Yann Arthus-Bertrand "Being a Photographer"

I was walking through Chapters with my daughter a couple of weeks ago and on the way to the children's book section we passed through the bargain book section where I noticed the book "Being a Photographer" by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.  Never one to pass up a deal I grabbed it without know anything about Yann or his work.

Turns out the book comes with a nice little DVD documentary all about Yann and his photography.  It makes a good Cliff note version of the book.  This is the photographer responsible for the 'Earth from Above' photos that were massively popular in the early 90's.  The write-up about his aerial photography is really interesting as well as the preparation involved in getting those iconic images.  Just the amount of film that had to be packed and labelled is truly daunting and makes me happy for digital despite my nostalgic claim to love film.

Yann's career also had some other interesting points such as his beginning where his family lived on a nature preserve and he spent time with his wife documenting the lives of lions.  He also did a lot of 'studio' photography on locations capturing really unique images of farm animals and their relationships with their owners.  The brown canvas studio work also covered naturists, tribesman in bermuda shorts (I think a commercial job he regrets in hindsight) and porn stars.

This is a book and DVD that covers the work of a really unique and diverse career.  Yann comes across as a humble yet uniquely talented photographer.  He embraces new photographers openly and comments on the differences between working the craft a decade or more ago and today.  For the price of this book, you can't lose.  I highly recommend it if you can find a copy.

Onto other things, I notice that the rumour that the Olympus E5 is going to be announced tomorrow August 31st has been retracted in favour of an announcement of a new micro four thirds camera.  I still suspect there will not be an E5, but the rumour site now says it will happen mid September.  I'm not holding my breath.

As for myself, we are looking for our first studio space.  Up until today we have been running our photography company out of my home which has worked OK for weddings and portrait clients that want location work, but we feel it is time to 'grow up' our business and to really identify ourselves with a commercial space that will be attractive to our clients.  We have looked at two spaces so far, one occupied by another photographer that is moving away, and another that is in a downtown location that we are unsure about.  The first was far too rough for us, not giving the sort of presentation we wanted to show our clients without some major renovations.  The second had a neighbour that is an environmental lobbyist.  Nothing wrong with that but the literature that dominates the public spaces of the building are not exactly what we want attached to our brand.  It seems like finding the right space is going to be challenging, but I hope it is worth the effort in the long run.  I'll definitely update the search on the blog as we go through it including our discovery of whether taking on that expense was worth it!

As the World Turns

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to blog, but I actually haven't had much to blog about either as the photo world has been quiet other than some predictable pre-Photokina announcements.

I dont' usually photograph the groom prep, my partner does, but I had fun doing it for a change.  If you ever do one and Elvis is in the room, gotta pay respects to the King!  This image is important for me as it is the fist time I've really learned to love the Content Aware Fill feature of CS5.  There was a window on the wall to the left and a hallway where the wall leaves the frame on the right in this photo.  Both taken care of pretty much automatically by the Content Aware Fill.

Olympus rumours still are creeping out about the E5, but to me they sound pretty feeble.  The Olympus forums are already beginning to unravel though as the infighting about whether four thirds is dead continues.  If Photokina comes and goes without an announcement it is going to get downright nasty and panicked on the scale of the Titanic going down.  Wait for it.

Sony announced some new DSLR's.  Sony make me laugh in one sense as they can't shake their point and shoot mentality where they release a whole bunch of slightly different cameras with different names in an attempt to flood the market.  You've got the A55, A55V, A33, A550 and A580.  All of which are slightly different and will cost within a couple hundred dollars of each other.  I think they could have possibly narrowed that down to two models, but maybe it's just me.  There are a couple of interesting things about the cameras though like the use of electronic viewfinders in a DSLR or as Sony calls them now SLT's because they have a "pellicle mirror" which as I understand it is semi-translucent allowing for continuous contrast autofocus.  That is cool for video as you can now autofocus while recording.  I like the cameras, they have some interesting features despite that they are clearly marketed at the consumer level photographer.  I'm not sure Sony completely understands or cares about the pro photographer but it is hard to ignore the unique traits of their cameras.  They also announced a bunch of new lenses like an 85mm f2.8, 24mm f2.0 and a 35mm f1.8.  These all sound pretty nice and the $250 price tag for that 85mm is to be envied.

Canon announced their worst kept secret the 60D.  They appear to be moving this line of camera more towards the consumer photographer so as not to compete with the 7D which I suppose makes sense, but I have to wonder why they even bother?  Why do we need so many different models of camera?  I'm not sure how many different Rebel's there are or T1A or whatever alphabet soup budget DSLR they have, but really I'm unsure of why the camera manufacturer's need so many different models on the market.  I'm sure it makes sense on some level of marketing wizardry that I can't comprehend.

The new Canon is 18 megapixels, which seems like a lot to me considering at yesterdays wedding for the first time ever I dialled my 5D mk II down to sRAW (I think about 9.9 megapixels) for a good portion of the day.  Why?  Well I'm tired of editing these huge files that I don't use and taking up gobs of hard drive space.  I'd also had coffee with a fellow local wedding photographer Spencer Brawn and during our conversation I'm not sure if he convinced me, or I convinced myself to finally let go of the full sized files.  It was a lightbulb moment.  Turns out I haven't needed the 21 megapixels of the 5D.  It is just a hard drive hog and it slows down my post processing.  In addition the final exported jpg files that I give to the customer are sometimes too large for me to export to Smugmug (my online gallery host) as they exceed 20mb.  I also have to downsize all my files before I import them to my photo book design program as they won't accept files that large.  Should I ever shoot for a billboard I'll turn it back to it's full resolution but assuming my edits look OK I may just leave my super high resolution 5D as having slightly less megapixels than my 3 year old Olympus E3.  For me, the megapixel war is over.

So as for Photokina, I expect there will be some interesting news from Pentax and Samsung coming as well as Panasonic.  I'm feeling that Olympus will be quiet which is too bad, but at least we will get to witness mass pandemonium up close and personal.  I'm not too worried about it.  My E3 will be a great hobby camera.  Beyond that it is still a superior outdoor wedding ceremony camera.  For my last two weddings over the past 8 days I've pretty much used it exclusively over the 5D for the outdoor ceremonies.  It gives a better result in the colour, exposure and the crop factor gives me incredible reach where I can zoom right up on hands and faces from the back of the aisle.  My ceremony edits from last weeks wedding went by really quickly where I was pretty much doing nothing to the files and exporting them directly as they were.  That is a real time saver.  But despite all that, I think after Photokina I will pick up a Canon 7D and retire the Olympus from my professional use except for days where it will clearly be raining outside and the workhorse will still shine bright.

I plan on posting some of my wedding images, particularly ones I lit with off camera flash or our Alien Bee lights, as sort of  a 'how we did it' thing.  Despite the popularity of the Strobist look, most of our competitors are still running around with their flashes on the hotshoe of their cameras.  It surprises me, but it also delights me as it is one way to clearly show the difference in your work.  Clients don't know what is different, but they do see the difference.  I just did a shoot for the City last week where I photographed these kids in a community garden project.  I brought in my Alien Bee with a big Octobox and the City phoned me and told me how much they loved the photos and how different they looked.  It was the first time I brought the big lights out on one of those shoots and they made a big difference immediately to my client.

