Holne Bridge - A 5 Minute Photo Adventure
In the blog this week I head to Holne Bridge with Panasonic Lumix S1R to capture the last of the autumnal colours on Dartmoor.
More Time with the S1R
If you a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I've had the Panasonic Lumix S1R on loan for the last few weeks. I've been putting it to good use and I've shot the autumnal colours at Fingle Bridge and produced a video called In The Footsteps of Colin Prior. With those bits of content produced I was ready to (sadly) send the camera back to Panasonic. However, the very kind folks at Panasonic Pro Services said I could keep it for a little longer.
Autumn at Holne Bridge
With the extra loan time I wanted to put the S1R to good use and make another video. As much as I'd loved to have produced another video on the scale of In The Footsteps of Colin Prior I'd have to produce something a little more close to home and within tighter time constraints. As I hadn't made one of my 5 Minute Photo Adventure videos for a while I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to do so. Though the best of the autumn colours were coming to an end I thought I might still be able to capture something interesting at Holne Bridge on Dartmoor.
Holne Bridge is one of my favourite locations to shoot autumnal colours and it was looking great when I visited there a few weeks before this trip (you can see the photos from that blog post here). I was a little unsure how the recent bad weather had impacted the leaves on the trees but fortunately for me local (and very talented) photographer Neil Porter drives through the area on a regular basis. He was kind enough to give me an update and as it was looking positive we both decided to meet up for spot of landscape photography.
A 5 Minute Photo Adventure
It was a great morning of photography and it was great to be joined by Neil. He knows a lot of good spots along the river there and he introduced me to a couple of new ones which I was very grateful for. Anyway, I don't want to spoil the video too much so here it is:
I hope you enjoyed the video and all the content I've made with the Panasonic Lumix S1R. I've really enjoyed using the camera and hope to use one again in the future. I also have to say that the folks at Panasonic Pro Services (who organised the loan) have been fantastic. Really friendly and easy to work with. Should I ever decide to purchase any of the S1 cameras it's good to know that Panasonic have the support services network in place.
I've got some exciting content coming up over the next few weeks including the return of On My Bookshelf, and some special new year videos, so stay tuned!
The Photographs
As always, here are the photographs from the video plus a couple of others that I captured after filming.
Holne Bridge at Autumn, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 28mm, f/11, 1 second at ISO 200, Kase Filters CPL.
An Autumnal River Dart at Holne Bridge, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 53mm, f/13, 1 second at ISO 200, Kase Filters CPL.
Downstream from Holne Bridge, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 29mm, f/13, 0.8 seconds at ISO 200, Kase Filters CPL.
Upstream to Holne Bridge, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 24mm, f/13, 1.3 seconds at ISO 200, Kase Filters CPL.
In The Footsteps of Colin Prior
Inspired by the landscape photographs I've seen in Colin Prior's book, Scotland's Finest Landscapes, I head to Loch Clair in Torridon to capture my own photographs of this stunning location. With only a few hours and typically Scottish weather, photography was always going to be a challenge!
Being Inspired
Inspiration for my photography comes from many different sources. Like most photographers, I look at a lot of photographs online using services such as Instagram and Flickr. For me though, one of the best sources of inspiration is the humble book. The bookshelf in my office is ever-expanding and I take a lot of joy in sharing my passion for photography books in my YouTube series, On My Bookshelf.
Last year I picked up a copy of Colin Prior's book, Scotland's Finest Landscapes and I thought it was amazing. I even did an episode of On My Bookshelf so if you want to hear my thoughts on this book in a bit more detail then click here. Even though I grew up in Scotland, and lived many of my adult years there, much of Scotland remains unexplored for me. Colin's book opened my eyes up to some of the amazing locations in Scotland and the photographic opportunities these wild locations could bring.
An Adventure to Scotland
As I browsed Colin's book I made note of all the places I would like to visit to capture my own photographs. The list was long! There aren't many negatives to living in Devon, but its distance from Scotland is definitely one of them. Trips back to the homeland are rare so if I was to tick off one of those locations from the list I would have to pick carefully and integrate it into whatever I was doing in Scotland on my next visit.
