Photography Ramblings

Just Call Me "Mr Early Adopter"

2012-02-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

I don't recall ever buying a camera on pre-order or being what some might call an early adopter of technology, but if you've been reading this blog for a while you probably knew I wasn't going to be able to resist this one. A startlingly close resemblance to my much loved OM4t camera, this little beauty has me eating my words that I'd never take micro-four thirds seriously. I'm so in love that I've already begged my local camera dealer to keep the first one they get aside for me. In silver, body only. I just don't feel the love for the kit zooms for the system yet with their oh-so-dark apertures.

For a company that was pretty much on their death bed to end 2011 Olympus just might have themselves a life raft here. My E5 is pretty likeable, but the full sized DSLR never really gave the benefits of size to us that put up with the smaller sensor. And the magic they've done with this sensor appears to be pretty impressive with early sneak peeks putting the ISO performance as better than my 5DmkII. I have no idea how they pulled that off, but the proof will be in the pudding once I actually own the camera.

They've also announced a couple of new prime lenses a 75mm f1.8 and a 60mm f2.8 macro. I'm a big fan of my 45mm f1.8 from them so far so I think I may lay down some cash for those lenses as well as the 12mm f2.0 that I've been hesitant to spend on up until now. This camera just might justify the cost of the lenses attached to it. And primes were a weakness of the regular four thirds system I thought. They spent a lot of time building really impressive f2.0 zoom lenses but really left us out in the cold on any primes brighter than f2.0 with the exception of the Panasonic-Leica Summilux.

While I wait I'll be enjoying my E5 as much as I can and it's been wonderful. I did though very much appreciate the 5DmkII last Sunday while photographing a clothing line for a sweater company. I chose an ISO of 800 at one point knowing that I'd get clean files suitable for commercial use. That was pretty sweet and made my job easier. The E5 would have been fine, but noise would have been there for sure. Yes I could have just pumped the lights, but I was enjoying the ambient light. The right tool....

Canon 5DmkII with 24-70 f2.8 lens at ISO 800. Out-take image after wrap-up.

Thanks for dropping by the blog. Please don't forget to join us on our Facebook page. You can click on the link on the right hand side of the blog. We'd love to have you there to join the conversation. If you are so inclined you can also follow me on Twitter. Just search for @neilgaudet

Buying Ugly

2012-02-02T19:06:00.000-08:00

Pentax K-01

Well it's here, and it's ugly! So ugly it's kind of cute. The lack of a viewfinder kind of kills the fun for me personally, but the ability to use all the Pentax K mount lenses on it is pretty awesome. A big brick of a camera in depth, it has a solid rubber grip and cool retro controls on the top. You either love it or hate it, but one way or the other Pentax is making a statement. With a sensor that should be on par with the Canon 5DmkII and Nikon D700 beating Pentax K5 sensor this camera could be quite a performer too!

I love the new 40mm f2.8 pancake lens. It's small! And I always have dreamt of owning that 77mm f1.8 limited prime Pentax makes. It would be sweet on this camera. Am I going to buy it? No, probably not, but I applaud Pentax for thinking out of the box. Boring this is not.

Francesca Woodman

2012-02-01T18:53:00.000-08:00

Olympus E5 and Leica 25mm Summilux at ISO 640 f2.0 1/60 of a second

If you haven't heard of Francesca Woodman don't worry about it, you're just making me feel better about that rock I've been living under. After seeing some of her images featured in an art magazine while on holiday in Seattle, I put a book on my Amazon wish list featured her images and published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

As a young photographer and one of the first students that graduated with an art degree in photography in the USA Francesca created a series of utterly impossible to explain yet captivating images of (usually) the female body. While at the same time morbid, the images are beautiful and force you to consider the story involved. If all great art creates emotion in the viewer, then this is surely among the best in the photography art world.

Woodman committed suicide at the age of 22 and 5 years later was featured in her first gallery show. The images she left us are ghostly and often feature urban decay and narrative self portraits of the female form. If you have a chance to see her work in a show do it. I know it's on my list. For now, I'm happy to own this book of her work and wonder about this amazing artist that ended her life so young.

You can find a link to the book, as usual, on the top right of the blog.

Thanks for dropping in.

Rock Photographer

2012-01-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

Olympus E3 and 50-200 SWD lens at ISO 800 f3.2 1/200th of a second Haley Breedlove

I've missed the anniversary date of January 8th but I still remember as a young man in 1991 when my dad called me into the living room to see a news story that the guitarist from my favourite band Def Leppard had died. His name was Steve Clark. I think anyone that likes Rock and Roll has had a favourite musician of theirs die in their generation. And while this might seem to have little to do with photography, it did lead me to the impulse purchase of a book titled 'Def Leppard: The Definitive Visual History' by Joe Elliot and Ross Halfin.

I've never been a music photographer but I have deep respect for the work given the lighting challenges and the fact that I like to be in bed by 9:30 most nights so the late hours scare me somewhat. The book is full of images from 1979 to today all by Ross Halfin as he followed the band for over 3 decades. The images are shot in all the traditional grainy loveliness of film that you might expect in the early days to crisp yet still soulful images of today. Ross had a great connection with the band and you can tell the level of trust and familiarity was high between them.

I bring this book up though, not only because of the excellent photography, but because of a statement made in the book by the band's long time behind the scenes guru Malvin Mortimer. "A photograph can speak to you. It has a language. It can create a unique emotion, capture a candid moment or a striking pose...or it can be nothing but a plain image on dull paper."

Let that marinate for a moment.

It was so cool to listen to the band members write in the book about their experience re-living these images and how those images reflected and impacted their lives. Whether you are a rock photographer, a wedding photographer or a pet photographer you are creating irreplaceable images for people. But we all knew that didn't we? Even though we forget it when we are in the middle of a deadline, rushing to export a session from Lightroom and deliver prints.

You can find a link to the book on the top right of the blog, as usual. Really though it's not this particular book I'm recommending you, it's books that are not photography books or magazines. The next time you are in a bookstore, grab something that isn't in the photography section that is full of images that inspire you. Whether thats a book on music, war, architecture or whatever. Soak up those photographs not created for photographers. Me? I often wander over to the fashion section of the magazine rack and grab a couple of those thick magazines full of wonderful creative images trying to sell clothes. It's a huge source of inspiration for me personally.

Thanks again for dropping by the blog. Rock on like its 1987!!!

Looking Back at the Canon 7D

2012-01-29T16:24:00.000-08:00

Photo by Greg Howard

I sold my Canon 7D last week after owning the camera for only 8 months in hopes of replacing it with either a Canon 1DmkIV, or the soon to be announced (possibly) 7DmkII or 5DmkIII for the 2012 wedding season. I enjoyed owning the 7D and picked it up last May to serve as my backup to the 5DmkII at weddings, alleviating me from carrying two brands of camera (I had been carrying an Olympus E3) with two sets of incompatible lenses to every job. The switch helped me save a lot of weight and the 7D worked really well with the Canon 135mm f2.0 lens (effectively about 200mm with the crop) as a second camera during a ceremony.

I ended up shooting just under 6000 frames on the camera before I sold it which means it was really still brand new but I did get a good sense of the camera and what I liked and didn't like about it, so I thought I'd share a little post-mortem review for any of you that may be considering purchasing one.

Photo by Greg Howard

As the backup to my 5D I will say that it was a little frustrating that Canon chose a different layout to buttons for each camera. I tended to hunt for some functions when switching between the cameras. You'd think that a single manufacturer could settle on one layout for similar sized cameras. And the 5DmkII and 7D are very similar in size. The most notable differences are the on/off switch moving up to the top left of the camera and the addition of a start/stop dedicated video recording button. The 7D felt better built than the 5DmkII, a camera I've always thought felt cheap and plastic considering the price. The 7D also proved to be very robustly weather sealed compared to the 5D which I found would fog up in damp weather and be unusable. The rubbery texture of the 7D feels great in the hands and the video functions are much easier to use than on it's full frame sister. The 7D always gave me the impression of being a well built solid camera worthy of professional or advanced amateur use.

Photo by Greg Howard

Compared to my other crop sensor DSLR cameras the Olympus E3 (which took all the images in this post with the Zuiko 35mm Macro lens) and Olympus E5 the 7D holds up very well. It is not as well built or weather sealed, but it certainly compares well to them anyway and can be used in the rain as I've witnessed from my buddy Adam's camera. The 1.6 crop factor of the Canon has a larger sensor than the 2X crop factor of the Olympus but noise compares very similarly to the new E5. While the 7D has more focus points and customizeability and a faster frame rate, the Olympus is more reliable in focus and has as many focus points as I need. The two differ on wheel and button layouts but both cameras pretty much have all the functions you need right at hand. Both cameras have a 100% field of view viewfinder, but the Olympus one is brighter and easier to look through. The 7D and E5 lcd are both bright and crisp, but the one on the E5 articulates which is nice for tripod based shooting or video. The video on the 7D is much better though in quality and makes for a far better video camera.

Adam's 7D working in the rain

My biggest complaint with the 7D over the 8 months I used it was ISO performance and focus reliability. As far as the ISO goes, the 7D just doesn't compare to other crop sensor cameras on the market like the Nikon D7000 or Pentax K5 and I'd even put it maybe a third of a stop behind the Olympus E5. They jammed so many megapixels on that sensor, I just feel they would have been better off with 12 or 14 to help the image quality. Having all those pixels sure helps in the resolution department, but I'd trade noise control and dynamic range over megapixels any day of the week. I found the camera to be good up to about ISO 1600 and usable at 3200 if you nail your exposure or maybe expose a little bright. Your taste may vary.

Photo by Greg Howard

With the 8 frames per second and super advanced autofocus system on the 7D you'd think this would be the ultimate sports camera for any Canon shooter without a 1DmkIV pocketbook. And it is. For me, I actually never shot it in high speed mode once despite that it is sitting in that mode for the image above, but that isn't really my style even when shooting sports. The autofocus system is very much as advertised with customizability like I've never experienced in a camera before. I loved using it, though I admit I really should have invested more time in figuring out all the intricacies of the system. For me though, and this isn't a 7D thing but more of a Canon thing, I found the autofocus to be unnervingly unreliable. You think you have something on the LCD in crisp focus and later on the computer you realize it has missed just slightly. The camera did improve with use as I became careful with my technique, but I will say I've never enjoyed Canon autofocus and often joke that it's actually a feature I'd like to see introduced into Canon cameras one day. In time I was able to get most of my images in focus with the camera, but you can't be lazy with it. As none of my Canon lenses have image stabilization you absolutely have to make sure you are shooting at a shutter speed that exceeds your focal length (unless, as in the studio image in this post you are shooting with movement stopping lights) for the sharpest images. Meaning I was keeping it at least 1/200 of a second for my 135mm lens, which often meant my ISO was higher than I ideally would have wanted it. But you live and learn, and everything with photography is a trade-off isn't it?

Photo by Greg Howard

In the end I learned to like and appreciate the 7D. The files were good, and typical of my Canon cameras they stood up well to abusive post processing and showed good dynamic range. I liked the feel and build quality of the camera and I very much enjoy working with a crop sensor and full frame sensor in tandem at jobs allowing me the benefits of both. The camera worked very well for me as a backup to my 5DmkII and I'm glad I had it for one full wedding season. I'd recommend this camera to Canon dedicated photographers looking for an affordable sports camera or wildlife camera. The crop factor and performance will be welcome for you, and for wedding photographers looking for a backup camera it is a good choice. I'd say portrait photographers might prefer a full frame camera, even the 5D classic. If you are not a Canon photographer and don't own Canon lenses, then I believe other brands make nicer crop sensor cameras of similar build quality and with similar features. Most notably the Nikon D7000 (with dual card slots which the Canon doesn't have), the Pentax K5 with superior build and class leading noise control or the Olympus E5 which you all know I just like because I'm an Olympus fan (so you can ignore that last one!). You can still buy the 7D in stores new from between $1400 and $1500 if you find a sale and really not much less used as my quick internet search has found them between $1200 and $1400 used. Given it's build quality, I'd say a used one would be a good bet provided it has been reasonably well looked after.

Canon 7D with 100mm f2.8 Macro lens at f14, ISO 100 and 1/50 of a second. Shot in studio.

Thank-you for dropping by the blog. I'm planning on reviewing my Pentax 645N medium format camera soon so check back again!

Canon 7D and 85mm f1.8 lens at ISO 1600

Digital Food Photography, A Review

2012-01-25T20:41:00.000-08:00

Canon 5D mk II with 24-70 2.8 lens shot at ISO 200 f2.8 1/60 of a second

I've been very much enjoying my life as a wedding, portrait and 'people' photographer. Part of me though has been eyeballing another passion of mine that has nothing to do with a person. Food. I love food. Love eating it, looking at it, smelling it and my wife and I share a shared obsession with all those cooking shows on the Food Network. I just wish I was a better cook.

I've been doing some light food photography at weddings to give to the caterers and I've done an advertisement rack card for desserts in my local town, but I've never really considered myself a 'food' photographer. With an eye on staying true to photographing what I love though, it is in my plan to add it as a regular part of what I do. Shoot what you love and the work will follow. At least that is what I choose to believe.

So I decided to seek out some education on food photography and since workshops are fairly hard to come by I started with one of my favourite methods of learning, books. I recently finished my first book on the subject by world renowned food photographer Lou Manna, who is also an Olympus Visionary Photographer, called 'Digital Food Photography.' You can see a link to it on the top right of the blog.

Aside from making me hungry with a whole series of stunning food images, Lou has created a great guide for new food photographers. There are the obligatory chapters on equipment and editing which I hate to see in these books even though they all seem to have them. The talk of gear and computer software dates so quickly that I don't feel they have any place in a printed book. Looking past that though and ignoring those chapters there is a lot of wonderful information in these pages.

The book reads a bit like a textbook you would expect at a photography school. Lou talks about lighting, technique, different purposes of food photography (advertisements, packaging, cookbooks, media, etc), food styling, prop styling, composition and the business of food photography. I found all those chapter super helpful, insightful and well thought out. The experience Lou brings to the subject matter is obvious and help to make this book a must have for anyone interested in food photography. He is well spoken, clear in his language and, as any photographer should, uses images to show you the technique with great skill.

There are even a series of images from single shoots where he shows you his failed first attempts at photographing a dish, explains why the shots don't work and then shows you his successful final image and explains why it was chosen. This was one of my favourite parts of the book and created some real lightbulb moments for me.

I can't recommend this book enough, so if you are a food photographer, or just want to be, consider picking it up.

Thanks again for dropping by the blog, I always appreciate your visit.

Olympus OM-D

2012-01-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

I struggle sometimes with this blog because I tend to talk a lot about equipment and I know intellectually that the camera's we use have less to do with how good our images are as photographers than our skill at the craft and sense of art. Cameras, lenses, lights and other goodies do help make our job easier and allow us to express ourselves in ways we couldn't otherwise. As a wedding photographer I'm often grateful for the low light performance of my Canon 5DmkII and I love the shallow depth of field I can achieve with my 35-100 f2.0 Olympus lens. Those tools help me so they are worth talking about, but they don't define me as an artist any more than a quality paint brush vs a cheap one does for a painter. I could create images with lesser tools.

And so occasionally I worry that I'm giving the wrong message on the blog about equipment. I worry that what I'm putting out there is that you must have a certain camera or lens to create worthwhile art and that's not my intent. I love photography equipment. I can even get kind of geeky about it. Having said that, I am aware and want everyone else to be aware that I'd still be creating images even if I only had access to that 3 megapixel Kodak Easyshare DX6340 point and shoot which was my first digital camera.

And despite all that it's pointless to ignore the connection a lot of photographers have with their tools. Some of my cameras, like the Canon 7D and 5Dmk II are much more generic but useful wrenches in a toolbox to me than others. Those others seem to fall into my hand naturally, they resonate with my mind and how I like to work and they appeal to me on a personal level. I think it's hard to explain, but I know you understand it. Why for example do I love the Datsun 240z car in orange? I've always wanted to own one. There are faster cars, safer cars, better handling cars and certainly more modern cars. With no backseat the Datsun is pretty much useless to me as a family man. But I love them. Some people drive Chevy's and love them. To me they are boring, common and really just not special. It's not a brand that speaks to my soul. I prefer Mac to PC. Just because they run more reliably? No. I love that they are exclusive, well crafted and easy to use. Seeing someone else in a coffee shop with a Macbook Pro tells me something about them and their tastes even if it shouldn't.

