50mm – Andy's Photography blog

Autumnal walk at Fingle bridge

At this time of year, there are a number of places that I like to visit to take in the autumnal colours, today sees a walk around an old favourite but the first visit here in at least four years, Fingle bridge near Drewsteignton, a national trust owned woodland, where the River Teign runs alongside the well trodden foot path.

Today’s lens of choice is probably my favourite vintage lens, the Pentacon 50mm F1.8, the ideal lens for woodland photography as I like the colour rendition and softer corner edges wide open.

After a recent spate of strong winds, I was expecting to see a lot of skeletal looking trees, bereft of their autumn foliage but was pleasantly surprised to see the golds and oranges still very much in place.

The path itself is a carpet of bronze, sandwiched either side with banks of green, which are randomly peppered with this arboreal snowfall.

My walk is just under five miles, perhaps nearer six and a half with my various detours off the main path but it still takes a good three hours as I stop and start constantly in search of my next shot.

50 days of 50mm – the final day

After eight months, today sees the completion of my 50mm project and where better to complete my goal than my home city of Exeter, sharing some of my favourite views and images through my Carl Zeiss 50mm F2.8 Tessar lens and trusty Canon 5d II camera.

It has been an enjoyable journey, seeing the world through one focal length has honed my observational and creative skills no end, one revelation being my now regular usage of multiple vertical shots stitched together in post to create panoramas without the barrel distortion a wide angle lens would have.

Wider apertures on a fifty make them ideal for low light shots or those close ups I have come to enjoy so much, especially with the vintage manual lenses I have used more often than not.

There is no doubt that I will continue to have a 50mm lens in my bag, it is a lens that I have rediscovered after thinking I preferred 35mm.

From a financial prespective, I have rarely thought about new expensive lenses or gear since this project began, if anything, I will continue my ongoing ‘older gear’ theme for some time to come.

I already have a few ideas in the meting pot for new projects but for now I want to dig out more of my other vintage lenses and get used to shooting with a variety of lenses.

To all that have followed and encouraged me on this journey, thank you.. here are the pick of day 50’s images

50 days of 50mm #49

As I edge ever closer to the finishing line of my 50 days project, I am keen to reach my goal by the end of this weekend, so decide to get out for a rare week evening outing, for a short stroll with my Pentacon lens

The evening is still rather warm, temperatures have been in the mid to high twenties celcius this week but at just after 7pm, the harsh sunlight has gone.

I decide to take in one of the public parks / gardens, about a 15 minute walk from home, just to see what nature shots I may find.

Using a 50mm lens for this length of time has brought me a lot of pleasure and I have truly realised the versaltility of this focal length.

I have always enjoyed macro photography, but this old lens can focus close in to capture the finer details of nature without the expense of a dedicated lens.

A pleasant way to spend a summer evening

50 days of 50mm #48

Early on in this 50mm project, I saw an opportunity to get more acquainted with some of the vintage 50mm lenses I had acquired from charity shops and online outlets.

My good intentions were halted in their tracks by the enjoyment of using my Pentacon 50mm lens, more often than not but today’s walk finally saw me using my Carl Zeiss Jenar Tessar 50mm 2.8 lens.

The pattern for much of August so far has been to get out early, more to avoid the inordinately high temperatures we are seeing in the UK at present than to chase a sunrise.

Even at just after 5:30 am, there is a warmth in the air, the sky an expanse of beautiful blue with no hint of clouds, another scorcher on the way.

The Jenar lens is one of the few lenses that will focus to infinity on the 5d, without grazing the mirror, one of the reasons the Pentacon has taken a firm place in my camera bag.

As with many of these vintage lenses, the colour rendition is very pleasing and even at the widest apertutre of F2.8 this lens offfers a pleasing bokeh and subject separation.

As I take my normal route towards my riverside walk, the light makes for some pleasing images at St. David’s church, even at a wide aperture the images are pleasantly sharp without being clinically so.

With a mixed bag of monochrome, reflections and close ups, I have enjoyed this morning’s walk and I shall look forward to sharing the images later in the day.

50 days of 50mm #46

Back in the late spring, I visited a forest that to my shame, I had not really explored that much, despite being just a few miles from my doorstep.

I blame my preoccupation of Dartmoor and the nearby coast for my lapse but today, I intend to fulfil a promise I made to myself after the last trip, which was to become more familiar with my local forests and woods.

Immersing myself within this beautiful landscape is not hard, listening to the stonechat just ahead of me, interrupted very rudely by the screech of a jay, neither of which I see, just knowing they are here is good enough.

I choose once more to use my manual focus 50mm lenses (50mm takumar F1.4 and Pentacon F1.8), as I find the act of twisting a focus ring so much more pleasurable than pressing a button, that same feeling goes for changing aperture value on the lens itself, rather than through a screen.

Hopefully the enjoyment I had here is evident in my selection of photos in the gallery below, I will also ensure my next visit will sooner than the autumn.

50 days of 50mm #45

Sunday morning has rolled around far too quickly, my brief visit to Salcombe is almost over as I make my way back to Exeter to commence another working week.

In my usual manner, it will be a meandering trip back, stopping off to add a few more photos to my collection and to complete day 45.

Totnes will be the first stop, a bustling market town just about 20 miles from Salcombe, where I will follow a footpath along the river to the local steam railway station but only after I have made my usual vist to ‘the island’ a very pleasant and popular public space by the River Dart.

