Nature eventually reclaims what we build without constant maintenance. I wonder what the Earth would look like if humans disappeared from the face of it after thousands of years.
I browse Rightmove nowadays, it saddens me seeing once upon a time beautiful gardens of many houses. We have such a short span of life, it is so cruel !
We are selling my childhood home at the moment. It has a huge garden that my mother cultivated right up until the end. We always had fresh vegetables for dinner, and in the summer, strawberries and other fruit out of the garden. I cannon imagine our new buyers will have the time and patience to take advantage of the garden.
Regarding photo books. I often make Blurb books, when I finish a project, or just want a memory of a holiday. They are quite easy to make, and it it is an interesting exercise in making a large scale coherent picture story. Making a book is a really good way of improving your photography, as putting a large set of pictures together, that flow well and hang together is quite challenging. You will find you will probably have to specifically make some new shots to make the book work.
But they are quite expensive, and even if you are not interested in making a profit, I think selling them will be quite difficult in a hyper overcrowded market.
I make Ebooks using Book Creator. I use the free version, that allows 40 books. It is made for the teaching industry, but they have not twigged yet that I am an intruder.
An enjoyable read as usual. This landscape reminds me a lot of the Apennines.
Camera weight can be deceptive. Sometimes a FF setup can weigh less than a smaller format. I was surprised when I compared the weight of my Z7 +28-200 with an EM1 + 12-100. There are just a few grams between them. Have you sold the Z7, I would maybe prefer thai camera over a Z8 for hiking.
No, trade in prices for the Z7 MKI are pitiful, so I decided to keep it as a back up in case anything ever happened to the Z8.
There's less than 200g between both bodies (including their respective L-brackets which I keep permanently attached), so I figure it's worth accepting that little bit of extra weight for the usability improvements the Z8 brings to the party such as improved responsiveness, a better user interface, better viewfinder, improved screen articulation and the real decider for me, the ability to display a horizon level and histogram at the same time.
To save a bit more weight I could have swapped out the 24-70 f/2.8S for the 24-70 f/4.0S, which is significantly lighter, but does hit the IQ a little bit.
The X-T50 is certainly a lot lighter on its own, but the X series lenses (particularly the faster ones) are surprisingly large and heavy, although I was still surprised that my collection of primes was more than heavy enough to outweigh the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8S which is quite a heavy lump on its own. It's a pity I was so underwhelmed with the X fit Sigma 28-70 f/2.8 for it as that combination is significantly lighter, but the IQ of those together is a clear step down (at least with the copies I have) in my opinion.
Of course, if I could manage the weight, I'd be lugging the GFX, its humungous lenses and a tripod around on these bigger walks, but I'm clearly no longer up to that sort of challenge these days, so it's a matter of being practical and finding an IQ to weight compromise that works for me and I was very pleased with the results from the Nikon combo on this trip and didn't find myself struggling too much with the weight.
I find plant photography really difficult, ferns in particular can look great in real life, but lose something when you photograph them. This one jumps out to me as the best composition, although it could have benefited from better light. It looks nice and sharp to me, although the serrated effect of the fern leaves gives them a fuzzy appearance when viewed as a whole. I get a similar effect to this when photographing pine forests, it can look like a blurry mess looking at the entire image, but it's perfectly sharp when you zoom in.
Nicely done, particularly going hand held with a (tilt?)shift lens. This is a nice image of a fine looking church, although the pink paint job seems a bit gaudy and unnecessary. I can't imagine the Norman's painting the external stonework like that.
On first viewing, this image struck me the most. I like the symmetrical framing here and the tonal range in use, leaving the highlights bright and resisting the urge to pull the shadows up, leaving them dark and forbidding.
I dismissed this one at first glance, but fortunately clicked through to see it full screen, I think it may be the best of the bunch.