Oh Boy, I Bought an LX3

Dropped by London Drugs tonight after photographing some floor hockey for the City of Nanaimo project. Was chatting with the clerk there and mentioned that I had been thinking about buying an LX3 but that they were out of stock everywhere. "Well he says, we have one, arrived today, and we only have one."

So, I bought an LX3.

Why so excited over a point and click you ask? Well for a few reasons:

• It is tiny. This means that I am going to carry it with me when my dslr's are at home, in the car or packed away.
• It shoots 720p HD video.
• It has a Leica f2.0 to 2.8 lens
• Because Panasonic decided not to jam more than 10 megapixels on the sensor (like Canon did with the G10) and because of the lens, it is actually usable at 1600 ISO.
• It actually has a hot shoe.
  
• It has full manual camera controls.

Enough said. Now I just have to use it!

Shooting Karate tomorrow as we continue with our rec and leisure project. That should be lots of fun. A job for the dslr, but still just for the novelty I'll throw my LX3 in the bag.

Ran into Glenn Olsen today. A super cool local photographer. He has shot for the local paper for about 15 years. This guy has so much knowledge. In about 10 minutes of chatting he gave me two or three really cool ideas for shoots at the swimming pool. You have to respect guys that have been doing this crazy photography thing for so long. They've just seen and done it all. Now if you ever see me shooting in a pool with my camera in a fish tank....it was Glenn's idea!

Why Do We Care So Much About Weather Sealing?

This is why!

I Love Having Fun

Fun is what we had today. School was canceled due to snow so my daughter and I took the time to go out and do a little sledding with Adam and his son Kaleb. That is me laughing my guts out like a little kid.

Spent some time chatting with Kelly Morton tonight, a pro photographer from Winnipeg. Nice guy and a fellow Olympus shooter. We are both hoping for a new pro camera from Olympus. He showed me some ways to deal with noise in images today, so that is helpful. Check out his surfing photos, and portraits. Fantastic.

Snow Boys

Thank-you Jen for inviting me out to do the winter photo of the boys. I'm glad we didn't miss it!

Pink Shirt Day

I went for a walk today in support of Pink Shirt Day, an anti-bullying initiative. My daughter pinned a pink ribbon on me this morning (actually a breast cancer awareness pin, but it's all the pink we could find) and she wore a pink shirt to school. I'm glad to see all the efforts today to reduce or hopefully eliminate bullying in our schools and society. You can see the gallery here.

I snapped the photo in this post while waiting for people to walk by in their pink attire. I immediately saw a black and white photo while there up close to this piece of metal art, but when looked at it in Lightroom I thought it deserved a different look and settled on this.

Adam and I are finishing the composite tonight! Yeah!

Olympus Announces the E620

Olympus announced today the E620 which I'm guessing will replace the E420 and E520 as the new entry level dslr in their system. The E30 which has been out for a few months would be the mid-level camera stranding my E3 as the pro camera that has so far not been updated. I'm hoping that Olympus will give us at least a pre-release tease of the E4 by PMA time, something to look forward too. The new E620 looks very compelling though for people just getting into photography. It is almost as small as the E420, has built in image stablization, usable live view, and an articulating LCD screen as well as the creative art modes that the E30 introduced. I don't think the art modes appeal much to people that use photoshop, but for people wanting nice, and different results right from the camera it is pretty cool.

R-Strap, Gear Letdowns and Ballroom Dancing

I bought an R-Strap from BlackRapid about a month ago in my never ending search for the perfect camera strap. It feels really good when on as it goes over one shoulder and across your body with the camera hanging down by your hip attached to the tripod screw. When you want your camera you just pull it up to eye level. Very convenient and user friendly. The only thing that makes me nervous is relying on a single screw to hold your gear safely on the strap. It hasn't failed me yet, but I feel better attaching this strap to a lighter camera. My E3 with the 50-200 lens is large and heavy and just doesn't feel right on the strap. I think ultimately for me it is a good strap for my L1 with the 25mm lens on it as my second camera when I've got the E3 on a tripod or neck strap.