And so the new Olympus OM-D camera that is being heavily rumoured over the internet as potentially announced on February 8th, 2012 has caught my attention and a great deal of my senseless camera lust. My OM4t is a camera that I love deeply. It fits neatly in my hands, has a super high quality build and feel and all the buttons and dials make sense to me. It's my orange Datsun. There are a lot of specs being tossed around about what the OM-D will be and won't be, some I like some I don't, but mostly I look at the photos of it and the beauty of it and think that this will be a paint brush that will feel good in my hands.

Which leads me back to that conflict I have when I write on about equipment on this blog. I'll continue to write about images and the gear I use to make them, but please know that in the end I sincerely believe that there are photographers out there that kick my butt with a Fuji point and shoot. There is some photographer somewhere using that Fuji that has more talent than Jerry Ghionis. Bet on it.

And about the OM-D? I understand I don't need it and that it won't make you or I a better photographer. But I've emailed my friend at the local camera store and asked if I can have an OM-D put aside for me when they come in. That is IF they look and feel the way I hope they do. I can't have the Datsun, so I might as well have the camera.

For Models and Photographers

2012-01-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

Dezi on Red with the Pentax 645N and 75mm f2.8 LS lens. Fuji Reala ISO 100 film

Back in 2010 I decided I wanted to photograph models, especially in the winter when I wasn't as busy with weddings. For me there were two reasons to spend time doing this.

One reason was to create personal art that I wasn't being commissioned for. I wanted to create images that were not aimed at a portrait client, but with my own art foremost as a purpose. One day I hope to have my own gallery show, and this is a step to getting there.

Secondly I wanted to try new lighting techniques and continue to improve on my posing. I don't really think that the best time to try new things is when you are on a paid job. I'm always looking to improve my lighting and posing as part of my craft and working with models has helped me a great deal.

Not all models are experienced and you can get a lot out of working with those that are experts at posing and those that need some help. Also when I'm photographing a model in a situation where we are trading for time I have no feeling of pressure to deliver work for them that suits their taste, as they aren't paying me. For sure I want them to enjoy the images, but I figure they are coming to me for my style, have seen my work beforehand and this all helps me feel relaxed about the outcome. They won't be cancelling any cheques if they don't like the images.

Recently one of the model's I've worked with a few times came to me with an idea to create a behind the scenes video of one of our sessions with the purpose of showing new photographers and models what to expect at a session. We had some help with the video from my friends Patrick Horsfield and Dave Nunez-Delgado who filmed the session with a Canon 60D and a Nikon D7000. You can consider it a meeting of the brands!

I haven't had the time to edit the actual shoot portion of the day yet (I'm still learning Final Cut Pro X so it's a bit slow) but at the end of the day Dezi and I decided to sit down and talk on video about some common things new photographers and models might be wondering about. I think that if you are considering entering into one of the 'Time for CD' or Time for Prints' situations and you are a little unsure of what to expect this little interview should be really helpful. I hope you enjoy it even though we are starting with Part 3! I also plan on doing a bloopers reel as there were plenty of things to laugh at on the day.

Photography Ramblings

2012-01-11T07:36:00.001-08:00

Photography Ramblings, a group on Flickr.

Check out the Photography Ramblings Flickr Group. Images posted there may be featured on the blog!

Fat Gecko

2012-01-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I put up a post about the Olympus VF-2 viewfinder, but while taking photos for that post I was using another new piece of equipment I purchased called the Fat Gecko tripod. I bought the tripod to use in or attached to my car, but also for anything that a small suction cup tripod could be handy for.

When it arrived I was really surprised with just how well built it was. This is a very sturdy tripod and held my Olympus E3 with no issues at all. Made by Delkin, the Gecko weighs only 1.25 pounds and when the suction cups are attached they are really stuck on well giving the user a sense of confidence that their camera isn't going to fall. You can adjust the angle and tilt both on the bottom near the cups and on top near the camera and it comes with a standard size mounting screw for your tripod socket on the bottom of your camera. They also include a flash cold shoe for use as a light stand.

I really like this tripod and priced at only about $70 it is a nice addition to a photographers tool kit allowing you to attach your camera or flash pretty much anywhere you have a flat smooth surface. Obviously some caution is warranted in placing your camera in places where they may fall anyway, so use at your own risk, but for me it seems like a very sturdy and safe solution.

Olympus E-PL1 attached to my sunroof with the Fat Gecko. Caution if you do this and are in a collision your camera may come loose!! I'm just saying.

Thanks again for visiting the blog. I have set up a Facebook Page just for Photography Ramblings. You can find it here and become a fan. Right now I think I'm the only Fan, so help me out!!!

Olympus VF-2 Viewfinder

2012-01-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

Olympus E3 and 35mm f3.5 macro lens at f20 ISO 400 3.2 second exposure

My wife purchased me the Olympus VF-2 viewfinder for my EPL1 for Christmas. It was one of those purchases that was on my wish list for a while, but I never thought it was urgent, more of a 'it would be nice to own' thing which made it the perfect gift. I had looked through one before in the camera store and thought it was really amazing, completely changing my opinion of electronic viewfinders. In using it for the past couple of weeks I can say that if you are an Olympus Micro Four Thirds user, it should really be on your must have accessory list. It has completely changed the way I use the camera and made me enjoy it so much more than before.

Taken by Olympus E3 and 35mm 3.5 macro lens at f20 ISO 400 15 second exposure

I know Olympus has released a cheaper version of the viewfinder called the VF-3 and I'm sure it's fine, but honestly for the $20 price savings it just can't be worth it. The VF-2 has about 40% better resolution which makes it worth the price difference alone. I also own the Panasonic DMW-LVF-1 viewfinder for my GF1 and the Olympus one absolutely kicks the tar out of it for clarity and pleasure of use. The Panasonic one is only useful as an aide in bright sunlight, it isn't a joy to use by any definition. I'd be curious to see how good the new viewfinder for the GX1 is from Panasonic, but I also can't help but think it was a huge slap in the face to previous customers that it isn't backwards compatible.

Don't worry, you get a full field of view putting your eye up to the viewfinder. This is just as close as I could get my macro lens in to give you a peek! My tomatoes appear to be out of focus..!!

So here is what I love about the Olympus VF-2 viewfinder:

If you are a photographer that is used to viewfinders, it's a must own, no brainer. You'll thank me instantly.
You get all the information you need right around the edges of the image, like ISO, shutter speed, aperture, shooting mode, flash mode, images remaining on card, Image Stabilization on/off indicator and if you want it, a histogram. You can change how it looks by hitting the Info button from lots of information, some of it, or none of it.
You get an instant live preview of white balance, grain (higher ISO shows up as grainier on the viewfinder), brightness, etc.
You get 100% field of view (wish all DSLR's had that)
The viewfinder tilts 90 degrees so you can shoot with the camera low and looking down on it.
It helps to steady the camera when you brace it with two hands and a third point of contact on your eye.
The sun glare on the LCD is really no longer an issue. If you like you can play images back in the viewfinder, something you can't do on an optical viewfinder.

There are a couple of problems with the viewfinder. One is that it has to be in the hot shoe, which means you can't use it while using a flash on camera (not really an issue for me) or a Pocket Wizard (a big issue for me) or the optional audio jack input (again a big issue). It would be nice if Olympus just moved the audio jack off to the side of the camera and added a PC sync port. That would seem to be the logical fit if they insist on keeping the viewfinder as an external accessory. There is also a slight delay and flicker to the viewfinder, but I don't find it objectionable at all. It is much better than the Panasonic one I own and really no worse than the one I looked through on the Fuji X100. It is also much larger and brighter than the one on the X100.

So there you have it. To me at least, the Olympus VF-2 has made me respect and love my little E-PL1 a lot more. It takes it from the land of fancy point and shoot into a serious camera.

And speaking of Fuji, I'm sure you all noticed the announcement of the Fuji X-PRO1. I have to say, that this camera looks amazing to me. I love the styling, the integrated viewfinder, the three prime lenses introduced with it and just everything about it. I lusted after the X100, but this camera has me in love. Good thing I don't have firm brand loyalties as I may be adding Fuji to my Olympus, Canon, Pentax and Panasonic gear list.

Thanks for popping by the blog. I hope you are having as mild of a winter as we are here on Vancouver Island. It was forecast to be our coldest winter in 20 years, but so far it's been the mildest I can remember in the 17 years I've lived here. Maybe I've just jinxed it!

Oh I found another blog and have added it to my reading list. It's very well done and came to my attention after a review on it for the Panasonic DMC-L1 surfaced on it. I loved that camera and as much as you can miss a hunk of plastic, glass and metal, I miss my old one. Wish I had never sold it. The blog is called Photographic Central, give it a read if you are looking for something new.

Landscapes and Gear

2012-01-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

Pentax 645N with 75mm f2.8 LS lens and Illford 3200 120 film Colouring added in Lightroom 3

I think I've mentioned how I consider myself to be a really bad landscape photographer before on the blog. Don't read that as "I hate landscape photography," because I don't. I find it really peaceful and enjoyable. I really love looking at a well done landscape like those done by my friend Gavin Seim and I appreciate the pursuit of great light, dramatic skies and dodging and burning done to perfection. But, I've never been great at creating them myself which won't stop me from trying! I took the above image on a little photo walk with my good buddy Greg Howard after helping him with some lighting for a commercial job down in Victoria BC. Out of a whole roll of 120 film, I liked only two images, of which this was the only landscape. Actually I didn't like it at first, but after burning the rocks in Photoshop, brightening the water and adding a selenium tint to it it kind of came alive for me.

The real thing that I'm enjoying about it though has little to do with the image itself. I know I'm not going to be selling that image in art galleries next to Ansel Adam's work. It has to do with the organic process of film and the slow process of using my new medium format camera. It's such a wonderful way to spend time with a tripod, a big film camera and a big world waiting there to be captured. And to look at film images, is a bit like listening to music on a record player. Sure it hisses and pops, but its organic. You can create the grain and texture in the digital world but it doesn't feel the same. It's a bit like listening to an MP3 recording of an old record. You might hear the imperfect sound, but you can't feel it like when it comes from the real thing. Go ahead and laugh, those that stick the occasional roll in the camera still know what I mean.

And so what the heck am I talking about anyway? Well, I have no idea really except to say that I've been enjoying the process of using film and a big clunky camera, and I hope you get to enjoy that feeling yourself.

And speaking of gear, I'm sure you've all been reading about the new Nikon D4. While many of you know I love Olympus equipment, I also use Canon, Pentax and Panasonic cameras. My lack of brand loyalty is a bit of a problem for me because I see camera's like this new D4 and my attention span wanders. I'd just love to own this camera. I love that they kept it to only 16 megapixels, and I'm intrigued that they are saying it focuses faster than the old Nikon which is the one thing about Nikon I've always lusted after, it's ability to autofocus so well. Then again, I've never been a fan of my Canon autofocus so maybe I'm jaded. I like the little touches like back illuminated buttons as well. This new D4 is a pretty nice piece of equipment and for almost $1000 less than the Canon 1DX I think Nikon may be getting themselves a long list of fans. All this competition is only good for us consumers that buy the equipment. I just hope Canon decides to put dual card slots in the 5D mk III. I mean, Nikon does it in their D700 line as I'm sure they will in the soon to be announced D800.

Olympus looks like they won't be bringing back Woodford as their CEO and the rumours of Panasonic, Sony or Fuji buying large pieces of the company seem to be intensifying. Frankly I'd love to see Olympus come back stronger and healthier as an independent company, but if I had to choose from any of those companies taking control of them it would have to be Fuji. Fuji is a company I had long disregarded until they came out with the wicked cool X100. Now with the talk of an organic sensor (Olympus really needs a sensor partner that won't hold back on them like Panasonic did with the GH2 sensor) and the X-PRO 1 I think that if we are playing a game of lessor evils, Fuji would be my choice for an Olympus bed partner. Panasonic stopped making cool cameras with the DMC-L1 as far as cosmetics and ultra-cool design go. I still miss that camera, wish I had never sold it.

As a final thought to this entry I wanted to point out the work of Raphael Guarino. I joined 500px in 2011 and I really love the quality of images that people tend to put on that site. I find myself flipping through it for an hour at a time some days just wiping the drool off my chin at some of the amazing talent out there. Raphael (whom I've never met or talked to) is from Germany, and I'm on his page all the time just amazed at the work he is doing. The photos just make my stomach flip flop and my eyes bulge. Amazing.

Thanks for dropping by the blog. I appreciate your visit.

New Toy

2012-01-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

Olympus EPL1 with 14-42 kit lens ISO 100 f11 30 second exposure

I purchased a new toy this week from Amazon that I thought was pretty fun. I decided to get the Fat Gecko suction cup tripod mount so I could attach my cameras to things like.....my car. I have a whole series of plans with it, but of course as soon as it arrived I had to immediately hop in the car with my Olympus EPL1 stuck to the underside of my sunroof and take it out on a dark rainy night. I must say I was surprised how well it turned out with me not really giving the setup much thought at all. I can't wait to take the time to set up what I'm really wanting to shoot with it!

The tripod appears well built and very sturdy. It did have some trouble sticking to my sunroof as it has a weird texture on the glass (I think some sort of webbed sun coating) but it worked none-the-less. Stuck on any smooth glass or surface and you can't even yank the tripod off by force. Or at least I can't, but I've been accused of having little girl arms.

If you are looking for a new toy, I paid about $80 for the Gecko, so shop around and look for a deal.

Thanks for dropping by the blog. Before I go, I'd like to link to this entry on the fototails blog. You might have already seen it as it has gone pretty viral on places like Facebook and Twitter, but if you are looking for a heartwarming story on just why portrait photography is so meaningful, give it a quick read.

You can now also find this blog at:
www.photographyramblings.ca and www.photographyramblings.com

Best of 2011

2012-01-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

Olympus E5 with Panasonic Leica 25mm Summilux f6.3 ISO 800 1/250 second

Every blog in the blog universe is having a review of 2011 right now so you are completely forgiven if you just skip mine, but despite the rampant use of a theme I just couldn't resist. Plus it's kind of nice to write a post while I'm still in my pyjamas on a lazy Sunday with a nice cup of coffee.

I thought I'd write about some of the best things I've read, bought and done in 2011. The things that have really helped me along on my journey in this crazy profession/craft/love affair with photography. Maybe some of those things will resonate with you and you'll want to try them yourself. Maybe you already have. Either way, I hope you enjoy them.

