Lenscraft Newsletter November 2016

Welcome to the Lenscraft Newsletter November 2016.

A Call to Photographers

Here we are at the end of October and I’m gearing up for the Autumn colour. This is one of the best times of the year to be a Landscape Photographer and I desperately want to make the most of this short window of colour. This year, judging by the condition of the trees in my garden, I don’t expect Autumn to be particularly vibrant.

The Autumn colours are though just one of the special seasonal events we need to be ready for. What I’m aiming to do is compile a calendar of the different things the photographer can look out for and publish this on the Lenscraft website.

At present in the UK I can think of the following:

1. Flowering heather – Late August to Early September
2. Early morning mist, particularly in fields and around lakes and rivers. October into November.
3. Autumn colours - Late October to early November.
4. Snow tends to hit the mountain tops from November through to April but the best months tend to late Jan through to early March. There is also a heightened chance in late November as well as February into early March.
5. Rain showers with broken shower clouds in April. Here it can be a good idea to get high in areas with far sweeping views or on the coast.
6. April to September tends to be best for Infrared Landscapes on bright sunny days.

If you can think of other items to add to the list I would be delighted to hear from you. Please email any suggestions to [email protected].

If I receive sufficient ideas, I will set up a page that can be quickly searched by time of year. It would also be great to add information for locations outside of the UK to make this a useful resource for photographers everywhere.

Withdrawing the 30-Day Challenge

As I have mentioned before, I will be withdrawing the 30-Day Challenge emails. The entire transcript of the emails will be added to the “Photography Tutorials” found in the Hub. This will happen in the next couple of weeks so no one will miss out. I will leave the original Flickr Group in place in case people suddenly decide to take advantage.

Camera Switch

If you read my blog www.thelightweightphotographer.com you may be aware that I recently purchased a Fuji XT1 camera. Following a brief but turbulent trial with the camera I have now purchased the Fuji XT2, which is the latest model. The intention is to replace my Olympus micro 43 equipment. It’s been quite a learning experience with some valuable lessons even if you don’t use Fuji. I will report more on this through the blog in the future so be sure to keep up to date.

New Book Planned

As mentioned above, my recent purchase of the Fuji XT1 was not without its challenges. In the early days, I experienced quite a few problems with image quality and found out that I wasn’t alone. Many of you appear to have similar issues with image quality with some even selling or trading in the Fuji equipment.

I’m pleased to say that I have now overcome all my image quality problems and the Fuji is producing some excellent images. I suspect my experience can help many Fuji owners who may be struggling so I’m developing a short book on the subject. This will include a significant section on using the RAW Therapee RAW file converter.

If you’re not aware of RAW Therapee, it’s an advanced RAW converter that’s free. It’s extremely capable and produces some of the best results I have seen with the Fuji XTrans sensor as well as RAW files from other cameras. The downside is that the software is very inaccessible to new users, which is where I hope my book will help.

I’m hoping to be able to publish the book in early 2017. If you ever want to see a complete listing of all my published books you can check my Amazon Author’s page.

Christmas Gift

I am planning a gift for all Lenscraft members this year but I have a couple of options. I haven’t finalised my decision but I expect it to include video footage as well as documentation. The gift will only be available to Lenscraft members through the Lenscraft website for a short time, so look out for my email in December.

You Tube

My new You Tube Channel has gained a few subscribers now and the general feedback appears to be favourable.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYMWL3WXU9QMeOUhD3lOpEw

If you have any ideas for possible videos or subjects that you would like to see, do let me know. You can email me at [email protected].

I have also published a few of the You Tube videos through the Lenscraft website for those of you who don’t want to use You Tube. You can find these under the “Photography Tutorials” section of Lenscraft.

Happy snapping until next month

Robin Whalley
Landscape Photographer

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