Zooming In on Flexibility Part II


We have talked about the different kinds of zooms in my last article, but now I’m going to present you with concrete examples of the different zooms in my own personal set-up, and try to concentrate on the “user experience” that each lens offers.  At the end of each section there will be a slideshow to give you examples from the archives to illustrate how I have used this lens in the past.

Canon EF 16-35mm f/4 L IS USM

I remember the sheer joy of opening this, my favourite lens for my 6D Mark II and hearing it click into place on my camera’s body. It felt heavy and substantial.  It has the red ring, known to Canon users as a gauge of high quality. I was onto a good thing.  It bridged the gap between my desire to go wide and get that distinct distortion that comes with going wide, and a more conservative, more sensible 35mm focal length of my X100F.

And then I went out and tried it in the field.  Well in my bedroom anyway, being suitably amazed by the wide angle of view that I now had at my disposal.  I’d read about distortion, and had watched enough YouTube to know what I was in for.  But the first time is always special.  I soon learned how to take advantage of its capabilities, realising that getting down low could create leading lines in compositions that I had only dreamt about before.

If you have seen my Instagram, you will have seen this lens in use and how I have been able to adapt from an urban setting to getting my feet dirty in the countryside or getting them wet on the beach. I have nor regrets about this purchase.  But it, despite its many attributes, has its limits.   It is adapted to landscapes and cityscapes.  It’s great for giving a different view of the world that is more “interesting” to look at.  I have used it for portraits and taking full advantage of this aforementioned distortion.

It might well be a contender for the title of Ian’s favourite lens.  Sorry you prime purists!  

CANON EF 24-70MM F/4L IS USM

This is the lens that I actually have on my camera at the moment. Why?  Because I was out at the pub taking photos for a leaving do for two of my friends.  I needed something I could use to get general shots of the evening and that wouldn’t let me down.  This lens is a beast and a workhorse.  It gets the job done!, which is why I bought it in the first place.  I was going to be photographing a wedding for a friend of mine, and I needed something that would help me throughout the day.  I would be taking portraits, group photos, photos of the reception, and this was the classic lens for such a situation.  It has you covered.  I basically put my flash to TTL mode, and camera to program mode, and all I had to do was to get the shot.  Photographically it was a great day and I managed to get some pleasing shots for my friends. It’s also my go to lens for filming video…

It was “take your camera to work day.”  I was going to be taking pictures of timber at the factory where I work and it was still in my bag, and securely attached to my camera.  I was able to get clear shots for my boss, and the lens didn’t let me down even if I had to be in one of the darkest areas of the factory with dubious lighting conditions. This is where image stabilisation becomes your best friend. 

It was still in my car when I took my daughter and boyfriend to see their friends near Nantes.  I had just written the article about Spring Springing, and wasn’t happy digging into the archive.  I felt that this was being lazy, and that you, Dear Reader deserve better…  The camera with the 24-700mm lens on it was just sitting there begging to be let loose!  So I let it loose on the trees around the Mairie of Basse Indre, and took advantage of its “macro” function. So go and have a look at the article to see those.

CANON EF 70-300MM F/4L IS USM

I don’t have the very latest version of this article, but a more old-school version, so it’s not as super duper as the later super duper models, but it was a heck of a lot cheaper at around 150€ instead of 850€ for the newer super duper models.  But I’m not here to talk about specific model types etc, but about the focal lengths of this lens and how I  have used them in the field and my experience of using this lens.

As a small boy I was a member of the RSPB and loved seeing all the various birds in the garden but also in the countryside.  I even learnt about how to draw them.  I grew up, and now have a super duper camera with a lens that will allow me to capture these birds on camera without spooking them.  

One of my favourite outings in Nantes is taking one of the electric boats out on the river, and I have this lens with me to capture the wildlife that I know I will see.  I am by no means a wildlife photographer like the ones you see in the documentaries stalking their prey for weeks etc.  But it doesn’t stop me from trying to see what I can get without necessarily overdoing it. And even for getting shots of birds using the various feeders in my garden it’s fine!

I have used the lens after having watched YouTube videos for landscape photography using it to seek out details in the landscape.  This was definitely something new for me, and definitely a useful exercise forcing me out of my comfort zone and making me see the countryside in a different way.