The Freedom to be You

I have been thinking about this for a while personally and thought I'd drop in a quick blog post to talk about it as I'm going to be busy again with a big wedding.  I wanted to try and convey a philosophy that I had been struggling with and had come to peace with about my photography over the past 3 or 4 months and that is the ability to relax and just be yourself in your art, craft and business.

Often times in my business I'll feel pressure from a lot of different directions to produce work or run my business in ways that others want.  When I first fell in love with photography I loved it in a pure joy kind of way every time I made an image I liked.  When I started it as a business I thought I would be happy all the time producing art that others loved and paid for.  I soon found out that:

• When you do a wedding, portrait session or any other paid type of work the customer has an opinion about what you should do, particularly bargain shopper customers that don't appreciate your vision but just want a competent dude with a camera to cover their event. 
• Other photographers in the industry will offer you advice and be insulted if you don't follow their model on pricing, products and way of building your packages.  They will pressure you endlessly to run their business like theirs as heck they don't want to change.
• No matter which wedding I'm at I'll always have a helpful aunt or uncle that wants to show me how they think a dress should be arranged or tell me about a cute photo somewhere I should go take.  I've blogged about this before, but I even have been interrupted by strangers in a park while on a portrait session to tell me about a bird I should go photograph.  
• People will occasionally look at one of the photos I've made and tell me they don't like it.  This used to bother me and I'd even re-edit it to suit their advice.

What I've come to learn with a bit of experience is that:

• you should produce the work you love and enjoy.  It will be hard at first, but if you keep showing the type of photography you love then eventually customers will come to you for that style.  If that style is different enough from anyone else in your community then you will have the market cornered.  When your style looks like everyone else's then you must compete on price and price alone. 
• If someone says they don't like your work, don't sweat it.  Stay true to yourself.  My wife recently told me she didn't like the photos I had been admiring from a really famous high end fashion photographer.  I doubt he would have been offended.  The thing is that if you produce the work you love, people will eventually catch onto it.  They will sense and see your joy in that art and it will become attractive to them or at least they will appreciate it.  You only need 5% of the people to love your work to make a good living.  There is only one of you, they can't buy that somewhere else.  
• Be nice to the aunt and uncles at weddings that just want to be helpful.  If you have an urge to bonk them on the head with your big heavy camera just resist it.  There are the standard boring images we all have to take on our jobs like the family firing squad photos (grandmas get really upset if you miss those) or the speeches.  Just do it and do it well, then use the rest of your time and energy going after the images that are reflective of (hopefully) why that couple hired you in the first place.
• Other photographers and networking with them can be a real joy, but don't forget it is your business to run.  Take in their advice, thank them for it and then just follow your own path.  I've learned a lot from other people in this industry and I've made it where I am a lot faster by listening to some good advice, but I still do some things differently than all of them and my customers appreciate me for it.  At some point in time I started to ask friends, family and customers about their experiences with other photographers.  There were some universal things they talked about that they were not satisfied with and I took those things in and shaped my business around it.  Some day I'll share those things, but what I'm trying to say is that to be a successful 'you,' you can't just be a mirror of some other business person, you have to have your own secret sauce.  

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  I'll be busy as usual!  If you like this blog please share it on Facebook by liking it on the link on the right hand side of this page, or any other social networking site on the links on the bottom of the page.  Comments are welcome as always.

Olympus E5 Discussion Video

I found this really fun site called Xtranormal and thought it would be fun to make a video of a typical conversation between two Olympus photographers right now on any photography discussion forum.  Enjoy!

Olympus' Quiet Death or A Deep Breath Before Something Big?

So as I sit in the executive lounge at the Calgary Airport eating all the snacks and drinking all their Pelegrino I have time to cruise the net on my iPad and catch upon all the latest rumors. I kind of wish I had a Mac Book Pro as I have a wedding waiting to be edited that I can't work on until tomorrow as the iPad isn't exactly a Photoshop/Lightroom wizard. It's perfect for this though, for sitting and surfing.

Anyway Photokina is a month away and the Internet is awash with rumors from all the different camera brands. In the first ever podcast from this blog we'll be breaking down the expected releases from each camera manufacturer, but as I'm an Olympus guy that finally went over to Canon in late 2009 I thought I'd offer some opinion about the future of their little camera company, particularly the pro camera model of the E1 & E3. Just a short little apology, I usually insert a lot of links in a post but it can be tedious to do so when blogging on the iPad so just hit Google to find my sources and I'll try and remember to insert links later.

I dug around a bit today and read lots of different opinions and rumors. Seems that:

- Olympus has possibly discontinued all of their current DSLR models. Indeed when I checked on the new online store in the US they only had the E620, E30 & E3 offered for sale. 43 rumors website says they have a camera store source that reports Olympus discontinuing their entire non-micro four thirds line.

- Olympus at least considered a hybrid model of pro micro four thirds camera that would accept regular four thirds lenses as a way to appease us old school customers.

- Sales of four thirds dslr's have plummeted while those of the micro four thirds cameras have been very strong. So much so in fact that other manufacturers like Nikon, Pentax and Canon are being forced to consider the market while Sony and Samsung have entered it. Panasonic failed in the dslr market with the really good L1 and the somewhat ho hum L10 but is enjoying a huge gain in market share with its GF1, G2, G10 and GH1.

- While there are still pro photographers using Olympus equipment they are getting less frequent all the time. Olympus still showcases it's Visionary Photographers and has a support program for pro photographers.

While many will disagree I think there is still a strong market out there for non-full frame pro DSLR cameras like the D300S, 7D, 1D Mk IV, E3 and K7. While the market for the mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras like the G2 or EP2 has been proven to have huge growth potential for the industry the technology to make these cameras of 'Pro' quality does not yet exist in my opinion. Not to say you can't make a professional image with them, you most definitely can, but they lack many features I'd consider mandatory for a working camera namely rugged build, weather sealing, fast autofocus and a big bright built in viewfinder.

So if what I'm supposing is true will Olympus keep manufacturing it DSLR's with the small four thirds sensor? On one level it makes sense for them to continue. Even if most consumers buy smaller cameras they put a lot of weight in the credibility of a brand they see professionals use at baseball games, weddings and in media scrums. That is probably one of the big reasons Olympus sponsors the US Open tennis tournament so they are clearly aware of the importance of brand recognition. I get asked a lot by clients and guests at weddings about the gear I use and for camera purchasing advice. If the gear I carry has Canon written on the front of it that pretty much counts as a brand recommendation to a lot of my customers. So my point is that even if sales of a camera like the E3 are really low, having a pro caliber camera that is actually being used professionally does a lot for credibility of the brand.

The other reason a camera manufacturer may wish to carry a high end camera is to keep their current customers that are serious about photography and want an upgrade path. Most of us form brand loyalties early and so long as the brand we choose builds a reasonably good product we will continue with that brand for our whole lives. My dad is a Chevy guy. Me I bought a new Chevy once but it broke down a lot, so now I'm a Nissan guy. I've bought six different Nissan vehicles. I'm kind of craving my next car to have a bit more luxury, but lucky for me Nissan has thought of my upgrade path and makes the high end Infiniti vehicles. Kodak makes point and shoot cameras nowadays and I think largely because of the brand recognition of their name they probably sell a lot of them, but a few years ago they stopped making DSLR cameras despite that from what I hear the cameras were quite good. Now if a Kodak customer develops a serious interest in photography that requires a camera that is more capable than their point and shoot they will be forced to switch brands leaving Kodak in the cold. Myself as a case in point, am a big fan of Olympus cameras, but they didn't replace their E3 in a timely way and I felt I needed new gear that would do things for me that the E3 wouldn't so I bought a Canon. Now as I purchase Canon lenses and get great results from the cameras I can feel my loyalties shifting. Olympus is missing an opportunity by their lack of regular commitment to the Pro Camera user to keep me in the field with their brand name around my neck.

