Nokia Lumia 920 Camera Review

I was recently contacted by Nokia UK who asked if I'd like to try out the camera on their shiny new Nokia Lumia 920 phone.  Being a bit of a gadget freak, I'm always keen to try out new tech, so I jumped at the chance.

I will start by saying that I just cannot get on with typing on a touchscreen phone or tablet, in fact I hate touch screen typing with the same kind of passion normally reserved for people who talk in the cinema.  So the Nokia 920 was never going to replace my trusty, if somewhat unfashionable Blackberry Bold.  

The week the camera arrived it was stupidly cold outside, so the camera got tested inside on my resident model, my dog Skip, who was recovering from a leg operation at the time, hence the sad face.  It's actually one of my favourite photos of Skip, processed entirely on the phone.  We were off to a good start.

That weekend I was due to to go London for a photowalk, so what better time to give the camera a proper work out.  I've not edited the London shots in anyway other than to resize them.  They are exactly as they came off the phone.

It was during the first part of the London walk that I had my first problem with the camera.  It refused to focus on shadows on the ground.  Being high in contrast differences I would have expected this to be an easy subject, but despite trying numerous times the Nokia Lumia 920 simply would not focus.

I thought it might be a quirk to this particular scene, or maybe the fact that it was pointing down at the ground, but nope.  When I tried again to focus on the ground by my feet, each and every time it refused to focus.  It would however focus on closer subjects.

Also just to add to the confusion, it seemed to focus perfectly nearly all of the time while in video mode.

I gave up using it after both still and video camera "green screened" on me.  Meaning that when going into the photo taking modes, all it would display was a green screen.  We had to Google how to do a soft reset (which in turn reset the time & date of the phone).

I'm still not sure if I'd been sent a prototype or a faulty version of the phone.  Either way I was left rather unimpressed with how the bugs on the phone I had.

Photos follow - they are all self explanatory, except the second to last one which was taken using one of the different "Lens" options.

The View from The Shard

On Saturday with a small group of my Photo Experience Days clients I made my way up to the top of The Shard in London.  The tickets had been purchased a few months earlier, but I'd been careful to research the sunset time for our day, and timed our assent for shortly before.   The aim was to get the best light of the day, and also some night lights as a bonus.

Luck was on our side for the weather, and we'd had a wonderfully sunny day, a far cry from the bitter winter conditions over the previous couple of weeks.

The pay in advance price of £25 is a tad steep, but honestly don't let it put you off.  You'll be rewarded with a stunning view over one of the greatest cities in the world.

The whole experience from ground to sky and back again was excellent, although I still think they missed a trick with the tv screens in the roofs of the lifts.  They should have put them in the floor and simulated the floor of the lift opening up James Bond style!  Or perhaps my twisted mind is working overtime. 

The sunset was spoiled a tad by selfish people at the top who didn't move away from the windows for the whole of the sunset.  I managed to push myself in to grab a couple of quick shots though.

The trick to getting good photos through the slightly dirty windows was to get the lens as close as possible, and then cup any gaps between window and lens with your hand.  At least that's what I did, and it seemed to work fairly well at cutting out reflections.

I highly recommend this experience to anyone visiting London.

Falconry Photo Experience Day

My first Photo Experience Day with Falconhigh was last weekend.  First time working with someone new, you never quite know what to expect.  I am very happy to report that my expectations were met and surpassed.

Falconhigh is located in the grounds of Brambridge Garden Centre, an upmarket garden centre roughly midway between Winchester & Eastleigh.

Phil and his fellow falconers looked after my group of photographers excellently.

In the morning we had a chance to get to know the birds, with static shots on rocks, branches, gate posts and then getting a chance to hold and pose with several of the falcons.

After a very nice lunch at the garden centre cafe, it was time for the real challenge - trying to capture the birds in flight.  Never an easy subject to photograph, our job was made quite a bit easier by the patience of the falconers (and falcons) who over the following 2 hours gave us plenty of opportunities to get "the" shot.  So much fun was had that the event overran by 40 minutes.

If you like photography, and you like falcons, then you really need to combine the two and do a falconry day.  I'll be running more Falconry Photo Experience Days for sure!

A huge thank you to Phil, Darren and the other falconers whose name escapes me.  They understood our needs perfectly and, I think I can speak for everyone who attended here, gave us a really great day out!

Photo credit:  The photo of the owl sitting on my lens was taken by Trevor Morecraft.  Cheers for the photo Mr M!

Longleat in the rain

On a cold and very wet Sunday in February a group of photography enthusiasts from as far afield as Poole & Essex descended on Longleat Safari Park.  The weather forecast was for rain the whole day, but 10 of us made the trip and kept as positive as we could.

