Earlier this year we ran an article on photographer Alex Ditch. Based in the North East, Alex takes great images despite being partially sighted, and has recently invested in some new Nikon equipment. We caught up with Alex to find out how he’s been getting on – we hope his story will inspire other partially sighted people who’d like to try photography but somehow feel it’s ‘not for them.’
What new gear have you acquired recently?
I got Nikon Z7 full-frame mirrorless camera and the Nikkor 24-200 F4-6.3 lens, which has made a big difference to my photography. Most of the images here were taken handheld, though I also use a 3 Legged Thing tripod.
Talk us through some of the images…
The first image is of a boat on the Amble Coast, taken using the Nikon z7 and the 24-200 lens. The settings were 1/250s, aperture f/6.3, ISO 100 and the focal distance is 135mm.
The second image shows a magical colourful peacock from Northumberland Zoo. I love wildlife photography and a zoo is as close as I can get at the moment. I used the Nikon z7 and the 24-200 lens and the quality is impressive considering the shot was taken handheld: 1/160s, f/6, ISO 100, 71mm focal length.
The third image is also from the zoo and shows a snow leopard on the outside perch. There are lovely detail and colours. Nikon z7 with Nikon Z 24-200mm lens: 1/320s, f/6.3, ISO 100, 170mm.
For this image, off Amble Coast with Amble Lighthouse in the distance, I again used my new Nikon gear and also a 3 Legged Thing Punks Patti tripod and the Kase wolverine K9 magnetic filter system, with a Kase se 6 stop ND filter. The settings for this image are f/11, 1/4 second, ISO 100.
The fifth image is of Durham Cathedral. I decided to try bracketing for first time, so I took three different exposures and blended them in Affinity Photo by Serif. Considering I had not done this before I am quite happy with the results. The settings are f/8, 1/250s, ISO 100.