Now I've trolled around the forums at Dpreview and FourThirdsPhoto and read the numerous threads on whether a replacement is coming from Olympus for the E3. The regulars there appear to be getting irate with the visitors asking about replacement rumors but in reading their complaints about the tirade of speculation I've realized that what I was really seeing is a high level of anxiety from both camps. Olympus is at a very obvious crossroads. They are experiencing success with micro four thirds like they never had with regular four thirds products. Panasonic is proving that you can ditch your DSLR line and still draw a profit. Thing is though that Panasonic draws virtually no professionals to it's product for real working photography and no matter how brilliant their product that will always be their Achilles heel until the technology of the format makes it useable on a regular basis to working pros. If Olympus ditches the E3 line they will admit that four thirds was never relevant, they will alienate thousands of photographers that bought into the brand (particularly those with the expensive SHG lenses), and they will finally destroy the upgrade path for serious photographers that use their brand of equipment.

It has been three years since the E3 was released. In my opinion that is too long between Pro body upgrades. I plan on (and budget for) replacing my main camera every two years for my work. It was even longer between the E1 and E3 releases. This is no way to build confidence in the brand. I won't even mention how long it has been since we've seen any decent new lenses from Olympus. Now if I'm going to throw my opinion around, I will say it probably doesn't matter if Olympus replaces the E620 or any of their smaller DSLR cameras. It is my true belief that the micro four thirds segment of camera is very likely to replace both cheap and small DSLR's and high end point and shoots in the market. Olympus can have replacements for the E30 and E3 though. One weather sealed and one not. One 'prosumer' and one Pro body. This would achieve the maintenance of a logical upgrade path for it's current brand loyal customers and, should they get these cameras into the hands of working Pros it would bring recognition and exposure to their products. Canon has shown with the 7D and Nikon with the D300 that crop sensor cameras in a DSLR body are still very relevant to Pros and serious amateurs.

In the end though, after serious consideration I don't think Olympus is going to do it. I don't think we are going to see the E5. Despite my love of their product the truth is that they are just a corporate giant no different than Ford, Rogers or Google. They may profess a love for photographic excellence but in the end they love their balance sheet so much more. Decisions by corporations are so often made by accountants and executives, many of whom wouldn't know an f-stop from a pit stop. The huge success of micro-four thirds will, I think spell the demise of four thirds. It's too bad, and it will ultimately anger and alienate thousands of photographers that will no longer trust the brand, but if you honestly reflect on the corporate position of Olympus it seems very likely that I'm about to be a pretty good fortune teller. Photokina is nearly here, and I'll be thrilled to be proven wrong. I sincerely hope I am. But I suspect that my E3 is about to finally become my full time hobby camera. If there are no announcements one way or the other by the end of September then go visit the Dpreview Olympus forums. They'll be eating their young.

Comments are always welcome. Being as this will likely be an emotional and controversial topic I ask for polite and relevant comments only please. Happy to hear from those that disagree with me and I'll probably even cheer for you to one day say you told me so.

Edited to correct some iPad typing mistakes.  :)

Olympus Extension Tube

So I purchased the Olympus macro extension tube on a bit of a whim on Ebay last week.  It arrived a couple of days ago and I took it out to my backyard to play around with it.  I'm not really into macro photography, but the extension tube was selling for a good price and I figured it would be fun to play with something outside of my normal realm of comfort.  The extension tube is basically a round hollow tube that goes between your lens and the camera body.  It allows for the electronic information between the lens and body to still travel so they can communicate with each other, at least if you use the brand name extension tube your manufacturer makes. 

I used the 50-200 f2.8-3.5 lens and the 35mm f3.5 macro.  I might have been doing something wrong, but I couldn't really see a difference in the focusing ability of the macro prime.  It pretty much focuses ridiculously close with or without the extension tube attached. 

The 50-200 normally needs about 120 centimetres to focus at its closest distance, but with the extension tube you can focus at about 45 centimetres.  You focus initially by zooming in and out then you can autofocus if you want.  The chart from Olympus suggests that you can't autofocus but it worked for me.  I set the camera to AF + MF so I could fine tune the focus if I wanted.  It worked well and the extenstion tube is definately fun to play with with the big zoom lens.  The 35mm macro lens is probably preferable and easier for still subjects, but if you are trying to photograph something like a bug where you didn't want to get too close and scare it away the 50-200 and extension tube would be pretty useful.  Also with the zoom lens you can get nice and close to a subject in your shot without casting a shadow from you, your camera or the lens which can sometimes happen with the 35mm macro lens.

Initially I was having trouble getting the camera to focus on what I wanted as the depth of field is really shallow with the extension tube attached.  I was using centre focus and recomposing, but that proved difficult.  I was also hand holding the camera which seems to be a bit of a mistake with macro as you really need to stay steady.  I'm sure the image stabilization helped some though.

Overall, it was a pretty fun little gadget.  I think I'll put it to rest for a while but once September comes and goes and photography isn't so busy for me I plan on diving in and learning to use this new tool to explore some creative macro shots, so probably not a lot of the obvious bugs and flowers.  If you ever have the chance to play around with an extension tube I recommend it.  It is fun to explore a whole new world of photography even just for a laugh.  They aren't expensive to buy either so it could prove to be just the ticket for shaking things up for you if you are in a rut.

Before I go, for those of you that use Flickr, am I the only one annoyed by some of the changes they've made to the site?  I like some improvements like for example if you comment on someone's photo you only have to hit the back button once now to get back to what you were looking at instead of twice.  But the way in which you link to a photo in your gallery by grabbing the link, like I do in this blog is completely broken.  Before I could choose the size of the image I wanted to link to, but they've taken that away with only one link option.  Also the link they provide doesn't work!  For this post I had to upload my photos to Smugmug to link the photos in.  Irritating.  Especially since I pretty much use Flickr to post up blog images or happy snaps.  And they kept the ugly white background to view the images.  I'm glad they are trying to streamline things and make them simpler, but if they don't fix the link issue I won't be renewing my account.

Another thing I'm thinking of ditching soon?  My local photography club.  I've been a member for about two a a half years, but last year I rarely attended.  I see a lot of value in photography clubs for amateur photographers if they can find like minded people within the club to share their hobby with.  But my particular one is largely focused on landscape, wildlife and bird photography.  I emailed them this summer offering to teach some portrait lessons to club members, mostly because I wanted desperately to bring a different genre of interest to the club, but they showed no interest.  It is a very large, well attended club, but the average member is of retirement age and shows little interest in the photography I enjoy so I'm going to let it go.  It's too bad to, I've made a lot of good connections through the club, but as much as I admire the patience of bird photographers, I just need to go my own way.  Lately I've been networking and hanging out with other working photographers a lot more and I find that to be a much better use of my time.  Do I still recommend photography clubs including the one in my community to others?  Yes, especially new photographers, but like all good things this one has come to an end.

