Tag: hanbury hall

Out and About – Hanbury Hall

 

We were at Hanbury Hall today on a beautiful spring-like day. It really was nice to be out in the sunshine and the warmth was really beginning to be felt. It was still chilly in the shade but I suppose that is only to be expected.

An unexpected pleasure at the Hall was the exhibition of photographs in the Long Gallery of the International Garden Photographer of the Year. Some stunning images and details of how they were taken – very good indeed.

I again took out the X-E2 and the picture below was taken with the 18-55 f/2.8 – 4.0 zoom lens. I saw the antique chair at the top of the stairs in a dark corner. The sunlight was catching the gold on the seat and you could just make out the ornate back and legs. The scene looked just like a chiaroscuro-style painting with its deep shadows and defined areas of light.

 

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Out and About – Hanbury Hall

Today I wanted to test out the Nikon AI-S lens with the Fujifilm X-E2.  Mrs M and I went to Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire and had a wander around the lovely house and gardens.

As I said yesterday, the Nikon lens through the adaptor on the X-E2 would have no electrical connections whatsoever, so everything would be in manual mode. The lens was well balanced on the camera and I used my new Peak Design camera cuff to ensure I didn’t drop it as I walked around.

I found the focus aids invaluable with the manual focussing especially the focus-peaking and magnification.  I kept the camera at 200 ISO and didn’t have any problem with the viewfinder darkening down with the smaller apertures, the automatic viewfinder brightness enhancement was obviously working well.

Ultimately I was very pleased with the sharpness of the pictures and it actually reminded me of the ‘good ol’ days of 35mm analogue photography with the manual focussing, once I had got used to where the aperture ring was situated on the barrel of the lens.

The image below is a monochrome of a set of gates taken with the X-E2 and the Nikon 50mm f/1.8.

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