Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-03-07)

subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 7 March 2020 31

WEX PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Reach for the stars

Andi’s current camera of choice is a Sony

Alpha 7R III. ‘I have only ever shot mirrorless,

as I only seriously got into photography around

2014-15, starting out with Samsung.

I upgraded to the original Sony A7R,

bought second-hand from

Wex Photo Video. When

the Sony A7R III came out,

I felt it was time to upgrade.

It’s a great camera and

does more than I need it to.

I’d actually recommend the

Sony A7 III as being better for my kind of work

as the sensor generates less noise.’

For lenses, Andi mainly uses a Samyang

24mm f/1.8, a Samyang 14mm f/2.8, and a

Sony 50mm f/1.8. ‘Each lens cost lens than

£400. I am a firm believer in sometimes

buying second-hand. On “Space

Pirates” I used a Kase Wolverine

inverted 3 stop soft grad, and

Kase Wolverine neutral night filter

on the image of St Michael’s

Mount, as some ships were giving

off orange sodium light.’

the right balance; if you shoot too

wide, the subject disappears. The

Mount is the subject, and the stars

complement it, so it didn’t matter so

much that the image was not so

sharp at the edges, which tends to

happen when using a prime lens at a

wider aperture. Unless you are

looking at the edges with a

magnifying glass, does it matter?’

As mentioned, Andi will often

take three vertical images if longer

focal lengths mean he can’t get the

whole of the scene in one shot, and

then merge them in software. ‘If

you capture the Milky Way in

enough light and detail, software

will happily merge the images for

you. I don’t feel the need for bespoke

panoramic software or a star

tracker, I just have a tripod and

ball head. The only extra tools I use

are filters.’

Andi is associated with Kase

Filters, and swears by its neutral

night filter for helping to control the

effect orange sodium lights. He

says, ‘With “Space Pirates”, the

used a Sony 50mm lens with a fast
aperture of f/1.8. ‘The rule of 500
meant I could keep the shutter open
for ten seconds, and the wide
aperture really helped make the
most of the available light.’ For the
final image, Andi took three vertical
images at the same exposure and
then merged them in Lightroom.
‘Another shot that did well in the
competition this year was of St
Michael’s Mount in Cornwall (above
right). Again, 50mm was the right
lens length to get the monument in

Above left: ‘Space

Pirates’, Beer, Devon

Sony Alpha 7R III, 50mm,

8sec at f/1.8, ISO 2500,

Kase SGND filter

Above right: ‘Milky

St Michael’s’,

Cornwall

Sony Alpha 7R III, 50mm,

10sec at f/1.8, ISO 1250,

Kase Neutral Night filter