Photography is Not a Crime

Found this blog today which is pretty interesting.  It is dedicated to interactions between videographers, photographers and police.  It is somewhat alarming how many conflicts there are.  Some are frightening indeed like this one where you have a police officer obviously brutalizing a journalist for 'elbowing' his car.  The journalist was later awarded a $99,000 judgement in court and the officer resigned.  But there are also some videos where, in my opinion the videographers are clearly out to incite police and cause trouble.  There has to be a balance somewhere where police relax a little around camera equipment and the videographers and photographers stop actively chasing police around looking to start a fight.  Plainly though, at least in my mind, a citizen should have a right to record a conversation with the police for their own safety.  The police should have the same right, and do.  I believe they have dashboard cameras.

Anyway, interesting website, worth visiting.  The fellow that runs the blog, Carlos Miller, appears to enjoy harassing police to produce content for his site, but he also has some valid stories on there about incidents not involving him where police clearly cross the line.  Visit the site and judge for yourself.

Step Back....Further

Have you ever had one of those photos you were trying to take when you were asking someone to step back closer to a ledge for a better view?  Well this fellow went back a little too far!

That's it.  Just a short post to share a story. 

Model Photography Culture

So I decided recently that I needed to force myself to get back to photography that was just for me, not for paid clients.  I've been wanting to try some things that I don't think are particularly appealing to brides or families wanting portraits, mainly black and white fine art portraits.  I think it's really important to push yourself to have personal photography projects especially when you are a working photographer.  It keeps the juices flowing and it also really helps our paid work.  What I mean by that is that when I'm photographing a wedding or a portrait I will usually go for the safe shots first, the ones that I'm really well versed at and then if there is time I'll play around and experiment.  Well photographing models or people on your own time allows you to experiment entirely with little or no expectations on the outcome.  That can develop some new skills in your craft and some new creative ideas that your competitors don't have.  It is so important I think to have a 'look' that you are showing your customers that is not only polished and representing your personal taste and art, but is totally different from what your competitors are doing.  If your work all looks the same, then you are pretty much a commodity as a photographer, a button pusher and everything just comes down to price. 

So a few years ago I started to create a Model Mayhem account but never got around to actually finishing my enrollment.  I've photographed lots of models before at photo workshops and at the Canadian Bodypainting festivities but never really made any attempt to meet models and makeup artists or hair stylists for my own projects.  The whole culture of it seemed rather alien to me.  There is all this TFP (time for prints) and other lingo.  There is also a seedy side to the scene that I don't really want to be associated with.  You know, the photographer dude with a camera (he only owns one, usually with a kit lens) that just likes convincing pretty girls to let him take photos of them.  We've all met those guys and (hereafter called GWC for guy with camera) honestly I think I hate them more than the models do.  The rest of us have to work so hard to make sure that people know we are professional and interested in photography, not being a super creep. 

So anyway, Model Mayhem is again on my radar and I will be making an account very soon, or at least as soon as the wedding season slows to a trickle and not a full charge.  I did come accross a Facebook group called Vancouver Island Models and Photographers though after it was featured in the local paper.  It is a group of local photographers, models and makeup artists that get together every so often on these sort of group shoots where everyone comes for free and trades photos for time.  I decided to drag Adam out to a meet-up (the groups fourth, my first) last Sunday.  We were both dog tired as we had a wedding the day before, but I was determined to drop in on this scene to see if I could make some connections to pursue some personal projects with. 

Turns out it was actually a lot of fun.  There were definately GWC's there with dated dslr's or point and shoots, or just an air about them that they were hoping their D300 would attract a pretty girl or two.  I was a little nervous that I would be wasting my time in a sea of photographers with only a couple of models, but as it turned out there were more models than photographers by quite a large margain.  We didn't know too many people so we just unpacked some gear that we wanted to play with and set up our first scene and waited for people to come to us.  It took place out on a private rural property that was a really rich photo environment.  I decided to avoid some of the obvious places that I knew photographers would be fighting for like this really awesome gazebo out on a pond.  We had recently bought a whole new Alien Bee lighting kit with a battery pack so we wanted to play with it (had used it in Saturday's wedding for family formals and it rocked) and experience what could be done with it. 

Anyway, we really enjoyed ourselves.  The models were coming to us pretty regularly and we met some really nice people that I hope to photograph again.  I've realized that I need to build some relationships with makeup artists and hair stylists as it make such a big difference to what I'm trying to do.  I love good makeup, especially later in photoshop when I'm not wanting to fix bad makeup.  The time spent was well worth it just to get out there and play and experiment without the pressure of producing a sellable product.  The meeting of other like-minded photographers and models was the cream on the cake and I'm very motivated to pursue those personal projects that have been sitting in the back cobwebbed corners of my creative mind. 

If you are wanting to pursue some photography of your own that involves projects that are not necessarily commercial or for your paid families and brides, then I encourage you to try and network through Model Mayhem or a group like VIMP.  I'm a little uncomfortable with trying to wade through the GWC and models that don't necessarily share my taste in photography but I think the effort is worth it.  I listen to a podcast called 'Photographer and Model' that has some online tutorials on how to get involved with this scene.  I haven't gone through them yet, but will soon. 

Anyway, enough of that talk.  I'm rambling more than usual.  Probably because I have a wedding to edit and some CD's and slideshows to make up for clients.  Time pressure is a wonderful thing, it forces you to get things done, but isn't it interesting how I can find distractions that waste time like blogging?  I also keep popping in on all the forums and rumour sites looking for news and information leaks on the latest gear coming around Photokina time. I recently had a bride link up on Facebook to a slideshow I did for her over a year ago that had some video in it.  It has me thinking about video again so I'm wondering what is coming out and about what I'm going to be using to produce that video if not my 5D mk II.  I admit I'm curious about what Olympus is going to do about the E3 replacement as well.  I'm betting nothing, but I could be wrong, in fact I'm often wrong.  I did buy the Olympus extension tube for macro photography on a whim after I found it on Ebay for a good price.  I don't even do macro photography so I hope I didn't just throw money away.  We'll see.  Maybe I'll love bug pictures, could be my new thing, and bugs likely don't want prints for their time.

EDIT:  Just wanted to add a quick note to say that I did go the the 'Photographer and Model' website mentioned above and signed up for their free mini course.  It's kinda lame.  Just 11 tips that most photographers know or should know anyway.  I thought it would be a video, but it wasn't.  You also have to enter your email, so spam may follow.  Not recommended. 

The switch from Olympus to Canon, revisited

A while ago I posted a blog post about my move over to Canon from Olympus.  I was curious about my usage of the Olympus E3 since that date and in particular how much I was still using the Olympus during weddings.  After reading Kirk Tuck's blog today I was thinking about what a good point he had when he said he didn't like taking two incompatible sets of gear to a job as it just added to the weight.  I have a wedding tomorrow and I'll still be lugging along my E3 with my 5D mk II and all their dedicated flashes and lenses.  It does get to be a pain.  I think part of me was waiting to see what Olympus would do as my unthinking heart (nothing to do with practicality) is still pretty attached to Olympus despite my outward refusal to be brand loyal.  Photokina is coming, and if nothing amazing happens by then I know I will be buying a second Canon, either the 7D or the 1D mk IV depending on what funds allow.  I do like working with one full frame and one crop sensor camera in tandem.  It's time to only have one brand of gear in my bag and if it is Canon I'll happily keep Olympus' equipment for rainy days and my hobby photography.  Anyway, I picked 6 different weddings since that date and pulled the metadata from Lightroom to see how much I used each camera.