It’s not the lens I gravitate to first, but I’m happy to have it as an option.  It isn’t the most modern of lenses either, but it’s certainly “good enough” for what I need it to do…  Do I regret this purchase?  No.  Is it limited in its scope?  Yes.   Am I bovvered, as Catherine Tate might say?  Still no.  Would I buy the “super duper” version of this lens?  Probably not as it doesn’t correspond to the majority of photography that I do. Photographing birds is more of a hobby and not my main photography aim in life..  

Conclusion

I think you have the information at your fingertips now to help you decide on your lens choices be that for primes or for zooms.  Those nice people in the photography shop will be more than happy to take your money from you, but now, you have the knowledge to get past the sales pitch and make an educated purchase knowing what you’re letting yourself in for.  While we’re on the subject of purchasing and investing in gear, always have the following concept at the back of your mind.   Glass is more valuable than a camera body.  Better glass on a less top of the range body will always get you better results.
But much more than the importance of gear, is the importance you get your beautiful booty off that really comfy sofa, and get out into the world with your camera and your lens and train that beautiful eye of yours to capture some awe inspiring images!

Prime Lenses: Elevating Your Photography Beyond the Basics – Part I


Introduction

This article is a follow on from my last article discussing the various merits of zoom and prime lenses.  Today I’m going to try and give a more indepth look into this world of primes.  The lenses that I will be discussing are my own and I have experience with them.  I will be talking more about how “I” use them and how they affect “my” photography, be that the actual photos or the photographic experience.  All the really techy stuff is available on Google;  I’m trying to give you an idea of the sentiments that I have when using the various lenses.  That said, let’s get into the nitty gritty.  I will go through each lens giving you details on how I use it, how “they” say I should use it, and start from the widest to the longest focal length.  This was turning into a longer article than usual, but since there’s a lot to cover, it will become a two part article.  Again mother, I will be talking shop, so consider yourself warned again… Sounds fair?  Let’s go!

Fisheye lens (TT Artisans 7mm f2.0 manual focus lens)

My fisheye lens (7mm so a 11mm full frame equivalent) is the one I use with my Fujifilm XT2.  It is a super wide lens made by TT Artisans, and its main claim to be included in my collection is that it was affordable.  Or at least affordable compared to some of the lenses out there.  However it doesn’t feel cheap on the camera.  It’s manual focus, but I can focus very closely (minimum focus distance is 0.125 metres) and the whole shot will be sharp.  It’s ultra wide so it gives a great level of distortion, which I love, but others might not.  If you can manage to get your horizon level, then you might not get as much distortion as you could by just raising the view 10° higher than the horizon. I love the effect that I can get from it.  It’s definitely a niche lens, and the price I would have to pay for something similar for my DSLR would be silly money.

16mm f2.0 (Fujifilm brand lens with autofocus 24mm equivalent for full frame lenses)

This was the first lens I bought for my Fujifilm XT2.  This 16mm lens’ full frame equivalent would be 24mm.  Why did I buy it?  Well, I already had a 35mm equivalent lens on my X100F, and thought that the difference between 24mm and 35mm would allow me to go wider and get more into my scene whilst avoiding the distortion of the fisheye lens. A particular outing sticks in my mind and was when I used the lens to take photos of the modern architecture on the Île de Nantes.  The wide angle of view (hence the name wide angle lens) was perfect for this kind of street landscape photography.  Would I use it for close-up portraits?  Only if I want to elongate people when taking a shot from low down on the ground looking up.  Would it be good for classic street photography?  Possibly as a compliment lens to my 35mm equivalent lens on my X100F.  Do I regret acquiring it?  Not at all and I particularly like its wide angle of view.

28mm f2.0 M42 mount lens for the Praktica MTL 3 film camera

I started my photographic journey with this film camera and only bought this lens much later.  I had my 50mm f1.8 (nifty fifty) and this was my first venture into a wider lens.  Could I see a massive difference straight away?  No.  But I no longer felt the need to move further back to get the view I wanted into frame.  Moving back with  a camera on your eye and banging into a building and saying sorry to the building is not the way to go, however British you may be.  The Leica Q (a very sexy little thing) uses this 28mm lens and is aimed at street photographers who have enough money to buy a Leica.  The same goes for the Richo GR II but without the need to sell a kidney.  There is a great debate on the Internet talking about the difference between the 28mm and 35mm lens for street photography, which tries to polarise everyone.  I try to stay as neutral as possible in these kinds of controversies but I do use my 35mm lens more.  Do I still like the 28mm format?  Yes.  Is it very different from the 24mm format?  Not hugely, but I tend to worry less about distortion .  I should probably go out and run a roll of film and see how I feel afterwards.  I remember the need to go in close to avoid capturing too much in the frame with this lens, but that is not a factor that could deter me from using it.

