Secret Garden, Kent

Secret Garden, Kent, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Last month I was lucky to find a second hand 70-200mm lens at an affordable price. Moving to full frame I was really missing the 1.6x at the long end - my main lens (24-105mm) was quite credible at 1.6x, but kind of shot range at 1x. Now, as the season is changing and the flowers are coming out, I spend my weekends lying on my front like a seal, manual focusing, f/4.0, 200mm, etc.

When I changed camera I swore I'd never use live view, but it is so useful in situations like this when micro focusing through a narrow DOF. The 10x live view zoom is amazing for micro-focusing, though it has left me deeply insecure about the accuracy of focusing without using it.

It's strange how the grass screening the front of the lens dissolves into green smoke at the long end. In this case the lens was almost completely concealed by greenery, but it still somehow sees through it all, leaving just a tiny haze.

Not that I'll look a gift donkey in the mouth, but Self Reflection made Explore - despite getting a fraction of the views/favs/comments of other recent post. Everything was worse - ratios, totals, etc. Who knows how the donkey works his magic - but thanks to everyone who's attention helped him make up his mind.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

See Secret Garden, Kent on Flickr for additional notes and comments.

The Future Is Orange, North Korean Border [Film Scan]

The Future Is Orange, North Korean Border [Film Scan], originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Another one from my APS film archive, now scanned. I just see I forgot to correct the date in the EXIF - this one dates from spring 2001, about two thirds of the way through I year I spent teaching in Harbin, China.

We had a few days holiday, I think in April, and headed across to the North Korean border in the belief there was a Chinese train route that took you, in sealed carriages, through North Korea and back into China. If there was, the chaps at the station weren't for selling us tickets on it. Instead, we did manage to cross for 5 minutes at a bridge just down and right of this shot. They was a large arch with telescopes for peering across at the town across the river - steam trains, paintings of the Il Sung family, etc. Very interesting and 20RMB well spent.

The sky in this scan was severely degraded, so I added a +1 stop GND to better blend it, hence the overexposed effect. Maybe I've overdone it. It looks best when the image is viewed on black, even if the quality doesn't quite carry. Oh for 21MP back then! But there we go!

Lots of plastic bags in the dry grass - sadly a feature of Northern China.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

See The Future Is Orange, North Korean Border [Film Scan] on Flickr for additional notes and comments.