Fortunately for me, I had booked myself onto a photography workshop on the Isle of Skye with my workshop company of choice Dawn 2 Dusk Photography. The last time I went on a D2D workshop was Glencoe and I had an absolute blast. You can read about that adventure here. My trip to Skye was the perfect opportunity to spend a little extra time in the Highlands and visit one of the locations I saw in the book that had inspired me.
The Weather
As I was going to Skye I thought that one of the best areas I could visit was Torridon, an area of Scotland that I had not visited before. The images I saw in the book looked amazing and I was excited about capturing my own. I narrowed down the list and got ready for my trip to Scotland.
Arriving in Scotland I already knew that the weather wasn't going to be great and with only limited time before the workshop, I was going to have to work with what I had. What I really wanted to do was walk up one of the mountains to capture an epic vista but this was always going to be a bit of a challenge. Though I've bagged a few Munro's in my time, but these have mostly been fair-weather adventures. The weather forecast for the mountains when I was up was terrible. Way above my skill level!
Fortunately for me though, I had considered that the mountains might be inaccessible to me and I'd picked a few low-level locations as a backup. The night before I was due to head out I looked at my list and decided on Loch Clair near Liathach and Beinn Eighe. Would the low-level weather be kind to me? Would I get the opportunity to capture some amazing landscape photographs? Let's find out in my latest video, In The Footsteps of Colin Prior.
Landscape Photography Can be Hard
As you will have seen in the video, it was a challenging day. The weather conditions were variable, to say the least. It could be lashing with rain one minute, then you'd get howling winds, and then all of a sudden it would clear up. Typically Scottish really! There was no chance of reflections on the loch and I never saw the top of the mountains until I was finished for the day. While I knew the weather wasn't going to be great that day, I was hoping that it would break long enough to give me some dramatic light on the landscape.
Unfortunately, this never happened. While I did witness some amazing scenes such as incoming rain showers, crepuscular rays and rainbows, they were never really in the spots where I could have put them to good use in a composition. Despite the challenges of the photography I had a great time at Loch Clair. Yes it was cold, wet and windy at times but I had good clothing on so I was able to enjoy the wilderness and all it brings. I had a lot of time to look at the landscape while the weather was too wild to get the camera out and it looked amazing. It was just a pleasure to sit there and take it all in.
It was definitely a case of the adventure being more rewarding than the photography but I'm OK with that. Landscape photography can be hard but my love for the outdoors always means that I never consider my time wasted.
I do hope you have enjoyed this blog post and video. Who inspires your photography? Have you ever followed in the footsteps of one of your favourite photographers? Let me know in the comments below.
The Photographs
If you want to see the photographs from the video in a bit more detail you can see them below. They were all taken with the Panasonic Lumix S1R. Panasonic was kind enough to lend me this camera (and two lenses) to help me make this video. I have to say that the camera performed faultlessly despite the wild and wet conditions. I'm not planning on doing a full review of the camera but you can read some of my thoughts in this blog post.
Loch Clair Tree, Torridon, Scotland - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 24mm, f/13, 15 seconds at ISO 100, Kase Filters CPL.
Liathach from Loch Clair, Torridon, Scotland - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 24mm, f/13, 1/10th sec at ISO 100, Kase Filters CPL.
Loch Clair, Sgurr Dubh and Liathach, Torridon, Scotland - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 26mm, f/13, 1/15th sec at ISO 100, Kase Filters CPL.
Loch Clair, Liathach and Beinn Eighe, Torridon, Scotland - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 24mm, f/13, 40 seconds at ISO 100, Kase Filters CPL. Single image crop at 6:17
Loch Clair, Liathach and Beinn Eighe, Torridon, Scotland - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 24mm, f/13, 1/5th second at ISO 100, Kase Filters CPL.
Autumnal Landscape Photography with the Lumix S1R
After a last minute change of plan I decide to shoot the autumnal colours at Fingle Bridge and I take the Panasonic Lumix S1R with me.
