Author: phillipwatson
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Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew
The Palm House at Kew Garden is set to close for 5 years for renovations in 2027, I have been meaning to visit for some time but this deadline gave me the push needed to finally make the visit a reality. The gardens are expansive, filled with a collection of beautiful Victorian cast iron and…
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Cornwall on Samyang’s 35mm and 21mm primes
Cornwall is an area of the UK that I have wanted to visit for many years, mostly due to it housing The Eden Project. However geographically it has always been very distant from me, both when I have lived in Suffolk and in Yorkshire. So up until now I had not got round to making…
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Samyang 12mm f2 appreciation
I have owned the Samyang Samyang 12mm f2.0 NCS CS Lens for around 5 years now and while 12mm (18 full frame equivalent) is not a focal length that I use often I always carry it with me. Such a wide focal length is difficult to use, it requires very specific scenes and compositions to…
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Photographing Snowdonia – Glyder Fawr
Back in september I decided to go to north Wales for a long weekend in the last weeks of the years camping season. The weekend served as a trial by fire test run for a new tent because as seems to be usual for me the days chosen were at the tail end of a…
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TTArtisan 500mm F6.3 Review
Following on from my previous blog post about my experience using the samyang 500mm f8 lens that I had picked up for just £40, I developed the upgrade itch, I wanted more but I did not want to pay 20x more than I paid for the samyang.Enter the TTArtisan 500mm F6.3, a manual focus telephoto…
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7Artisans 35mm F1.2 Mk2 thoughts and impressions
Earlier this year I saw a used copy of the 7artisans 35mm f1.2 mark 2 for Fujifilm X mount. It only cost £70 and so curiosity won the battle over my wallet that day.I have previously tried their f1.4 35mm lens that retails at roughly half the price of this one and while I was…
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Experimenting with a retro 500mm lens
Wildlife and birds are not my main areas of interest in photography however I happen to live within walking distance of an RSPB site, so on a nice evening or when I have nothing better to do I find myself taking a walk down with the camera to pass the time.My only telephoto lens is…
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The Industrial North
Recently I have been working my way North along the North East coast of england visiting the various towns and beaches that I have not previously been to in an attempt to experience new parts of the country and discover new photographic oportunities. Redcar is a place we visited often when I was a child…
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Thruscross Reservoir Photography
At the weekend just gone I drove upto Thruscross Reservoir in North Yorkshire, recently I have been looking around for interesting examples of brutalist structures and civil engineering works. The cold oppresive nature of these structures often juxtaposed with nature or natural elements always draws my attention, I even find a lot of them almost…
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Autumnal Woodland Photography
I was late with my first trip out to catch some autumn coloursthis year, fortunately it seems that due to the unseasonally warm weather autumn was slightly late to Dalby forest aswell. Dalby forest consists of over 8,500 acres of woodland in the North Yorkshire Moors National park and I think it is one of…
Attempting Art 