Brogborough Lake and Blackberries

I visited the Lake hoping for some activity and at first there were only three out on the lake, so  I started to capture what was on offer, but there was a lull, so with an itching photo finger, I took to capturing some of the blackberries ripening, until more sailors took to the water.
Sam continues to work up his familiarity with the Wing Sail, in a similar way to my continuing to explore the different way of working with the particular mirrorless camera I have been using most of late, the LUMIX FZ10002. Because of the delay involved in using this camera, it is handy to learn how best to capture ongoing action, and suffer the lack of viewfinder image whilst the camera is writing to the card.
One of the drawbacks of my full-frame Canon EOS R mirrorless is its burst rate, but ironically, due to the smaller image size of the LUMIX it is slightly faster, and despite the smaller size it has commendably good quality, and being less bulky than the EOS R, it is eminently hand holdable; (its downside is it does not go out in dusty environments or rain!) whereas my seriously long Sigma lens and full frame Canon body needs the support of a tripod.
Canon have just announced the imminent launch of two more camera bodies, which have caused my Want Glands to begin to over-secrete, and this means possible inheritance funds being depleted to purchase the lesser of the two bodies to give me access to faster burst rates that it offers!
Autumn is rapidly approaching, which might save funds yet a while, as perhaps fast moving action either on the wildlife or sports fronts may well delay such fund deployment until next season, only time will tell.
It was good to capture the day's action, as it keeps my dwindling 'little grey cells' from atrophy for a while longer as this Covid season continues unabated.

1st 2020 Visit to Harrold-Odell

I needed to practice how to get the most out of a recent acquisition, the Fujix FZ1000 MkII. How I came to purchase the camera in the first place was fortuitous in the extreme. It came about when I recently visited the London Photography Show by SWPP in West London. I was due to meet up with fellow Photographer, Steve Scrase, who joined a photographic studio just as I was leaving, many moons ago, and with whom I have remained in contact ever since. I was coming from out of London, parking up near a Tube Station then using the Underground to reach the venue where later we would meet up after his arrival. We arranged to meet on the Panasonic Stand, from where he was phoning, I met up with him moments later and he related that a colleague of his had bought the Fujix FZ 1000 MkII, and was highly impressed with the quality of the results. I did play with it and asked lots of questions

The clincher was the Show price. The price point was achieved by the use of plastic in its construction and the lack of extensive weather-sealing, it therefore meant there would be limitations to some of its use, but I possess kit that has that level and more of protection, so it does not compete, but with a Leica lens and such versatility it very definitely has a place in my kit! It was one of the fastest decisions I ever made for a camera, and placed my order at the Show and received it a few days later. I left the decision of buying a spare battery and charger till later, when I had had proper opportunities to understand and use it for real.

The outcome of the decisions I made can be seen in particular in the gallery of pictures on my blog, headed: ‘A Church and the River bank’, in which every shot was taken with that camera, and all handheld. Although I can say this camera will not supplant my use of the Sigma Sports 60-600mm lens, I can equally state I will not be using that lens handheld, so this is very much a case of ‘Horses for Courses’.

I took along both mentioned cameras lenses to this Lake and made just one mistake, I generally used the Sigma with the 2x Converter attached, which due to where my chosen subjects were was a wrong decision as I should have only added the 1.5 converter bearing in mind the low level of light on my subjects! However, it was worth my while to always keep both converters with me and their caps, but in this gallery, only the metadata will answer which camera was used.