EOS R5 Mark II pre-continuous shooting on off with M-Fn button

EOS R5 Mark II includes the ability to capture images from the fractions of a second before you actually press the shutter fully down. This is called pre-continuous shooting and can capture up to 15 frames, each one is saved as an individual file in RAW or JPG/HEIFF as per your camera settings. Wildlife and sports photographers have found the feature helpful, but wanted a simple way to turn it on and off. I found a way to do that.

I also think this will work for the EOS R1 too, but don’t have a camera in my hands yet to prove it.

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Birds in Flight

After I gave a talk to Bracknell Camera Club I was asked by three of their members if I could help them to refine the settings of their EOS R6 Mark II and EOS R7 cameras so that they could get better shots of birds in flight. We met up for a half day in Andover to make use of the flying displays at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, and combine that with a couple of sessions around a table in the cafe to explain how to get the best from the cameras they had. During the three flying sessions I took a few photos myself, and really enjoyed the results especially the last session in relatively poor light with the owls. These tuition sessions with a relevant practical activity have proven to be popular, especially with 1-2-1 and small groups, so please ask if you would like some training for yourself.

Most of these are with the EOS R6 Mark II, however I did take my EOS R10, and one of the shots in the section is with the R10 and RF-S 18-150mm kit lens!

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Adrianna

In September I met up with Adrianna again for a very last minute evening shoot. We had arranged the shoot just a couple of hours before we were due to meet up. The location was a country park and woodlands on the outskirts of Oxford. The sun had been out for most of the day and the evening looked to be good for a sunset shoot. I also wanted to revisit a previous shoot using a car parked in the car park, and this time we selected this blue convertible. The early shots were all natural light, but for the car I used a Godox AD200 Pro with a small reflector to give me the ability to light sections of the photo independent of the ambient light.

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British Super Bikes – Thruxton

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Thruxton circuit, the last time was for a driving experience many years ago. A photographer friend mentioned they were going to Thruxton to photograph the British Super Bike round there, and the Friday session was a good choice as it would be less crowded. The sun shone, I got some mild sunburn and I took an incredible amount of photos. Finally managing over 4,000 shots on the LP-E6NH battery in the EOS R6 Mark II. I only used a single lens, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM sometimes with the EF extender 1.4x III and sometimes with the EOS R10 too. The pictures here are from both cameras and almost evenly split between the two bodies. At the very start of the day I went a long way round the circuit to see what the vantage point offered. From the top of a tall bank I was looking down on racers as they took the curve below me. A great angle in my opinion, but boy are the small junior racers fast. Moving back towards the start / finish line there was an opportunity to shoot through the catch fencing. Using the long end of the zoom on the EOS R10 was ideal for eliminating the wire of the fence in front of me. Later on I moved further to the chicane that is the last corner on the circuit.

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Oxford

The City of Oxford is my closest city, and is one of the places that is very easy for me to get which offers a he range of locations and subjects to photograph. I joined a number of groups of photographers, Photo Club Oxford and Oxford Photo Walk at various times of the year. These groups have meet-ups for photographers to explore the city as a group, sometimes with a theme, sometimes not. A great social experience and opportunity to meet fellow photographers. I’ve also lead a couple of photo walks in Oxford myself, one for my camera club and the annual Scott Kelly Worldwide Photowalk. I also visited over the Oxford open doors weekend in September which is amazing to gain access to places that would normally be off-limits or a chargeable visit. At one point in April I scouted the city for locations to do a spring photoshoot with a model for a visiting photographer, but  days after the scouting strip in beautiful sunshine the rain came down and turned lovely and sunny to muddy, wet and cold.

More than half of these photos were taken with the EOS R10, it’s a brilliant lightweight camera that offers all the control you need. I often pair it with the RF-S 18-150mm kit lens or an EF 40mm pancake lens.

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Xanthe Rose / Tanith

It can hardly be a year of photography without finding Tanith in front of my camera at some stage. In 2024 we managed three meetings at opposite ends of the camera, and each one was a workshop group or individual tuition session, so I didn’t take as many photos as some other years. We started with a session in January around the Winter Lights festival at Canary Wharf in London. Rather cold, with a lot of hot chocolate required to thaw out afterwards, then a small battery powered flash workshop in April before a last minute single Speedlite session around Kings Cross in December.

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Speedway

I managed to get along to the local Oxford Speedway track for two meetings in 2024, with several others I planned to go to called off due to wet weather. This season Oxford had teams competing in all three of the national championship leagues with the Oxford Spires (British Premiership League), Cheetahs (British Championship League) and Chargers (British National League). From May to July the light evenings are a boon for action photos mid-week. The racing is fast paced over four laps each heat and fifteen heats over the evening. I have tried various styles of shot from several different vantage points in the spectator areas, and usually move around the circuit after starting at turn three.

I primarily use an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM lens with Extender EF 1.4x III for all the shots there as my longer lenses have slower maximum apertures. OF the 12 images here four are with the EOS R10 and the rest with EOS R6 Mark II.

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Dee Riley

This year I was asked to put on some studio portrait evenings for a couple of local camera clubs. The clubs ask me to source suitable models, usually one make and one female. This year I worked with Dee Riley on two separate such workshop evenings. His stage presence and elegant style came to the fore on both events and I look forward to making more photos with him in 2025 too.

