Author: 5050view

Sports photography – of the amateur kind

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One of the first genres of photography I really spent much time on was sports photography (alongside wildlife), but then after a while it dropped off as I moved away from the area of the team I was shooting. However more recently I’ve got the sports photography buzz back again, so I thought it would be a good time to share some experience of how I’ve gotten the buzz back, and how others may find that trying sports photography is easier than they thought (and definitely something to try at least a few times).

Sports

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Mushroom hunting

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I’ve always enjoyed the process of growing or collecting my own food, whether that’s tomatoes, apples, other vegetables or even rabbits from the garden, but one thing I’d never explored was mushroom picking. It’s always seemed complex, risky and something people always have horror stories about. However in recent years we’ve gone out as a family with my father in law while visiting Poland, where this is much more common to the point where at the right time of year, everyone is out at their favourite patch. During these trips I learnt that while mushrooms are complex (There are roughly 15,000 species of fungi in the UK!), it’s possible to learn while being careful what can be taken safely, but more importantly I learnt that the process/experience is just as enjoyable as the eating.

Mushrooms001

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Review – Osprey Poco AG premium child carrier

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When getting ready to hike with small children, the first thing you’ll need to look for is a child carrier, and loving the outdoors as I do, this was actually the first baby related item I bought prior to the arrival of our first child (something my wife always likes to remind me of!). On the advice of a good friend I bought the Osprey Poco AG premium, which I’ve had now for nearly 3 years, so time for a review.

Out in the Polish Karkonosze mountains

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Snowdonia November 2019 – My first trad experience

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I recently managed to get out for a weekend trip to Snowdonia with a friend of mine to get in a bit of a winter hike up Snowdon and also get my first experience of trad climbing in what can only be described as typically Welsh weather!

 

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Polish food

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An alternative name for this post could be “how I gained a few kilos”, but that aside it would be impossible to write a series on Poland without at least one post about the food. Not only because food is a topic worth discussing in any description of a place, but also its one of my vices, hence the aforementioned alternative title. So here is my best attempt at doing justice to the Polish cuisine.

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My switch to Fujifilm

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I recently went through the biggest change/investment in my photography since getting more serious nearly 8 years ago when I bought my first DSLR… I made the switch from Canon to a Fuji XT-3. I’ll share my thoughts behind the switch, and a review not of the technical details (there are so many reviews on this already), but more about user experience and the overall process.

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Photographic style/consistency

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One thing I battle with myself over is a sense of identity with my photography, I certainly don’t feel like I have a specific style, in fact, I know I don’t. But I have recently been reminded of this when watching a video from Sean Tucker on YouTube. For anyone that’s not come across his channel, I wholly recommend it, there’s lots of great videos well edited, and the content feels genuine, not regurgitated or recycled. For more thoughts on his channel among some others I like, checkout my earlier post on finding inspiration.

During this video, he discusses developing a personal style and creating consistency within your images. Something that I’ve often thought, and this reminded me was I definitely do not seem to fall into a consistent style and so I’ve been asking myself if I should do, or if I need to. Now I’m not a professional photographer, or trying to be, so I’ve been debating the importance of this in my photography, and I still haven’t come to a conclusion, but I’ll share my thoughts.

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Finding Inspiration pt2

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In part 1 I covered the digital forms of media that I find useful for sources of inspiration, in this post I will talk more about other sources of inspiration. With finding inspiration from non-online sources it can take more effort, but often it can have a bigger impact, so is certainly worth exploring. That being said, there are some easy access sources that may be closer than you realise.

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Finding Inspiration pt1

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In today’s world, access to visual media is prevalent, in fact, we’re bombarded with it daily, and so with photography being a form of visual media it’s easy to assume finding inspiration is simple. In reality, it’s not as easy as you would assume and the age old adage of quality over quantity becomes relevant. Managing our access to material in a way that helps combat the risk of saturation, quantity and not quality is something everyone should think about. Asking yourself if what you’re getting truly is inspiration, or is it that 2 second buzz that’s goes just as easily as it came. Here are a few thoughts on ways I’ve found inspiration, and also some sources that I find I go to more regularly.

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Review – Lowepro Flipside Sport

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If you want to do any photography outside a studio, you’ll need a bag, and if you’re heading out for long periods of time or hiking with your camera it’s an important bit of kit. On longer trips, it’s not only going to carry your camera gear but also other essentials, food, water etc. I’ve had the Lowepro Flipside Sport (20L) for a few years now, so this is more of a long term review, but at least that means its thoroughly tested.

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Loaded out with a tripod and poles

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