Since my contributions to this blog have died to a crawl, I think I’d better let the pictures do a bit of talking.

Venice, 27th Feb 2010

February is a great time to visit Venice. Not too crowded, not deadly quiet. This photo was taken using the Ricoh GRD II, and in my opinion is a great example of the almost magical way the GR lens can render this kind of scene. It’s difficult to explain, but there’s a sense of transparency, clarity and luminance which I just don’t get from any other camera. The Ricoh GR (35mm) was just the same.

This version was processed using Apple Aperture. For this particular shot, Aperture and Iridient RAW Developer have remarkably diverse opinions on what looks “right”. Aperture renders a far less saturated sky, but allows a lot more detail extraction in the clouds.

For what it’s worth, RAW Developer’s effort is a lot closer to Ricoh’s in-camera JPG. But I prefer the Aperture feel, in this case.

Has anybody noticed yet ? What’s that ? Oh. Right. I’m last.

Actually I got the tip off for Aperture 3’s release from the excellent and still improving RB Design blog run by Robert Boyer.  I highly recommend his site as well as his eBook series, without a doubt the best value for money technical writing you’re going to find on Aperture. It’s great to see an Aperture-related web site at least on a par with the best of the Lightroom community. Some of Robert’s tips will leave wondering why you never knew that ... and make Aperture really hum. AND he’s got a sense of humour and doesn’t shy clear of the odd rant, bit of invective or rude word. Highly entertaining.

I’m stuck with Aperture 2 since my photo workstation is a Mac G5, and the budget for a Mac Pro is in the realms of fantasy. But I’m not complaining - Aperture 2 does everything I need.

Aperture 3 looks like it has some outstanding new features, and although it isn’t really an issue, at least not for me, it seems to becoming a far more powerful tool than Lightroom. One thing that does disappoint me though is RAW support: although it doesn’t affect me, the lack of support for the Olympus m4/3 series is a let-down, and the no-show for the Leica M9 is really surprising (yes, I know it records DNG, but the Ricoh GRDII also records DNGs, and at default settings they look crap in Aperture). At least the Lumix LX-3 finally made it. But I predict that RAW support is going to provide some fuel for Ye Olde Forum Flame Wars.

Whatever. Welcome Aperture 3. We’ve been expecting you.

Just a quick note: if anybody is interested in a two week cruise by yacht off the west coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard) in August, please let me know. A group of us is planning the trip and there are still a couple of places vacant (maximum size of group is 10). This will be very much photographer-friendly, and unlike large ship tours, the itinerary will be very flexible and designed to make the most of all opportunities.

The yacht (Jonathan IV) is run by this company.

Let me know by

if you’re interested.

Not for the first time, I’ve just published a gallery of my ancient Antarctic images. Maybe this will be the definitive set. Maybe not. Certainly it’s the smallest.

Apart from two photos which I had to rework from the archived scans, due a weird digital disease that seems to be afflicting some of my Photoshop files, these are derived from the “reference” versions I made around 5 years ago.

They’re mostly taken on Kodachrome 64, with one or two Kodachrome 25s and a single Ektachrome 64(?). I’d be fairly surprised if anybody could tell which is which.

I took the photos in 1987/88 while working for the British Antarctic Survey, and in 1991/92 when I participated in the Norwegian-led Aurora Programme, working on a European Space Agency funded project at University College London ... back in the early days of climate change research.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with a camera back then, which given that I was mainly using a fully manual Canon FTb, was not ideal. Arguably I haven’t moved on much, but at least I’ve now got a far better idea of what I don’t know.

I’ve just completed uploading my latest gallery, and this one is particularly special for me. It features 16 so-called panoramic photographs, all taken in Iceland with the Hasselblad XPan. This is probably my favourite format, and the camera I have the closest relationship with it. I had considered selling it along with all my other film gear, but I’ve been convinced by others and myself that this would just be plain stupid. If I’m ever going to produce any notable photography, it is probably going to be with this camera.

An XPan photo of Jökulsárlón which didn’t make the last 16

Note: At the moment there’s a bit of a glitch with the display of the gallery thumbnails (they’re too wide for the page). This is due (a) to lack of planning on my part and (b) because I can’t get the fix I’ve kludged together to work yet.