Such evenings are not my opportunity to be taking many photos, but I do try to get one or two when setting up the lighting for the club members to use. I usually setup on space with constant LED light so any camera can work without a trigger, even phones. The other uses studio flash lighting, and that often means scouring round several cameras to find the setting to allow the camera to fire a flash on the hotshoe that is not dedicated, and stop overriding the ISO because it appears dark. With many mirrorless models appearing I am also quite adept at finding the settings to switch of exposure simulation or exposure preview on multiple brands too.

If your camera club could be interested in a similar session, please do get in touch.

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Deer rut at Richmond Park

Early in October I went to Richmond park to photograph the red deer during the rut. This particular morning was truly one of the most amazing days, there was a blanket of mist over the park, sunshine above the fog and frost on the ground. There were many other photographers all around the park, so sometimes it was a little harder to get a background fee of them or the fluorescent green cad cyclists that use the roads in the park. One of my very first photos after arriving at the car park had no deer in it all, the one with the birds flying through the mist against the warm toned sky. After a little walking around I spotted my first deer and then for the next few hours took plenty of photos while walking around as the light and conditions changed from thick fog to clearer brighter light.

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Motocross – British MX Championship at Canada Heights

Once I had made the first motorsport event of the year in May, I soon headed to the next, the British MX championship round 2 at Canada Heights. This was an action packed day of racing in the usual range of categories from the youths to the top flight professional riders. The Canada Heights circuit was in great condition and offers an extensive range of viewing points for spectators and photographers, but be prepared to walk plenty.

If one of the photos looks a little unusual, I did make use of a Speedlite to add a little pop when one of the brief rain showers passed over the circuit and brought the light levels down enough to allow me to underexpose the background with shutter speed and still be able to pan. So yes second curtain sync, and on-camera flash. You’ll notice that in the true sense motocross is an off-road sport, most of my photos featured airborne riders

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Emma

In 2024 I worked with Emma on three occasions; one of my studio portrait workshops, a session at a local studio and a creative evening shared with another photographer. Over these sessions we tried a number of different shots, some using regular straightforward studio setups with natural light, studio flash and constant lights. A few more combining lasers, super long exposures, double exposures and even a projector.

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Grasstrack racing

In 2024 I wanted to return to the grass roots motorsport of grass track racing. However the early season was often washed out by rain that soaked the fields where this racing takes place. After a number of cancelled events and me starting to wonder when I would actually get to photograph any motorsport in 2024, I got to Chaddesley Corbett in Worcestershire in May. A track I had not been to, but a sport that I had a little bit of experience with.

I was now prepared for the change of direction around the track, with the “big chairs” 1000cc sidecars racing clockwise round the oval track and the other classes racing anti-clockwise. The track and Chaddesley Corbett had a slight elevation change and that allows some views from almost race level depending on where you pick to shoot from. I was certainly making use of the push-to-pan button on the day, though I have changed it round to be push-to-freeze action. This means I can move the panning shutter speed easily in normal shooting, but have the action freezing speed which is less used on the button when needed.

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My Little Goth – Alicia

In 2024 I have again worked with some familiar faces, and one of the most recognisable is Alicia, who I’ve photographed more than anyone else in 2024. This despite me not doing as many model shoots over the year.

From the last portrait workshop of 2024, Alicia selected her “Christmas dress” as the outfit and her brilliant make-up skills made for a truly amazing look.

Earlier in the year we’d found time for a couple of outdoor shoots both around sunset time, but one much warmer than the other.

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Studio Portrait Workshops

In 2023 I ran a series of small group studio workshops. These workshops were packed with learning about working with models, lighting, and also a lot of learning about camera settings. Starting in February, they ran on the third Thursday of each month until the end of November. Over the months the workshops were hosted in two different studios, a farmyard and a large village hall. It was rather unfortunate that the local studio closed it’s doors after the June session, but that presented an opportunity to explore other locations.

A huge thanks to all the models who worked with me to create these events, but equally to the photographers – one of them booked on all 10 workshops – who came along and took pictures, learning about model photography and lighting. Over these workshops attendees got to shoot with flash, constant lights, even some daylight and in some sessions a mix of two of those at the same time.

• February 2023 – Alicia
• March 2023 – Sam
• April 2023 – Becky
• May 2023 – Natasha
• June 2023 – Emma and Alicia
• July 2023 – Gabrielle
• August 2023 – Alex
• September 2023 – Becky
• October 2023 – Olivia
• November 2023 – Alicia

In the slideshow above there are two pictures of each model from the 10 sessions. I’m looking forward to running these again in 2024 and have already put the dates in my calendar. If you are interested in joining please do get in touch.

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Tanith

We have shot together plenty of times, but 2023 proved to be another year that so nearly passed by without a single shoot, but we didn’t let that happen. So the middle of December I met up with this amazing lady and we headed off to Tunbridge Wells to see what we could find as a backdrop to work with amidst a grey and sometimes rainy day. Travelling light I took just an EOS R6 Mark II, RF 28-70mm F2L USM and EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM.

I won’t leave it until the last minute in 2024 to work with her again, and hopefully mid-January we will meet up in London to shoot for an evening on location, and then if the stars align she’ll be modelling at my small flash workshop in April too.

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