The Panasonic Lumix S1R
A couple of weeks ago in my blog post Return to Holne Bridge, I mentioned that I had a Panasonic Lumix S1R on loan. In that blog post I was out with the S1R to try and familiarise myself with the camera before putting it to use on the project I had planned for it. Having now completed filming for that project I was ready to return the camera to Panasonic but they very kindly asked if I wanted to keep it for another couple of weeks.
Plan A Becomes Plan B
With the camera on loan for a bit longer I had a few ideas on how I could put it to good use. My initial project for the S1R was to make a landscape photography video in Scotland, but I did also have a secondary project planned as well. Unfortunately though, the weather conditions were pretty awful in Scotland in the later part of my trip and so I never got the chance to shoot the 2nd video. This loan extension would be a great time to revisit that project and shoot it on Dartmoor rather than Glencoe.
My plan A was to head up to one of my favourite Dartmoor locations, Belstone Common. Checking the weather forecast the evening before I knew it was going to be a bit of a risk to go there because of the forecasted cloud cover. However I thought it was worth a punt and made my plan for a dawn shoot.
Arriving at Belstone Common the following morning it quickly became apparent that I had been a little too optimistic about the weather forecast, specifically the cloud cover. The cloud cover had even descended into the village of Belstone and by the time I had reached the parking area for Belstone Common it was looking very cloudy indeed.
Normally I wouldn’t necessarily let this put me off and I would risk ascending up to Belstone and hopefully wait for the cloud to clear. This clearing of the cloud can often lead to spectacular scenes but at the back of my mind I thought I’d probably be better going with plan B.
Fingle Bridge
Plan B was to go and shoot at one of my favourite autumnal Dartmoor locations, Holne Bridge or Fingle Bridge. I reckon either would have been good but given Holne Bridge is on the opposite side of Dartmoor from Belstone Common and Fingle Bridge just 15 minutes away the decision was easy.
When I arrived at Fingle Bridge I could see that I had made the right decision. The autumnal colours were looking great and even though it was a bit lighter the sky was still heavily overcast so staying at Belstone probably would have been a waste of time.
Fingle Bridge #1, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 24mm, f/11, 10 seconds at ISO 100, Kase Filters CPL. Three horizontal image panorama at 16:7.
Though it was tempting to just create a short vlog of my time at Fingle Bridge, I decided just to concentrate on stills photography so I grabbed the Lumix S1R but left behind my Lumix G80 (my vlogging camera). As I walked along the riverside and admired the beautiful colours on the trees I was surprised not to see any other photographers or even dog walkers. I wasn’t complaining though. It was very relaxing, just me, a camera, the gentle noise of the flowing river and the wind blowing in the trees. What a way to start the day!
Fingle Bridge #2, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 54mm, f/13, 10 seconds at ISO 100, Kase Filters CPL.
What I like About the S1R
As I said in my blog post Return to Holne Bridge, it is not my intention to review the S1R. There are lots of dedicated written and video reviews out there and they are done by people much more proficient at reviewing than I am. However, having used the camera for a few weeks I thought I would at least share some of my thoughts on this camera.
Things I liked:
47.3 megapixel sensor - no complaints with the image quality.
Dual card slots - dual xQD would have been nice though.
Good controls, knobs and dials - plenty of physical controls.
Focal length of the lens is displayed in the EVF.
Triaxle tilt LCD - you can even flip it out when the camera is in a vertical orientation…..very handy!!
Countdown down timer for long exposures (up to 60 seconds). Also very handy!
The 24-105mm f/4 lens I used. Great image quality and useful focal length.
Minor gripes:
Long exposures are limited to 60 seconds before you need to switch to bulb mode. This is better than most DSLRs and some mirrorless cameras, but not as good as cameras from FujiFilm (which can have exposures timed in minutes).
Size and weight - while some people prefer the feel of a bigger camera, the S1R is big for a full-frame mirrorless camera. It’s about the same size and weight as a Nikon D850 but bigger and heavier than a Nikon Z7. However, in some ways it has more features and controls than a Z7 so some additional bulk is probably necessary (e.g. dual card slots and great video features).