My E3 was frustrating me tonight. We shot ballroom dancing and I used flash for a while, but wasn't feeling it so I switched to high ISO shots before giving up and going with my 25mm f1.4. Now that lens saves the day time and time again but sometimes I just wish I had that D700. I've heard it before that it isn't the gear it's the photographer, and I completely agree with that, but every once in a while.....I want to blame the gear! The E3 is king of the hill for some types of photography, notably outdoor action, portraits and birding/wildlife. Most cameras are great in studio, but low light sports and indoors are frustratingly difficult at times. It is a huge advantage for us though that we usually shoot in pairs. Despite how I want to blame my gear, Adam was knocking off great shot after great shot tonight and saved the day. I took the shot in this post at the beach today of him and his son Kaleb.

Still no early announcements from PMA. Been awefully quiet! Until next time check out the photography from this guy. His photos of street kids in Brazil are heart wrenching, but amazing.

I Can't Wait for PMA

I think if you are a photographer you are by nature a gear junkie. I love camera gear, gadgets and stuff. Last summer I was beside myself with giddiness over Photokina and all its photography related announcements, but in a couple of weeks we get PMA, the big yearly photo show in Las Vegas. I've been surfing the internet non-stop following the rumours about new gear announcements. There hasn't been too much announced yet, and I expect it to be a slow year due to the cutbacks each camera company is making in a time of recession, but I'm still excited.

The above photo is one I did after I received a gas mask in the mail that I bought on Ebay. Adam and I are near completion of our composite image and a portrait he is going to do of me wearing a gas mask is the final piece. We shoot that this Wednesday, but like a kid I couldn't wait to play with the new toy so I did a self-portrait of myself on black velvet with one strobe and my E3 set up on a tripod with remote. It is surprisingly hard to breath in that thing so I only took a couple of shots!

I was listening to a This Week in Photography podacast this weekend in my car and they interviewed a photographer named Rebekka from Iceland. She sounded interesting so I went to her site to check out her stuff. Apparently she was for a while the most viewed photographer on Flickr. Anyway, due to her popularity she landed jobs with Toyota and the national airline of Iceland and it was well deserved as her photography is astounding.

It is raining today and I'm wishing I had an outdoor photo project as I want to go out with my E3 in the rain. I might have to dream one up. Tonight I'm photographing badmington in a gym. Will be my first time with that sport so that ought to be interesting.

Lastly, I'm wanting three different things right now and really can only buy one. I'm wanting the LX3, the new Sigma 50mm 1.4 lens, and the Epson 2880 printer. The LX3 would just be my ideal pocket camera with manual controls and HD video (though I really wish it was water tight), and the Sigma lens would well compliment my Leica 25mm f1.4 and give me a beautiful portrait option. The Epson 2880 has been on my list since it was announced. I struggle getting good quality black and white prints as the only photo labs I have found that do a nice job are Smugmug and Camera Canada. This printer excells at black and white and the ability to do in house printing is very appealing, plus the printer is on sale until the end of March at London Drugs. Decisions, Decisions.

A Little Walk

I went out for a little walk with my daughter at Rathtrevor Beach today. Such a nice way to spend a Sunday morning. She was good enough to pause briefly while on the playground there for me to take this shot which I love as it is one of those photos that really speaks to how my kid looks to me everytime I see her.

Used the E3 today and 50-200 SWD. No worries about water and sand with this setup!

HDR Portraits

I purchased Photomatix today and gave it a try on a beach and at home with my daughter. I really wanted to use it for portraiture just for a different look. I've seen Gavin Seim do it and talk about it on his podcast and it inspired me. I know its not for everyone, but to me every different tool you have is a good thing so that you can keep your work fresh and inspired. In the photo today I deliberately over saturated the colours to the extreme as I wanted to see the whole tone-mapping, HDR experience. I'm not sure I will do that every time as the cartoon look won't be for everyone. Surprisingly my wife liked it even though she often doesn't care for more extreme post processing. Photomatix is very easy to use. The pro version comes with a Lightroom plugin that to my experience is spotty (worked with one export and not another). I think the software will take some experimenting before I find settings that I like, but new software is rarely a bad thing. If you are interested in Photomatix there are some discount codes to be found on the net for 15% off if you do a yahoo or google search.

