Power of Passion Tour and OM Lens on a GF1

Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f1.7 lens.  Killing time in the pub before the Sandy Puc Seminar

Well, I'm back.  About 3 hours ago I finally arrived back home after the long trek to Seattle to spend some time with one of my photographic idols Jerry Ghionis.  He was taking part in Sandy Puc's Power of Passion Tour and with the opportunity to learn from him and meet him being only about a 2 hour ferry ride and 3 hour drive away I had to jump at it.  Before the seminar I had no idea who Sandy Puc was, but I must say that the passion and business knowledge she has is first class.  The drive and ambition she has almost becomes visible like steam emanating from her.  But lets be honest, I was there for Jerry.  And as it turns out, so were all the ladies in the room.  For a newly married guy, he sure attracts female attention.  But he is also the ultimate gentleman and frankly I wasn't disappointed in the message he delivered.  Jerry is, simply put, awesome.  He is at the top of his craft.  His message, the art of photography is being forgotten or neglected by the new crowd of photographers.  We need to get back to proper posing and lighting that flatters our client.  We need to take time to learn our craft, not just how to liquify in photoshop and add textures.  I ate it up.  If I hear one more "I'll just fix it in Photoshop" comment, I think I'm going to puke.  The business and photographic knowledge you can get from this tour in about 6 hours of your time is very much worth the $100 investment.  I believe they have about a dozen more stops before it is done, so please do yourself a favour if you live near one of the remaining cities and are a boudoir, wedding or portrait photographer, go see them.  Don't miss it.  I promise you'll love me for it.

The MF-2 OM to Micro Four Thirds Adaptor attaches the 24mm f2.8 Olympus OM lens to my GF1

When I returned home I had a little present from the postman in the mail.  My Olympus OM lens to Micro Four Thirds mount adaptor was waiting for me (the MF-2).  I immediately took off my 20mm f1.7 and put on my OM 24mm f2.8 lens.  I'm not entirely sure how you are supposed to use it, because like most men I didn't read the instructions, but I simply put the camera in shutter priority mode and adjusted the aperture on the ring on the lens as well as the in camera ISO to get a proper exposure.  It really is in effect shooting in manual mode.  You can easily focus with the big LCD but to get fine focus you just press on the rear scroll wheel and it zooms in nice and tight.  I also shot some video with it just for giggles.  For fun I put the camera beside my Canon 20mm f2.8 lens for you to judge the size.  The Micro Four Thirds really are a nice compact camera to use.  I had taken it on the trip with the 20mm f1.7 lens and used it as well.  The only thing I just can't get used to is the lack of a viewfinder.  I've decided I need to have the external electronic one and hearing that the Panasonic viewfinder is very much inferior to the Olympus one I believe I will be picking up an Olympus EPL1 and the external viewfinder for it.

Size Comparison, the Canon 20mm f2.8 lens beside the Panasonic GF1 and Olympus OM 24mm f2.8 lens with adaptor

The GF1 certainly isn't a pocketable camera, but it is a fun little guy and creates some great images.  The ability to use those old film lenses is going to be pretty addicting I can tell you.  Is it going to focus as fast and create the same quality of file as my 5D mkII?  Nope, not even close, but it is fun and photography my friends is supposed to be fun.  Plus it won't hurt your neck if you hang it there on a strap and that is a nice change.

We ended up meeting some vendors at the trade show attached to the Sandy Puc tour.  Smugmug was there, the company we use to host our images and sell photo prints online as was Bay Photo, B&H Photo, NILMDTS, DWF and Finao Albums.  Smugmug was great and we are going to be working with them to open up some Smug meetings here on Vancouver Island.  If you are interested in that keep an eye out on this blog for more information at some point.  We were so impressed by Finao that we are going to be using them in our studio from now on and ordered up a sample kit on the spot.  B&H had the 1D mk IV and 135mm f2.0 by Canon there which has been a combination I have been dreaming about.  Playing with it in person pretty much sealed the deal for me on the decision to attempt to reach for that gear and put it in my bag this year.  Also Bay Photo was great (we order through them in our Smugmug gallery) and was able to answer some questions for us and show us some new products.  We have been having some problems with the quality of our float mounted metal prints and the rep was really good at talking to us about it.  I definitely had the sense that this was a company that cared about it's end product.  And that is one of the benefits of these photography seminars, the vendors.  If you actually take the time to go and talk with them, you can make friends, get to know them by name and realize that they are invested in helping you to succeed.  When your studio does well, they do well, and those personal relationships go a long way to helping you deliver solid products to your customers.

