Summer knits

Shooting update

As the shooting schedule for 2026 starts to come to a close my mind shifts to various pies that my fingers need to be in. I'm currently putting together another shooting kit, for the other subjects I want to explore: landscapes, wildlife and more still lifes. Admittedly the SL3-S can handle that last one all day long.

But whilst its Panasonic siblings have focus stacking the SL range is distinctly lacking the feature. There's also a paucity of dedicated lenses for wildlife that are reasonably priced.

I've whittled it down to a Nikon Z system and now the basic choice is which body. Amazon has a great deal on the Z5ii (which although only a 24 megapixel body has a lot of the Z8 and Z9 features making it an underrated bargain. Indeed it outshines the 6ii in a lot of areas.

So it's a toss up between the 5 and the z7ii. The extra megapixels of the z7 help with print size and the ability to digitally crop with lots of detail. But I'm already finding 24 megapixel files and associated TIFFs create storage headaches aplenty!

Lens wise the Z 24-120mm is a given and will handle a lot of work. It's then which lens to pick up for bird and wildlife photography. The 24-120 will also work well in a studio, so there may come a time when the Leica finds a new home. I'm just sitting on a bit too much depreciation at the moment to give it serious thought...

Today's content

Today we're at Basford for the very first look I shot with Sigrife, on our full day together. I was very surprised when Leanne wasn't inundated with bookers for Sigrife's solitary studio day at the venue. As Sigrife was someone who has been on my to shoot list for a good few years, I initially took a half day and then offered to take the whole day, if no-one else stepped in. A week later I'd snagged the whole day for myself.

The 20 images in this set represent the commencement of a journey of exploration within a new working relationship. How do we interact with one another? How intuitive is the model? What does she notice and change? The answers to these questions then driving how the rest of the day pans out and how the resulting images present themselves.

The rest of the set is available to site members, which is as always free for most of my content.