Table of Contents
I enjoy snapping pictures, mainly of landscapes and people climbing. Over the years I've had various cameras, originally I wanted an SLR and saved up for one prior to a trip to Kenya which involved safaris but my parents were convinced by the sales person in the US that I would be better served by an Olympus bridge camera. I got one decent picture which over time I complemented with additional lenses before upgrading the body to a D90 whilst climbing multi-pitch routes and also various smartphones (S2 and most recently S7 Edge. Eventually I tired of lugging the weight around so recently upgraded to a Fuji X-T2 setup and its a delight.
Hardware
Nikon
I started out with a humble Nikon D50 and kit lens which served me well for some time, but eventually I upgraded to a Nikon D90 with various lenses, primarily the 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR DX, but also the Nikon 50 mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor and the kit lens 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX and a brilliant Sigma 10-20mm F4. This kit was brilliant and served me well over the years, but ultimately I found it to be too heavy, particularly when going climbing with the heavy glass in the lenses. I passed the D90 on to my brother (who had had the D50 which is now back for my wife to use, one day, maybe!).
Canon
I've an S95 point and shoot that I take on multi-pitch climbs sometimes, although it sees less usage these days and instead I use my smartphone.
Fuji
Currently loving the smaller and lighter system of the Fuji X-T2 which I picked up second hand along with the 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 OIS lens. At the same time I splashed out on the 10-24mm F4 OIS lense and more recently the 16-55mm F2.8 WR to bridge the gap in focal lengths.
Software
I use the brilliant Darktable for processing pictures and when I want to stitch together a panorama I use Hugin. Occasionally I'll use The GIMP.
Darktable
Darktable allows you to create profiles for converting pictures.
There are ton of film emulation profiles for Darktable availabe here.
Hugin
GIMP
HowTos
The Results
I shoot a lot of pictures, not many of them come out great, but those that do get posted to my Flickr stream. Particular highlights are..
I had some pictures put up in the snug of a local pub and at the same time setup Neils Snaps to sell prints should anyone like them enough. So far I've sold a sum total of three, one to a friend who was testing the site and payment worked and two to a couple we see in the pub regularly (thanks Dave and Dids, although you still owe me for the second print/frame , but if you like them please consider purchasing one. It'll mean I can splash out on more kit!
Files
Various files related to the Nikon D50 and photography.
Links
Flickr Groups
Printing
- Photobox.co.uk fairly good quality and cheap, I use them for calendars each year around xmas. Keep an eye out for their offers at this time, they always have them.
- dscolourlabs.co.uk much better quality.
Framing
Tools
- Bulkr a utility for bulk downloading Flickr pictures.
- flickrdownloadr.com free standalone program to download your pictures.
Misc
nikon d50 photography pictures f65 nikkor samsung fuji x-t2