Foreign Dispatches

Medium Format Digital in the Instagram Age

I've just been reading Michael Reichmann's overview of the Pentax 645Z, and the following passages from the article struck me as particularly insightful:

The Possibilities of DSLR Video

Having recently made my case at such length for passing over the Nikon D800, I can see how anyone reading my little essay would have been left with the impression that I have no interest whatsoever in the new developments being made possible by the addition of video capability to higher end digital cameras. Such is not the case: while I personally have no interest in being a filmmaker, I'm still able to appreciate the incredible things that can be done with these new tools when in the right hands. Take the video below, for example, shot entirely with Canon's 5D Mark II.

The Nikon D800

As those of us who follow the rumor blogs have known for several months by now, Nikon was planning to introduce the successor to it's widely used (and much loved) D700: the rumor had it that the new camera was to have been introduced in the autumnn of 2011, but the combination of a tsunami in Japan and the floods in Thailand put paid to said plans, at least for a while. Now, at long last, the rumored D800 is finally here, and my feelings about the new camera are ... ambiguous, to put it mildly.

Notting Hill Carnival 2011

Here's a funny thing: as much as I enjoy taking photographs, so much so that I don't mind taking on all sorts of inconveniences to get the shots I want, I've never really been able to muster much enthusiasm about actually promoting my work once it's done. Rationally speaking, I understand the absurdity of this - I do want the pictures to be seen as widely as possible, and yet I operate as if I expect the work to promote itself - but what is interesting (from a psychological perspective, at least) is that understanding the irrationality of my behavior does nothing to overcome the inertia which precipitates it.

At any rate, on this occasion I'm not going to let my torpor win out, as I think the pictures I obtained this time around are some of the very best I've ever taken (slideshow here). Hopefully you'll agree.

From the Lens of a Magician

It's been quite a while since I last posted anything on here due to being busy with real-life concerns, and now that I finally have a little free time, simply catching up on my sleep is going to be the priority. Still, the least I can do in the interim is point you in the direction of an extremely skilled Japanese photographer whose work I've praised on here before.  I'm speaking, of course, of Takany's "To Taste  ~ I Love Nikkor .."  photo blog.

Seriously, even if you don't recognize a single kanji, you owe yourself a visit to this guy's website, as the photos he routinely takes are nothing short of phenomenal; what makes visiting his site even more educational (and humbling) for me is that Takany often captures these images with equipment I either already own or for which I possess superior equivalents, and yet I'm very far from being able to match up with him in the photographic stakes. This site is a wonderful reminder to me to stop fixating on buy new toys and concentrate instead on realizing the full potential of what I have (with all that said, I still would love to have his D3, 28mm f/1.4 and 58mm f/1.2 Noct Nikkor, though).

Happy New Year

To mark the start of the New Year, I decided to attend the annual parade which is held in the heart of London's Mayfair district, and the pictures I obtained from said attendance are my reward for braving sub-zero temperatures for 3 hours straight.

If you like American and Japanese high-school cheerleaders, I have a feeling more than a few of the photos in the complete set will be your thing ...

Fantastic Pictures of Japan

Having taken a fair number of decent pictures myself, it takes a lot to get me excited by the work of someone else, so when I say that the work of Alain Davreux is extremely good, you should take that as an indicator of just how highly I regard his images. This guy combines extreme technical proficiency with a keen eye for composition, and best of all is that - unlike many less accomplished shooters on sites like Flickr - he's actually willing to provide his pictures in sizes large enough for them to be properly appreciated. Treat yourself this Sunday and take a leisurely virtual stroll through Alain Davreux's online galleries.

Notting Hill Carnival 2009

So, another year, another carnival:  what's new here and why should you care? Well, apart from the fact that it means you get to see some nice pictures, I also happened to have the good fortune to cover this year's event using a Nikon D700, which means that this year's pictures should make for interesting comparisons with both the pictures from 2008 (shot mostly with a D300), and those from 2007 (shot almost entirely with a D80). In short, this post can essentially be considered as a field report on the last 3 years' advances in Nikon technology.

The Evolution of a Photographer

Of late, I've been reflecting a great deal upon my progression in the field of photography, thinking both about how I viewed the subject in the past as well as what I'd like to pursue in the future. Of particular interest is how the things I once viewed as most important have gradually fallen away, while the things I'm most concerned about today would simply never even have occurred to me when I was a complete beginner.

Some Pleasant Viewing

Picture 6, originally uploaded by Abiola_Lapite.

It's been a long while since I've put up any of my pictures on here, not because I haven't had anything new to share - to the contrary - nor because of some feeling that my newer works were in any way inferior to the older ones; it was simply the case that I'd planned to accompany the new pictures with substantial essays putting them in context, but I never actually got around to writing the actual essays in question.

At any rate, I've recently been taken some pictures which will need little by way of context for anyone to appreciate, and I expect to be adding a few more stunning photos to the set in the near future, so watch that link ...