23mm f2.0 (X100F lens equivalent to the 35mm for a full frame camera)

The 35mm lens is the classic for street and documentary photography.  It was the lens used by a majority of newspaper photojournalists in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s.  This might explain its influence on my own photography.  I remember when the Independent first came out and the high quality of photojournalism.  I think that if Fujifilm decided on the 35mm equivalent for their fixed lens cameras then there’s probably a very good reason for it.  Through my use of the X100F for street and documentary photography I have become very accustomed to the view it gives me of the world.  It’s not just for the street though.  Even as a sole travel lens it allows me to capture details of a trip, as well as wider views to tell my story in more detail. It’s brilliant as a lens for environmental portraits and is wide enough to always give contect in the frame to the main subject.  If you try to do close up photography with portraits you might notice some distortion but if that happens just move ever so slightly backwards, reframe, and the problem should no longer be one.

In my next article, we will go higher up the focal lengths and discuss the narrowing field of view that they offer and explore how they bring the background forwards. As for this article, all the information laid out is equally as valid for film or digital photgraphy.

Prime vs Zoom Lenses: Choosing the Right Lens for Your Photography


Good evening Dear Reader.  We’re back delving  into another series of articles where I will talk shop.  Mother, if that doesn’t interest you then consider yourself warned.  I will, as the title of this article suggests, be talking about the differences between zoom and prime lenses.  I too, many moons ago, was a beginner photographer, and just starting out with a Praktica MTL3, with a 50mm F1.8 lens, and a Helios 135mm F2.8 lens.  An SLR because in 1987 a DSLR did not exist.   This was my first lot of “gear.” That was then and this is now.  2024.  When buying a “starter” camera, “they” will try and flog you, or offer in a bundle what has become known as the ubiquitous “kit lens.”  Otherwise you will be gazing upon a “huge” array of lenses with some “huge” prices to go with them.  This will generally be included in the more “accessible” range of cameras.  It certainly was for my Fuji XT2 18-55mm zoom lens (24-70mm equivalent for full frame sensor).  Don’t get me wrong, I use my 18-55 lens on my Fuji XT2 and like using it.  BUT, when I bought that camera I bought a 24mm equivalent prime lens for it.

This raises the question about what is a prime lens and what is a zoom lens.  A prime lens is a lens that has a fixed focal length.  A zoom lens allows you to vary this focal length and “zoom” in and out.

Advantages of Prime Lenses

Superior Image Quality

You will generally find that you can obtain a “sharper” image with a prime.  Some of the older lenses and ones that we used in film photography are slightly softer, but we were fine about it then, and this quest for modern sharpness seems to have become more important.  In digital photography, this new and thoroughly modern technology will lead to less distortion, and chromatic aberration, which is indeed an aberration where you might get a blueish outline around the subjects in your shots.

Wide Aperture Capabilities

I touched on the concept of aperture in my Photography 101 article.  The aperture is the hole that allows light to expose the film or your camera sensor.  The larger aperture (indcicate by a smaller f number) allows two things.  More light to hit the film, therefore allowing us to shoot in lower light,  and the separation of the subject from the background by getting that “creamy” bokeh beloved by so many of us. 

Compactness and Portability

The “average” prime lens is more “compact” than the average zoom lens.  Effect number one of this is that you can fit more primes into your camera bag and it will probably be lighter.  Think about what I said in my street photography article.  A camera with a smaller lens is also less threatening than having a massive thing thrust in your face.  Being less threatening is always good, and makes the photographic experience more pleasant for everyone.

Creativity and Artistic Expression

When using primes every shot becomes more deliberate.  The choice of which prime to use becomes more important.  You “zoom” with your feet and not with the lens. I have talked about this mindfulness in my photography tutorial series.   