• Wedding One: 998 Canon, 519 Olympus (34%) -indoor wedding
• Wedding Two: 1089 Canon, 294 Olympus (21%) - indoor wedding
• Wedding Three: 1332 Canon, 319 Olympus (24%) - indoor wedding
• Wedding Four: 579 Canon, 306 Olympus (34%) - outdoor wedding
• Wedding Five: 555 Canon, 186 Olympus (25%) - outdoor wedding
• Wedding Six: 782 Canon, 50 Olympus (6%) - indoor wedding

Now I shoot a different amount each wedding, and those are not edited files delivered to the customer, just the photos I took on the whole day.  You notice I am shooting less as the season goes on?  Well like anything, as you get further into a season you get more efficient.  But interestingly, outside of the last wedding in the list I'm pretty consistently shooting with the Olympus about a quarter of the time.  I haven't hit any rain at a wedding yet this year, though tomorrow might prove to be different so I'll definitely be bringing the E3.  I think over time if I get another Canon body I'll just bring the Olympus if rain is in the forecast at all on a wedding day.  

Further to Kirk's blog post, I don't really need the super resolution of the 5D mk II like he does, it hasn't been that big of a deal to me, but I do appreciate the reduced noise in the file.  Sometimes I like the shallow depth of field of the full frame sensor, sometimes I don't.  I do like the wide angle of view on the 5D, but I also like the 'telephoto like' view of the crop.  So I guess having two cameras, one crop, one full frame is perfect for me.  

My total stats for camera usage since that post:

1. 6974 shots on the 5D mk II
2. 4665 on the Olympus E3
3. 402 on cameras Lightroom doesn't recognize (I think these might be film scans)
4. 94 on a borrowed Canon 40D
5. 58 on a borrowed Leica S2
6. 40 on my now sold Panasonic LX3
7. 8 on a borrowed Canon 7D

Hey that is 12240 shots since May!  I'm going to wear out my cameras, better buy a new one. 

Black Rapid R-Strap, a Review

So I've owned a Black Rapid strap for a while now, I think I was actually one of the first ones to buy one of the original versions. I'm pretty sure I've blogged about it in the past but I loved my strap, it is a great way to have a camera attached to your body without destroying your neck. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the attachement they gave to screw into your camera tripod socket was really poorly designed. I had it come loose one time on me during a wedding (thankfully the camera wasn't damaged) and didn't trust it again. I simply put on my tripod quick release plate from my Manfrotto tripod and attached the strap to the ring on the plate. This was a really good workaround that I had no troubles with at all.

Well, when I went to Image Explorations in July I forgot my strap at home and I was pretty tired of hand holding my camera after day one, so I went to the friendly folks at Beau Photo that were there and bought a new strap. This one came with a new fastener (the FastenR3)that goes into your tripod socket and I'm happy to report that it is much much better. They even improved the fastener hook on the strap itself giving it a screw lock to make sure everything stays attached.

So I used the new strap (the R7) all week then and have used it since at every wedding I've gone to and it is a big improvement over the old setup. I totally trust the new attachement now after a brief initial period where I was constantly fiddling with it to make sure it was attached properly.

While I was there at Beau photo, and knowing I already owned a Black Rapid strap I decided to buy the CoupleR add-on that allows you to take two Black Rapid straps and join them together to use for holding two cameras at once. I haven't used it yet so I'll be sure to talk about it later to let you know how it works. I rarely use two cameras at the same time, but I think if the strap is comfortable I may put my Olympus with a longer lens on one strap and my Canon 5D mk II on the other strap with a wider angle lens. It could be a really nice combination.

I truly believe that as photographers carrying around heavy cameras we need to consider our long-term health and that includes looking after our neck and back. I realized a little more than a year ago that neck straps, no matter how good, were really just not going to protect my camera as they hurt my lower neck so bad I kept taking them off. I have a healthy neck and back and I plan on keeping it that way so finding an option like the Black Rapid strap was very important for me.

Looking to bling out your Olympus EPL-1 or EP-2?  Check out this blog post on b&h insights.

Also, check out the work of Nick Danziger, just discovered him, pretty good stuff.  Not a lot of working pros using Olympus gear still (including Kirk Tuck), but he is one.

Video can be Funny & I'm a Bad Golfer

Shot with my iPhone.  Good thing I'm into photography and not golf.  One good thing I'll give video, it can show humour like a photo can't in some cases, like this one:



If anyone wants my autograph before I get know as the next Mike Weir just let me know.

Wedding Photography; A Guide to Photojournalism

We recently bought a couple of books by Oliver-Cameron Publishing on wedding photography.  They have two out right now, the first called "Wedding Photography-A Guide to Posing" and the second "Wedding Photography-A Guide to Photojournalism."  I just finished reading the later and I must say it was very enjoyable.  It was written by Kerry Morgan and she does a very thorough job of walking the photographer through a full wedding day and describing how she captures the day in a photojournalistic sense. The other book, on posing, is filled with different advice for a different style of photography where the photographer will more readily interact and pose the couple.  I found both books very good as I actually don't like to be one or the other.  To me, the best photography has some points of the day captured very photo journalistically and others posed.

No matter, each book is full of inspiring images and in particular Kerry's book (I have only flipped through the other one, not read the text) is ripe with great hints and tips.  She is based in the UK so some of her typical wedding events are different than what we have here in North America, but it all translates very well.  The book flows through a typical day and ends with a sample album that would be delivered to a client.

One thing that strikes me about both these books is that they are filled with inspiring photos.  I often hit the internet before a wedding looking for new inspiration or ideas.  These books are small (7x5 inches) so they would sit nicely in your glove box in your car for flipping through the morning before a wedding.  I love to absorb images from other photographers, not to copy them but to be influenced by the ones I like.  Often I'll look back at them later and see hints of their influence in my own work.  Anyway, if you are looking for some nice wedding photography books, I believe these can only be ordered through their website (link in first sentence of this post) and are shipped directly.

Photo:Box, A Review

I bought the book Photo:Box about a month ago as it looked like an interesting reference to a lot of well known and successful photographers.  The book showcases 210 different photographers from around the world in different areas of interest from reportage to portraits to travel and fashion.  Each photographer has one image featured of theirs with a brief explanation of the story or significance of the image as well as a very short one paragraph bio of the artist.

Of course with names like Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Helmut Newton it is full of talent and well known icons of photography.  But it is also full of artists I had never heard of before, but after seeing them in the book decided to hit the internet to find more of their work.  I discovered photographers I maybe should have known about but didn't such as Paolo Roversi, Erik Refner and Max & Douglas, all of whom I really enjoyed discovering.

After I bought the book I tried just sitting down and reading it front to back, but I found it tedious and realized I wasn't going to remember any of the biographical information anyway.  The book is best suited as a desktop reference for photographers and a source of inspiration.  For that purpose it is a fantastic purchase.  As I flipped again through the book before I wrote this I was also struck by the showcase of photos and how they illustrate the importance of photography so well.  If you ever find yourself doubting the impact of a single moment captured in a photograph this book and its photos should change your mind.  Our memories are tied to moments, photographs in our mind.  I'm convinced that we don't remember things in a stream like video but in separate frames or instants.  The striking images contained in this volume are full of memories and emotion.