Though the S1R has one of the highest resolutions EVF on the market, I thought images looked a little low on resolution when reviewed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, but not as good as other mirrorless cameras I have used. I wonder if the embedded JPG preview of the RAW file is low resolution. The images when reviewed in Lightroom look amazing. The EVF looks great when viewing live.
No wide angle zoom lens at the time of loan. (A 16-35 f/4 is due in January 2020 though).
This is by no means a comprehensive list but these are some of the things I wanted to highlight when compared to other mirrorless cameras I have used. Minor gripes aside, there is little to dislike about this camera and anyone buying one is sure to be happy.
Fingle Bridge #3, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix S1R, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 at 28mm, f/13, 10 seconds at ISO 100, Kase Filters CPL.
A note on the video features:
I know many of you don’t shoot video but for me some of the most stand out features of this camera are the video features. It can shoot up to 4k, 50 fps at 150 Mbps. The video quality is beautiful. I shoot and publish almost all of my videos in 4K but I don’t think anyone would notice much change in video quality if my bitrate jumped to 150 Mbps. On the other hand 50 fps does give me a few more creative options in post production.
As a bonus the S1R writes video to both cards which is definitely welcome. However, my one gripe is that if you have your camera set up for stills (shutter speed, ISO, and aperture) and then you switch to video mode, all the settings from your stills configuration carries over. The same applies when moving from video mode to stills mode. Given that you set the camera up very differently when shooting video and stills this seems a little annoying if you need to quickly switch between both modes.
Panasonic have also now released the Lumix S1H. This camera is a little more video centric and offers video modes such as 6K recording, 400 mbps bit rate (depending on mode), and HLG video. I can just imagine the creative options open to me with this camera if I did another series of Vignettes of Landscape Photography.
In case you are wondering, the video that I did have planned for the S1R has been filmed and is currently being edited. It should be ready in the next couple of weeks. I have also managed to shoot one of my 5 Minute Photo Adventure videos with the S1R so I hope to publish that in the next few weeks as well.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post and the images I capture from Fingle Bridge. Have you been out to capture some autumnal images? Have you considered or even bought an S1R or any of the cameras in the Lumix S1 range? Let me know in the comments below.
Return to Holne Bridge
This week I return to Holne Bridge on Dartmoor to try out a new camera and to give my father-in-law a helping hand with his photography.
Almost Autumn on Dartmoor
Out of all the seasons to photograph I find autumn the most difficult. Despite the autumnal season lasting a few months, the colours are really only at their best for a few weeks. If there are a few windy days this can shorten that period even more. The result of this really short period is that I sometimes miss the best of autumn all together. Last year was one of the few years that I actually made it out when the colours were nearly at their peak. I was lucky enough to capture images from Fingle Bridge and Holne Bridge.
Encouraged by what I captured last year I was really keen to get out again this autumn. Though my primary plan was to head out when the colours were at their best, I thought it would be useful to also head out early on in the season as well. I wanted to do this for a number of reasons. Firstly, I promised to take my father-in-law out for a shoot as he was going on a Dawn2Dusk Photography workshop and wanted to refresh his skills before going. I also wanted to refresh my knowledge of Holne Bridge, which I think is a great location for shooting autumnal landscapes.
The final reason was I wanted to try out the Panasonic Lumix S1R. This camera was on loan to me and I was keen to familiarise myself with it before putting it to use on the project I had planned for it. Fortunately for me I was already used to the handling and interface thanks to my use of the Panasonic Lumix G80 (which is my primary vlogging camera). However, the S1R has a much richer set of features and configuration options compared to my G80 so there was still plenty to familiarise myself with.
Two Mirrorless Cameras
Even though I had the S1R with me, I also decided to take along my Nikon Z7. There wasn’t any special reason for this other than I had a 24-105mm for the S1R and a 14-30 mm for the Nikon Z7 and I wanted to cover a wide range of focal lengths. I’m not planning on reviewing or comparing the two cameras (that’s not really my thing) but if you do want to see how the photos compare I have included a couple of shots from each camera for you to have a look at.
