynamic range the R10 has and that there is no fringing visible.

The Dark Tower

GRD, f4, 1/1410, ISO 200, JPG sepia

Another sepia and architecture picture, sepia works sometimes better to give the image a different feel than black and white could. The sepia mode out of the GRD I is great and better than what other cameras offer.
This church tower somehow reminds me on one of the covers I've seen used for Stephen King's The Dark Tower books. It was also on my way home and the strange weather today made this the best picture although the clouds were not dramatic enough.