We took advantage of some recent good weather in the UK and booked a short caravan holiday, Mon-Fri, at Ladram Bay on the East Devon coast. A late booking discount meant we paid £360 for an eight berth caravan plus an extra £40 for the dog.
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Beth hosts this weeks Lens-Artist Challenge which is – Let’s have a little fun and feature subjects that begin with the letter B. What subjects can you find that start with the letter B? You can choose several different subjects and share one image of each one.
I’ve had a scan through my pics and come up with these images for this weeks challenge:
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John has set this weeks challenge – Tools of Photo Composition: Perspective, Depth, and Scale
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We revisited Rethymno, Crete, at the beginning of the month staying once again in the Aquila Porto Rethymnon Hotel. This was a half board deal, booked through TUI, flying from Bristol UK into Heraklion, Crete. The flight and airport were pretty uneventful although the transfer from the airport to the hotel took 90 minutes in a pretty uncomfortable, packed minibus. Still, we were on holiday and didn’t care.
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Its been a while since I posted in relation to my vintage lens journey and I’ve added to my collection during that time. The first of my recent acquisitions was a Nikon 105mm f2.5 Pre AI lens. It was a popular lens back in the 70’s and 80’s and was made famous by Steve McCurry who shot the famous Afghan Girl image for National Geographic with a copy.
I really like this lens. It’s very sharp with lovely smooth bokeh wide open. It is heavy, very heavy in fact, but that’s a small price to pay for a lens of this quality. It’s built like a tank which is just as well as I dropped mine from waist height onto a concrete floor last week. Luckily it landed on the lens converter and, despite the sudden jolt, the lens seems to have come through the ordeal unscathed.
As I was so happy with my previous Nikon purchases I decided to invest in a Nikon 28mm f2.8 AI a few weeks ago. There are several versions of this lens and what I really wanted was the later AIS version. That lens is regarded, in some quarters, as the best lens ever produced by Nikon. It has 8 elements, one of which is floating, as opposed to the 7 elements in my 28mm AI version.
At the time of purchasing my AI version I couldn’t get hold of the AIS model in the UK. It’s an expensive lens as well so I thought I’d buy an AI version which was a lot cheaper (about the third of the price of the AIS version). It had a small amount of fungus on the edge of the front element but that’s had no impact on my images.
The lens arrived just before a weeks holiday in Rethymno, Crete where I used it a lot. The hype around these Nikon 28mm lenses is justified in my opinion. This is a cracking lens and I really enjoyed using it last week.
Whilst we were away a Nikon 28mm AIS became available on Ebay in the UK. It was advertised as a mint example and was being sold by a seller I’ve bought from before and who I had been really pleased with. I decided to make a bid on the lens with a maximum price I was prepared to pay in mind. On the final sale day I won the auction by £3!
The lens arrived once we were back from Crete and it’s a really good copy. I’ve not had chance to use it yet but I’m looking to going out with it sometime this week. I might sell my existing 28mm or open it up and see if I can clean the fungus. I’m keen to have a go. I need to buy some Japanese Industrial Screwdrivers before I can open it up so I’m still mulling that one over.
The quality of these old Nikon lenses (and the Canon FD lenses come to that) is superb. They’re a joy to use and it’s made me revaluate where I’m going with these old lenses. I’ve found I now have favourites amongst my collection and I’m not using a lot of the mostly cheaper lenses I initially started out with.
However, the majority of these other old lenses seem to have at least one redeeming feature which makes me want to hang on to them. Usually it’s the way they render bokeh. That redeeming feature is probably why I bought a particular lens in the first place.
I’m still really enjoying using these old lenses but I’ve found myself moving on to higher priced, better quality, examples as my journey with them continues. So, for the time being, I think I’m going to resist making any further additions to my collection. Well, until I read another vintage lens blog with another amazing lens review and recommendation.
All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2026 – All rights reserved
Patti hosts this weeks challenge and asks us to use compositional tips to improve our images. The tips and full challenge details are outlined in her original challenge post which you can find here.
We’ve just returned from a holiday where my camera has been really busy. Having returned on Friday I shot a wedding yesterday so there’s no way I’ll get out this week to shoot new images for the challenge. What I can do is use some of the images from yesterday, and last week, to fit some of the tips in Patti’s post.
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Tina has set this weeks challenge – The rule of three. The rule of threes depicts images which contain three subjects. This is a lesser-known photographic concept but perhaps one worthy of further exploration.
I have to say this was a new rule for me. I can’t say I’ve ever deliberately taken a picture with this rule in mind, up until today that is. I could say that I’ve tried to shoot still life subjects, like food, in a triangle around the frame. That very loosely follows the same concept but the objects in those triangles can be very different things and not obviously three distinct items.
We’re currently on holiday in Rethymno, Crete, Greece. So without access to my portfolio at home I went out for a walk this morning and tried to find groups three to photograph for the challenge. Like last weeks Lens Artist tasking, it was another interesting photographic exercise. I’ve ended up with a few images I’m pleased with that I wouldn’t normally have shot. It’s one reason I love Lens Artists, I’m thinking differently and shooting images I wouldn’t shoot – last week and today are two great examples.
I’m typing on an iPad, which is painful, so without further ado here are my challenge images, all shot in Rethymno today…
Thank you to Tina for hosting and setting another challenging challenge. It’s proper ‘SCHORCHIO’ here so I’m getting back on the sun bed now. I’ll leave you with a lovely sunset shot from last night.
All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2026 – All rights reserved
Egidio sets this weeks challenge. his original challenge post is here. To quote from Egidio’s post, these are the rules for the ‘Stuck in a Place’ challenge:
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This week Ritva has set the Lens-Artist Challenge with this brief – For this week’s Lens- Artists challenge , you are to select one color (excluding black and white). Share a maximum of 6 photos where your chosen color is the prominent hue, or alternatively, you may share one photo featuring each of the following captivating colors in their various shades: red, blue, green, purple, orange, and yellow.
Here are my images featuring the colours selected by Ritva.
Thank you to Ritva for setting and hosting a great challenge. I love a colour pic and I’m looking forward to scrolling though this weeks responses.
All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.
Anne has set this weeks Lens Artist Challenge. Anne has asked us to show images where texture plays an integral part. Here original challenge post can be found here: Lens Artist Challenge #397: Texture
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Steve Hyde 