Panasonic GF1 with Olympus OM 24mm f2.8 lens wide open and straight from camera

I hope you all have a great week planned.  We are having a busy one for sure with some spring portrait and engagement sessions.  I can't wait to put some of the information I learned into practise right away and I'll be sure to share some tips as I use them and see how they work for me.  Thanks for dropping by the blog, I appreciate the time you spend reading it and as always comments are welcome.

My kid caught eating potato chips.  GF1 and Olympus OM 24mm f2.8 lens

Panasonic GF1 and 20mm f1.7 lens.  Beer breaks at Photography Seminars are pretty mandatory!

Video from GF1 and Olympus 24mm f2.8 lens wide open hand held processed in iMovie.  Click on image to start video

Silver Efex Pro 2

Click on Image to View Video

So I'm off to Seattle tomorrow to attend the Sandy Puc and Jerry Ghionis photography tour.  I'm very excited about it as I'm a huge Ghionis fan. I admit, I've never heard of Sandy Puc, but I'm sure she's great too!  I love things like this, they just get you so excited and jazzed about your photography.  Ghionis is a master and I'm going to work really hard not to stalk him at the event forcing him to call security on me!  Hey, we all have to have our idols right?

Anyway, before I left I wanted to do a quick review of Silver Efex Pro 2 from Nik Software.  I bought the original Silver Efex a long time ago and it has been my go to software for serious black and white images.  When the new version was released I just had to have it.  Now I have the whole bundle from Nik Software, but Silver Efex is the one I use the most.  I also enjoy Color Efex and Viveza but I never use their sharpener program or their noise reduction software (which is actually quite good, but Lightroom 3 does such a good job I don't really need it anymore).  Anyway, I thought I'd put together a video of me playing with Silver Efex Pro 2.  It was hard to keep it short actually as there is so much in the piece of software.  The biggest thing I love about it are the film emulations, the control points (they call it u-point technology) and whatever secret sauce they put in there that by default just makes for awesome black and whites.  To me, a successful black and white images needs highlights and deep shadows.  Yes, it actually needs blacks in it.  But everyone has different tastes and with Silver Efex you can get such a customized look that you will be able to get exactly what you want every time.

So if you are serious about black and white images, you should watch the video, and give the software a try.  You can buy the program for $200 (full) or $100 (upgrade).  There is a discount coupon code available on Gavin Siem's website here which will get you and additional 15% off.

Thanks for coming by the blog, I appreciate it!

It's True, I Watch America's Next Top Model

Olympus E3 with Leica 25mm f1.4

Yes it is true, I'm going to admit it.  I watch, and I love America's Next Top Model.  There is some really inspiring photography there, and as I photograph more for clothes and hair I am starting to form some strong opinions and preferences on clothes too.  Mindless drivel?  Yes.  But I like it.

A while back I talked about magazines I subscribed to in paper on on my iPad (no I have not run out to buy the newest iPad, I still like my old one) through Zinio.  Well I had given up my paper subscription to Digital Photo Pro, but now it is available through a digital subscription so I'm back on board.  It is more affordable than the paper edition and looks great on the iPad.  

It's spring break right now so my daughter is off school which means I've pretty much put the cameras away for a while which to be honest is kind of nice.  Not that I don't want to shoot, I just was getting a huge backlog on editing images and now I've been able to catch up somewhat.  

Hope you are all having a great St Patrick's Day. Thanks for dropping by.  Oh, and if you happen to be looking for a pretty good Japanese photography blog in light of current events, you should check out one I found today.  Great photos, and good writing.  

14-35 mm Olympus Zuiko Lens Review (oh and Lens Lenders)

Click on the image to start the Video

I recently rented the Olympus 14-35 f2.0 lens from Lens Lenders in Canada for an entire month.  I wanted to talk about the experience of both renting a lens and of using that Zuiko lens.  Most of the information can be found in the short video above (sorry about the focusing issues, I've finally clued into the idea that I should turn off the continuous autofocus) but I wanted to share images as well in this post that I took over the month.  

