This one for me.

it would be refreshing to be on beach on hot day probably, but not with that crowd. I’d be there as snappy as dog in heat...
Nice overview of that world famous place.

I like this image, lovely background colours and nice tree shape on top of it. I also like that details in shadow are retained.

Magnificent views with snow covered montains in background. But last image with colours and shadows is my favorite from this set.

Yes, mono mode 2, which is supposedly simulation of kodak tri-x, but I think that in future I dial noise down little bit.

There is direction pad and also LCD can be used, but both need 2-hand operation as you need to lose grip with right hand to reach them with thumb. But in this regard om-5 was similar. It definitely requires different handling than modern camera and slows down operation. Which may be good thing.

I like that they left that pulley / hook(?) in place.

A nice Sunday walk! I can sense the very first touch of green from expanding tree buds - evrything to look forward to.

Me too. Lego!

Interesting looking camera. I should be weighing up a replacement for my aged EM5ii, but I'm hoping it will keep going a bit longer! Size/weight is a big factor for me.

I love the whole capture. When watching it on full resolution, it reminded me of “Where is Wally?", the nice patterns of umbrellas and ant-like people are very nice too.

The second one is my pick. Congrats on your new home.

I like retro style cameras. I had the original Pen for a little while. Sometimes I regret selling it, but....

If size and weight are important then om-3 is probably not best, it’s quite big, being even wider than om-1 and heavy, in addition missing grip makes it feel even heavier. But it’s good looking, i bought it for travel and street shooting, with it one does not look as professional and scare people as it may be with om-1.😀

It seems to be only 496g (compared with 469g for the EM5ii) and yes, 15mm wider. So not so different from what I'm used to. Having 'petite' hands, I'm not looking for a grip 😁

really like this one!

Turton Moor - In Colour!

For once I've actually got a backlog of photo sets to share, but this week I'm going to go with a set I took after work on Friday evening, when I revisited Turton Moor. I'll hang onto the rest for a week when nothing much has happened (and almost certainly forget about them).

I first visited this area a couple of weeks ago, and on that occasion I took along the X-T50 and a bunch of primes. On this occasion, with the threat of strong winds, I didn't fancy all the lens swaps and instead brought the Z8 and Nikon 24-70 f/2.8S, effectively covering the range of the bag of primes on the Fuji.

I shot the Fuji set in one of the black and white modes (Acros+R, I think), which Capture One preserved into the edit. I repeated the same trick with the Z8, setting it to the monochrome + red filter setting in the Picture Controls menu, possibly the first time I've even bothered to look in that particular menu, but I quite like the experience of shooting with a black and white viewfinder I think the removal of colour seems to simplify the composition, plus, as I'm shooting raw, nothing is actually lost and I can always convert it back to colour, should I prefer the end result.

Of course, unlike with the Fuji, where Capture One respects the simulation setting on the camera, on Nikon images it completely ignores the Picture Control settings, so everything loaded up in colour once I got them back to my computer. This is not the end of the world and I could easily switch them back into monochrome with the respective tool in C1, but as I don't know the exact recipe for the Nikon red filter (i.e. how much of the non red channels does it bleed into the final luminance of the image, it's definitely a weak red filter, judging from my experimentation) it's hard to get an exact match to what was shot by adjusting the individual components, so I edited them as colour images instead.

All images taken handheld in high winds, with a CPL set to amp up the contrast in the sky at the time of taking.

Gateway To Nowhere

I was wondering about having a bit of an explore through this gateway, but looking on the map, it just loops back across the field onto the road I was leaving, so instead I carried on up this dusty trail towards my original goal.

Lower Pasture Barn Farm and Winter Hill

There are a handful of interesting things to point the camera at while ascending the path up to the moors, but the one that keeps catching my attention is Lower Pasture Barn Farm, there's something about its placement in the landscape. Of course, it helps that Winter Hill looms large behind it, replete with its cluster of towers and masts.

Crumbling Walls

The long, straight dry stone walls that litter our moorland landscape always fascinates me. Handbuilt from a multitude of shaped pieces of stone merely slotted together, these can stretch for miles and are a testament to the skill of hardy craftsmen that built them, often centuries later. Of course, there's no accounting for the treacherous boggy ground they're built on and in several places, the moors have done their best to slowly destroy them over time. Here is once such location.

Hugging The Contours

Another fascinating feature I find in regard to dry stone walls, is the way they appear to have been constructed with no concern for the lay of the land. In mountainous regions, these things can often be found scaling the steep sides of a mountain as if it wasn't there. Imagine carrying all this stone up there (and here's me often whinging that my back hurts from a few kilos of camera!). By those standards, this example is quite tame, but I still like the way it's been built as if its constructors just ignored that dip in the landscape.

Winter Hill In The Wall

This must have been a particularly bad patch of moorland, as the wall has quite a number of breaches along this stretch leading to the Hanging Stones. Still, the gap revealed another nice shot of Winter Hill.

Belmont

I eventually reached the Hanging Stones. I completely forgot to take any pictures of them, but quite enjoyed sitting on them, eating my packed lunch while soaking in the view, the main component of which (the view, not my lunch) being the little village of Belmont.

Tucked away below the East side of Winter Hill. I don't know a lot about Belmont, other than it has a nice looking church and a tiny telephone exchange housed in what looks like a shed, information from what feels like a past life when I was a telecoms engineer, many, many moons ago before I was drawn away by the bright lights and exciting possibilities of programming computer game.

BOH!

No, I don't know what BOH means either. I assume its some sort of boundary indicator, but I couldn't say what boundary it's indicating.

The Onset of Sunset

When I originally set out, I was planning to hang around until sunset. With the quite interesting sky, this had a lot of possibilities. But as the sun dropped, the gusty winds picked up and became a lot colder, so I decided not to bother waiting up here for sunset and made my way back to the car. As I made my way down, the tell tale colours of a nice sunset were beginning to kick in and I took many shots of Lower Pasture Barn Farm once more.

I was a little concerned I may be missing out, but as I drove back home along the windy and undulating narrow country road that weaves its way between Winter Hill and Anglezarke Moor, I could see the distant horizon and that most permanent feature of the Irish Sea, the fog, did its dirty work and killed the sunset before it had a chance to develop into the something special.

It's fair to say this is a nice little walk. Just 3 miles out and back (a bit longer and more arduous if you cross Turton Moor), with all of the effort compressed into the steep climb from car park to the top of the moors. It seems to be a somewhat quiet spot too. On both occasions I've not encountered other people on my way out to the Hanging Stones and back, although the main path up and the car park is very popular with people heading towards Darwen Jubilee Tower, which is in the opposite direction once you get up to the main level of the moor.

Excellent composition. I particularly like the use of the tower and balconies on the left as a framing device.

This is a nice shot. I love the intricacy of the gnarly branches combined with the subtle colour palette.

This opening shot is fantastic. What a juxtaposition.

Is this the waterworks you shared external shots from a few months ago? Nice to see it being put to good use rather than simply demolished and replaced with a modern, characterless box as they love to do here in the UK.

Thank you for the tour. Some fabulous places and scenery.

I think the walls of 3 and 4 made for great subjects. Wonder if you tried raising the shadows in the third to emphasise the wall?

Colours and textures of the grasses are wonderful.