Best Reads and Resources on the Internet in 2011

500 pixels: I've long been a user of Flickr and Smugmug and in fact I'm a Smug leader here on Vancouver Island. What I've found is that Smugmug is great for my business and showing images to clients, while Flickr is great for storing random images and for sharing with a general population of amateur photographers. But 500px is really an amazing place to look at amazing images. I find that I only put up my favourite images there, and images that have nothing to do with my work as a photographer, but rather my private efforts. But I also really love flipping through images on there and getting inspired. The level of work is so incredibly good.
Kelby Training: I used to have a membership with Kelby training and dropped it in the fall of 2010 after I felt I had pretty much watched all the videos I wanted on it. But in the fall of 2011 I was browsing there and found it had a whole new group of videos I wanted to see and what really sealed the deal was the new iPad app. Now I can watch the videos on the iPad with it sitting right beside me on the computer or while sitting on the couch. Kelby appears dedicated to adding to this site all the time, so if you get a membership, watch it like crazy, let it drop for a year and then go back, I bet it's all new.
Photoprice: OK, so this one is only for Canadians, but if you are looking for gear and wondering where to get it the cheapest, this site just plain rocks. I'll pop on there and it will do the conversions, shipping calculations of all the major online retailers in the USA and Canada for me so I can compare directly. Think the US is always the cheapest? It's not. Often I will look at items, realize the price is pretty much the same everywhere and just go down to my local brick and mortar store and buy it there. Other times, you come across a crazy good deal and the site makes you really happy. :)
Kickstarter: Ever want to feel like a philanthropist? I have made three pledges on this site toward projects I thought were super cool. I bet if you visit you might too. Basically it's a crowd sourcing site for funding for various projects, one category of which is totally devoted to photography. I might have bad taste though because all of my chosen projects have not been fully funded yet. You can donate as little as $1 and if the project doesn't receive a set amount of pledges, you pay nothing and they get nothing.
The Visual Science Lab: Kirk Tuck's blog has been on my reading list for quite some time. This year he briefly quit blogging because of some rampant haters leaving comments that frustrated him. But he is back now and writing better than ever. It is a nice mix of nostalgic images and writings mixed in with gear reviews of his newest items of love (LED lighting and small cameras like the Nikon V1 lately).
The Phoblographer: This blog was new to me in 2011, and I'm glad I found it. Heavy on gear reviews, but also full of nice images and a nice atmosphere. I think I may have been the last photographer in the universe to find it, but it should be on all our reading lists.
The Music Bed: I'm not one to steal music. I always license it when I'm using it for a project, but to be honest I get kind of tired of the selection out there that can be licensed. This site has songs that I actually enjoy.
Olympus Grassroots: For those of you that have been following the ongoing soap opera that Olympus has become in 2011, this site was an interesting find. I suspect it will be gone soon, but it is a gathering place for Olympus employees to try and take back the reputation of their company.
Robin Wong's Blog: I love discovering new, active photography blogs. They make nice reading over a cup of coffee. I just discovered Robin's blog in December and I'm really happy I did. It is often updated, has great content and really nice photography. It does lean toward Olympus users, so you Nikon/Sony/Canon only types might not be as thrilled as I was.

Pentax 645N with 75mm f2.8 LS lens. Scanned on Epson V600 shot with Fuji ISO 800 expired colour 120 film

GEAR

The Olympus E5 was released in late 2010, but I was late to the party and bought it in 2011. I had also bought the Canon 7D in 2011 and between the two, the Olympus was my favourite. I still plan on doing a head to head comparison (though I've spoiled it now haven't I?) and the 7D is a nice camera, but Olympus really did a nice job of what could be their last proper DSLR.
The Pentax 645N was an impulse/lust buy for me this year. I had trolled the internet and hovered my finger over the buy button on this camera for quite a while before I finally bought one from Keh. I liked that it looked like a DSLR so would be familiar (I've since used a traditional Hassleblad and must say it has it's charm too) and had an irrational sense that it would make me happy. Well on day one when it arrived the shutter speed dial fell off it. I glued it back on rather than deal with the hassle of sending it back to Keh. But the use and feel of the camera is really nice. I LOVE the big viewfinder, love holding the camera and the look of the images that come from it have a really special feel. If you are a 'bigger sensor is better' kind of person, skip full frame and go right to medium format (I'm sure large format is coming my way soon), and if you can't afford digital (I can't) then just grab a film body and scan them. It's surprisingly cheap, a good medium format film camera and a nice prime lens will set you back less than a budget DSLR.
Honeycomb Grids: I use Alien Bee's strobes, but these are available for small strobes as well (probably on my 2012 purchase list) and all brands of studio strobes. I like to control my light as much as possible and I love drama in my lighting that shows a strong sense of direction. I can't believe I didn't start using these until this year, but now we have them for our small reflector dishes and our large beauty dish. This little add-on to my lights has changed completely how I light people. They are much more effective than the cloth box grids you velcro on the front of your soft boxes.
Film: OK, so I've been using film for years, this isn't a new thing in 2011, but my love for it deepened in 2011. I'm in the process of getting myself a full kit to develop at home. I won't print yet, but rather I'll scan the negatives. To me film is like playing music on a record player instead of listening to a CD of MP3. It has soul.
Vagabond Mini Lithium: We spent most of 2011 carrying around the 18 pound battery pack from Paul Buff and breaking our backs. The purchase of the mini battery pack later in the year was a very welcome thing. It weighs around 3 pounds. I'm not a big fan of big heavy gear, so this just makes me, and my back very happy.

My fridge was getting taken over in 2011

SOFTWARE & OTHER STUFF

Final Cut Pro X: OK, so this is a bit disingenuous of me because I didn't buy this until the last day of 2011. But yesterday I installed it, and played with it and I just know that it will be my newest favourite thing. I think the software received a bad rap from serious video people after it was released largely because it was a complete departure from Final Cut Pro 7 and not all features were ready for it upon release. However, for us photographers using an editing software for video fusion, this is really robust. It is also familiar (but much better) to anyone coming from iMovie. I also had Final Cut Pro Express installed, but I never really got the hang of it, a little confusing. I was up and using X in minutes.
Nik Software: I use Color Efex, Silver Efex and Viveza as regular parts of my editing workflow. While I like to do most of my editing quickly in Lightroom, I don't mind shipping them out to Nik for that extra something special. It sure beats spending time in Photoshop masking and brushing. The U-Point technology is a real time saver, once you try it, you'll see what I mean. Google discount codes and you'll usually find one for 15% off somewhere.
Smugmug: I'm a bit biased here because I'm a Smug Leader and therefore associated with the company, but for print fulfilment for my customers this site is a huge time saver. They shop online with their credit cards, Smug cuts me a cheque and mails the prints to the customer all packaged with my branding without me lifting a finger. I love that. Use the code vi11 for 15% off.
Fastline: Talk to Billy or Justin at Fastline if you want a custom Smugmug site, website or blog. These guys did our custom Smugmug site and they are working on a custom blog for us now. The biggest thing about them was just how friendly they were. I loved that.

Olympus EPL1 with OM 24mm f2.8 lens. Walking around testing my new VF2 viewfinder. Out of camera Jpg.

Well that's about it for the 'stuff.' On my personal journey with photography this year I feel I've grown a great deal, and I look forward to where I'm going in 2012. Photography has changed my life, no doubt about it and I wish the same sense of passion and love for everyone no matter what their craft of choice is. The biggest things I've learned this year, that I hope you can (or maybe already have) learn as well are:

The power of saying No. This year we stopped photographing jobs we didn't like. We finally kicked out the door the clients we dreading working for. This goes for actual people as well as types of photographic work. The last thing we were doing that I didn't personally enjoy was business head shots and corporate events. For me, it was a bit like showing up at the dentist. Necessary, but not something I looked forward too. I truly believe that if you stick with what you love, it will show through in your work and the customers will follow.
The power of saying No part 2. When it comes to negotiating on price, I've always had a hard time. I think what you charge is in part tied to your personal sense of worth. While business coaches will teach you to figure out your hard costs as a basis for pricing your work, there is no denying that a lack of confidence in yourself will stop you from charging premium prices. When I finally started telling potential clients that I wouldn't negotiate on price, they started wanting me more. Try it, try saying no to a lower price and you might be amazed just how in demand you really are.

I did learn more this year, but I won't share it all. Our business has come very far, and I know I don't share much of it here on this blog. Here I really just talk more about the craft, more about my little gear obsessions and fun stuff, nothing too serious. But the power of staying true to yourself and what you really enjoy about photography is a skill that everyone can benefit from, pro, amateur or random snap shooter.

I wish you a happy, prosperous and creative 2012 no matter what kind of photography you love, what brand of camera you use or what colour your hair is. :)

Thanks for dropping by the blog.

Self Portrait Photography, a Review

2011-12-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

Olympus E5 and 35-100 Zuiko f2 lens at ISO 200 f5.6 1/250 of a second. Two image composite

Sometime this fall I did a photo on a whim at the last minute during a session. We had wrapped up and it occurred to me that I wanted one more photo, so in about five minutes we pulled off the above image. I posted the image on Facebook and received a question if I was inspired by Miss Aniela. I had no idea who that was so I looked her up. Miss Aniela who's real name is Natalie Dybisz became well known on Flickr for a series of self portraits, some of which showed her suspended in air by some photoshop trickery. I thought I had never heard of her, but once I looked her up I recognized some of her images and realized I had seen her in a magazine or looked her up previously. So, possibly I was inspired by her. Who knows. Sometimes that's how photography works, you see images you like and your brain just catalogue's them.

This all inspired me to order her book on Amazon which is titled 'Self Portrait Photography; The Ultimate in Personal Expression.' You can find a link on the top right of the blog. When the book arrived and I started reading it I was a little underwhelmed. It started off with discussion the art and history of self portraiture (which was interesting) and then several pages on equipment and technique such as why you should use a tripod or a remote shutter release. This bugged me as I hate buying books with information I could have written myself, but once I pulled my head out of the sand I realized her target audience for the book is likely people wanting to get started with self-portraiture. Meaning people that might not have any equipment or photographic knowledge of any kind. So, it wasn't really about appealing to photographers. If you have any basic knowledge of photography, I encourage you to look at the photos in the beginning chapters and skip the text. If you are new to photography it's a good read, though not really a detailed step by step photographic 'how to' section either.

The discussion then moves onto subjects like posing, locations and hair/makeup. This is pretty helpful for photographers working with models as well as self-portrait creators. A chapter on post processing follows which again might appeal to the more novice reader. Having said that, I appreciated her philosophy on post processing and particularly on getting the capture in camera as correct as you can before the editing process.

Chapter five of the book showcases several other self-portraitists. This was probably my favourite section of the book and in fact my favourite artist of the book was featured here, Annette Pehrsson who's melancholic yet peaceful imagery really inspired me.

The book wraps up with a discussion on marketing images which can be helpful to photographers that are self portraitists or just us regular types as well. Overall I really liked this book. I appreciated the art, and the process by which Natalie works. Several of her images were really inspiring for me as a photographic artist. I was even inspired to improve on the quickly produced image above with one that showed a better use of the environment which you can see in this post on the blog from December 7th. If you are wanting to pursue self portraiture I can't think of a better or more relevant book on the market. This book should also be of interest to photographers that find 'Miss Aniela's' images of interest as she does talk in general about how she produced several of her photographs.

Thanks for dropping by the blog, I wish you a happy 2012!

Christmas Play

2011-12-15T09:11:00.001-08:00

I'm sitting waiting for my daughter's Christmas play to start, Canon 5D MKII in hand with the 135 f2.0 lens. Wondering. Should I have just used this iPhone I'm typing on? I love just being the parent, not the official guy with the big camera.

I just wanted to add that I came across a site called Kickstarter where people put up projects they are working on and try and get some crowd sourced funding to complete it. I have actually visited the site before but I had forgotten about it. There is a whole section on photography and one project in particular caught my attention called the "Unknown Photographer," so I ended up making a pledge for it. If you have a minute go ahead and check out the site, there just might be a photography project that strikes a cord for you! And no, I don't have any projects on there looking for pledges!

Thanks again for dropping by the blog!

The Interview

2011-12-07T23:49:00.001-08:00

My good friend Adam and I were interviewed for the Vancouver Island Photography blog recently. I thought that was pretty cool so wanted to share. You can view it HERE. Thanks for dropping into the blog!

Canon 5DmkII with 50mm f1.4 lens at ISO 160 f9.0 1/125 of a second

Olympus XZ-1 First Impressions

2011-12-04T16:06:00.001-08:00

My wife recently asked me to help her buy a camera for her office as they wanted something decent that they could use at trade shows and conferences etc. Of course she must have known that whatever I suggested it would be something that was going to meet their needs and peek my interest as well.

Yes this is an iPhone photo......sorry :)

When I first saw the XZ-1 I was impressed with the build quality and the lens, but thought it was a bit too small. It struck me as interesting competition for the Panasonic LX5 and Canon G12 crowd. I liked that they kept megapixels down to 10 and that they seemed to understand that photographers wanted a hotshoe, manual controls and if they couldn't have a viewfinder (an optional add on one is available) then they wanted a great screen. After holding it in the store though I didn't like how small it felt in my hands. It just broke the barrier into being too small.

f2.0 1/80 second ISO 200 with grainy black and white filter. Out of camera jpg.

Well my wife often takes photos indoors at business events. She isn't going to lug around a DSLR, and is intimidated my most cameras. The XZ-1, while being a true enthusiast camera with full manual controls also has a i-auto function and several automatic settings. It has a separate video recording button for high definition video when she needs it, and it's well suited to her small little hands and will easily fit in a purse with it's point and shoot size. The fact that the camera is well suited and designed for low light shooting with that 1.8 lens and unpacked low density 10mp sensor is something she doesn't understand, but will appreciate in the results. Especially since their general use is for web photos, not large prints.

f2.2 1/80 second ISO 200 with grainy black and white filter. Out of camera jpg

So I used the camera indoors the day we bought it, and after the battery was charged. To be honest I did quickly get used to the small size of the camera. I didn't spend too much time with it though as we were to spend the day Christmas shopping. Today my daughter and I went out with our cameras for a walk (she brought her indestructible Olympus 850SW waterproof camera seen above) and I gave it a good shaking out. It was a short test though so this post is meant to be a first impression post, not really a full review.

f1.8 1/1000 of a second ISO 500 out of camera jpg.

We walked through a forest with some strong sunlight going through the trees, then went to the park to hit the swings. Finally we went to a graffiti covered wall near the railroad tracks by our home. You can view the full sized images in this post on my flickr stream though the link by clicking on the image.

f1.8 1/1000 second ISO 400 in 'Sports Mode' out of camera jpg.

Lets start with the bad and what I don't really love about the camera:

It is a bit too small for regular to large hands (I have very average sized hands)
It doesn't have a built in viewfinder (though you can get an external one and the screen is quite good)
It doesn't track moving subjects too well, but it is good for a point and shoot, just won't beat your DSLR. To be clear, the camera focuses faster than any point and shoot I can remember using, but it did miss most of the photos of my daughter swinging which is a hard test even for a DSLR as she was swinging toward me. It's good for a point and shoot, but it isn't a sports camera.
the auto white balance isn't very accurate in tungsten lighting (much too warm). If indoors, shoot RAW.
While the camera feels well built, the buttons and little wheel on the back feel a little flimsy
I've never really been a fan of the zoom with the toggle switch on point and shoots.
The lens cap attaches to the camera via an included little string strap, but it's kind of annoying.
You have to charge the camera with the battery inside the camera either through USB cable to your computer or a USB power adaptor (included) in a regular wall outlet. This isn't great if you want to charge a second battery while still using the camera. Pretty much defeats the purpose of buying a second battery actually.

f2.2 1/80 second ISO 100 with dramatic art filter applied, out of camera jpg.

Here is what I do like:

The camera feels very well constructed
The lens has a wheel around it for changing aperture much like the old aperture dials on lenses. I LOVE that! It is used for other settings when in modes where you can't control the aperture, such as changing art modes etc. I hope other camera manufacturers pay attention to this.
10mp restraint is a bonus
the lens which starts at a super bright 1.8 on the wide end to 2.5 on the longest zoom end is very nice. As usual with Olympus, this is a very nice lens.
A hot shoe gives so many options from flashes and Pocket Wizards to adding the viewfinder and audio accessories.
The LCD screen is bright and clear.
Full manual controls
You can shoot in RAW
Good image quality
the art filters are fun. I enjoy them on all the Olympus cameras. I can't believe I like them as much as I do, but there you have it.

f2.0 1/60 of a second ISO 100. Grainy black and white filter, in camera jpg.

I think this little camera is going to be perfect for my wife. I'd like to play with it some more, and I'm sure I'll get too. In my opinion the point and shoot market is pretty much dead and sold over to cell phones in today's market with the exception of exceptional cameras. What I mean by that, is that the point and shoots have to offer something that the phones can't. The Olympus XZ-1 offers superior image quality, full manual controls and really exceptional low light performance for a small sensored camera. My daughters drop proof, water proof, crush proof, freeze proof camera offers me, the parent peace of mind. It's these types of things that manufacturers have to emphasize, and I think they have realized it and don't need me to remind them. The Olympus XZ-1 is a big hit for me. I think that they are on the right track in a market started by Canon with the G series and nearly perfected by Panasonic with the LX series while being innovated by Fuji with the X10. For about $450, the Olympus is money well spent.

f1.8 1/60th of a second ISO 100 in dramatic tone art filter mode, out of camera jpg.