For those of you that have considered renting a lens in the past but weren't sure if it was a good use of your money I'll just say this.  If there is a lens out there that is rather expensive and you are unsure if you would like it or can afford to buy it or get much use out of it, then financially renting can be a very wise choice.  If you are a working photographer then the cost of the rental is a write off for you on your taxes.  I will say that you should ensure you have insurance for that lens in case something goes wrong while you have it.  For me that was covered by the insurance I carry through the PPOC (Professional Photographers of Canada) but you may be able to insure your equipment and rentals through your homeowners insurance if you are an amateur photographer.  I have rented from Lens Lenders in Canada three times now and found it to be a really good experience, one that I would highly recommend.  It just couldn't be easier to get the lens you need when you need it delivered right to your door.

1/2500th of a second ISO 400 f2.0

Now, for the lens.  I've used it before several months ago (last September) for a week and really enjoyed it. The snapshot above of my daughter and the Bride below were created then.  You can find my initial review of the lens here that will have some detail on it that I won't cover again.  

1/500th of a second at ISO 100 and f8.0

Just quickly, and for those of you that don't know, I also own the Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens that I use on a 5D mk II.  It is a superb lens, but ever since I bought some more primes for the Canon, one I don't use very often.  The Canon lens shows some distortion and vignetting, but is very good even wide open.  The Olympus Lens is tack sharp wide open and shows next to zero distortion.  You can still get some stretching when you shoot at 14mm (or anywhere wider than the 35mm) with it, something I really noticed in the arms of models on occasion (see below, though I corrected it some) but it was for the most part a worry free experience in a package that is f2.0 throughout the zoom range and is about the same size and weight as the Canon lens.

1/100 of a second ISO 100 f6.3

What I'm most impressed with the Olympus lens is that despite having the Leica 25mm f1.4 in my bag, I never pulled it out.  The zoom lens was really that nice to use.  It focuses fast, is a nice size and balances well on the Olympus E3.  I regret somewhat that most of my use came in studio and very little wide open.  In fact I think the only wide open shot I took was one of myself (actually Adam took it).  I only know how well it works wide open because when I first rented it last year I pretty much set it at f2.0 right out of the box and started playing.

1/125th of  second at ISO 800 and f2.0

Having that lens for a month had me using the E3 a lot for the month of February.  In fact my Canon started to collect dust.  I love the E3 but I will say that I sometimes missed the lack of detail in the 5D mk II.  I was beginning to wonder how well that E5 would work.  Then again, sometimes lack of detail in a portrait can be a good thing.  It's a double edged sword and I will also say that the RAW files of the Olympus' 10 megapixel sensor are handled easily by my iMac and Macbook Pro, while the 5D files can at times really clog things up.  That, my friends really helps with workflow.  You get through editing much faster when you're not waiting for the spinning beach ball.  

1/250 of a second ISO 100 f8.0

All this use of the lens though left me wanting more.  When it came time to pack it up and return it to Lens Lenders I was a little sad.  In fact there are 4 lenses that I really want to own from Oympus.  The 7-14 f4.0, the 14-35 f2.0, the 35-100 f2.0 and the 150mm f2.0.  Lens rentals are a good thing for me though as I use Canon for my job (for the most part) so investments in other equipment don't always make sense.  And that was on my mind while I used the Zuiko.  Is it worth it for photographers to buy these lenses at all?

1/250 of a second ISO 200 f2.2 using in camera off camera flash control and Olympus FL50R

The Olympus E5 has not exactly extinguished fears among Olympus users that the four thirds DSLR's are a dying or dead breed.  Olympus itself has pretty much announced that mirrorless is the way of the future for them and they are not a company that has been loyal to a format in the past after dumping OM and the original PEN series.  So with all that in mind is it really responsible to spend between $1400 and $2600 for one of those dream lenses of mine when the format to use them on is already on its last camera, the E5.  And, given that the E5 (while a wonderful camera) is newly on the market but higher priced and lower performing than it's direct competitors from Pentax, Canon and Nikon this isn't a winning game for us Olympus loyalists.  

1/100 of a second ISO 100 f7.1

1/250 of a second ISO 100 at f4.0

The truth is that a good photographer can make good images from an Olympus E1 and these legendary Zuiko lenses.  The Olympus lenses have pretty much carried the brand since the introduction of four thirds and their reputation is well deserved.  A photographer buying an E5 now can very realistically get a decade of use out of it so if you are already invested in four thirds lenses then it makes a certain amount of sense to carry on.  For myself, as someone making a living selling images, my purchases have to make sense in the grand scheme of return on investment, and this is where I suspect Olympus has finally put the nail in their coffin of offering professional products to people earning a living with their camera. 

