The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: neolithic

Nikon developed a teleconverter for the first generation of its AF film cameras in the mid 1980s after Minolta looked like having the market all to itself. Years later it was discovered that this particular teleconverter inexplicably could be used on the Nikon D2x, a digital camera introduced 20 years later. For a short time I attempted to use these instruments in combination with an old 300mm lens. Had I used a tripod I might have enjoyed greater success.

Silbury Hill is a part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet long barrow and the Sanctuary). It was built around 2,600 - 2,400 BC, which is later than the other sites in the area. To design, organise, and construct this mound shows the technical skill of the age and reveals strong and prolonged control over labour and resources. At 129 ft high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. There is nothing inside it other than chalk, clay, rubble and soil, and there is no big hole to account for the materials used in construction. It would have taken 500 labourers 15 years to complete. The flattened top is 100ft in diameter. The area immediately surrounding the monument is lower than the level of the land around it. The presence of natural springs indicate a moat or reservoir. In fact, the mound sits in a dip in the landscape; it would have been an unusual choice for a strategic defensive site. Perhaps the site itself was important to the builders. Nikon D2Xs and AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G lens.

I used an AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G lens bought secondhand for about £60 (do not confuse this lens with the later, more expensive, VR version). Optically, it is a decent lens within its limitations, and its chief weakness is degradation beyond 200mm. Here I had it at 300mm because I was a long way distant. The picture also suffers from being strongly cropped and over-processed. But it is a picture nonetheless. One other thing about the AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G - it is flimsy and light in weight. At least you don't get backache carrying it around. But treat it carefully if you buy one.

They took all the bones And put 'em in a bones museum.

Nikon D2Xs, ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.3, 1/160th.

A trip to Avebury. The weather forecast was for blustery winds with just an odd chance of a shower. I got a few pictures and then ... I got drenched. The cheese scone was worth the trip however. Nikon D700 + Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP lens.

A trip to Avebury. The weather forecast was for blustery winds with just an odd chance of a shower. I got a few pictures and then ... I got drenched. The cheese scone was worth the trip however. Nikon D700 + Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP lens.

A trip to Avebury. The weather forecast was for blustery winds with just an odd chance of a shower. I got a few pictures and then ... I got drenched. The cheese scone was worth the trip however. Nikon D700 + Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP lens.

The stone in the photograph is a Sarsen stone. You can see only a little bit of the top but it is much bigger than a person and very heavy, heavier even than a Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP lens. People say to me, how do you carry that lens around for hours on end? And I reply, how did Neolithic man drag that Sarsen stone to this spot and stick it carefully upright so that it doesn't fall over? That shuts them up. Nikon D700 + Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP lens.

A trip to Avebury. The weather forecast was for blustery winds with just an odd chance of a shower. I got a few pictures and then ... I got drenched. The cheese scone was worth the trip however. Nikon D700 + Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP lens.

A trip to Avebury. The weather forecast was for blustery winds with just an odd chance of a shower. I got a few pictures and then ... I got drenched. The cheese scone was worth the trip however. Nikon D700 + Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP lens.

There are innumerable opportunities for photographers in Avebury, but it is enormously difficult to do anything original. It has all been done before, and better. I regard it simply as a benchmark for my own development in using a camera. I took this picture in the summer of 2011 using a camera and lens which I have since replaced. It is perfectly possible to make wonderful photographs with the most basic of equipment, but every incremental improvement, particularly in lens quality, gives a photographer a sporting chance. At that time I had not discovered that photographing in RAW provided the greatest chance of making a satisfying image. This photograph is a straight-out-of-camera JPEG. Adjustment is possible, but limited. Naively, I once believed a photograph could simply be repeated on another visit to the same place if an improvement was sought. There are so many variables that prevent this. Maybe with patience and skill it can be done, but I lack both. So I am left with a picture which I like but which I know is not original. In fact, I took this photograph because I had been inspired by something similar (and better) by somebody else. And here I have applied some of the Lightroom tools which were not available to me in 2011. If you are a visitor to Avebury and the perspective in the photograph appeals, the settings I used with an APS-C camera were 210mm; f/4.8; 1/400th. (But much depends on where you position yourself and the light, of course).