Thanks for dropping by the Photography Ramblings blog. I appreciate your visit.

Calvinize Me

2011-11-26T07:53:00.001-08:00

It was a few months ago that I was browsing in my local bookstore and saw a book called 'Calvinize' by Calvin Hollywood. I'd never heard of him before but the cover image grabbed my attention. A quick flip through the pages and I was intrigued by the quality and artistry of the images.

Turns out it was a tutorial book by a famous retouch artist from Germany that has earned fame through his unique and highly skilled photo retouching skills. It includes several pages of his images in print along with sparse text talking about everything from hiring makeup artists, models, lighting and accepting criticism. The text is well done for someone who's first language isn't English and has some useful information especially for those photographers starting out building their first portfolio. Having said that, there isn't much text. I was able to read the book cover to cover including taking time to look at the images in under an hour.

The photos inside the book range from jaw dropping amazing to OK for my taste. But that's photography isn't it? We can't all love the same looks. The images are really high quality though and the retouching is top notch. It's a joy and inspiration to flip through the images in print on paper. One of my favourite things to do, look at and feel photographs on paper.

Olympus E5 with 35-100 f2.0 lens. ISO 200 1/160 sec f4.5

Enough of that though, what people really buy this book for is the attached CD which contains over 4 hours of step-by-step video tutorials on Calvin Hollywood's Photoshop techniques. I've been through most of them, some of which were old news to me and some of which were really amazing tools for me to learn. The photo in this post was inspired by Calvin.

I'd say if you are looking for a series of tutorials on photo retouching and haven't found satisfaction online, then this book would make a good addition to your library. It has some simple techniques and some more advanced multi-step techniques. While Calvin warns you in the beginning that you should not be a total beginner with Photoshop before you try and follow along, I think that most users should be able to follow his step by step instructions with relative ease.

Having great images to start with for the edit though is really the key and he points this out himself. Get it right in camera first and you will be able to use this Photoshop advice to turn a good image into a great one. That was advice I also heard from Scott Kelby on his Light It Shoot It Retouch It seminar and I think it is worth stating to everyone.

Photoshop can make a Good image a Great image and a Great image an Incredible image, but it will never make a Bad image Incredible or Great. Get it right in camera. Learn your craft, and polish it in post production.

Thanks for popping by the blog. If you live in the US I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I ended up shopping online with BHphoto for some great Black Friday deals so thank-you for that tradition as well!

My Newest Fascination

2011-11-24T11:16:00.001-08:00

I've had the good fortune to play with a digital medium format camera in the past (a Leica S2), but as much a I loved it, I simply can't justify the cost.

So in an attempt to satisfy my medium format lust I recently bought myself a
Pentax 645N with the 75mm f2.8 LS lens that allows syncing up to 1/500th of a second when you use the shutter and sync port on the lens (otherwise The sync is 1/60).

The camera is a joy to hold, deeper than a regular DSLR front to back but not much larger otherwise. It's heavy but not horribly so and the lens is light so it's not as front heavy as you'd think. The grip is really nice to hold and the knobs and buttons on the camera are well laid out. I did read the instruction manual to learn to load the film properly and figure out some functions but it's a short book and once you read it you'll be using the camera like an old pro. I have the 120 and 220 inserts for the back and I understand that should I ever feel rich the lenses will work on the digital 645D.

I've just finished my first roll of film so I can't comment too much on the quality of the images. Film being the great equalizer I'd say the only risk is missed focus or a poor lens and from what I understand it's a very sharp lens. Focussing manually is a breeze with a huge bright viewfinder which is a dream compared to any DSLR viewfinder. There is a focus confirmation light/beep for manual focus lenses like mine but Pentax also made some autofocus lenses as well.

More to come about this camera for sure. Thanks for dropping by the blog.

OK, so bad photo, but it's an iPhone photo :)

Shooting for the Thumbnail

2011-11-15T14:18:00.001-08:00

Olympus E5 with 35-100 f2.0 lens

I started noticing something earlier this year and have been paying attention to it lately. Looking at hundreds of photos on sites like Flickr or Facebook I noticed that some had more 'likes' or comments than others. Well OK, we all notice that. There are some things that are pretty obvious about what might draw more attention than others. Photos of pretty women, cute photos of babies or kittens or photos of photography equipment seem to draw a lot of attention just because of the subject matter. But I've seen a lot of images that I don't really love, (including images I've photographed) get a lot of attention and other images that I thought were pretty fantastic get virtually none. I wondered what was up.

Now if you've been reading this blog for a while you probably know I can be a bit thick. I'm thinking that most people know this already even subconsciously. It's the images that look good as a thumbnail. They are the ones that get the clicks, likes and comments.

If they are high contrast, colourful and easy to distinguish in content while small, then they are getting a like. Most people I suspect don't even click on the image to view them larger, they just click like and move on. Another thing? If there are a lot of 'likes' or clicks then there are more likely to be people that just join the crowd without looking. The image above would get clicks. Would get even more if she was photographed against an orange or purple wall I think adding a pop of colour.

So it doesn't mean that the images that get liked are bad. In fact a lot of the time they are excellent, but really, from that thumbnail do we know they deserve our adoration? I doubt it. And none of this is a problem, or wasn't until I noticed something about my own behaviour a few months ago. I started editing for the click. I'd search through a pool of images from a photo session and post the one I had trained myself to know would generate those addicting clicks. After all we all want to be adored don't we? But was I choosing my favourite image? The one that best suited my taste, my style and my passion? No I wasn't.

And there-in lies the problem. Photography has boiled down to a half second glance on a thumbnail to generate fleeting popularity. I'm sure photographers are now creating images on purpose and have even altered their styles to create the popular thumbnail look, even if they don't know it. To me at least, that is a shame. And so I console myself by flipping through large photo books, looking at prints and images full screen on my big monitor. Because when I really want to fall in love with photography, I dive in. I want to stare at it, figure out the lighting, feel the emotion. I almost want to taste it.

Can't do that with a thumbnail.

Days Like Today

2011-11-11T07:41:00.001-08:00

Well it's our last wedding of 2011 and it's days like today that I'm super glad I still have my Olympus cameras. It's raining cats and dogs out there for a November outdoor ceremony. I'll be getting wet, but the E5 and E3 will be just fine.

Olympus E3 and 50-200 Zuiko lens at 130mm ISO 400 f4.0 1/250 second

I prepare a little differently for days when rain is threatening my work day. First off I pack both my Olympus gear and my Canon gear in separate bags. The Canon gear gets used for the indoor portions of the day and the Olympus for the outdoor portions. I don't really have to carry two bags because one can stay in the trunk between locations. One tip though, in case you get your stuff stolen from your car, keep your memory cards on you at all times to avoid losing images. Mine are in a card wallet that gets attached to the belt loop on my pants.

I also pack a couple of things that I normally wouldn't. I pack some large Ziploc bags that I will put over my small flash to keep them dry for off camera work. They are transparent so no issue there. I also have a large soft cloth that I keep in my bag. I give my camera a quick wipe under cover just before I change lenses to avoid any excess water dripping into an open camera body by accident. Of course keep your camera pointed down when changing lenses. I like to change them only when I'm protecting them from the driving rain.

I pack a separate set of clothes as well to change into if I get a chance and if I need too. Or at least I'm going to today for the first time. :) You are witnessing me learning my lesson. I also pack a rain coat with a hood. We bring umbrellas for the people we are photographing as well. They keep people dry between shots and also can make for fun props. I like to keep a towel or blanket in the car as well.

Well, I'm fully packed for my day, shirts are ironed. Wish me luck. I have a full weekend of editing to do but the E5 vs Canon 7D review is coming.

UPDATE: Well, just home from the wedding now. The sun came out and it looked fantastic, then.....during the middle of the ceremony a huge windstorm came, knocked down two trees, and the rain poured. I had Geoff (our assistant) run back to the car and get my Olympus gear, but my Canon's got wet. The 5D got water drops inside the viewfinder and fogged up hopelessly. The 7D seemed to do better. We got them under cover quickly and Geoff dried them off and put them in the car. Adam kept using his 7D and seemed to do OK with it. The E5 was great to use. Changing lenses under an umbrella was challenging, but we managed. Here is a photo of Adam's 7D like a wet dog.

Mobile Blogger

2011-10-24T18:14:00.001-07:00

Testing testing. I just downloaded the iPhone app for Blogger and thought I'd give it a try. If this works you just might see me posting more often. After all, like everyone I'm often waiting somewhere killing time and random thoughts hit me.

Warning. There may be a sudden increase of hipstamatic photos.

I just finished reading an article on Reuters about the FBI opening up investigations into the ongoing Olympus scandal. I'd link to it but I don't know how on this device. Olympus has really got to open up their books. With more than a 50% drop in stock value in the last week or two they are opening themselves up to some serious lack of investor confidence. Or maybe that ship has already sailed.

The longer the silence, the more it seems likely that the Board may have embezzled millions from the company. And of course new accusations of Japanese mafia involvement just makes me wonder if this will one day be a feature film plot.

Anyway. I'll try an keep these iPhone blog posts short.

The World's Worst Landscape Photographer

2011-10-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

Fuji 400 colour film, about 1999, unknown camera

It's just possible that I'm the world's worst landscape photographer. I'd like to get better, but it doesn't seem to be happening. I put up a photo here that I came across while continuing my seemingly endless project of scanning old film negatives. Taken in about 1999 at Hells Gate (or somewhere around there) in British Columbia with film it shows a decided lack of inspiration for the otherwise beautiful scene. OK, so I didn't have photoshop, and this was before I even knew I liked photography like I love, live and breath it now. It's a snapshot. But honestly, I'm not much better now. Maybe even worse because I just don't see a good landscape and I try too hard to make the magic whereas back then I just shut up and took the shot. Give me a person to put in a landscape and I'm good. But ask me to compose a shot of a river like this and I'm a bit lost. I have no vision.

And I think it all comes down to 'seeing' a photo. I can put something of myself in a portrait. I can envision what I want as an end product and I can feel the emotion in a portrait, but a landscape eludes me. Now I recognize a great landscape when I see one. And I think I've been lucky and pulled off a few 'good' if not 'great' landscapes in my past. But I really believe that to be a great photographer in any particular area you need to be able to see. You need to have a vision for your subject, and a passion for it. That is why the best photographers in the world specialize, whether they be Ansel Adams, Chase Jarvis, or Arnold Newman. It's too diverse of a craft and art to be the best at everything. So if you are photographing weddings and you find yourself feeling like it's a job, and your work is about as inspiring as the shot above, then maybe you need to stick to what moves you. Wildlife? Birds? Cars? Pets? I'm just sayin'. That's all.

This was my giant segue into talking about wedding photography as a specialty. It seems like so many people today call themselves wedding photographers. And they open up wedding photography businesses. All on the strength of a really good shot of a bear, a bird or a plane at an air show. I kind of don't get it. Wedding photography is hard. It's specialized and it takes single minded determination and love to do it even reasonably well. Owning a camera and being a closet bird photographer does not qualify you, nor should it. Why does everyone go to weddings to make money? Is it really a service to the Brides of the world?

I'm not saying you can't be a good landscape photographer and a good wedding photographer. In fact to be a really good wedding photographer you have to be good at action, portraits, photo-journalism, landscapes, architecture and fashion. You have to be able to use artificial lighting and natural light, shoot in low light (or virtually no light), you have to be good with people, make them laugh, help solve problems and be a shoulder for a nervous Bride or Groom (or mother-in-law). But if weddings aren't your passion. If you don't have an eye for them, then please, for the love of all things good, for the love of your craft, please find some other type of photography to sell. If you aren't sure if I'm talking about you, if your website contains photos of bears, birds and Brides all at the same time, I just might be talking about you. At the very least, have two separate websites!

In the meantime, I'm going to be working on my landscapes. I owe it to my Brides. And I'm going to keep scanning film. I'm sure some photos I took 12 years ago are good right?

Thanks for popping by the blog!

A Visit From The Most Inconsistent Blogger Ever

2011-10-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well I will say that as my excuse I have been busy. And that's all I have, my only excuse. But at least I can say that I haven't been cooking the books like Olympus appears to have been! I've been busy with actual photography. Now if Olympus didn't already have enough problems with a money losing camera division, the firing of their whistle blowing CEO seems to be a huge nail in the coffin. If you haven't dumped your stock yet, you might want to consider it now.

Canon 5D mkII with 85mm f1.8 lens. ISO 100 f3.2 1/100 of a second

And it's too bad really because as you know I'm a bit of a fan. I love my Olympus cameras. The E5 has been wonderful and my new 35-100 f2.0 lens is a mighty superb partner to it. I'll be shooting with it a lot over the next couple of weeks so I'm sure samples will follow.

In other camera news, Canon's new flagship camera the 1DX looks downright amazing. The autofocus appears to have received a lot of attention which is always welcome to those of us Canon users that remain frustrated with their seeming lack of any reliable autofocus. Also the megapixel restraint on a flagship camera was a breath of fresh air. 18 mp is plenty. I'd love to own the camera, but I probably won't as $6800 isn't in the budget anytime soon. But it did make my eye wander over to the 1DmkIV which is already only $4300 and should see a price drop soon. I'd love to replace my 7D with that. I'd love it a lot.

Olympus E5

Since I last blogged I have finished a book by Robin Muir called "Norman Parkinson; Portraits in Fashion." In all honesty before I picked up the book I had never heard of him. And after reading the book I certainly don't hold him in as high esteem as say Arnold Newman or Annie Leibovitz. But this guy definitely had guts, charm and the will to survive a work life in an exploding fashion industry from the 1930's right up until his death in 1990. Some of his images were really inspiring. His fascination with women and how they move and interact with light and their environment (and him) was really amazing. Other photos I just couldn't stop feeling were a lot like Flickr photos I've passed over many times. But then again, he was doing it before Photoshop Actions wasn't he? If you have any interest in the history of fashion photography and especially how it moved from static studio to environmental images where people actually moved in their photos you would very likely love this book. I've put a link to it on the top right of the blog.

I'm going to keep it short tonight except to talk about a couple of photo sessions I've done recently using single light sources. I decided before each session that I was going to stick to one lighting setup and force myself to be creative with it. After all it is my fall/winter season and with weddings wrapping up for the year it's time to push myself to be creative and develop new tools, habits and practices for next season.

Olympus E5 with Leica Summilux 25mm f1.4 lens. You can see where the strip box was positioned.

The first session I had in the studio where I used one strip light up high (about 8 feet) and to the model's left (camera right) pointed down at about 45 degrees. I had her stay close to a fabric background because I wanted to see how the light played off of her and what was behind her. I wanted to play with angles and fall off of light to shadow. I've used this light setup before, but never in a paid session, so I figured that it was time to love it or leave it. And it certainly had drama.

Olympus E5 and Leica lens f2.8 ISO 100 1/250 of a second

The other light setup I did in a local park and just used the Lumopro LP160 flash with a full CTO gel on it triggered by a Pocket Wizard. The flash was slightly behind the model on it's widest beam spread and angled down roughly at her upper body/head. I wasn't too particular about it. Then I just threw my camera on shady or cloudy white balance and used a light meter for the natural light on her face for my exposure. The flash was set to full power and it was meant to bring that warm glow to the image. I liked it a lot and plan on bringing this one into my everyday usage as it's easy and fast and brings a nice warm feel to an otherwise cold image. That surprised me a bit by the way as I typically like my white balance a little colder than most photographers.

Canon 5D mkII with 135mm f2.0 lens. ISO 100 f2.5 and 1/160 of a second

It's fun to work like this by forcing yourself to a lighting style for a whole session. It's great to do it with models when there is no pressure to perform for a pay check. In fact the model above didn't like the last image I have here, but I did and I didn't lose any sleep over her disagreement with me.

