Prime Sunday

So, over on Facebook, Matt Hart has started up a group called Prime Sunday.  The idea being that he will set a challenge each week that people go and use a given lens, or camera, or phone or whatever for a Sunday.  This week was the 50mm.  I'd forgotten about it until later in the evening and I'd spent most of the day driving anyway.  So here's a quickly grabbed trio from the garden.  Canon 50mm f/1.4 all shot wide open on the 5D.

Tomo

While the impact of Sea Odyssey is still being assessed and Liverpool recovers from a massive hangover resulting from such an immense event, there are still things to be shot, even if the scale is not quite so ambitious.  I was made aware of this piece from browsing flickr during the week, so I thought I'd go and check it out.  It's by local street artist Tomo and there's a few more shots of his work below. Coincidentally, within minutes of me posting this shot on flickr I had a message from Double Negative to say that he was their artist of the month.  He's been short listed for the Liverpool Art Prize.  A brave move by the organisers perhaps, but a move of which I very much approve.

Viva la Liverpool

For 3 days Liverpool has been taken over by the spectacular Sea Odyssey story from French street theatre outfit Royal de Luxe to mark the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic.  This was a massive event that was expected to see about 250,000 people turn out on the streets to see the giants march past.  As it happened, it is reckoned that the turnout was twice that number.

Every penny that went into this was easily repaid many, many times over.  Liverpool loves stuff like this and to see all the spectators revelling in the show easily justifies the money spent on it.  And, judging by the last shot in this post, it seems that Royal de Luxe enjoyed being here as much as we enjoyed having them.  It's a piece of paper stuck on the windscreen of a car belonging to one of the organisers.  

Viva la Liverpool.

The Giants are coming

The Giants are coming.  And it's going to be Spectacular.

The X10

I thought it was worth doing a short review of the X10 now I've had it for a couple of months and some comment on how it works for me.  I think I knew, as soon as the X100 was introduced, that Fuji were onto something - a digital rangefinder that didn't cost the price of a small car was sure to be popular.  Some of the photographers who write blogs I follow started posting shots taken with the X100 and I was impressed.  This was a camera that could deliver.  Then the X10 was announced as a sort of junior version of the X100.  It has a smaller sensor and a zoom lens - both being features that are a compromise on quality over the X100.  The zoom lens of the X10 was a deal breaker for a while and I held off.  The X100 was too expensive.  I've got a Canon 5D and enough lenses for any situation, so the X10 / X100 debate took a back seat for a while.  I also use a Ricoh GRII for times when I don't want to carry the DSLR around.  It's cool, it produces decent shots and it fits in my pocket.

I guess it was gear lust that made me crack in the end.  I certainly can't justify its acquisition as need, but after 8 weeks it has very much made a difference.  The 5D hasn't been used a lot since I bought the X10 and I've been more than happy with the shots from it.  I usually have it set to shoot RAW and medium size .jpg - the in camera processing of the .jpgs is nothing short of remarkable.  Any noise resulting from the small size of the sensor is eliminated and there's a richness to the colour rendition that I really like.  Out of habit I tend to process the RAW files rather than use the .jpgs, but then I enjoy the process of processing images.

I needn't have worried about the lens or the sensor size.  The camera produces sharp shots.  There is no noise (save at very high ISO) that Lightroom's noise reduction can't cope with.  The X10 suits my style and my workflow.  I can get decent enough brackets to send to Photomatix for HDR / tonemapping processing (as above).  I've been using Snapseed a bit recently to process shots - I like what it does and it seems to work well with the files from the X10 (most of the shots below have been through Snapseed).  If that's not your thing, then just leave the camera on one of the auto modes and shoot - you won't be disappointed.

The X10 is a compromise.  It's not a DSLR (obviously).  It's not an X100 (zoom lens, smaller sensor).  It's not an X Pro 1 (obviously).  But it is a fine performer.  It will fit in a large pocket or a small bag and that's probably the most important bit.