Today, I have decided to use my Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 lens and my Pentacon 50mm F1.8, same focal length but so different in their rendition of colour and sharpness.

A mixed bag from Totnes and the railway station

50 days of 50mm #44

Day 44, it’s just after 5am and I am back in Salcombe for an early morning stroll before the first day of the summer holiday begins in earnest

My hopes of catching the sunrise were to be thwarted by increasingly overcast skies but the occasional break in the clouds allowed brief opportunities for the light to escape and cast that early glow here and there, I just had to find those places.

The town is quiet, only the sound of squawking herring gulls break the silence, a noise that definitely is not the dawn chorus!

As much as I enjoy capturing the light on the landscape, I am finding more and more that I enjoy finding those close detail shots that any 50mm lens is so good at capturing, the last three shots in this selection were among my favourites of todays outing.

50 days of 50mm #41

I am not entirely sure where my love of early mornings came from but perhaps the seeds were sown by the occasions that I would stay with my grandfather over the school holidays, even though he lived just around the corner, it still felt like an adventure.

He would knock on my bedroom door at just after 5am, where more often than not he would tell me that breakfast was waiting, two boiled eggs and perfectly browned doorsteps of toasted white bread and good old fashioned butter.

After helping with the washing up, we would often be headed out for a walk somewhere blackberrying in the summer, mushroom foraging in the autumn and still be back before 11am.

My early forays these days follow a similar pattern, the early train to a local venue in the early spring and summer to capture the new day, camera of course at the ready.

With trains not starting to run until after nine am on a Sunday, I will more often than not be found walking along the local quay and riverside paths here in Exeter, day 41 being one such day.

Sunday mornings always feel more laid back, the one day of the week where the world seems to slow down a little and take a bit of a breather.

I enjoy the peace and solitude of these brief few hours before the city comes to life, the way the light changes as the sun makes its ascent into the skies above, the random chats with fellow early risers going about their own Sunday, that flask of tea I always carry with me to enjoy somewhere along the way.

A deliberate abstract of the river reflections flipped 180 degrees.

50 days of 50mm #40

As I edge ever closer to completion of my current project, there is no doubt that I will contue to take just the 50mm lens on the regular outings, to keep the creativity it encourages honed.

However, the project has not just been about the lens, it has also been about my desire to quit from the upgrade race and enjoy camera gear that I would have liked a decade ago but simply could not justify the expense.

Just a few months ago, I had never entertained the idea of ever using a DSLR again, mirrorless cameras were king and of course they may well remain so for some time to come but I am one of those people that like using old gear, enter my Canon 5d MKII.

This camera body , along with the Canon 50mm F1.8 and my vintage 50mm pentacon 1.8 have been on some fabulous outings over the last few months, proving that I do not need to keep make huge dents in my finances to enjoy my trips.

So on day 40, it was a trip locally to Dawlish Warren, for some sea air and some shutter therapy, where my walk would start well before nine and finish before the Sunday day trippers arrived to enjoy their time at the beach.

Sunday was a day of threatening rain clouds alternating with sunny spells, perfect conditions for some good light with mood in the sky above.

With the tide just about on the ebb, my path was on the upper part of the beach where the softer sand slows the pace a little, giving the calf muscles a good work out over the course of the route.

I really enjoy these mornings on the beach, especially watching the ebbing tide reveal pristine sand as it recedes, it’s like natures etch a sketch, wiping the evidence of seabird or human footprints from its memory.

Anyway, enough words, here are the images from a stroll along the shore.

50 days of 50mm #39

With my week long excursion to Wales all but a memory, it was time to tread more familiar territory once more, with a visit to Torcross and Start point.

I have happy memories of visiting both venues occasionally on Sunday afternoons, the one special day reserved for ‘family time’ in the 1970’s, the post Sunday roast outing.

A few years later on, I would work as as a chef in the nearby town of Dartmouth and become more acquainted with the coast paths around the area, it would be some years later again before any sort of camera would become a part of these walks.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons I enjoy revisiting a place as much as I do seeing somewhere for the first time, making up for those days when I did not do photography… enough rambling what about today’s walk?

Arriving at just before 10am, being a Saturday, it’s ‘change over day’, those that have enjoyed their week here are getting ready to leave their holiday lets, making space for those arriving later today, I chat with one couple packing up their car, they say they have simply loved watching the sea views from the upper balcony of their holiday rental, it has been their most relaxing holiday ever!

It’s comments such as these that make me appreciate all the more, the fact these views are just an hour’s drive away and just how beautiful the county of Devon is.

After an hour or so capturing a few images around Torcross, it’s time to head out towards Start point, famous for it’s lighthouse and another beautiful part of the South west coast path.

The path towards the lighthouse is a winding route, the views are simply beautiful looking back once more towards Torcross and towards Dartmouth, I am only distracted from these views by a sighting of a pair of yellowhammers and stonechats in the hedges below the footpath wall, no chance of a photo of either species with my 50mm lens, I do not fancy carrying a lens the size of a small ship in my camera bag, I will leave that to the dedicated wildlife photographers.

As I come to the lighthouse itself, the gate is firmly closed, not open for visitors today, this is a trip for another day and a wider lens, something to look forward to on another day.