And I'll leave on that note. With your photography if you find that everyone likes it, I'm going to say that you might want to push yourself harder. Stop aiming for the middle, aim for where your heart really lies and where your photographic taste really is. If everyone likes everything you do, I propose the idea that you might just be a pretty mediocre photographer. If you have some lovers and some haters you must be doing something unique, something extraordinary, and it might be time to finally pat yourself on the back. My wife doesn't get what I see in Richard Avedon's images. She thinks they are weird and boring. I think he is about as good as it gets. I doubt he would care either way.

Thanks again for dropping by my little photography blog. I appreciate you taking the time to read my words. Maybe visit me on 500px, friend me on Facebook or add me on Google+. I'll add you back.

Colour

2011-09-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

"Colour photography is largely magic, hiding in the bellows there live dozens of hobgoblins, some good, some evil." - Norman Parkinson

That quote really resonated with me and I had to put up a blog post before it slipped my mind. It really speaks to the struggles I have with colour images and the love I have for colour. I feel like sometimes I just can't win, but for the most part I am frustrated looking at black and white images that are so common today that lack the soul of what they should be, filled with no purpose and lots of neutral grey. And yet that devilish colour is so attractive and beautiful. But you can't cheat a black and white photograph. You either have the subject and the composition or you don't. No getting distracted with yellows and oranges and bright green. No mistaking what is important and what isn't. And yet a black and white image is also more forgiving. Sometimes. Anyway, these hobgoblins are on my mind a lot so when I read Parkinson's quote I had to put it up.

A couple of gear related things, just because I know that's what you all want to hear. :)

I held and played with the new Pentax Q camera yesterday in the store. It reminded me of one of those old James Bond spy cameras I used to see advertised in the back of comic books when I was a kid. It was small. I was shocked how small it really was in my hands. Too small. Way too small. I think that if there was ever a point where we have miniaturized things too much, this is it for cameras. I couldn't even get a grip on the little thing without feeling like an Ox. And for a guy, I don't have large hands. It makes my Pentax W90 point and shoot look like a tank. To be fair, I also held onto the new Olympus E-PL3, also too small and the lack of any sort of grip was unnerving to say the least. At least the Pentax had a nice rubbery/leathery texture to the body which felt nice, the E-PL3 had a quality metal body, but felt flat and slippery. The E-P3 which they also had in stock felt nice though, substantial in comparison. This is just my impressions of holding the cameras, obviously I haven't used them outside of a camera store.

I did however get a chance to bring my E5 to it's first wedding last weekend on a day that was experiencing some heavy rain. It ended up being sunny at the last minute but I used the camera anyway and loved it very very much. So much so that it made me consider ditching the Canon 7D but memories of last years problems carrying two sets of lenses (at the time for the Olympus E3 and Canon 5DmkII) quickly changed my mind. The focus was reliable (I'm still at times unnerved by the 7D's lack of consistent focus) and the images were magnificent. The 50-200 Zuiko lens performed so amazingly well, and I think I might have forgotten how much fun it was to pull out that 8mm fisheye lens on occasion. The introduction of the E5 to my work was so refreshing I couldn't help but to use it for some business portraits the last two days using both the Leica Summilux lens and the 50-200 in the studio. At ISO 200 and for web sized or small print publication, the camera has more than enough juice and it's screen (lcd) and viewfinder are a dream. Oh Olympus, it's too bad you are running away from this camera. But I understand the business sense that is forcing you to do so.

Thanks again for dropping by the blog. I'll be back again soon, just as soon as I get through another rush of work and editing.

Oh Kirk Tuck made a post on his blog that was really wonderful a few days ago. It was one of those posts that I thought was probably getting glossed over by most readers simply looking for gear reviews. Yes our photographs are reflections of our own unique versions of the world, and if that doesn't leave you feeling naked in public then you aren't trying hard enough. It's a short post, go read it if you have a minute.

The Guy Who Fixed My Garage Door

2011-09-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

My garage door has been broken for a couple of months. It was one of those things on my 'to do' list and finally I booked the repair guy to come and fix it. He came, he fixed, and he asked me what I did for a living. When I told him I was a photographer he became all excited and ran to get his iPhone. To show me his bird photos. He had just purchased a Nikon D5000 and had been spending time at the lake with his wife taking bird photos. Now first up, I carry a somewhat unfair dislike for bird photos. Probably because I'm a terrible bird photographer. The patience required for it just doesn't exist within my soul. But what was more disturbing and reality check inducing was the comment that he thought that maybe it would be nice to one day be a professional photographer too.

I have no problem with that. I don't. I swear. But (you had to know there would be a but) just because you run out, buy an entry level DSLR and get a few (admittedly really good) bird photos does not make you qualified to be a photographer. OK, maybe it does, what the heck do I know. But I can tell you that the romance of the digital age of photography is bringing in way too many people that buy a Canon Rebel and decide that is the only barrier to entry into what is a very challenging, time consuming, all encompassing and at times exhausting field of work. Don't get me wrong, I love it, all the more so because of all the work I have to put into it, but knocking off a few pretty photos shouldn't be the qualifier to entry. So I referred him to the local photo club and wished him well.

But it does bring up something that has been on my mind since last week. You see last week I received an email from a local graphic design company that was designing the new visitor guide for our City. They were looking for photography submissions for the guide and were running it a bit like a crowd sourced photo contest. Accepted images were to be paid $50 each and $200 for the cover. You submit your photos in the hope of getting chosen based on a list of desired images they had. Now for me, I just can't or won't invest the time to go out and photograph these in the hope of what is really a very poor financial payment. If I had an image in my library I thought would fit, I might submit it. I'm more likely to spend my own time for free just doing photos like that for enjoyment than to go out trying to create them for $50.

But I decided to send the request for images out in a big chain email to all the other local photographers in town thinking that someone else might be interested. The controversy and rather distraught emails that came back were pretty eye opening. I guess in previous years this company had contracted out to a photographer a budget to deliver images for the guide. Plenty of photographers are offended by this crowd sourced model. For a while I forwarded all the concerned emails around to everyone in hopes of a spirited debate on pricing models, but then I stopped because I didn't want to be the centre of this controversy. I was just passing on 'work.' Right or wrong, for some jobs this appears to be the new model of getting hired.

And that is what really had me thinking. With people like my friendly garage door repairman, and millions of other advanced amateurs out there producing good quality work, has the market for 'generic' types of stock photography dried up? I mean why would an advertising company pay top dollar for a beach or deer or bird photograph when they could get it from iStock, a local amateur or a new 'pro' for next to nothing or free for the honour of a photo credit? The market will pay based on supply and demand and any brief three minute browse to Flickr will show many thousands of beautiful beach sunset images.

To the photographers that are lamenting the shift in the market I have this to say, and I don't mean to be mean or even controversial. You need to find a niche market that will pay for your art, craft and skill. You can't expect top dollar any longer for a well exposed image of a generic subject matter. Weddings, portraits, product, commercial and architecture photographers know this. After all it's not like a Bride can go out and purchase a stock image off a micro stock website of her wedding. She might be able to crowd source the job on Craig's list, but that will come with an expectation of substantially lower quality which is perfectly valid for those without the money to pay for good photographs. But if you have been hanging your hat on providing images for publications of kayakers, kids kicking soccer balls, and kites in a blue sky I think you may be noticing a drop in business.

I feel the pain and the anguish, and I sympathize with it, but I think it's time to realize the market has moved on and we should move with it or consider another career. Stay relevant or give up already. You can remind me of this when I start to experience the same feelings one day. But for now I'm doing my best to stay on the front side of the curve.

The photographers that have been doing this for much longer than I generally fall into one of a few camps. They gripe and moan about the old days while producing stagnant work that reminds me of 1980, or they run really good businesses that are technically miles ahead of anything most of the rest of us know how to do and have kept relevant (a lot of these photographers have made very lucrative second parts of their careers teaching workshops to the rest of us) or they have given up altogether and quit. I hate seeing anyone in the first group. They just assumed the world would stay still.

Moving on, I'm still playing with the new Olympus E5. Well I guess it's only new to me as it's been on the market for about a year now. Adam, my esteemed colleague said to me that it was the nicest camera he had ever used (talking about handling I think). I have to agree with him. I really love holding it and using it. It isn't without its (significant) flaws, but it is wonderful. So wonderful I've decided to spend on a new four thirds lens and have ordered the 35-100 f2.0 lens. Does this mean I think the four thirds cameras are going to live on forever? Nope. I don't. I think Olympus has set its sights and investments squarely on micro four thirds, and will dig in deeper now that Nikon has entered the market. But my four thirds cameras are my fun cameras. They are the ones I bust out when I'm not working. My Canon's are for work. Confused yet?

You can see me swapping drives in my Drobo in the photo above while Adam plays with the E5 in the mirror. I love my Drobo, but it did take three full days to swap out two 1 terabyte drives for two 2 terabyte drives. The Drobo takes a long time to rebuild the RAID (or whatever technical term describes what it is) when you pull and add drives. I had managed to fill my Drobo in only 9 months. Amazing.

One last thing and that is a quick book recommendation. reGeneration 2, a book which spotlights work by emerging photographers. I find these types of books so inspiring and amazing. I love flipping through them and an this point I dream of what it would have been like to be one of those new photographers introduced in such an amazing way. I've written this before, but I sincerely believe that photographers also need to be consumers of the art. It is a great way to get inspired and to support the craft. I enjoy looking at images nearly as much as I do creating them and I hope you do too. You can find a link to the book on the top right of the blog.

Thanks again for visiting.

Wedding Photography: A Guide to Making Money

2011-09-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I came across a website called Oliver Cameraon Publishing selling small books that were essentially guides to posing for boudoir and wedding photographers. I ended up buying the books and quite enjoyed them. Then they came out with a book called "Wedding Photography A Guide to Making Money" by David Pearce. Now how could I resist that? I'm a wedding photographer, and I love it, but making money is kind of nice too.

Canon 5DmkII with 24-70 2.8 lens 1/60 of a second, f3.5 ISO 160, natural light

So I ordered the book and read through it quickly. Then about halfway through I realized something, I was forgetting everything. So I took it again and just put little stars beside each part of the book I wanted to revisit. You see, it's broken up into hundreds of little paragraphs, each of which is a specific business related tip or suggestion. Some of them didn't apply to my business, or maybe I disagreed with them or recognized them as a poor fit for my personality. Some of them were things I'm already doing. But many were little ideas that I wanted to revisit. And so I have a plan. I'll go back to the book occasionally, pick a paragraph that I had marked and spend some time on my marketing in an organized way. This book is my new idea book, all in one concise little paperback novel.

The book can be purchased directly from the publisher on their site for around $20. I get no commission or royalty for recommending them, in fact I believe they asked us to submit photos once for one of their upcoming posing titles, but we never heard from them again after submitting images. Maybe that's a bad sign? I'll try not to take it personally. :)

I will say this. The advice contained in this book can pretty much be found elsewhere for free from sites on the internet and from talking to your fellow pros, but if you are isolated in your area from peers or aren't much for internet reading (thanks for reading this blog), then this is a good option. And even if you do have access to sites like the DWF where all this information is readily available and searchable, having this book puts it all in one place for you. You can stick it in your car, on the back of your toilet or beside the television and use it for sudden inspiration at a glance. If you are stuck for marketing and business advice, this book is well worth it and in this economy I think we can all use all the business skills we can get.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by the blog.

an Ocean Waltz

2011-09-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

an Ocean Waltz, a photo by Felix Aldhi on Flickr.

A perfect end of summer photo, this one caught my eye in the Photography Ramblings group on Flickr. With her back turned, the perfect composition and her staring out at a beach, this photo says goodbye to summer for me.

Taken by a photographer named Felix Aldhi who currently lives in Vancouver BC, but the image was taken in Indonesia with an Olympus E3 at f3.3 at 1/1600th of a second ISO 100 in aperture priority mode with +0.7 exposure compensation. Not sure which lens was used but it was at 38mm.

Felix wrote this below the photo:

Via Flickr:
Strange how I feel, sitting on a chair in a deep water.
The sky, the breeze and the cold wave complimenting each other.
It's quiet, just the waltzing ocean that stole our time.
I will remember today as days go by.

If you want to see more work from Felix check out his Flickr stream here. Want your image featured on the blog? Join our group and it just might be!

Panasonic GF1 Revisited (In Alaska)

2011-09-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

GF1 with viewfinder and 20mm f1.7 lens with the Olympus OM 135mm f2.8

I was recently faced with a conundrum that many of us photographers face when we are about to go away on vacation. Which camera equipment to take with us. My family and I had booked a trip to Alaska on the Norwegian Star cruise ship and were going to be gone about a week. I have a lot of Canon equipment that I use for work, but I sort of put a line in the sand between my work equipment and my play equipment so that gear wasn't considered. I had also recently purchased the Olympus E5 and by the way I'm loving it, but I had to consider weight, that I was on vacation and with my wife and daughter, not a bunch of photographers. I also have a Pentax point and shoot (W90) but honestly I'm not crazy about that camera's image quality except for its ability to shoot time lapse. I figured I wasn't going to bring my film camera either, I wanted the convenience of digital. So, it occurred to me that I should give myself a break from big DSLR's and give the micro four thirds cameras a long test as a tourist.

That left me with two choices, the Olympus EPL1 or the Panasonic GF1, both of which I own. The Panasonic won out for two reasons. One, I own the viewfinder for it and not the Olympus and two I have two batteries for it and only one for the Olympus (I drained the first battery after about 4 and a half days of use). With the GF1 I took the 20mm f1.7 Lumix lens, the Olympus 14-42 kit lens from the EPL1, the plastic Holga lens and the Olympus OM 135mm f2.8 lens mounted on the MF-2 adaptor (which works seamlessly). I also decided to take the wrist strap off the camera and put the neck strap back on. I had decided a while ago to give up on neck straps, but I envisioned I'd be carrying (shopping) bags, holding my daughters hand, etc so I wanted my hands free. Also I knew that my wife and daughter would have very little patience for me setting up my shots every 10 minutes. I needed quick, easy and light gear. The good news is that this is the biggest shake-up or test drive I have ever given this camera so now I can write about it again with a more informed impression than I first made with it.

Tracey Arm Glacier 3 shot HDR with Olympus 14-42 lens and GF1

Well here is what I learned. There were times I missed a proper DSLR for sure. We had a grey whale swimming beneath our balcony one day and I was trying to focus and photograph the moving subject with the GF1 with very poor result. Same experience with a bear up in a tree. The viewfinder on the Panasonic is nice for being able to bring the camera up to your eye and shoot it like a 'real' camera, but it has a couple of faults. It isn't very big and bright, the focus adjustment knob on the side of it gets bumped easily each time you hit the button needed to turn it on and it goes out of focus (it turns way too easily) and the image inside the viewfinder is no match for that of a proper DSLR or that of the Olympus electronic viewfinder that I looked through in the store. Also, the viewfinder doesn't really clip in there well in the hotshoe. It seems to want to slide out a little at times which is worrying as it isn't a cheap accessory that you want to lose.

Also, the GF1 isn't weather sealed, and in our stop in Prince Rupert it was raining very heavily. I left the GF1 on the ship that day. The Pentax point and shoot or the Olympus E3 or E5 would have been welcome partners. My daughter did bring her Olympus 850SW waterproof point and shoot that I passed down to her so that was handy. Luckily it only rained that one day the whole trip.

The water on the way sailing to Tracey Arm, 3 shot HDR with GF1 and 14-42 lens

The good things about the camera were also pretty quickly obvious to me. First up I stood out from the crowd. You might think this is vain, and it is, but in a sea of point and shoots, cell phones, Canon Rebels and Nikon whatevers (whatever the bottom of the line Nikon is) I looked pretty cool with my vintage leather wrapped GF1 especially when I had the viewfinder and Olympus OM lens on it. Yes, you can say it, I like to look awesome! Plus people have no idea what you are carrying, I like that too. I always take a look at others equipment, I can't help it. Sort of a popularity survey of others stuff. Interestingly the cruise ship must have a partnership with Olympus as they sell the waterproof point and shoots, the EPL2 and the superzoom camera right on the boat with constantly scrolling Olympus commercials (which are really quite good) and a big banner in the photo department. Making no sense to me, the photographers on board all use the Nikon D90. Not that that's a bad camera, it just seemed contradictory. By the way, the photography on board was very poor. I don't mean to say that as a snob, but if spot colouring, on camera flash and basically anything that screams 1999 is your favourite photography fashion, then you should cruise. And you know what? They make a lot of money selling that to happy customers. People line up for it. So rest assured, the bar is very low still for the general public. In their defence I doubt they have time to deliver considered and well done photographs to 2300 cruisers, nor do they wish to pay for properly trained and interested photographers. To finish my little informal survey, other than the sea of bottom end Canon and Nikon DSLR's that all looked shiny and new, there were a significant number of micro four thirds cameras that I saw including the EP1, EP3, EPL2, and the G3. That surprised me. I also saw one Samsung NX100. There was also a lot of point and shoots, but most of them were the superzoom variety. Of course a lot of iPhones were being used. I saw one low end Sony DSLR. It still had a price tag on the neck strap.