I've made a slight crop and lifted the shadows. I ought to have metered for the foreground in the first place. Nikon D2Xs + Nikkor-O.C Auto 35mm f/2 lens. I am reminded of Thomas Pindelski's view that, 'This lens is fully the equal of any Leitz or Leica 35mm Summicron on a Leica M.' pindelski.org/Photography/2012/05/05/nikkor-o-35mm-f2-lens/

Tourists at Avebury stone circle, Wiltshire. Nikon D90 + Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 AF G lens.

Photographed in Avebury, Wiltshire, using a Nikon D2Xs with a Nikon TC-16A teleconverter and a Nikkor-H Auto 300mm f/4.5 lens from around 1971. The TC-16A is compatible with only a small number of cameras and although Nikon doesn’t officially recognise the D2X as one of them, it nevertheless operates successfully. The Nikkor-H has been factory AI converted, making a functional set of instruments never really envisaged to harmonise. The TC-16A adds 1.6x to the lens it is mated with, so in this case the focal length was 480mm. You really need a fast shutter speed and a bit of stabilisation using a rig this long. I put it on a monopod and the shutter speed was 1/1500th. Mostly you’re forced into using maximum aperture and ISO even in decent light. The results can be mediocre, but now and again you get a sensation of unusual packed perspective. Of course, perspective depends on where you stand, not which lens you use, but you might never choose a tiny area of a picture to enlarge and get this view.

For the photographer there are specific-purpose bags: rainy day bags; anti-pickpocket bags; bags which do not look like camera bags for use in tough neighbourhoods; slim-profile bags for carrying in crowded areas; bags to inspire confidence at an important event you've been hired to shoot; bags so impossibly large you use them as a supply depot where your other bags call to make changes to their contents; bags which are devoted to specialist items like flashguns or filters; medium-format bags; 35mm film camera bags; digital camera-with-lens-fixed-always bags; soiled bags that you don't mind using in dirty conditions ... the list is endless. The more camera bags I try - all sourced from eBay, the world's greatest lending library, where sometimes it's even possible to turn a modest profit on short-term acquisitions - the more I realise that what we're talking about is a sack. A sack with compartments, a sack with different dimensions to the previous sack, a sack made from different materials, but nevertheless a sack. This particular bag is the Tenba P-750 Pro Pak™ from the early 1980s, with its super-cool logo which reads the same upside down (but best not to verify this when the bag is full of kit). You often see them referred to as the ‘Tenba Equa’ because the logo suggests that is the name. It was available in rust, black, and grey, as well as the more traditional tan colour you see here. It is constructed of ‘Cordura’, a waterproof and rugged nylon. ‘Cordura’ will always win in a friction squabble with your coat or trousers. Tenba put a less aggressive pad of material on later Pro Pak™ bags where the ‘Cordura’ met the owner’s clothing. The P-750 is an unusual design with a fairly deep compartment within the lid to store 30 to 40 rolls of film, and a stout zip fastener to keep the contents secure. On the other side of the top ‘half’- i.e. on the inside of the bag’s main compartment - is a modest zipped compartment which might be for tickets and passport-type documents. There are four ‘D’ rings, for a back-harness or tripod straps, and unusual side straps which can be deployed to limit the travel of the lid or to transport a monopod. The main compartment lacks the extreme weather-proofing measures you find on a Billingham bag, like zips and secondary flaps. That is perhaps a weakness if near water or sand. It rather negates the value of ‘Cordura’ as a waterproof fabric. The coups de foudre are the two external pouches which, in combination with the hip logo, make this bag unusually distinctive in a market place stuffed with boring oblong boxes with straps. Photographed at Avebury stone circle using a Nikon D90 and an AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D lens.

Nikon D2Xs + Nikon Series E 75-150mm f/3.5 lens on a TC-16A teleconverter. I set the lens at 150mm, and allowing for the teleconverter made a focal length of 240mm.