Advantages of Zoom Lenses

First of all we have to talk about what a zoom lens is.  Well, it’s a lens that allows you to zoom.  Sorry about that, I couldn’t help myself. On a more serious note, it is a lens which glides through a series of focal lengths on the same lens.  I have three zooms for my DSLR, a 16-35mm f4, a 24-70mm f4, and a 70-300 f4 – f5.6, and the 18-55mm (24-70 full frame equivalent) kit lens for my Fuji XT2. With three lenses I am covered from 16mm to 300mm, which for me is a big deal.  My 16-35mm has me covered for wide angled vistas of the Place Cambronne in Nantes, and those distorted obligatory bike shots, to general street photography.  My 24-70 f4 even has a macro function offering me even more versatility.  I would class it as my events lens and can double for street photography, and even street portraits.  It’s a veritable work horse of a lens and was what I used when I talked about spring.  My 70-300 lens is for when I can’t get near enough to my subject without spooking it, be that my children messing around next to the river, or taking shots of cormorants sunbathing on the river Erdre in Nantes.

Convenience and Ease of Use

In my previous paragraph I talked about the different focal lengths that I have with each zoom lens.  At the moment in my camera bag I have my Fuji X100F and its 35mm equivalent f2 lens and my Canon 6D Mark II and my 24-70mm f4 lens.  It means carrying less equipment and being prepared for a variety of shots when on the streets or taking photos for my work.  It also provides for less “faffing about” which is something I love to avoid in general, unless I am prepared mentally and ready for it.

All-in-one Solution

Instead of having a different lens for each situation, I have a solution in my bag that allows me to adapt.  Why buy three lenses when I can have a multitude of possibilities with just one lens?  They might seem expensive, but when you are not a professional, cost is something that has to be taken into account, otherwise you have to be very good at communication with your spouse justifying all these purchases.  Happy wife, Happy life.  Happy Husband, we’ll see about that!

Image Stabilisation

In the last paragraph, I talked about stable marital life, and on my zooms I have image stabilisation, which will allow me a more stable shooting of an image.  In the Photography 101 article I talked about having an exposition of nothing lower than the focal length.  IE with a 50mm lens I should not shoot lower than a 50th of a second to avoid camera shake and therefore a sharper image.  This stabilisation offers me about 4 stops extra to play with, be that having a longer shutter speed, or having a larger aperture and therefore getting more in focus in my image.  

Conclusion

I have talked about how this photography lark is all about give and take.  This is so true in the exposition triangle where everything is a question of balance, but also true in the case of lens choice.  Some will be more expensive but give you more control, and others will offer you more ease of use and versatility. You are the one who ultimately has to decide on what camera gear you need (more than want).  What is most important to you?  How will the lens help you?  What is your budget?  

When all these questions are answered honestly then you will be well on the way to having the kit you need, to do the type of photography that you want to do.  

What would I advise a novice for their first acquisition?  I would say the nifty fifty.  The 50mm is closest to what the eye sees.  This prime generally offers an opening of F1.8 which gives you that sexy bokeh.  

Ultimately the choice is yours alone.  But this simple guide may help you reflect and question yourself and allow you to make a deliberate well thought out decision.  The most important thing is to get out there with your camera, start making memories and training that beautiful eye of yours!

L’œil du Cyclone


Dear Reader, some of you might know that I don’t live too far away from Nantes and that I can be found wandering the streets of Nantes with a camera, or sitting in the pub talking with friends. So, nothing new here then.  You might not know that I sometimes publish said photos of Nantes, and even the pub, with friends of course, on Instagram.  I also sometimes go out and participate with other photographers in what is usually a solitary pastime. 

Nantes Grand Angle, a sort of collective of photographers from Nantes, often has events (with local partners) that want to get their event onto the local social networks and get some “viral” publicity.  The game is you go to the event and then talk about it on your social accounts and people might be interested thinking well, he went to see this, why don’t I go along too.  It’s the basics of social marketing. 

Why do I usually see photography as a solitary pastime? Because I get a certain amount of social anxiety.  For most extroverts, those pushy people that are in favour now, the word “mingle” gives them a buzz that they seem to thrive on.  I, as an introvert, find the words “new people”, or even the idea of “meeting new people”, “social”, or “mingle” just fill me with dread.  It’s akin to going on one of those terrifying rides at the fair. It’s scary, thankfully doesn’t last very long, leaves you feeling empty, very awkward, sheepish, and makes you want to run away as soon as possible.  sonds like my sex life on a good day.

