Fellow Zuiks,
I enjoy reading what others get up to with their OMs, well done Ulf with
the wedding, so here's what I did last weekend.
I have just purchased a motor home (RV) for a price which would have
paid for dozen OM3Ti, with matching 35-80 f/2.8 zooms, 24mm shifts and
one or two 250mm f/2s to go with them. Its cured my Zuiko habit for a
while no matter how much of a bargain I see :(
I decided to take the RV up into the Lake District for the weekend to
try it out (David Brown's neck of the woods) and we were blessed with
scorching weather to boot. I decided to travel light in terms of gear
and took with me
OM4Ti (with MD2)
OM2N
35mm f/2
35mm f/2.8 shift
24mm f/2.8
28mm f/2.8
50mm f/3.5 macro
90mm f/2 macro
135mm f/2.8
180mm f/2.8
plus a Hasselblad ELM with 50, 80 and 150 lenses. All supported on a
Benbo tripod (not at the same time).
After an overnight stop en route we got to the Lakes early on Sunday
morning and managed to park up in a small wood in the Langdale valley,
right next to Blea Tarn (a tarn is a small lake). Langdale is very
picturesque with jagged mountains rising from the head of the valley -
the Langdale Pikes - but the road is *very* narrow and I was fortunate
not to meet anything coming the other way while in the RV.
We had a walk down to the lake where I used the 4Ti loaded with velvia (
is there any other film for landscapes?) and a 24mm lens to photograph
the lake with the mountains behind. A low view point with large boulders
in the foreground made for a pleasant shot and using the lens
hyperfocally focused at f/16 ensured plenty of DOF. Did the same shot
with the OM2N loaded with Iford PanF 50asa B&W and a deep red filter.
Spent most of the morning in this area doing variations on this scene,
then after lunch, we walked back up the road to the head of the valley.
The hot day created a great deal of water vapour in the air and along
with the contrasty light of mid-day, I decided to stick with B&W and the
red filter and leave the velvia till late afternoon. I hiked up one of
the hillsides to get some good panoramas of the valley, again with a
24mm.
Back at the lake I spent the afternoon shooting flowers, mainly
butterwort (an insect eating plant) using 35mm f/2 and 90mm macro. The
35mm
is ideal for getting the whole of the plant in with a big background
vista too. There were quite few sundew plants (also insectivorous) just
starting to come through, but they were too small to do really. They'll
be a lot better by mid-June (get yourself up there David).
By late afternoon, the light had gone completely wrong for me and was
almost coming back down the valley towards me, so I never got the late
afternoon shots I'd hoped for with nice long shadows. However, there was
a nice orangey sky to finish the day with and I made the most of this
using the 90mm macro to compress the scene. Through the viewfinder the
mountains looked impressive with lots of recession. A gentle mist added
to the atmosphere and I beefed the sky up by using a tobacco grad and an
81B warm up filter - an often used combo for me on evening skies (see
standing stones picture on the gallery for example).
The following morning's first light was superb and I was at the lake and
at the ready. The water was flat calm and the mountains were reflected
perfectly. Again 24mm and 4Ti and velvia were used, along with an
Olympus (none CIR) polariser and an 81A to just knock out the blueish
cast caused by the POL. Again did the scene using a variety of lenses,
including 90mm macro to compress the scene of a lone Scot's pine on the
lake shore against the distant hills, and 50mm macro for some
not-so-wide shots.
>From here we went further north into the area around Keswick (where DB
actually lives) and visited the stone circle at Castlerigg. These 4,000
year old stones are impressive and it was the first time I'd visited.
They are built on a flatish plateau with a spectacular mountain vista
behind them. However, as we didn't get there till almost mid-day, I
again used B&W and a red filter. Despite there being quite a few
tourists I managed to get plenty of shots without folks in them. Lenses
here were nearly all 28mm and 24mm. A good sky had developed by this
time with lots of fluffy white cumulus clouds so things were ideal for
the B&W film.
In two weeks time we are heading to the very far north of Scotland and
out onto the Orkney Islands where I hope to photograph the Ring of
Broadie standing stones as well as landscape and natural history.
Just wish I had a scanner to show some of the results :(
John.
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