Author: DMcA

  • The Sony AR74 and the Sony 200-600 f5.6-6.3 lens, a non-functional combination for birds in flight?

    ByDMcA

    At Gigrin Farm, every one of approximately 1,000 shots with the Sony A7R4 and 200-600mm was out of focus — 100% failure rate — and a replacement lens made no material difference: 5% critically sharp out of 315 shots at Andover where the focus point was on the bird. Even when the AF points and the final focus point were both directly on the bird, only 6% of those shots were critically sharp, confirming a system-level flaw that Sony has never formally acknowledged.

  • California coastal Birds 2020

    A series of shots taken in February 2020 in the Reyes Point national reserve, and also in Bodega Bay, California. Mostly of Vultures and Hawks – which circle around the area continuously looking for something – although rarely it seems ever finding it, and only moving off when I arrive. All taken with my splendid little Olympus E-M1 Mkii camera with a 420mm (840 full frame equivalent, or FFE) lens setup.
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  • Wijnlands cars

    The incredible Wijnland Auto Museum, Joostenberg Vlakte, in the Western cape contains a superb collection of decaying, mostly American, classic cars. While it’s a bit sad to see the effects of old age, the cars also have a unique patina and atmosphere, and it’s a fertile hunting ground if you like the shapes and colours of these timeless classics.
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  • Dick’s cars

    From a series of phographs taken at Dick’s Classic Garage, San Marcos, Texas. Dick Burdick, the owner has assembled the most gorgeous cars ever made in the USA, mostly from the ’30s to the ’60s. I used my tiny Nikon V3, with the wonderful 32mm 1.2 (85mm equivalent) for most of these to enhance the bonnet mascots and beautiful lines of the cars.
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  • State of the systems

    ByDMcA

    After buying the Sony A7R4 and 200-600mm intending to replace both my Nikon and Olympus systems with a single travel-friendly kit, the combination proved essentially non-functional for birds in flight — a problem well documented by others and not addressed by Sony. Extensive summer 2020 testing across every alternative confirmed the Olympus system as the best match for my requirements in every category: BIF focus accuracy, noise at matched apertures, long exposure capability, and travel weight.

  • USA

    All shots taken in and around the San Francisco bay area while visiting my brother. While the Golden Gate Bridge has been photographed to death the other Bridges are almost as magnificent and are rarely shot. Newly included shots of Reyes Point and surroundings!!
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  • London bridges

    London’s Bridges are a popular and fertile ground for photography. I’ve enjoyed bringing a new perspective to images of the bridges by taking multiple different timed shots and combining them into a single long exposure view.
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  • Gironde carralet

    The Gironde is the river that flows through the city of Bordeaux and then out to the Atlantic via a sizeable estuary. Carralets are fishing jetties, many of them still operational which have a very appealing rickety structure. Fishing is done by lowering a very large net at the end of the jetty and then raising is again hopefully full of estuary fish. I’ve been there twice so far and I have to say that the combination of the Carralets, the scenery and the food and wine made it one of my most pleasurable photography expeditions yet.
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  • Far east

    The majority of these shots were taken on the island of Penang, my birthplace. There still remain a wonderful array of ricketty structures, some of them defying gravity, but not I fear for much longer.
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  • Europe

    Turns out I haven’t taken many LE shots in Europe, an omission I will rectify shortly. 60% of these shots were taken in Nantes, a City noted for it’s mechanical elephant.
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  • Cape Town

    Images taken mostly in Simonstown and Noordhoek in the Cape peninsula. Simonstown has amazing granite boulders in the se, which can look rather fine in the early rising eastern sun.
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  • Around Britain

    A series of spindly things in the water around the British coastline, from Shoeburiness (next to Godliness) to Clevedon.
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