So against my better judgement, I confronted my fear, and went on an outing with Nantes Grand Angle.  I could always just stay at the back and be subtle and try to fade into the background.  It also meant that I would visit a new place, Le Lieu Unique, which as its name might suggest, is certainly unique!  The Lieu Unique also contains the Tour Lu (sans T pour le jeu de mot de merde en français, et oui, je suis rendu à ce point là !)  It originally house the LU biscuit factory (des petits beurres de LU, which is another pun for the Happy Birthday song).  Dear Reader, I apologise for the years of therapy that you will need to get over that last paragraph.  It’ll teach you to speak French!

Right, back on track.  The Lieu Unique, which indeed is unique as the name suggests, houses not only an exhibition for introverts to take photos of for social marketing, but a bar, a reading room, a bookshop, and if I’m not mistaken, a hammam, as well as a whopping great tower.  It is a hothouse of culture where you can get fed, drunk, steamed, and get some culture, leading to the acquisition of a little intelligence! Maybe, depending on the order you do each activity.

I was there with my fellow photographers, some of which were annoyingly extrovert, to live the experience of Art from Taiwan in the “Eye of the Cyclone.”  The Lieu Unique boss, had, uniquely, gone to Taiwan in 2018, had been to an exhibition at The National Museum of Fine Arts of Taiwan, and had invited some of the artists to come to Nantes and show their work, purely an artistic venture.  Since 2018, the world has changed not only through COVID, but also because China would like to get its hands on Taiwan for economic reasons and political ones.  Taiwan came to the front in modern terms when the Kuomintang government who lost to Mao’s Communists, fled Mao and fled to the Island of Taiwan, setting up a new independent government, that China still hasn’t gotten over and is still very upset about.

In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialisation called the “Taiwan Miracle».  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, ROC transitioned from a one-party military dictatorship to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan’s export-oriented industrial economy is the 21st-largest in the world by nominal GDP and 19th-largest by PPP measures, focusing on steel, machinery, electronics and chemicals manufacturing. Taiwan is a developed country, ranking 20th in GDP per capita. It is ranked highly in terms of civil liberties, healthcare, and human development.  Again, something that China isn’t overjoyed by.  So as you can imagine, such an exhibition is as much political as artistic.

So now we have set the scene, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.  The expo itself.  I admit not knowing a huge amount about Taiwan, however, since visiting the expo, I have read up to find out more about its history and culture.  It’s Chinese but at the same time properly Taiwanese. I will include official links to the expo and the English documentation at the end of the article.  But what I really wanted to do with this article was to talk about my experience of the exposition and the way the exhibits left their mark on me.

The first exhibit, Exhibit A, or Battle City – Scene, by Chang, Li-Ren, model, just blew me away with the complexity of the modelling and the realism recreated in model form.  The artist came over for the oeuvre installation and I can imagine a rather rotund Asian chap on all fours adding details to his masterwork.  Not based on reality, but the artist just wants to give an impression of what Taiwanese urbanism looks like.   There are cars, housing, and motorbikes, but the whole place is devoid of people.  It’s very eerie, yet totally fascinating and a photographer’s dream.  The whole thing is massive (7600mm x 8100mm x 2600mm), and the attention to detail is fascinating.

Exhibit B, Future Shock, by SU Hui-Yu, video, talks about a dystopian future, unfortunately, a not-too-distant future according to the artist influenced heavily by the American author Alvin Toffler, where people are drowning in information, and unethical technologies.  Maybe it’s happening already?  Definitely though provoking and frightening in equal measure.

Exhibit C, Braindead travelogue, YUAN Goang-Ming.  At first, you have the impression of traditional Chinese brush art, but with non-traditional means, like using markers, but also gold and jade.  From the centre of the painting, shoot out 10 disks of images showing the artist marking his territory in the landscape.

Exhibit D?  I’m going to keep the rest of the exhibition secret, because the idea is that you go and have a look yourselves, especially if you live in Nantes!  Did you really think that I would or could reveal all?  No!  Leave them wanting more!!!  Oh ok, you can have a few more pictures, but that’s your lot.  Go down there and have a look.  It’s free to visit; and you won’t be left unmoved…  You really get a feel of what life is like in the “Eye of the Cyclone.”