Interestingly as I was flipping through it my wife commented on a photo by saying "what is so special about that, it's not a very good photo."  I was looking at an image by a very well known and famous artist, one that I quite liked, but her comment reminded me that our art is subjective.  A photographer can make an image that earns them recognition and fame but will still not be enjoyed by everyone.  And that is how it should be.  When our images are generally liked by a huge audience I suspect we are just pandering to the masses.  It is when we take risks and please our own sense of great photography that we will succeed at our highest level.  So the next time you create an image you love, and a spouse, customer or art critic hates it, don't despair it may be your best work yet!

The book can be found in a smaller paperback version as well for less money.  You only lose the larger photos and have to look at smaller print if you chose the paperback.

Before I go, we are starting a podcast (Adam my business partner and I) that will be linked to this blog.  Watch for it in the next couple of weeks.  I'm pretty excited about it as we plan on having it appeal to a much broader audience of photographers that the usual podcast out there meaning it won't be all about strictly Canon or Nikon equipment and it will address photography work as a profession, and also as a hobby.  We plan on having guests as well, so if you are interested please contact me.

Fast Track Photographer, a Review

I just finished Dane Sanders "Fast Track Photographer," the revised and expanded edition and I'm not going to lie, this is a tough review for me.  First up, I heard of this book a while ago I guess around when it was published as a first edition.  I remember watching a promo video where Dane had some sort of party with friends or other photographers to celebrate the launch of the book, or website, or both.  Anyway it looked fun but my initial impression was "wow, that is a cheesy name.  There isn't a 'fast track' to anything.  I think I'll take a pass."

Now, I'm thinking Dane would describe my initial reaction as that of a "grumpy," but as it is really my only deep criticism of the book I'm hoping he'll forgive me.  You see the review has added pressure both because Dane has commented on this blog before (so I'm certain he'll read it) and because I met him in person.  I doubt he will remember.  You see I went to Image Explorations this year in Shawnigan Lake. It was just an amazing experience for me both as a photographer and as a person.  I didn't take the course that Dane was teaching, but I did see him at meal breaks on campus surrounded by students.  I kept meaning to try and talk to him but it just really seemed rude to bud in and stick my hand out and say "Hi Dane, I'm the guy that was reading your book and you commented on my blog," like I was really important.

I could tell though that, like many of the other instructors at IE, Dane was a truly approachable person and probably wouldn't have minded.  He wasn't only talking, he was listening.  His attractiveness to the other students was very high (I think maybe only Dane will know what I'm saying there) and he was practising what he sold in his book.  Anyway, one night after what was a particularly long hot day and maybe a mentally challenging one for me, I decided that drinking three Corona's in quick succession was a good idea.  I went to the bar for my fourth and looked to my right to see who else but Dane Sanders!  In my absolutely witty super classy way I said "um, you're Dane Sanders."  To his credit he didn't run away looking for security.  He seemed to know he was Dane Sanders so it was maybe unnecessary I emphasized the point.  Anyway I managed to say I was reading his book and he asked immediately if I was enjoying it or if it was helpful.  "I'm not done yet, but yes so far I like it I said."  And that was it.  He says "nice to meet you" and walks away, probably thinking "too many Coronas my friend, too many Coronas."

Anyway, so now I feel the pressure.  But here is how I see the book and in no way is it (hopefully) influenced by Dane himself.

The first thing I'll say is it is a short book, but it took me a month to get through it.  That is in no way meant to imply it was torture to read, it is just that this book takes a certain level of commitment to get through.  This is NOT a book to buy if you are looking for quick answers.  This is a book that challenges you to look at yourself truthfully as a photographer, as a businessperson and as a human being.  It starts off with a few chapters talking about photographers and how they are doing it wrong, about what Dane describes as the 'Digi-flat Era,' and how opportunity exists in this world we all work in.  When I read these first few chapters I was lost.  It didn't sink in at all.  Possibly it was because I read most of it while on vacation, and some of it while my wife drove at 85 miles an hour on I-90.  But frankly I was just not getting it.

I came to a part in the book where you had to stop and take an online test called the 'Photographers DNA' or pDNA for short and since I didn't have internet access in the truck beyond my iPhone I let the book rest a while.  Anyway my wife asked me about it and we started to talk.  I tried to describe it to her and tried to explain what Dane was saying.  It was hard at first but the more we talked about it the more it all made sense.  I'm not sure if I would have even finished the book if I hadn't talked to my wife about it.  So I hope that this illustrates just what I mean by this book requiring a commitment to get through.  It really doesn't contain a point form 'To Do' list on how to be the next Jerry Ghionis.  You have to work for it.

So with some new enthusiasm and understanding I decided to complete the pDNA test on my iPad after we checked into a hotel in Glendive Montana.  Turns out the internet there was really spotty, but I was able to complete the test with some patience.  Well during the test you answer a lot of questions about your photography, your personality, etc..  At one point I came across a question asking if I would still spend time on photography if I wasn't paid to do so.  I meant to click 'strongly agree' but instead clicked 'strongly disagree.'  I was offended with my own answer and the test doesn't allow you to go back and ended up getting really hung up on my feeling that I had messed up my results.  I think with these tests is is often best just to make a quick judgement on your answer and go with your first instinct, but in this case I simply answered cross-eyed.  Anyway, I blogged about my mistake here and Dane emailed me with an offer to retake the test.  I accepted.

Turns out I have:

• Medium Experience (degree of photography experience)
• High Self-Starter 
• High Program-Starter (degree of which you need structured learning outside yourself)
• High Confidence (confidence in yourself as a photographer)
• Medium Risk Tolerance 
• Medium Need for Control (ability to give up control over parts of your job)
• Medium Self-Discipline
• High Artistic ID
• Medium Entrepreneurial ID
• High Attractiveness (I'll make you read the book to find out what it means, but if you like you can think it's just me being really cute)
• Low Grumpy Factor
• Medium Collaborative Creativity (Degree of creativity that is derived from working with others)
• Medium Self-Promotion (degree in which you feel comfortable promoting your brand

You see, I told you it was a hard book.  There are tests.  I'll bet most of you haven't taken tests since college.  Dane uses the pDNA results to help you identify who you are as a person, businessperson and photographer.  (you get one free pDNA test with your book purchase and you have to pay to take further follow-up tests) It is from this starting point that he starts to really build on the book.  He describes his path as a photographer and admits to some mistakes he has made.  Then he invites you to set some goals or dream some dreams for yourself and your photography.  Then it is decision time.  

Now is a good time to admit that I skipped a chapter.  Dane describes two paths that a photographer may take, one as a 'Signature Brand Photographer' and the other as a 'Freelancer.'  I knew right away that I wanted to be a SBP.  I admit it, I skipped the freelancer chapter.  Before you make this decision Dane has some more homework for you that will involve some self reflection and some honesty with yourself. I'm not going to spoil it here, but if that kind of 'self help' work isn't for you, then I don't recommend this book to you at all.