1/250 of a second ISO 100 f3.2

1/250 of a second ISO 100 f6.3

The Olympus 14-35 f2.0 Zuiko SWD lens is wonderful.  I miss it already and I'm going to confess that I'm still not leaving the brand behind despite my personal certainty of where it is going.  I enjoy using the E3 very much, in fact I admit that I enjoy it more than the 5D mk II even though I recognize the superiority of the Canon equipment on many levels.  I know that at some point I will probably pick up the 7-14 and 150mm lenses if I can find them for a bargain and the E5 as well.  For me they have become niche use equipment.  I'm happy to use the Olympus when I don't need high ISO or large amounts of file detail.  In fact, I prefer it.  

1/80 of a second ISO 100 f9.0

1/80 of a second ISO 100 f9.0

So do I recommend you buy the lens?  Yes and no.  Look, if you are a photographer for fun and you currently use Olympus gear, then yes you should absolutely run to your camera store and purchase this lens.  It is as good as it gets.  I like it as much as the Leica 25mm f1.4 and better than the Canon 24-70 f2.8.  It is the right size (balances well), is tack sharp, focus is snappy and accurate and it is absolutely getting the best possible file out of your camera.  In fact I would say that my E3 is not up to giving all this lens can take, maybe the E5 would be a better match.  If photography is your passion and your fun, then why not have the best from your gear?  If however you are making a living from photography you have a tough choice, and one that I share.  Personally I spend all my coin nowadays on Canon equipment, but at some point I'm sure I'll have enough work tools and my mind (and bank account) will wander back to where I want it to be.  In the meantime, if you can't decide, go ahead and rent it from Lens Lenders and see for yourself.  

1/160 second ISO 100 f5.0

1/250 of a second ISO 100 f5.6

All of the images in this post were created with the Olympus E3 and 14-35 f2.0 lens.  Thanks for reading my blog, I very much appreciate it.  Comments are always welcome of course.  I also just want to say that while I know this blog isn't about international issues or events, the catastrophic news out of Japan right now is horrible and I'm definitely worried about the news of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear issues.  All of these Japanese camera companies that I love to blog about have employees and families there in Japan and my heart goes out to them and their country.  The issue of which lens is better, which camera has better ISO performance and what photo is prettier just doesn't seem important in light of such a horrible week for Japan.  

1/80 of a second ISO 100 at f11

Subscribe to Great Photography Deals

Just a quick post today to share a new site that you can subscribe to for free and get emailed discounted bargains for photography equipment and software.  I'm not affiliated with the site at all (except as a paid member to the DWF) but thought the site sounded promising so wanted to share it.  Discounts and bargains are always a good thing right?  The site goes live tomorrow (March 14th) so sign up now and check it out.

Oh the site is called Photo Dough.  Happy Sunday to you all.

An Afternoon With the GF1

Below you can see a review of the Olympus E5 posted by some pretty funny hosts.

Game Reviews - E3 2011 - Gadget Pr0n

Above you will see a rather quirky review of the Olympus E5.  I thought it was kind of funny so maybe you'll enjoy it too.

So I spent an afternoon with the Panasonic GF1 last weekend walking on the beach on a sunny day.  It was interesting for me to use the camera on a bright day outside to really firm up my opinion about shooting without a viewfinder.  It is horrible to try and use an lcd screen on a bright sunny day outside.  Period.  Trying to guess what the LCD was showing was really difficult, made worse if I put on my sunglasses to fight the glare.  Often I found myself just guessing.  I did use the AE lock button at times to lock the exposure on the sky and then silhouette or use fill flash on the foreground and it looked like it was working well on the camera, but when home on the computer I was pretty disappointed with the effort.  What I saw on the LCD was not what I was getting.

I'm really not used to the ergonomics of the camera yet despite owning it for a few weeks.  Though in fairness I'm not using it a lot.  I did try the camera in studio last week, but quickly put it away when the awkwardness of composing a shot with an LCD put me off.  Generally I find that to change settings on the camera I have to stop what I'm doing and fumble through little buttons and the one dial to change things.  I do find that the camera focuses surprisingly fast in good light, but I need to figure out selecting focus points.