Other good things I enjoyed about the GF1:

It was really light. I never noticed it around my neck or slung over my shoulder. It never seemed in the way.
The viewfinder, despite my griping about it's quality, is pretty handy when its sunny or bright outside
It's black and white jpgs look really good and contrasty right out of the camera.
To do an HDR, all you have to do is flip a switch on the top and you are exposure bracketing. That is the easiest camera ever for getting instantly to HDR mode.
It isn't a fast focuser, but it isn't point and shoot slow either. Fast enough for slow moving people and not frustrating for other things so long as they aren't a quick swimming whale. Face detection is pretty handy and works well, but changing focus points manually isn't quick or intuitive.
The video quality is good, certainly more than any home user could need, and it's easy to use.

Other things I didn't like:

at ISO 800 it really isn't enjoyable any longer for noise unless you are black and white. ISO 1600 should be reserved for black and white grainy images which some will hate, but I don't mind. ISO 3200 is unusable, which will matter to some people, but for me, with this type of camera, it isn't an issue.

GF1 with Olympus OM135mm f2.8 lens

Of the lenses I brought I can say this. I used the 20mm pancake f1.7 lens the least. That surprised me, but in retrospect I was outside most of the time and didn't need the fast aperture. The Olympus 14-42 kit lens isn't fast (3.5-5.6), but it has a useful range and I used it the most. It is plenty sharp and is small enough not to be a bother to carry. Both of those lenses weigh next to nothing. I only used the Holga lens a few times. It is very soft and kinda junky, but that's why we love it right? I used the Olympus OM 135mm f2.8 a lot actually and it balances nicely on the camera when you are holding it. It is noticeably larger when you are just leaving the camera strapped around your neck because the lens barrel will knock into things, but it isn't too bad. I found it really hard to manually focus it with the viewfinder or screen I think because it is effectively a 270mm lens and that is hard to do manually especially considering the viewfinder is really not that bright. The lens itself focuses smoothly and is a dream to use on my film camera but I found on this trip I pretty much just put it on infinity focus and prayed. The whale shots I took and the bear shots were out of focus.

Olympus 135mm f2.8 OM lens

When the lens did work, it was a dream to use. Very sharp and had wonderful compression.

Olympus 135mm f2.8 OM lens

For this trip, for the most part I shot in jpg. I'm on vacation after all, and these aren't critical shots. I did switch to raw a couple of times if I knew I was in a tricky spot, but I was able to use the same 8gig SD card the whole trip and never used my backup card. I uploaded the photos to my iPad each night and shared them with the family using the camera connector kit. That was pretty easy and convenient to use, and viewing photos on the iPad is really nice.

Olympus 14-42 kit lens

Pike Place Market in Seattle, where we left on the cruise. 20mm f1.7 Lumix pancake lens, out of camera b/w jpg.

Overall, I really enjoyed my in depth relationship with the GF1. The out of camera jpg's were fun to use and I especially like the dynamic black and white setting (seen above). The art filters aren't quite as nice as in the Olympus cameras, but they are still fun. The camera tends to underexpose a little bit in aperture priority, but I'm OK with that, better than blowing out the highlights. It seemed to do a better job in 'Intelligent Auto' mode which I used when I gave the camera to my 9 year old. The camera is a wonderful street camera and a really good vacation camera. It isn't perfect, but it is very very good. I was glad I left my DSLR's at home in the end. The biggest compliment I can give the GF1 is that it never got in my way and delivered excellent quality images when I wanted them. If I could add anything to the wish list for this type of camera it would be to build in the viewfinder (or at least make it clip in securely), make it brighter, add weather sealing to the camera and some of the lenses and that's about it. I think with the newer GF2 and GF3 it seems like Panasonic is going more towards the consumer point and shoot market and that isn't a good thing to me. I'll keep the GF1 thank-you.

Olympus 14-42 Kit lens. Mail box in the famous Creek Street Ketchikan Alaska

My daughter on the pier in Ketchikan, Plastic Holga lens for micro four thirds

Bicycles in Pike Place Market in Seattle, Lumix 20mm f1.7 lens

The only 5Dmk II I saw on the trip, in Pike Place Market

One of the few traditional point and shoots I saw, but Pike Place was full of people with cameras

Pike Place Hearse Shoot

I'm not sure if I'm the only person doing this, but I'm always stalking and checking out other photographers. The one guy that really caught my attention is the fellow in the photo above who parked a big white hearse across the street in Pike Place Market, put a camera on a tripod and tethered it to his Macbook Pro for a photo. Not sure if he had a permit (doubt it, I'm sure they would have made him have traffic flag people) but it was incredibly interesting for me anyway. He was working fast I'm sure trying to get done before a police officer came by.

Missed Grey Whale Shot

Thanks again for dropping by the blog. I appreciate your visit! Before I go I should mention that I came across a really cool magazine in the market in Seattle called Shots which I bought and love. Grab one if you enjoy independent fine art photography. Look for my in depth report on the Olympus E5 at some point. Just going to warn you, I do love it, though having said that, I had the chance to play with a large format film camera on Sunday and that my friends was really really amazing.

Lighting The Nude

2011-08-19T23:17:00.000-07:00

I've always admired the work of Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton, especially their nude work. Part of me really thinks that the ultimate fine art photography is a nude. For those of you that might be offended by that I'm really sorry, I hope we can still be friends, but for me the human animal is really the most beautiful one and photographing it is the ultimate gift.

Anyway, with that in mind, thanks to a model I met last year I finally worked up the personal courage to try some nude work. I had done body painting photography about three years ago, but surprisingly that just isn't the same thing. Putting yourself in a place where you are lighting, posing and composing a nude figure is not only vulnerable and nerve wracking for the model, but also for the photographer. Quickly I learned though that not only was I not scared, but it didn't feel weird. I wanted more. And so over the past year I've been able to photograph a few nudes of men and women in the studio and I've really been happy with the work. I wish I could show it more, but I like to keep that sort of thing off Flickr, this blog or my regular websites. My end goal? I'd love to do a personal book or ultimately a fine art show with prints, wine, cheese. You know, my own little thing were people come all dressed up and pretend I'm a master at what I do!!

With this goal in mind I bought another book for my library called "Lighting the Nude" by Roger Hicks, Frances Schultz and Steve Luck. The book is absolutely excellent and full of lighting diagrams, photos and the work of several photographers.

I'm not going to say I loved every image in the book. I didn't. But some of them were jaw dropping and most were fantastic. As with all genres of photography we all have our personal tastes, likes and dislikes. What I can tell you is that the book is beautifully printed, usefully laid out and is extremely inspirational. Over about 375 pages are more than 140 setups for nude photography. Each photograph is accompanied by a lighting diagram and description of how it was done as well as occasional photographer comments from the original artists. There is a wide range of styles in the book from classical to fantasy to erotic to romantic. I didn't find all of the tips useful but some of them were very very good. Looking back at my recent nude work and flipping through the book I can see it's influence on my early attempts at the genre. Then again, I buy a lot of photo art books and I can also see my influences from several masters.

If you are considering trying nude photography, and I'm not talking about the Playboy genre, but more fine art photography then this book should certainly be high on your priority list for shopping.

And with that, and a post that really lacks in photos I'm just going to say that I recently had the chance to play with the Olympus EP3 in the store last week. My quick first impression is that it really does focus super quick. Unbelievably so. I still wish it had a viewfinder. Also I finally caved. Yes I bought the Olympus E5. First impression? Wonderful. Love it. It is much sharper that the E3 in the file, retains those gorgeous Olympus colours, and the build quality feels excellent indeed. Reminds me why I love those cameras. Lastly the screen on the back is superb. I'm sure I'll be talking more about the camera soon. I'm still trying to decide if I should take it with me to Alaska on a coming vacation or one of the micro four thirds cameras instead.

OK I can't have a post completely without photos. Here is me at a recent photo booth we did at a wedding. Photo booths are fun. Looking to boost revenue and show the guests at the reception a fun time? Consider adding them to your list of options for the Bride. They are as much fun for us as they are for the guests.

I know the blog hasn't been updated a lot recently, sorry about that. Wedding season will slow down soon enough and I'm sure I'll be posting more. Thanks for dropping by!

Raising the Bar with Gavin Seim

2011-08-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

Our last Smug meeting was quite a big success with our biggest crowd yet at 35 photographers. We had Gavin Seim from the Pro Photo Show come in as our guest speaker and I believe he was speaking at the Seattle Smug yesterday on the same topic.....Raising the Bar.

Photo by Greg Howard

Gavin has been a photographer for more than 10 years and is only 26 years old. His topic was actually a fairly controversial one speaking about how we advertise ourselves as 'professional' photographers even though we may have just picked up a camera and built a website. The days of apprentices seem to have disappeared as photographers sell themselves, probably disingenuously as seasoned professionals. Today, with a million online tutorials and the democratization of information it is fairly easy for someone to pop by the Strobist blog, get enough information to be dangerous and then hang a shingle as a photographer. I should know, I did it 3 years ago. Gavin is trying to bring seriousness back to the craft.

Now I personally think that the information sharing we all benefit from today is a good thing. I love that photography is so open to people of all levels and that it is so popular. I don't mind competition both from more and less experienced photographers either. But frankly, there is a lot of really poor work out there and as our economy keeps under-performing, a lot of people are looking at photography as a way to make some part time money. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is no argument I think that it is diluting the profession and driving down prices and quality.

Photo by Greg Howard

Gavin is a dynamic and quirky speaker. I really enjoyed listening to him as did many others, but I could definitely see his message wave over the crowd like a dark cloud and rain down on some of the people in the room. I remember being newer than I am now (I still consider myself as new) and having that confidence and at the same time uneasiness in my ability as an artist and photographer. But it wasn't meant to be a bad thing, it was meant to be a reality check. Get real with where you are in your craft. Respect your craft and don't over or under sell yourself. He talked about the history of photography, the pieces and components of a technically well done photograph, selling and showing large prints not just Facebook images. Gavin basically called us all out. Are you in this profession to act as a professional and deliver a professional product or are you here for weekend beer money and some Facebook 'Likes' for your ego at 600 pixels across?

I think it's an important topic right now in this industry. We can't survive as a profession when everyone calls themselves a photographer. Just go to any wedding and you will see 6 people chasing the working photographer around with their DSLR trying to out-shoot the pro. Heck they may have more experience than the $500 Pro anyway.

To be honest, I think as the economy improves we will see a slight return to the old market or at least a shrinking of the amount of photographers hanging shingles in a profession that isn't as regulated as to who can call themselves a pro as plumbers, lawyers or dentists. It is a fun job, but it is also a hard job. Hard on your body, hard on your wallet and hard to make money at. Those that make it through will be all the better for it, but getting your craft of photography and your business practices to a higher level will only help you weather the storm. I sincerely believe that we can embrace new photographers and help them learn, it will only help the industry as a whole. I also believe that the days of being a grumpy old photographer set in your ways is a recipe for failure. Working together to educate the public, and each other about what good photography is and isn't can only help us all. In the meantime, if you need something you can just go to Craigslist now and hire someone for $50 and they'll give you a disc of 'pics.' That is our current reality. It is up to you to separate yourself from the herd.

Thanks to Gavin for coming up to Vancouver Island. If you get a chance to listen to his podcast on iTunes, I highly recommend it. Well worth the time, and heck, it's free!

Thanks for dropping by the blog. I always appreciate people taking the time to read what I've written. I promise I'm onto happier topics next including a couple of book reviews.

Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It .... with Scott Kelby

2011-07-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

The Kelby Faithful

Last week I had the chance to attend the touring Scott Kelby show 'Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It Live!' The event was in Vancouver so I took the opportunity/excuse to spend the night over there and meet up with some customers, shoot an engagement session and even work with a couple of models. Since the tour is still going on I thought I'd spend some time letting you all know what I thought in case you were considering attending.

First up, when I arrived in the morning sipping on my first coffee of the day I was greeted by a lineup out the front door of the conference centre. I don't mean a small lineup, but a huge one. I started to people watch as I tend to do and listen in on conversations (OK I was eavesdropping) and realized that I was amongst a very large crowd of enthusiastic amateurs. Thats cool, lots of amateurs are awesome photographers, better than some pros. But I was worried. Was this going to be a day of people asking questions about what an aperture was? Was I doomed to a long day of explaining how to fire a flash and an explanation of how to export to Photoshop from Lightroom? I love to learn, I don't think I know everything there is to know, but I also want to invest my time wisely.

The lineup before the show

Well when we were let in and given a badge to wear there was the usual trade show booths there selling things to photographers. On One Software was there, B&H Photo was there, Kelby Training and NAPP of course as well as Wacom tablets. I didn't buy anything, but from the length of the lineups they were pulling in some fair cash. Some of the deals seemed good, others not so good. Kelby himself was outside saying hello to people and signing autographs and such. I didn't stop to say hi, but he seemed personable.

Once in the main room you are greeted by several rows of tables and chairs. I sat down on an aisle so I could have room for my legs and a quick exit if this proved to be as bad as I feared. Then, when it all started I was immediately surprised. Scott started by saying that if people had questions to please wait until the breaks where he would wait up front for people to answer them in person. No class interruptions to explain what a RAW file was!! Nice. And this Kelby guy is pretty funny. I mean kind of stand-up funny. Some of the jokes were obviously rehashed from previous shows, but never-the-less I was yukking it up with the crowd.

The day breaks down into several modules of Kelby setting up lighting with Brad his assistant, bringing in a model (some who tour with the show and have obviously done this before and some locals) and shooting the images tethered to the big screens through Lightroom. Then Brad moves Scott's Macbook Pro over to a table where he sits and edit the images just shot right in front of you on the big screens. There are five different sessions like this and you follow along with a workbook that you are given when you arrive. No notes to take!

And the content was very very good. Yes I knew a lot, or even a majority of what was talked about, but my interest was kept and the lighting and retouching tips were excellent. I think they will appeal to most amateurs, pros and even retouchers. A lot of what Kelby teaches is often done faster with plugins nowadays, and he says so himself, but some of the techniques are really helpful and I'm already using them. Finally I can get rid of eye veins convincingly.

I had to leave the show about 20 minutes early as it was running late and I had to catch the float plane back home, but this is a show/tour that is worth taking in. When I mentioned to a pro in Vancouver I was going he looked at me like I was nuts because this Kelby guy just appealed to the masses and sold our secrets to them for cheap (the tour ticket cost $99). Honestly, here is what I think. Most of the people there were just there to see Scott in person. They are fans. Most of them will use less than 10% of what they learned, and that is true of any seminar I've been too. Photographers have to get over the democratization of information. Go to the show. You'll love it. Just make sure you're ready to laugh a bit and if you get Kelby's autograph well good for you.

Raise the Bar: Gavin Seim Visits Vancouver Island

2011-07-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

I wanted to drop a note to everyone that visits my blog, especially those of you that live on Vancouver Island, about our Smug meeting coming up on July 28th. We have Gavin Seim, the host of the Pro Photo Show podcast coming to the island to speak to us about 'Raising the Bar' with our profession, art and craft. I've been listening to Gavin's podcast for a long time now so I'm pretty excited to have him come here in person for a visit. If you can make it to this Smug I think it will be really amazing. It is held at the Oliver Woods Community Centre on Oliver Road in Nanaimo on July 28th at 6:30pm. It is free to attend. Want more information on Gavin and what he is speaking about? Visit this website HERE and sign up to attend at our meetup site HERE.

