Spring at Eltham Palace

I’m slowly re-emerging after the birth of our second son 6 weeks ago. We’ve managed to get out of the house a reasonable amount already, made easier with Oxleas Wood and Eltham Palace only a few minutes drive away providing some accessible greenery. Today’s image comes from the gardens at Eltham Palace.

In amongst the sleep-deprivation I have been managing to play with a bit of camera gear, even if it’s often simple test shots at home. After a mis-judged second folly with Leica (an M10), I traded the Leica in for the Fujifilm GFX 50R which has had a great set of discounts recently. I also managed to pick up a few used and vintage lenses, including the lens that got me this image: a Leica Summicron-R 50mm f2.

I’ll write properly about the camera and lens another time, but I’m really happy with the results so early on. The insane quality of the GFX sensor I’m already aware of from the GFX 50S but I’ve been really pleasantly surprised with how the Summicron holds up on the larger sensor. You get a 39mm ƒ/1.6 full-frame equivalent view and it would seem you do indeed also get that same Leica quality, just at a much, much lower price point than in M-mount.

This photograph was hand-held, a bit of a throwaway but the fourth of four frames I took as we crossed the moat bridge. 

I was pleasantly surprised how well it came out when I reviewed in Lightroom. While I’ve never tried all that hard to ‘properly’ photograph this tree, it is also one of those trees/scenes that looks great in person and rarely that great as a flat 2D photograph. While being wary of assigning too much to the ‘medium format look’, the depth in this image comes through well I think. 

The colour certainly helps, with plenty of lush green surrounding the red-brown tree trunk and dottings of white wildflowers.

All-in-all, a nice little image taken on a walk with the family that’s helped bring back the photographic itch through all the sleep deprivation.