The only lens I have for the camera right now is the 20mm f1.7 pancake lens.  It is a very nice introduction to the system for me.  The lens is very sharp and gives a nice quick falloff to a smooth bokeh.  My only complaint is that it does noticeably distort.  I had to correct the horizon on all of my images as they had an obvious bloat to them.  This may or may not bother other photographers, and for me it depends on what I'm doing with the photos.  With the photo above I found the rounded horizon distracting from the shell so I fixed it.  The 20mm lens is ridiculously small and light though and really makes me happy with what you get in that little package.  As a side not I processed the image in Silver Efex, which there is a new version of out on the market now.  I'll be buying it for sure as it is my favourite way to process black and white images.  Watch for a review of Silver Efex 2 once I get my hands on it.

Roller Derby Studio Session

Click on Image to Start Video

I've talked about it a bit before, but here it is, the studio session, or part of it with 15 roller derby skaters, one referee and me.  The first skater usually is in the studio as our hair stylist so this was the first time I was able to put her on the other side of the camera.  Of course she was there for touch-ups through the whole shoot.  I used the Olympus E3 and 14-35 f2.0 lens.  Two lights hanging from the ceiling lighting the paper roll in the back and one large softbox up from and camera left.  Hope you enjoy the video!

It's Coming

I'll be writing my more in depth review of the Olympus Zuiko 14-35 SWD lens this weekend hopefully.  In the meantime I'll be thinking about a little photowalk we are hosting next week and I found a timely online article about photowalking I thought I'd share.  We are considering the idea of offering photography classes and wanted to tread lightly into the waters to see if we even like doing that, so a hosted photowalk seemed like a good idea.  I'll be sure to let everyone know how the experience goes.

Before I close this short post I wanted to talk a little about business networking groups.  Last fall we decided to join a local business exchange network.  It exists outside of the local Chamber of Commerce and is made up of about 25 to 30 unique businesses that get together over breakfast once a week to share referrals and network.  There is only one of each type of business allowed into the group so we are the only photographers.  At first I was a little reticent about the idea as our business mostly focused on weddings and I wasn't sure how they could help us grow.  What I quickly learned was it wasn't only about direct referrals, it was about just establishing your name in the community as a 'go-to' provider of a service.  Now that we have opened out studio we are more able to offer services like business portraits and services to corporate customers and are looking for opportunities to get a foothold into that market.  Yesterday we received our first direct referral from the network to provide images for a large garbage hauling company.

As of last week we are now sitting on the Board of Directors of the network.  The network has helped us become donors for charities as part of the group (provided far more in the way of donations than we could do ourselves), it has helped us get our name out in larger circles in our community, it has made us friends and it has now led to paid jobs.  If you have a business network in your community (larger cities or even small ones like ours have several groups usually) then I encourage you to join it to help get  your brand of photography out there.  It should result in exposure at the very least, and could bring in work you wouldn't have earned otherwise.

There are a couple of photo blogs out there that are hiring writers.  The photo blog business must be booming!  I'm considering applying for one of them, but I wouldn't give up my own blog either. So if you've always wanted your own blog but haven't had the time to maintain one then I'd encourage you to apply.   Also I heard on the last TWIP podcast about this photo sharing site called Pure Photo. If you are a fine art photographer looking for a market to share/sell your images it is worth a look.

Thanks for dropping by the blog!

Take Me Outside

 

Olympus OM4t with Zuiko 50mm f1.8 and Kodak Professional BW400CN film

Take me outside, give me wood swing sets, give me the sun, a baseball field, anything so long as it's outdoors.  I'm dying indoors.  OK, a little dramatic, but as much as I've been really enjoying shooting indoors this winter in our new studio and getting some wonderful shots for myself, clients, models, etc., I'm itching for the sun to shine and to get out for some environmental portraits.  I had another shoot today in the studio, and it went pretty well, though I was hot and the model was cold, so we cranked the heat and I melted. Stifling. Oh well, the comfort of the person being photographed is infinitely more important than the photographer.

The studio has opened our options for bringing in clients no matter the weather and gives us a place to hang our hat.  But with spring around the corner.......I'm ready to get outside.  And that's it, my almost the end of winter post.

I'm about to send that Olympus 14-35 lens back this week to Lens Lenders and I've put in lots of time with it.  I've also been shooting a lot of film lately which has been a real treat for me.  I'll be working on my Olympus Lens review this weekend for you and I think it's time to dust of the Canon 5D mkII and bring it out of retirement.  I've been using the E3 so much lately that there must be some jealousy going on in the camera drawer.  I did do one pose/shot today in the studio with the Panasonic GF1.  I ended up putting it away immediately.  Framing a shot like that on an LCD screen really killed it for me.  Call me old school, but I need a viewfinder.

Thanks for popping by the blog, more to come soon.