Thanks!

Very Cool

2011-07-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

I don't often see gadgets that inspire me to be instantly attracted to them. OK, that was a lie. I always see gadgets that are instantly attractive. Check out this product concept by Yanko Design. Thats good stuff.

And hey, while I'm at it I finally thought to send an image to Olympus for their user gallery. I don't even recall choosing this particular image, but I like that it stands out from the other user images there. Makes me want to bust out the E3 again and use it. It is the second image in the July 2011 gallery. Even though I've been doing this a while, it is always fun to see your images on other people's websites. Now if only Olympus would keep making their DSLR's. Maybe help out the process and email Olympus telling them they need to have more of the artistic portrait genre featured to attract different photographers. Maybe they'll loan me an E5 so I can review it. :)

Have a great Monday! Thanks for dropping by.

Oh hey, I deleted a sponsor banner ad off the site. I kept Amazon because I actually shop there, but the other one....I've never shopped there and it just added clutter.

One Of The Best Tips For A New Wedding Photographer

2011-07-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

I'm backing up files from yesterdays wedding and was considering that it had been a while since my last blog post. At the end of the day yesterday we were chatting with some people in the wedding party and they were asking us about our experience with unhappy customers (Bridezilla's or Momzilla's). I won't talk about specific customers, and in fact we have been very lucky, or have worked very hard, and most of our customers have been happy. We have exceeded their expectations. But if I'm going to be self critical and confessional for a while to help out others new to the industry I'd like to take some time to talk about the 'formal' family photos that usually take place right after a ceremony.

When I first started doing weddings I hated these images. I'd really rather have not done them at all. Lining people up in a row and posing them was right up there on my priority list with taking out the trash at home. After we missed a couple of photos early in our career and ended up with a Bride that, while she still loved us, was truly disappointed we decided to take this time of day more seriously. As maturity set in I was able to let go of my inner 'artist' and realize that these photos are actually a very valuable and essential part of the day.

So here are a few tips for you. First off, we aren't big on perfect rows of meticulous posing. We tell our Bride's this in advance, and frankly most of them are relieved. But we still pose people for these images and put them in rows of relative neat order. Not meticulous, but orderly, with preference given to making the experience relatively quick and painless. This isn't the time to be an artist, just a craftsperson. If you don't pose, the main audience and consumer of these images will be disappointed and that is usually elderly relatives, parents and travelling uncle's/aunts.

In case you hadn't figured out the importance of these shots, remember that many of the guests that come to the weddings haven't been together for a while. They are family or close friends and want a record of their time together. They aren't looking for high fashion or art here, just a well exposed, happy, clean photograph. We pre-crop these images to 5x7 print size for two reasons, it is the most common print ordered for these photographs and it saves effort for older guests that order through our online gallery and have no idea how to use the crop tool on Smugmug.

Try to get people smiling. I usually resort to making fun of myself and being silly. Guests will view you as lighthearted and really want to appear to be happy in their images.

Photograph elderly people first. Don't leave grandma standing around waiting for her turn. Showing some sensitivity to the elder guests will go a long way to making the family love you.

Don't forget to get a 'boring' shot of just the Bride and Groom. You can get artsy later, but you need, and they likely want, a simple posed photograph of themselves. Make sure the Brides flowers appear in this photo (ditch them later if you want) and the Groom is wearing his coat/full outfit. Make sure it is a full length dress shot. While you are at it, it is a good idea to get a formal posed photograph of the wedding party as well. Get your artsy wedding party shots when this is done.

Go quickly. We ask our Brides to assign a guest to be a 'wrangler' at this time. We don't accept lists from them. We don't know anybody and don't want to be held responsible for missed photographs. Having an assertive helper that is a a wedding guest really helps to keep things moving. Tell the Bride and Groom that doing this will help make these photos go quickly which their family and friends will appreciate. When you are done family photos make sure to ask the Bride/Groom and mother of the Bride/Groom if you have everything and they are satisfied.

Be fussy, but be quick about it. Spending a minute making sure the Bride's veil and dress look good, the Groom's tie is straight and the mom looks perfect is really important. Yes it will make the photos look more polished, but more importantly people know that if you fuss about them and tell them you want them to look amazing, that you value them as people. It goes a long way to building trust. Even if you can't see anything wrong, just walk up to one of the men and pick an imaginary piece of lint off them. Tell them they look amazing. Words go a long way, and yes, you have to mean it.

I just want to wrap this up with an email I had from a Bride this year. I've changed a few words to make it shorter/confidential. "A personal thank you from me for taking such a beautiful picture of me with my grandma. She passed away last week and we were able to share a couple of the pictures you took at her memorial service this afternoon. Thank you so much for creating and capturing such a beautiful memory for me and my family" This was an email about a photo I took during the family posed time of the day. I remember asking her to give her grandma a kiss on her wedding day, and the thank-you message really touched my heart. Was it an image that I'm showing on my website as an award winning piece of art? Nope, but it was a great service to that Bride and family that I'm proud of.

So if you are new to weddings, then yes it is so important you find your voice as an artist and show work that differentiates you from the crowd of other wedding photographers. Just remember that you have also been hired to document the gathering of loved ones. It may not be the sexiest part of your job, but if you truly value your relationship and service to your clients, then please take these images seriously and give them the attention they deserve. I promise your Bride will love you for it.

Thanks again for coming by the blog. I hope you are having a great summer!

Why I'm Done with Canon's Flagship Flash

2011-06-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Canon 5D mk II & 50mm f1.4 lens

For the past few weddings, really ever since we've completely changed over to Canon a year or so ago, we've been having some hiccups in our flash work where the Pocket Wizards just aren't delivering reliability for us for off camera flash work. It took us a while to narrow down the instances where we were having difficulty but finally we figured out that when the flash was placed near the ground (or on the ground) outdoors or far away from the controlling camera especially when there were objects or people between the camera and flash, the flash would often not fire. It wasn't a regular thing, it would work once, then not again for 6 or 7 shots.

Canon 5DmkII & 20mm f2.8 lens

Our first instinct was batteries and we made sure all our equipment had new, full charged batteries. Then we started to blame the Pocket Wizards. Yesterday we decided to bring different flashes and test this all out and see what the issue was. We had to get this sorted out, there is nothing more embarrassing than asking a client to wait while your gear isn't functioning. And nothing to destroy the creative juices faster than being frustrated with your equipment. We use a lot of off camera lighting. It suits our style and we enjoy it, but we are getting paid and we need reliability from our equipment. No excuses.

Olypus E3 and 50-200 Zuiko Lens

So I brought along the Lumopro LP160 and Panasonic DMW-FL500 flashes on our session yesterday. I made sure the Pocket Wizards and flashes had good batteries. Actually to be honest, I only made sure for the Canon flash that it had fresh batteries. We also used our Alien Bees 800 studio strobes. So once we were out of the studio and on the street we used only the Canon flashes the 580EX II (we own two of them) and to start with they worked well. We then went into an underground parking garage (we like shooting in those...) and set up our Bride and Groom for a shot. The 580 went on the ground behind the Bride and Groom with the little stand it comes with supporting it. We had the Pocket Wizard on, all settings correct (double and triple checked) and......NOTHING. No firing. Frustrating.

Olympus E3 with Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4

So I took the Panasonic Flash and swapped it in. It worked! It worked repeatedly. In fact, as I mentioned I had not changed out the batteries so the only downfall was it was taking a while to recycle, but it worked every single time! Thank-you Thank-you Thank-you! Oh and Canon, you suck. I mean wow. The 580EX II is their top of the line professional flash, and it clearly interferes with radio signals from transmitters. I had heard of the issue with the new Pocket Wizards that have TTL, but thought that the older (I prefer manual flash) Plus II's that we use were not having issues. The rest of the day the Canon flashes stayed in the bag and we used the Lumopro and Panasonic flashes with no issue. We did have an issue again later with our studio strobe outdoors when it was placed far away from the camera and behind the Bride and Groom. Now I'm not surprised the Alien Bee lights are not shielded and would cause problems and we have seen this in the past from those lights. For the price of them I won't complain. But I will absolutely complain about Canon's "professional" flash that is this poorly thought out. Basically I spent a few hundred dollars on a flash that isn't reliable in the one situation I prefer to use flash.....Off Camera!!!

We'll be taking the Olympus and Panasonic flashes with us in the future to jobs even though we won't have the four thirds cameras. They can be our workhorse flashes, and I'm glad I never sold them! I don't think I'll rely on the Lumopro though, you can read back in the blog about my history with that flash as well.

Rant over! Thanks for dropping by the blog, I hope you have had a great weekend.

Granville

2011-06-24T11:03:00.001-07:00

Granville, a photo by Felix Aldhi on Flickr.

I love street photography and urban scenes in photographs. I think I like them a little bit more because I find them challenging to do myself. At least challenging to do well. This scene really spoke to me for two reasons, first off it appears as if the photographer is creating an image that reflects him being their anonymously, with no camera. He's not really making an effort to bring himself into the photo, but rather leaving you to wonder what is going on here. You've got the rain or snow drops, the shiny streets, and people maybe walking to a late night show or restaurant. It looks sort of old and rustic too, although we know by the car and some other cues like clothing that it is modern.

I also like that is shows Vancouver as this relaxed atmospheric place that is so unlike what we have been seeing in the news lately with the riot coverage. This is how I see Vancouver at night.

This image was taken with one of my favourite cameras, the Panasonic L1 (I wish I hadn't sold it) at ISO 400 f3.1 and 1/40 of a second. Not sure which lens was used but the focal length suggests it might have been the wonderful kit lens made by Leica.

The photographer, Felix Aldhi, submitted the image to our Flickr group and it caught my eye. Felix lives in Vancouver and you can find his Flickr stream here.

Holga for Micro Four Thirds

2011-06-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

A while ago when surfing the net I came across a post talking about Holga now selling cheap plastic lenses for micro four thirds cameras. I thought that sounded pretty fun and hit Ebay for one. I ended up getting one for about $18 including shipping. I know the lens is plastic and kinda junky, but still a good deal. You can find them for about $4 more on Holga's site here as well as similar lenses for most cameras with interchangeable lenses.

So today I went out on a short little photo walk with a couple of friends and put the Holga onto my Panasonic GF1. On first impression the lens is exactly what you'd think it would be. Cheap and plastic. It has a dial/ring around the lens which has markings from 'landscape' to 'portrait' but all it does is add or subtract the amount of vignetting of the lens. The lens is f8 all the time so just focus by distance, there is no real way to manually or of course auto focus the lens. The lens fits on the camera with the correct mount which is great, no adaptors necessary, however it is very wiggly and doesn't give the feeling of a tight fit.

I found the camera underexposes the images about a full stop for the most part which could be due to all the light leaking fooling the meter, but I'm not sure. Some images were properly exposed, others way underexposed. In general with this lens, shoot in aperture priority mode and chimp on your histogram.

The lens itself works as advertised. Lots of vignetting and about as basic as you can get with a camera lens. If you're expecting quality for about $20 then you may wish to reconsider your metrics. Is this a lens you should use on a job? No way, not in a million years. It is however a fun photo walk lens. A good lens for goofing off and creating random photo art? Yes, absolutely. And it is random. You can control the composition but really what you get is a bit of a mystery.

If I'm going to cut down the lens in any way it is that it is soft. And I mean very soft. And not just in the corners, but right in the middle. Then again, who's complaining? I'm not. I'll only bust out this lens at times when I just feel like playing. It reminds me of the randomness of my old lensbaby before I sold that and there is nothing wrong with a bit of randomness in ones life every so often.

I shot the GF1 in dynamic black and white jpg mode all day which is actually how I prefer to use the camera. I'm still really getting used to the GF1, but I will say that after having used the electronic viewfinder for a while now it is really helping me get the most out of the camera. I just really don't enjoy framing images on an lcd screen and holding a camera up to my face seems much more natural to me. The quality of the viewfinder itself is rather poor. I find it fuzzy even when I adjust it and I swear I see it flickering, but it is a long shot better than no viewfinder at all and that is what counts.

Photo walks are a great way to blow off some steam and relax with your camera by the way. Been shooting on assignment a lot lately and think you've lost your creativity? Grab a friend and a camera with ONE lens and hit the road. Sure to get you out of any funk you might be in.

Thanks for dropping by the blog. I appreciate your visit!

On Being Photographed

2011-06-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

You know I think it's probably true that the plumber on your block has a leaky sink and the lawyer hasn't done his will. I know when I was driven to my studio by my local mechanic so he could fix my car his windsheild wipers and power door locks didn't work. Me? Well I just don't have many family photos that I love, especially with all three of us in one. I'm usually the guy holding the camera, so I knew I'd score huge points with my wife if I accepted my friend Spencer Brawn's offer to photograph our family. Poor Spencer though, I mean what could be harder than photographing me? I think I was pretty good...for the most part.

As Spencer and his wife Theresa where photographing my family I learned a few things that were really helpful to me as a photographer. They were sort of 'ah ha' moments and I thought it would be nice to share. First up, getting your photo done is fun after all! If you have a relaxed and fun photographer that is. Spencer started us by asking us just to have a family picnic and enjoy the afternoon. We did several posed photos later that I love, but the act of starting in such a relaxed way set the tone for the session. I'm not saying photographers should start sessions with picnics or even do candid photos, but having a soft introduction to a session really helped me warm up to the idea of a camera pointed at me. The more comfortable the client, the better the images.

Adam and I often get feedback from clients that the photo session was fun and relaxed and even enjoyable. We take pride in that, but like most photographers sometimes we show up and start looking for good light, setting up our gear and fussing on photography stuff. Getting that initial connection with your client is so important that the 'gear think' can wait. If you're selling photography then setting up and executing the shot will come to you (or it should) but shaking hands with, joking and chatting with your clients will really help you have a successful session.

My daughter is often quite the ham sandwich when I try and photograph her. Lets face it, she's seen that song and dance before. But getting Spencer to do it brought out some priceless moments in images that I'll love forever. We all know our kids behave better for others, so why not get someone else to take your family photos?

Having someone else hold the camera really helps engage you more with your family. Trying to save some money and do your own photos? Good luck with that Mr. Self Timer with a tripod. When it came time to take the posed photos I saw some behaviour from my wife and daughter that was both familiar to me and also helped me learn. My daughter fed off my wife and I. We were relaxed and then so was she. Having trouble with the kids you're photographing? Look at how relaxed you have mom and dad. My wife was very worried about getting photos with smiles. I hear this from mom's all the time so this isn't new to me. I have at times fought it knowing that natural expressions are often sweeter than forced smiles, but there is no arguing with a parents deep desire to show a happy family. Want to sell photos to parents, and still hate forced smiles? Better learn some knock knock jokes.

My wife was also very concerned with the appearance of clothing. She would discount a photo if there was a wrinkle or her outfit didn't look right. Now I've spent the past few years learning to pose women in ways that help them look amazing, but I am also guilty of occasionally missing out on the clothing details once I nail my lighting and pose. From one of my recent e-sessions the client didn't like the way her shirt looked on her. At a recent wedding the Bride didn't like the way her dress hung on a hanger, only worn or laid flat. We can't ignore these details and taking the time for a 4 second clothing adjustment for an image can be the difference between a sale or the photo being discarded. I knew this, but now I know it more because seeing my wife, someone I love, so up close and personal and worried about it made me realize how important it really is.

A few days after the session Spencer came to our home and we put the images on our big screen TV and had a 'reveal.' I thought I'd be looking at his photography technique or the lighting or how the lens bokeh looked (thats the Canon 135mm f2.0 in the shot above btw, isn't that background nice?), but I wasn't. It was really an emotional experience to have your family shown to you in images on the big screen. Seeing my smiling daughter and the love between my wife and I in images just honestly melted my heart. I didn't want to show it to Spencer but I was actually feeling a little teary eyed. I will be getting a canvas for the home. And what I learned from this was that when showing clients images, just shut up. Let them react to them. They may on some level notice your cool off camera lighting. They might notice those fancy photoshop actions at second glance as well. But the first thing they are doing is seeing if they look good and if the photograph resonates with them emotionally. You aren't selling your lighting technique at this point, you are selling emotion. They came to you for your style, they are opening the cheque book to buy the moment. Never again will I forget the emotion of the client and just think about how cool it was that I lit that with a tungsten gel.