The annual PMA show is coming up in a couple of weeks. Olympus has been pretty quiet about any major new announcements except maybe a new E430. I was hoping they would reveal a new professional camera to replace the E3, but nothing yet. Pentax however is awash in rumours which I know Adam is excited about. There is talk of a new K3D APSC-H pro grade camera that will have a larger square sized sensor. Also there is talk of a new K30D which would be an upgrade of Adam's K20D. Pentax makes great stuff and their lenses are high quality without the high prices which as an Olympus/Panasonic DSLR user I'm rather jealous of. The Super High Grade Olympus and Panasonic Leica lenses have broken my bank account (though I do love them). Pentax is a company that used to be a photographic giant, and I think behind their current leadership could be again. As it stands, Nikon, Canon and Sony rule the professional market but competition is always a good thing.

I wanted to mention another piece of new gear I bought this year which is the Lastolite 5X6' Black Velvet collapsible backdrop. I have big 10X20' cloth backdrops and stands that I have used for many situations, but I often find that they are a pain to setup for individual portraits. I had heard from Kelli Etheridge, a brilliant local portrait photographer that velvet really eats up light so works as a great background material. I wanted something portable that worked well for upper body, or head/shoulder shots for one or two people. This backdrop collapses into a round disk about 60 cm across and is fast and easy to put up and take down with the Lastolite single arm stand made for these backdrops. The velvet does really eat up the light too making it easier to work in tight spaces as your model can stand pretty close to the velvet without worrying about the lights contaminating the backdrop. Really this is a great, portable and high quality solution. I would like to get one of their HiLite backdrops next.

I'm going on a cruise this summer with my wife to the Bahamas. My daughter is staying with her grandparents while we go on a short 4 day cruise (I hate being away from my kid for too long to be honest). Anyway, you'd think I would be checking out all the details of the vacation, but instead I'm obsessing with what camera I will bring. I could bring my E3 or L1, but the L1 is not weather sealed and the E3 is kind of large. I'm not sure if I would want to carry them around. I have a little point and click Pentax Optio camera, but again, it is not weather sealed and I think I'll be spending lots of time swimming and sitting on sandy beaches. So I'm considering one of the Olympus Tough cameras which are small, pocketable and waterproof. Panasonic has also announced a new waterproof camera that has HD video. I'm not sure if the the Olympus cameras have HD video, have to check. I think the Panasonic camera has 12 megapixels, which I think is too much for a small sensored camera. These megapixel wars are just leading to grainy photos, but that is another topic for another day. Too bad the LX3 is not weather sealed. I've been looking for an excuse to buy that camera for a while now though from what I understand it is pretty much sold out in every camera store in North America.

Lastly, I'm considering joining the Professional Photographers Association of BC inspired by a meeting I had with Gary Peters, a local and very successful photographer. He invited members of the local photo club to drop by his studio and chat and I took him up on the offer. He was very generous with his time and information and really helped me out with so many of the questions I have had about developing our own photography from the business side. Spending time with guys like this really can be helpful, and Gary was amazing. Anyway if anyone out there is a member of the PPABC and has any feedback on the benefits/pitfalls, drop me a line. I'd love to hear them. The main appeal for me would be the networking and the opportunity to become accredited.

That's it for now!

Get Your Whites White

You know those old laundry detergent commercials where they were always talking about getting your whites white? Well when shooting indoor sports it is always a struggle to get white balance correct. There is often mixed lighting in hockey rinks and gyms. I know in one of the Nanaimo rinks there are three different light sources for some games and in another there is a large off colour wall to deal with that always fools my cameras sensor when it is the predominant backdrop.