The one benefit of the awful weather was that only a handful of others had braved the elements, so the park was nice and quiet.  When I say quiet, sadly several of the cafes are "themed" rather badly, and have loud music or overly loud thunder claps as "effects".  I'm sure Longleat paid £1000's for these "features", but really, they spoiled the dining experience.   If you are listening Longleat please turn the volume down a notch or two. 

On a more positive note, a couple of features that were really good for photographers - a hot air blower in the tropical butterfly house that helps de-mist camera lens within just a few seconds, and a tripod that anyone could use in the Bat Cave.  Small things, but kudos to Longleat for these.

A good time was had by all, and the photos that I've seen so far from people who attended are really rather good indeed.  Please don't let a bit of bad weather put you off from going out and taking photos.  You might have to work a bit harder, and maybe not have quite so many keepers, but it's almost always still worth the effort.

Would you like to join us on our next Photo Experience Day Social?   Check out the website and get in touch.  New people are always welcomed.

My first concert

I just found this ticket while tidying up and it is bringing the memories of being 17 years old come flooding back.

Nearly twenty six years ago I went to my first ever concert.

It was Peter Gabriel playing at Earls Court.

The ticket price of £14 seems so cheap now, but at the time it was a lot of money to me, especially when you add in the price of the special coach trip up to London.

Even the trip up proved to be a bit of an adventure, with our coach breaking down somewhere along the M3.  Luck was on my side as I was able to jump into the second coach travelling up with us.

I can't remember much from the concert except for 2 things.  The first being we had really rubbish seats, and the second being that Kate Bush made a special unannounced appearance to join Peter on stage to sing "Don't Give Up" with him.  I might be wrong but I believe that's the one and only time they've ever performed the song on stage together?

By the time we arrived back in Southampton, the buses had long since stopped for the evening, and being so broke we had to walk the 5 miles home.

What a show!

Man's best friend

Skip, my lovely border collie is 10 years old later in the year.  Hopefully he has many good years ahead, but you just never know what might happen tomorrow.  I have lots of good photos of Skip that I've taken myself, but only a handful of half decent ones of him and me.

It was time to put that right.   Just before Christmas I contacted someone who had attended one of my Photo Experience Days earlier in the year.

Hayley had been on one of my Night Photo Experiences and her photos had stood out from the crowd as being that little bit different.  She also shoots in a similar (ish) style to myself, which was quite important to me.  As it happens she was also a dog lover and jumped at the chance to help me out.

I'm struggling to find the words here, but don't leave it too late to take photos of you and your loved ones.  I'm speaking from experience here as I have no good recent photos of my Dad (who passed away in 2011) and myself.  Whether it be getting a professional photographer in to take the shots, or just asking a friend or family member.  Just don't leave it too late.   

The photos were taken on a particularly cold January's afternoon, in a very muddy woods.

A big thank you to Hayley B for the photos.  I love them!

Snow Day

When you live in the south of England, snow is quite rare.  Maybe once every couple of years will we get a decent covering of snow.   When it comes, even I get a little excited.   This time I grabbed my camera, and my faithful friend Skip and went for a walk...

Finding Lucky...

I found Lucky and mum again today!  What am I talking about?  Read this blog post from last year.

Today was the first time I've seen Mother and Daughter since that day in May last year.  I knew they were both okay because I'd bumped into the farmers daughter some months before (yes I know how dodgy that sounds!).   It was great to see them both out and about in the forest and looking so well.

A London Photo Walk

I've done many a photo walk around London before, either just by myself or with a friend, but never as part of a larger group.  It was suggested to me by one of my Photo Experience Days clients that a pre Christmas walk around London would be a good idea, so I "made it so".

It was a particularly wet day when we met up at the Park Plaza Westminster to start our walk around London.

I had a rough route in my head, with the main plan being to avoid any and all shopping areas.

We started off around Westminster before walking along Whitehall to a particularly uninspiring Trafalgar Square.  By this point we were all soaked, and decided to jump on the tube to hide from the rain at the British Museum.   Sods law being what it is meant that by the time we exited Holborn tube it had stopped raining. 

Meh.

Lunch was had in a cafe at back of a second hand photography store called the Camera Cafe (it seemed appropriate).

A brief visit to the British Museum was had.  It was already starting to get dark when we reached "The City".  A brief stop to refresh and relax at the Guoman Tower Bridge Hotel and a quick Google search later told us the bridge was going to rise shortly.

We found ourselves being moved on from taking photos of the bridge by a security guard from the building next to the Guoman.  I'm sure it was a public right of way, but it was easier to just move on and take the photos from elsewhere.

With the heavens opening again we quickly found our way back to the tube and heading across town to Hyde Park Corner to do some long exposures of the traffic.  Next it was the joy of being refused entry for being too scruffy and them being a bit scared of cameras by the Hilton on Park Lane.  A shame because the view from the top is stunning.

All in all, despite the weather, it was a great day out.  The next one I'll probably try and concentrate on 2 or 3 areas and not travel so much across the city. 

Enough words, more photos...