So as the book wraps up you really get some great guidance.  Dane talks about the Signature Brand model of photography and helps you to 'be like Mike.'  We go through the business of photography and how to bring change into your life and your ways of doing things.  

I think you might be able to tell that this book was really helpful to me.  If you have only paid attention to the amount I've typed about it you would probably see that it has impacted me.  I think the timing of it was great as I have just finished my course with Scott Robert Lim at Image Explorations which really inspired me.  I'm ripe for change in my life and have been embracing the 'new me' for a while now.  I'm grateful that I'm not doing it alone, I have a really great wife (who happens to be pretty gorgeous) and a business partner that has been a good friend and motivator.  Our photography business has been off to a great start for the past two years and we are feeling very positive about things.  A long term vision, or the courage to have one has been one of the things we have lacked.  And for that I'm grateful for the timing of the book.  It is a great tool for the photographer or business person looking to bring change to their way of doing things.  It is a good tool for someone that is ready for a new look and ready to challenge their perceptions.  It is a terrible book for someone not willing to invest in themselves or spend the time on personality tests and theories of a Digi-flat era.  If that is you, I think you should really save the $15 or so that the book costs and take a different path (and maybe a good one for you).   

You know right now in our world a lot of people are suffering from the effects of a down economy.  A lot of us photographers are worried about the new guy with the Canon Rebel coming in and stealing our work at cutthroat prices.  We have a lot to worry about and this book isn't going to fix it like some big bandaid.  But it will give you a starting point to change the way you perceive these challenges and it might give you some great tools for surviving in our new economy.  

There are a lot of photographers today that are doing a really good job of supplementing their incomes by selling photography videos, tutorials, workshops and books to new photographers.  Dane is obviously one of them, but my feeling is that he is genuine in his purpose. I'm not sure if I'll spend the money on joining his online community or taking further pDNA tests, but I do know that my cost of admission for the book was money well spent.  I just hope that the next time I meet him I'm able to utter more than "um, you're Dane Sanders."

It's Time

I think it is time.  Time for me to consider embracing video.  On a wedding we did a couple of years ago we did some video with my little LX3 that I had at the time, kind of just as a second thought.  I ended up inserting video clips into the slideshow we gave the bride and groom and it was a big hit.  Everyone loved it and people commented on it.  I know that slideshow earned us other jobs.  Thing is, I really didn't enjoy editing that video down into manageable bits.  It was tedious and painful.  Certainly not as enjoyable as editing photos, at least not for me.  But I see that video and photography are really undergoing the fusion that has been predicted for a couple of years and I very much want to stay current in my craft.

So, I've decided that I'm going to learn video.  At the very least I'm going to learn how to film some video properly that I can use later for the client.  I think I'd like to farm out the work for editing that video as learning a new editing skill like Final Cut Pro seems kind of daunting, and also painfully boring.  I'd rather hire someone.  I know too that I'm going to need to learn about sound capture.  Don't get me wrong, I love well done, well edited video to watch, but I just don't enjoy editing it myself and as much as this might sound like grumpiness, I still think the precise moment captured in still photography has so very much more impact.  I can look at people's photos forever, but stick me in front of their home movies and I'm probably going to go crazy with boredom.  Well done video though, well that is a different story, and I don't like doing anything half-way.

Thought I'd include a little tip I learned from someone a while back about how to store cameras and lenses. I can't remember who told me this so I can't give the credit, but it isn't a well kept secret.  Every time I buy something that comes with these little Silica Gel packets I keep them and throw them in the drawers where I store my camera equipment.  They absorb moisture and help keep your lenses etc. from becoming victims of mould, fungus and water damage.

I put our little watermark on the photo to remind myself to talk about one of my favourite new features of Lightroom 3.  The watermarking feature.  I used to watermark every image in Photoshop and it would take me a long time with the hundreds of wedding photos I produce.  Now, after I've finished editing and exporting all my full sized edited wedding images, I just select them again and export them to a separate folder on my hard drive as one batch export, all watermarked, all downsized to 600 pixels on the long side.  This has been a huge time saver for me and one of my favourite new tools in Lightroom 3.

I went downtown today to watch my daughter dance at a street fair with her ballet and jazz classes.  She loves dance and is often sporting a full smile when taking part.  I love it, love that she has found a passion and enjoys it.  I truly believe we all need it, something we love, whether it be photography, dancing, swimming, football, chess, whatever.  It just makes life so much richer.  All these things are hard work if we really want to fully enjoy them, but the work only makes it sweeter.  So if photography is your passion, then practice it, take your camera with you everywhere, nurture your interest and it will give back to you in life great satisfaction.  I took my camera today, not as some big time photographer, but as just one more dad taking snapshots of his kid.  But I used my camera today and followed my passion while enjoying observing the one my daughter embraces.  Is what I produced fantastic?  Is it going to earn me photographer of the year?  Nope, but still it all just keeps building.  Remember, it should take you about 10,000 photos you make before you really begin to master this craft.  Might as well chip away at it every day.

Hope you all had a great long weekend!

Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4 vs Canon 50mm f1.4

What happens when you give a photographer the evening off, a couple cold beers and nothing on the 'to do' list?  Well he starts thinking of playing around with his gear, thats what.  Now I've said it before in this blog and I'll say it again, I'm a gear geek.  I admit it.  But this blog post isn't about getting all competitive between brands.  I use two brands of camera now (Olympus and Canon) and frankly if I had the money I'd probably own more different types than that.  Brand loyal I am not.  This blog post isn't about test charts and resolution comparisons down to the pixel level.  For that please go visit one of several dozen techie websites that I admit visiting too when I'm not allowing myself to just enjoy photography but would rather nerd out on camera stats.  

I use both these cameras a lot and for the Olympus the Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4 Summilux (gonna just call it the Leica for the rest of the blog entry) is a very well used and favourite lens.  I find the lens very sharp, even wide open, quick to focus and that it produces nice bokeh which to me means it is nice and smooth.  The Canon 50mm f1.4 was bought by me on a bit of a whim as it was on sale at London Drugs.  I don't use it that much as I really prefer my Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens, but the few times I have used it I've liked it a lot and found it to be a very sharp lens and snappy in focusing.  

In case you are curious all the photos of the camera and lenses have been taken by my Olympus 850SW waterproof point and shoot.  It was sitting there available so you'll have to forgive the quality.  