From my perspective the image quality from both cameras was superb and the only differences in the actual output are as a result of post-processing and focal length.
You’ll be able to see what I got up to with the S1R in a few weeks time so stay tuned!
Vibrant Colours
Moving away from gear and back to photography, even though I was a little early for peak autumnal colours the colours I did find were wonderful. There were splashes of yellow from the leaves but there was still a lot of green about which looked wonderfully vibrant.
Holne Bridge #5, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 at 14 mm, f/11, 2 seconds at ISO 400. Kase Filters K9 filter holder and CPL.
Despite the high water levels and the low light levels (we arrived a little to close to sunset), we both had a great time photographing this stunning Dartmoor location. I familiarised myself with the S1R and Holne Bridge, and more importantly, my father-in-law got himself into the swing of taking photographs again. Considering we were there for probably less than an hour we both felt it was a productive session.
Do you have plans for some autumnal photography? What locations do you like to shoot in the autumn? Let me know in the comments below.
Back to Basics at Belstone
Just because I don’t have a Nikon camera at the moment, doesn’t mean I can’t go out and take pictures.
Better Out Than In
For reasons that I will explain in a future blog post/video, I am without a full-frame Nikon camera at the moment. Now, I could use this time to have a break from landscape photography but that’s not really the way I roll. Despite the lack of a D850 I didn’t want to pass up on a perfectly good opportunity to get out and take some pictures. Well, I say perfectly good opportunity but that wasn’t exactly accurate.
Checking the local forecast it was predicting clear skies. Not just a little clear, but totally clear. No clouds. Clear blue skies. Everywhere. Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, and Somerset. When it came to selecting where to go it seemed to make little difference. My instinct told me to head to the coast so I could make the most of the sunset (which had been consistently good over the past few evenings), but with the lack of a “big” camera, I had no way of using any of my filters. At a bare minimum I always want to shoot seascapes with a polariser, but this wasn’t an option. So I decided to head to a location that wasn’t too far away but still had far-reaching views.
There really was only one location to head to and that was Belstone Common on Dartmoor.
Don’t Let Your Camera Hold You Back
I am in the very fortunate position where I have access to a number of different cameras so even without my aforementioned Nikon camera I still had a couple of options to take with me to Belstone. Like most people I have a mobile phone that is capable of taking decent images but I don’t really like that form factor for anything other than taking snapshots. I also still have my old Sony RX100M4 which is a much better option than the phone. However, I decided to take my most recent camera, the Panasonic Lumix G80.
I’ve had the G80 for a little while now but it is almost exclusively used for vlogging. I rarely take any still images with it. The G80 is a more than capable stills camera and even though it might not be in the same league as my D850, there shouldn’t be any reason why I couldn’t put it to good use. The only real challenge for me would be that I wouldn’t be able to use any filters as I didn’t have an adaptor ring for the 12-60mm kit lens. Effectively it was back to basics for me. Just me, a tripod and a camera.
Oke Tor, Belstone Common, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix G80, 12-60 mm lens at 14 mm, f/11, 1/6th second at ISO 200.
I wasn’t going to let my minimal camera setup hold me back, but the weather conditions were a different challenge. Those bright blue skies aren’t my favourite thing to photograph, but as the sunset there was some nice soft golden light which allowed me to capture these images.
Belstone Commoon and Irishman's Wall, Belstone Common, Dartmoor, Devon - Panasonic Lumix G80, 12-60 mm lens at 14 mm, f/11, 1/6th second at ISO 200.
I hope you enjoyed this short blog post. I was reasonably happy with the images I captured. One thing was for sure, the camera wasn’t the limitation. Having access to to a polariser and some grads would have definitely been useful, but they weren’t the limiting factor. I always knew the weather conditions weren’t going to yield amazing results but sometimes just being outside and watching the sunset from Dartmoor is all the reward you need.