“A walk through a farm” is guaranteed to have UK based readers think of a straw chewing farmer shouting “GET OFF MY LAND”.

However, that is of course a fictional stereotype. Most farmers aren’t like the stereotype and most are familiar with the many rights of way that dot the British countryside (and particularly so the ones that run through their farms).

We are extremely lucky to have lots of public footpaths and bridleways through the countryside around Enfield (which starts about 200 yards/metres from my house) and one of them runs through a local farm (which as longer term readers will know, was disused but is now farmed again).

For those not from the UK, (in England and Wales) a public bridleway is “a legally protected right of way over privately owned land, over which the public has the right to travel on horseback or leading a horse, with or without a right to drive animals of any description along the way.” The public also has the right to travel on foot on public bridleways. The public is permitted to ride bicycles on public bridleways, but that right is not absolute. You can cycle in practice but there is no obligation to maintain the road for cyclists, which means they are often only really suitable for mountain bikes, at least for parts of their route.

Today I took the family on a walk via a bridleway through the local farm to a pub (the Fallow Buck) with a view to catching up with some of the horses which are in the fields at this time of year.

We weren’t disappointed…

Normally I PP M43s cameras in Lightroom, but I only have NIK Color Efex licensed for Aperture (having moved from Aperture to Lightroom). I thought I would give Aperture and Nik Color Efex a go, particularly since I had never tried the GH3 files through Aperture.

I’m really glad I did. Aperture has always handled colour a little bit better than Lightroom – the reason to use Lightroom is for immense highlight and shadow recovery abilities and noise reduction that is market leading. One thing Aperture does do by default is slightly over-sharpen the GH3 files in common with every other M43s camera. However, even without going into NIK the default colour reproduction is very attractive.

I tried a few shots with the Kodachrome simulation in NIK Color Efex and the output was (unreal, but) lovely. Yes people, I know grass is not that colour! It constantly surprises me that people feel the need to tell me that – that’s not to say comments and criticism are wrong (far from it), but I am past the point where I care whether images are always a completely faithful reproduction of reality. I’m fairly sure no one is in black and white or blurs (well, maybe Usain Bolt) when they move either… 😀

I’m constantly surprised at just how good the output from the GH3 is. The fact it has a ISO 125 mode is really handy and puts the the output from this sensor very, very close (if not on a par with) the Sony APS-C 16mp sensor.

Taken with my GH3 and 12-35mm lens. Some processed in Lightroom (including the B&Ws processed through NIK Silver Efex) and others through Aperture/Nik Color Efex.