Links and all that:
Le Lieu Unique
Nantes Grande Angle
The documentation in English (pdf file 0,99Mo)

I would like to thank Nantes Grande Angle and our guide, Tanguy, not only for his welcome to the uniquely Lieu Unique but also for his great expertise. The poor man even had a look at this blog to see where I would publish my write-up. Brave too, and probably already in therapy. I hope I have done him justice!

He went wider


Dear Reader, you know how in the past I have talked about how some of us love the big massive telephoto lenses?  And how others like to go wider?  And how we start of with the “nifty fifty” F1.8 and learn on that?  That was in the days before digital photography and a world where zoom lenses came to the fore.  We had them before in the days of film photography, but my memories are of using these prime lenses, and zooms seemed to be looked down on.  I wanted to go wider.

I remember my first proper photography course where I learnt the basics of film photography, going from taking the photo, developing the film, and getting a print as an end result.  I remember seeing a photo of a horse taken with a massive head taken with a wide-angled lens and finding it fascinating!  When I said the head was massive, the lens deformed our view of this majestic beast and its body seemed smaller than its head, which is something indeed.  It was then that I learnt a photograph doesn’t have to represent a visual that is faithful to the subject.  We can mess around with reality and show the world completely differently.

So, as I said, I learnt photography with a 50mm lens.  These 50mm seem to be closest to how the human eye sees the world.  It represents reality.  In 2018 I acquired the Fujifilm X100F which has a lens equivalent to a 35mm lens.  Slightly wider, but still represents the reality of this world, and is considered “the” street photography lens par excellence.  It has a larger angle of view and allows me to get a little more in the frame and I felt the difference with the 50mm straight away.  It was still a great lens and very versatile until I tried taking a close-up portrait.  All of a sudden, I discovered some distortion in my model.  I’m not saying that my model is deformed, well, no more deformed than any of us. 

Suddenly watching YouTube, as many of us do apparently, I discovered the 16-35mm F4 lens from Canon for my Canon 6D Mark II.  It was a little more than I had ever paid for a lens, but worth every centime of euro and so satisfying.  If you care to have a look in the archives of this blog on my Instagram feed, you will discover many photos taken with this lens.  My desire to go wider was now a reality.  Distortion of reality was now in my hands.  I could create interesting images.  I discovered the way a very wide-angled lens can transform the world around us.  Leading lines exist all over the place, and the wide-angled lens exaggerates each line, leading or not!

But, and this is a big but.  You fellas can’t deny… It is possible to go wider.  I know.  Exciting isn’t it!  My mind is now blown!  There is a lens, a very special lens, called a fish-eye lens.  This type of lens can offer you even more distortion and make the world seem even weirder than it already is!  Canon does one.  It’s a 15-8mm zoom lens.  There are two types of fish-eye lenses.  One will give a rectangular view, however distorted, and one will give a round image with a black frame.  It’s a wonderful piece of engineering and for over €1000 it can be yours.  But for €1000 it can’t be mine simply because I can’t justify spending that much money on camera kit and might even be cause for divorce.  Since it is cheaper to keep her, I would have to look elsewhere instead of buying a super duper automatic lens from Canon.  So like any self-respecting poor photographer I went onto Amazon and found a manual lens for my Fujifilm XT2 (like the famous X100F except I can change lenses) for 169€ which is slightly cheaper and a slightly more reasonable purchase, and my dear wife didn’t bat an eyelid!  Not batting and eyelid is a very desirable reaction!!!

I will go out this afternoon to test this new toy and get back to you with some pictures!                                          

A View from the Garden


Sometimes you know that you’re going to get a reasonable couple of shots. The conditions just fall into place. Sometimes you have to break away from your Guinness and your parents hoping that they will understand.

We were out in the garden having a drink before eating that evening. It was a Sunday evening, and the day had been wonderful, and there was me thinking that it couldn’t get any better. It could! I had my Canon 6D Mark II with the 16-35mm lens which is a favourite of mine. The previous day’s sea mist had made a comeback. Now fog always makes for some very atmospherical photography as you can see here.

This view is what decided my parents to buy this house all those years ago when they first moved further north from Newcastle. With various winters and storms, some trees have had to come down, but that view through those trees just brings peace to any beholder.

Enjoy and find your peace…