I had tried using auto white balance with limited success in indoor sports places. Lightroom allows batch fixes for photos, but auto White balance doesn't always choose consistent kelvin settings from shot to shot on the same day. After getting some good advice from another photographer I set my WB often to Tungsten and just let it be consistently wrong and adjust the images later from the RAW image. But this has added a step in post processing and I'm always trying to find ways to get shots right in the camera to save time on the backend in the computer. So, I bought an Expodisc. I tried it for the first time on Sunday at a local casual hockey game (the league I play in) and it worked really really well. It is easy to use, just snap it on the end of your lens, do a custom white balance reading and you are good to go. I saved the custom reading in one of my E3's four presets and now whenever I am back in that rink I can just dial in that same setting making me a happy camper. At about $60 each, these discs aren't cheap, and I wish they had a more universal fit as you need to buy one for each size of different lens you have, but I have to say I'm happy to own mine.

On other news, we recently donated certificates for portrait sessions to a local daycare and the Nanaimo Crisis Society to be auctioned at their beer and burger nights. I've worked with the Crisis Society before photographing their Suicide Vigil last summer. Also we were just hired to do some photography for the City of Nanaimo's Parks and Recreation department which is very exciting for us. It should be a fun project for us over the next month or so and I'm really looking forward to it.

Pocket Wizards

For the past year I've been using Cactus Triggers I bought from Gadget Infinity to fire flashes as well as an off brand remote for studio strobes. The Cactus triggers work well enough but failed once due to a loose connection that was easy enough to fix. The sync speed on them wasn't always consistent and sometimes I had to dial down my shutter speed to use them without blacking out part of a frame. The off brand (really they have no noticeable brand) wireless remotes that came with my studio strobes worked very well until the past few months. Then sync speed started falling despite new (and rather odd/expensive) batteries. Also they simply started failing us during shoots which was really embarrassing and annoying. I would flick the remote in my hotshoe and switch the receiver between strobes and while the client was waiting I'd be praying I could get them to work. Not good.

Sync cords are reliable and I've used them as backup, but they are annoying and being as I'm clumsy I really don't want to have cords to trip over causing my lights to come crashing down. Just not an ideal solution.

So, I bought Pocket Wizards. They are expensive (almost $200 each) but rock solid reliable, work at any distance that I might need (you can fire them from a football field distance or more), can be used to remotely fire flashes, studio strobes and my cameras and are pretty much the professional industry standard.

I've used the pocket wizards before in my studio lighting course I took at Vancouver Photo Workshops. Since I've received them I've only used them once, but they are fantastic. They sync and fire as fast as your camera and lights can keep up and just plain work. So for photographers I can't recommend them enough if you can afford them. If you do order them, make sure you go to Flash Zebra's website and get any cords you need to properly attach them to your camera and/or lights. Nothing like getting a new toy and not being able to use them. Thankfully I bought all the cords in advance.

Projects

Adam and I are working on our first composite image. Inspired by photographers that put together unreal images made up of several seperate shots, we are working on a sort of post apocalyptic image. It is about half done but really a very fun and exciting exercise. Hopefully we can post a result soon.

We've recently found out that the City of Nanaimo will be using us for some Parks and Recreation photography. That is pretty exciting and something we are looking forward too. It is a nice rebound for us after losing the Island Spirits job to a larger advertising company with their own in house photography. Competing with agencies that do web design, promotions, advertising and use the larger corporate photographers is challenging but Island Spirits is a great company and were really good to us. I wish them well as they grow their brand. The ups and downs of corporate work are still new to us but we will come in and do some great work for the City contract and turn that into a positive.

I'm very excited to say that I recieved that magic mail notice yesterday that my package of new photography gear is here for pickup today. It took 5 weeks, but now that I have it I'm sure I will be one excited photographer playing with new toys over the next few days. Look for some gear reviews to come.

Lastly, I've posted up an image I took while on a work seminar last fall at the Mission Hill Vineyards. If you ever get a chance to visit there you won't be dissapointed. It was fantastic, both in the quality of the wine and the amazing winery.