I was curious about a couple of things since I switched to a full frame camera last winter and thought it would be fun to try a little comparison done by myself, not one of the bigger camera websites.  I already of course knew the answers to all my curiosities, but sometimes it is fun to just do direct comparisons  What was I curious about?  Well:

• The Olympus is a 2X crop factor so that should make a 25mm lens about the same focal length as a 50mm on the full frame Canon.  I wanted to lock them down on a tripod and see it for myself how close it really is.  Now I know that the lenses will have different characteristics because one is truly a 50mm while one is just pretending to be.  I understand that a crop sensor doesn't magnify the image, it just uses a comparatively smaller portion of the frame giving the illusion of having zoomed in.  Having said that to 'zoom' in by cropping the Canon's 21.6 megapixels if I had used a 25mm lens I would be left with 10.8 megapixels or about the same as the Olympus for resolution.  Also in practical use when working with cameras, the crop sensor does allow you to frame things differently.  It is hard, at least for me, to shoot with a drastic crop in post processing in mind.  I prefer to get my framing right in the camera.  So the 'wide' of the full frame and the 'tele' of the crop each has distinct advantages to me which is one of the reasons I like shooting with both cameras at the same time.  I also wanted to see if there was visibly more distortion in the 25mm lens than the 50mm, as while they are both about the same focal length in practice, one of them is decidedly wider angle in build.  It might not be a good test though as the Leica is famous for lack of distortion.
• The Full Frame sensors give a shallower depth of field than the crop sensors.  I hear lots of debate about how much it makes of a difference both in techie terms and subjectively.  Well time to put up or shut up. Can the crop sensor give nice bokeh in the same situation as the full frame?  Not in actual math terms, but in real life comparisons?  I've always been happy with the out of focus areas and ability to get a shallow depth of field from the Leica lens on the Olympus, and I've occasionally been nervous about it being too shallow on the Canon.  That is one of the reasons I rarely use the 50 1.4, I sometimes like to keep my aperture higher and see my zoom's 2.8 aperture as safer lower limit.  So when push comes to shove, how does the focus fall off in a direct comparison?
• Which is sharper?  Is the Leica really as good as it's legend says? 

So here is my test technique. I'm sure that there are holes in it, feel free to poke them.  Again, this is just a general curiosity blog post, so don't take it too seriously.  

1. I used a studio strobe with a big Octabank Softbox (Alien Bee 800 if you are curious).  Why?  Just because it was already setup and ready.  I used it on two shots for each camera, f1.8 and f5.6.  The f1.4 shots were done with natural light.
2. I set each camera at ISO 100 for the studio light shots, and ISO 800 for the natural light shots.
3. I set up a tripod that each camera would use.  It was not moved at all other than to rotate slightly to make sure the centre focus point was in the middle of the centre baseball.  
4. Each camera was shot in manual mode for the studio strobe shot with settings determined by a light metre.  
5. Each camera was set on Aperture priority mode for the natural light shot at ISO 800, f1.4.
6. Auto White balance was used for both cameras
7. All images were imported to iPhoto and directly exported without any editing.
8. By mistake I had the 5D mk II on RAW and the Olympus on fine jpg.  Oops.  
9. Each camera was on centre point autofucus and focus was set on the middle of the middle baseball.  
10. I used the timer for each camera.  Image stabilization for the Olympus was turned off.
11. The baseballs and camera tripod were the same distance (not moved) for all shots.  The lighting was the same for all studio light shots and natural light shots.
12. I placed the baseballs on a bar stool about 24 inches from a book shelf.  I chose the bookshelf as I wanted a busy background that would benefit from being softened.  
13. I used three baseballs, two slightly behind the front one to show how rapidly the focus fell off.  

So how did each camera do?  Well first up I set the studio strobe on its lowest power and and metered at ISO 100, shutter speed of 1/200th (the Canon's max flash sync, the Olympus does 1/250th), and an aperture of f1.8.  Something to keep in mind is that the aspect ratios of the sensors are different so the area captured looks different, but that is simply the area the sensor captures.  Here they are (you can click on them to see the full sized image):

Canon f1.8

Leica f1.8

So the Canon has a much more obvious blur in the background and even falls off much faster on the baseballs slightly behind the front baseball.  I like the bokeh in both images, but the Canon's is of course more useful if you really want to blur that background.  Both images to me show nice consistent blurry areas which is a bit of surprise to me, I thought the Canon would be much blotchier than the Leica.  The colour looks a bit nicer to me on the Leica but the DOF of the full frame sensor is an obvious advantage in a photo like this.  Both seem sharp on the front ball, but the Canon's resolution might be playing in a bit here if you zoom right in it is tack sharp.  I'll leave the judging of vignetting or distortion to you and your opinion.

Leica f5.6

Canon f5.6

So what is an advantage for the full frame in getting a really shallow depth of field is becoming a liability at a smaller aperture like f5.6.  If you are wanting more depth of field, more things in focus as in this case at f5.6 you are going to need to close down to probably f8.0 or more to get it.  A good illustration of why occasionally you really need that high ISO capability on the 5D mk II as when you want lots of depth of field you are going to have to close down your aperture more than on the crop sensor.  

Leica f1.4, Natural Light, ISO 800

Canon f1.4, Natural Light, ISO 800

Interestingly both cameras seemed to have gotten the white balance wrong here.  The Olympus isn't quite white enough on the baseballs and the Canon is too white.  Oh well.  Both here show really nice bokeh to me.  I think it is getting a bit subjective here, but for the baseballs both show nice blur on the balls slightly back, but the Canon is much much softer on the bookshelf than the Olympus.  The question is, is the Olympus shallow enough to satisfy the objective of a photographer looking for a shallow depth of field?  To me yes, but your mileage may vary.  I like a very shallow depth of field sometimes, and for this particular shot I think the shallower the better, but I'm not sure I feel lacking in the ability of the Olympus or Leica here to muck up the background.  A quick comment about noise at ISO 800.  It looks pretty comparable to me, but remember I forgot I was shooting jpg for the Olympus so some in camera noise reduction was probably done.  My bad, oops.  

So, which one is better?  I dunno.  Judge for yourself.  It's obvious to me that:

• it's true that 25mm on the Olympus is pretty much 50mm on the Canon full frame.
• The full frame sensor does actually have a much shallower depth of field at an equal aperture.  An advantage if you want shallow depth of field, a disadvantage if you don't.  Remember, exposure is exposure.  f1.4, ISO 100 1/200th of a second is the same on both cameras. 
• both lenses are sharp and both give nice blurry areas in the frame.  

Ultimately, different tools for different uses.  This proves it again, at least to me.  And I got to play with some gear and fool around for an hour taking photos and blogging.  Now I'm going to crack my second beer and relax as tomorrow I have real work to do that involves getting real photos delivered to clients.  Photos that were taken with both cameras.  

In case you are curious, the Leica lens retails (if you can find it) for about $900 US.  It is larger and heavier than the Canon being 75x78mm and weighing 510 grams.  It has a 62mm filter size.  The Canon retails for about $360 US.  It 51x74mm and weighs 290 grams.  I love my Leica, but the weight, size and price are a huge advantage to the Canon.  The Leica comes with a lens bag and lens hood, the Canon does not so figure that in on the price if it matters to you (I bought my lens hood for the Canon on ebay after I found out they wanted about $80 for the real one from Canon).

Looking for a good and thorough not by the seat of your pants review of the Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4 lens?  Look here.  Want a review of the Canon 50mm f1.4?  Try here.

Sorry about the weird formatting and box around some text in this post.  Blogspot was acting weird on me and I don't really feel like digging into why.  

Thanks for dropping by my little blog.  If you like it, please link to it on Facebook by using the little widget on the right hand side of the blog, or any other social networking site by using the links on the bottom of the blog.  Comments are always welcome.  

As a side note, I learned something new about the E3 today.  When you push the IS button (image stabilization) it tells you on the bottom of the screen what the effective focal length of your current lens is.  For example it says '50mm' when the Leica is on there.  I suppose it is on this screen to help you decide what speed you can handhold at if you turn IS off.  Weird I've been using the camera for about two years and never noticed it.  And I thought I knew the camera like the back of my hand!  I had to go through the camera and set everything back up as Olympus turned everything back to factory settings when they had it in for repair, thats when I noticed it.  So morale of the story?  Be more observant than I am.  :)