And finally. Digital files. I wanted them, and I got them (I don't know what Spencer's policy is on digital files, he's a family friend which is why he offered them). I know the debate about digital files is still a hot topic out there, but here is my (I think) final word on them. Clients want digital files. It doesn't mean they won't buy a book or a canvas, it just means they want to take your photos and put them on Facebook so their relatives in Alberta can see them.

At the very least give or sell at a modest price a low resolution image like the ones in this post. Put your logo discreetly on them and let them post them online. It's free advertising for you, and frankly, it's what most people really want as an output now. Why are photographers still fighting this? Sell the client what they want to buy. Don't want to give digital files full resolution without charging for it? Neither do I (or will I), but at least offer to sell them. Sell them at your profit margin that you would have made from your book or canvas. Maybe you'll still sell the product, maybe you won't, but your customer will leave happy and you will still be in business selling what the customer is looking to buy. Want to hang onto the model of selling $40 8x10 prints for a living? Good luck with that. Ask the record companies how many CD's they sell nowadays. You'd be better off selling records (go vintage and charge a premium!) if you don't want to sell on iTunes.

OK, now that I have that off my chest and I'm ducking from the hate mail, I just want to end with this. If you are a photographer, and if you're reading this blog you probably are, get your photos done by someone else once every year or two. Make sure you are in those photos. Can't leave your camera at home? That's OK, neither could I, Spencer just photographed me with the camera (it is part of me after all). I sincerely believe your family will love you for making the decision to get in some of those family photos.

Thanks for dropping by the blog and most of all, thanks to Spencer for some images that I love.

The Paper Bag Princess

2011-06-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

This winter I decided to spend a lot of time working in low pressure situations playing with lighting and posing to bring my craft to a new level. I joined Model Mayhem and found some models to drag through the studio and had a lot of fun. It really helped me hit the busy season with all cylinders firing. I kind of regretted having not used my film camera more so I brought one last model through the studio and decided to shoot mostly film. I also shot with my Panasonic GF1 camera. All jpg and used the preset art filters in the camera and did very little editing. This was a lot of fun for me and relaxing for sure. I was having a hard time not having the viewfinder attached on the GF1 as I needed the hotshoe for my Pocket Wizard but the face detection was actually pretty handy for focusing. The camera handled everything really well.

Find more HERE

The film camera I used was the Olympus OM4t and the 135mm f2.8 lens as well as the 50mm f1.8 lens. I used Illford ISO 100 black and white film and Fuji ISO 200 colour film. Take a look at the video, and thanks for dropping by the blog.

Click on Image to Start Video

Absentee Blogger

2011-05-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

First up, I want to apologize for being an absentee blogger. The wedding season is here and I'm feeling a little dizzy with excitement and awestruck at how busy we are. But, I haven't forgotten about my little camera blog, in fact, look for a couple of posts soon that I've been trying to get out.

I was inspired to write this afternoon because I ran down to my local camera store and bought a Canon 7D. As some of you know until now I've been using my Olympus E3 as the second camera at weddings behind my 5DmkII. It worked really well, but carrying two complete sets of lenses for cameras that won't share them was getting old and killing my back. So the plan now is for outdoor weddings where there is a threat of rain, we will have the Pentax and Olympus equipment with us at the ready if needed (stored away) and now we both shoot all Canon on a regular basis so we can share all our lenses and equipment. This will cut down on the size and weight of our gear bags which will make 12 hour wedding days much easier.

And this, now, pretty much makes Olympus my hobby camera. That's not a bad thing. You can do much worse for a fun camera than a robust E3. And I won't be wearing out my Canon's on birthday parties, photo walks, and random landscapes. Does this mean I'm now a Canon guy? Nope. You'll still hear me ramble on and on about Olympus I'm sure.

And why a crop sensor body? Well I have the 5DmkII and love the full frame, but when I'm carrying two cameras I actually really like having one crop and one full frame camera. My plan is to pretty much have my 135mm f2.0 live on the 7D and use anything wider on the 5D. Best of both worlds. By the way, the 7D is a much nicer camera to use than the 5D in every way except for the files I get out of the 5D which are amazing. If it didn't produce such nice images, I would have flogged the 5D long ago. It's a love/hate thing. Oh and I couldn't afford the 1DMkIV. I wanted it, but my Visa Card didn't.

That's me goofing around at the Smug

Last night we hosted our first Smug meeting. It was really fun, with about 20 photographers out for the first night. Hanging out with other like minded people is really enjoyable for me, really great stuff. I tried to tone down my inner camera nerd so as not to scare anyone away. Below you can see the time lapse of the event. Thanks for dropping by!

Click on the Image to watch the video

Nik HDR Efex Pro vs Photomatix

2011-05-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

Processed in HDR Efex Pro

Well I've been using Photomatix ($120 retail) for quite a long time and I like it, at least as much as I like HDR images. I think my taste for my HDR was sort of on the grungy side and I admit I don't do a lot of them (I'm far from a Trey Ratcliff). I had saved a preset in the program that looked how I thought things should look and this look below was one of them. I recently picked up Nik Software's HDR Efex Pro ($159.95 retail) and wanted to do a little comparison. Mind you, if you know me you know that my comparison's are hardly scientific pixel peeping moments.

Processed in Photomatx

We recently had a shoot in a local garage getting some promo shots for the owner. We decided to play around with some HDR looks that weren't meant to be realistic, more fun and graphic, so I did have that in mind when I was processing them. I certainly know how to create some very subtle HDR looks using Photomatix that most people don't even know are HDR images, but I don't think that's what we want here.

I put the 8mm fisheye Zuiko lens on the Olympus E3 and put it on a tripod up high in the garage. I prefer using the Olympus over my Canon for HDR for a few reasons. Firstly, it is simple to setup by just a quick menu dive for a bracketed sequence exactly how you want it. Secondly because it is only 10 megapixels you aren't dealing with such huge file sizes (I don't like to downsize my 5D mk II files because darn it I always forget to turn it back). The Olympus makes the process pretty simple.

What I decided I'd do is throw the 5 images into each program and quickly try and edit them to how I thought they looked best using presets and minor tweaking. I didn't want to spend a ton of time on them. The Photomatix look is kind of cool to me, sort of grungy dirty, awesomeness. Probably not to everyone's taste. Put flipping through the HDR Efex presets I quickly found a few that were probably more squeaky clean and while still over the top, maybe more polished. I'm not sure really.

The truth is both programs do the job very well and both are easy to use. The Nik program has the advantage of the U-Point technology which will allow you to select parts of the image to alter independently. That's pretty cool. I know with a lot of these images with a sky in them they start to look pretty bad so being able to tone them down while inside the program is pretty cool.

Anyway, both good images. I like both programs and I'd say if you own one or the other there isn't really much need to buy both.

I'll be blogging soon about this garage shoot, it was very cool. The owner wanted some different, more creative images for his site, and publications. He didn't want boring headshots and standard photos and we were happy to oblige. I'm also putting together a video of a shoot I did with a model about a week ago which was pretty fun.

Thanks for dropping in.

EDIT:

Latest Try

I think I found a new one that I like best after tinkering a bit more. I'll let you decide which program I used to get it.

233/365: Know Your Rights.

2011-05-08T07:10:00.001-07:00

233/365: Know Your Rights., a photo by Chris Petty Photography on Flickr.

So Chris Petty Photography posted this on his Flickr Stream and in the Photography Ramblings Group. I'll let you go there and read his comments, but despite the profanity (I'm working on my own profanity, it's not going well) it is such a good read and gives some insight into how photographers feel when their work is unfairly taken, stolen and used without permission.

Chris is from Nokomis, Illinois. Want to see more of Chris' work? Click here.

Oh and I did a shoot yesterday I'm pretty excited about, more because I used film and micro four thirds cameras exclusively than for any other reason, but the images were cool (even though I haven't seen the film ones yet). Stay tuned because I videoed some of the session.

Before I go, yesterday we had a heavy rain storm followed my intermittent hail. I had the bright idea to run outside in my socks, put my waterproof Pentax on the cement of my driveway and do some HD video of the rain hitting the ground. Turns out my neighbours were leaving their house at the time I did it. They must think I'm the weirdest guy ever. Who runs out of their house in the heavy rain, puts their camera on their driveway and runs back in the house? Me, that's who. I think with these cameras I'm always trying to decide if I can find an excuse to get them wet.

Olympus E-PL1 After a Day

2011-05-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

Well I must say that this is a pretty fun little camera. I know it's psychological because of a burnt in brand addiction to Olympus but I'm enjoying the camera more than my GF1 so far. The E-PL1 is getting pretty much blown out in stores right now, so if you've ever thought of buying one, now is the time.

I've tried a couple of the art filters. So far I've only shot in jpg.

Soft Focus Art Filter

I thought I'd hate the art filters for the most part, but when you're just messing around they are kinda fun. Especially if you are in jpg fun mode in your brain and just want to pop out photos without any editing later. I like editing my images on the computer, but for family snapshots or casual fun, then I don't usually invest the time. I had some preconceptions about which filters I thought I'd like and soft focus wasn't one of them, but actually I quite like it. I took a couple of images of my daughter before she went to school this morning to try them out. She only had patience for two shots.

Pop Art Filter.

I don't really care for the over saturated look of the Pop Art filter. In all fairness I messed up the shot as it was backlit and I didn't compensate so maybe it looks better if properly exposed.

I also did a quick video with what I thought would be my favourite filter, the grainy black and white. It was cool. I liked it. This is pretty easy to do, and probably with a better result in post, but if you are looking for quick and easy, then why not do it in camera?

The things I like about the camera so far:

It has a nicer grip and is easier to hold than the GF1
The art filters are actually fun (I admit I'm surprised)
the menus make sense to me compared to the GF1 but I'm a long time Olympus user so I probably understand their logic
the little pop up flash can be held down and pointed up at the ceiling. Won't get much range, but that's cool. Kind of like my old Panasonic L1 DSLR.
The buttons, dial on the top feel solid and are in the right places
I like the video record button
This camera and the GF1 are the right size for a walk around street camera

The things I don't like so far:

The buttons on the back are hard to manipulate for my fingers and feel flimsy.
the battery door that opens and houses the SD card and battery kind of blocks easy access to the SD card. I find it hard to get it out.
the kit lens seems sharp enough but comes off as feeling cheap. A typical kit lens.
I get a mixed impression about the feel of quality build from the camera. Parts of it (top, front and sides) feel solid, parts feel cheap and breakable (back).
The LCD on the back is terrible and given I don't have the viewfinder yet, it kind of wrecks the fun. I will get the viewfinder.

So far I'm enjoying this camera quite a bit. For roughly $400 you can't beat it really. I can't imagine a cheaper Rebel or similar DSLR that is about the same price would be near as fun or accessible. This type of camera isn't ready to replace the DSLR for several tasks (fast focus, great low light, etc) but it is miles better than any point and shoot on the market without bringing the intimidating user manual that might come with an Olympus E5, Canon 7D or Nikon D300s. And for $400 you can buy 3 or 4 of these cameras for the same price. I can only see the market for these little interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras from Olympus, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung growing and replacing sales of high end point and shoots and low ends DSLR's. They really are a great solution for serious photographers wanting a second (or third, or fourth) camera and for people wanting the benefits of larger sensors without the size and complication of a DSLR. Soccer moms and advanced amateurs rejoice!

8x10 Wedding and I Couldn't Resist..... Again

2011-05-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

I wanted to drop in a quick post about a new purchase of mine, but was surfing the net and came across this wedding photographer that shot a whole wedding with 8x10 film. Now I've always wanted to shoot a wedding entirely with my 35mm manual focus Olympus OM4t, but this really ups the ante. You can check it out on Doug Boutwell's blog and while you're there look at some of his other amazing work. I was blown away.

And now my little confession. I bought an E-PL1. I know I know I already have the Panasonic GF1. And it is cool, but I'm an Olympus guy. I like the Panasonic a lot (especially since I dressed it up) but Olympus has always had my heart. Now that I've switched entirely to Canon for my paid work it is weird, I get more excited about playing with my four thirds cameras on my own time.

This weekend I'm going to be photographing a model. We had agreed that it would be all on film, but now I think I'm going to partially change my mind and shoot some of it for the first time with these little micro-four thirds cameras just for fun. Maybe a half and half kind of thing. Fun. You know, what photography is supposed to be.

My initial first impression of the E-PL1 is that it is a nice little camera. It doesn't feel quite as solid as the GF1 in your hands, though similar. The kit lens that came with it gives a poor first impression. Plasticky and at f3.5-5.6 not terribly fast. I'm sure I'll either sell it or throw it in a drawer at some point, though I'll first play with it to see if it is OK. At under $400 though how can you lose with one of these cameras? I know the E-PL2 is out, but lets be honest, these aren't professional grade cameras, they are fun cameras that can do incredible things in a tiny package. Do you really need to be on the bleeding edge? This camera is $150 less than the smaller sensored high end point and shoots like the LX5, G12 and XZ1 and is roughly (or practically) the same size. Grab one before they disappear!

5Dmk II with Canon 135mm f2.0 lens at f2.0 1/320th of a second ISO 3200

If you remember I recently added the Canon 135mm f2.0 lens to my bag for weddings and portraits. My equipment bag is changing a lot this year from last, but I had the chance to try the Canon lens last summer and just had to have it. I used it for the first time on the job at an engagement session last week and it was fantastic. It has easily become my favourite Canon lens.

My gear for this year? Looks like I'll be leaving the Olympus behind for the first time (unless we get rain for an outdoor ceremony) and I'll be sporting a 5DmkII, a 7D and for lenses the 20mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8, 135 f2.0 and 24-70 f2.8. I plan on pretty much leaving the 135 on the 7D making it an effective 200mm fast prime. The 24-70 will live on the 5D for the ceremony and the primes will fill out the rest of the day. Or that is the plan anyway. I'd like to add the Canon fisheye at some point as I always enjoyed making one or two images with the Olympus fisheye, particularly at the ceremony.

For lighting we are planning on using way more video lights this year, the LED kind. We have one, and are planning on purchasing a couple of those new Canon 320EX flashes with the built in LED lights to round out our collection of 580EXII flashes. I have my eye on one of the Jerry Ghionis LED light sticks as well which I saw at the Sandy Puc tour in Seattle. Pretty slick. We'll also be sporting the usual studio strobe with a battery pack and reflector. I'm excited. First wedding of the season in one week and then its a full on sprint of weddings until the end of October. Can't wait! Won't be as grand as the royal wedding, but hey it will still be awesome. By the way, loved her dress, hope those come back in style.

Thanks for dropping by the blog. I always appreciate that people take the time to read it.

My first time-lapse

2011-04-28T08:01:00.001-07:00

My first time-lapse a video by Bob_24798 on Flickr.

Just when I decided to get into time lapse one of the people that pops by the blog here sometimes did their first time lapse. It was awesome! Thanks Bob for sending me the link. Why are these time lapse things so addicting to look at? Want to find more of his work? Look here.

Time Lapse in Suburbia

2011-04-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

Click on Image to Play Video

There is something about time lapse. When I bought my little orange Pentax W90 a few months ago I was unimpressed with the image quality, really unimpressed with the video quality, but I was excited about taking a waterproof camera, strapping it outdoors and doing time lapse videos from a whole 24 hours or more. Time lapse videos are so addicting to me. And it doesn't matter what they are about. Here I strapped the camera to a tree on my front lawn in typical suburbia (what you thought I lived in a Yurt?) and set it to one image every 5 minutes. After a full day I pulled it down and threw the images into iMovie to make this video. About a 10 minute job.

It did rain a lot over the past day and that is precisely why I went looking for a waterproof camera. No worries at all for this thing, it just keeps working. You can see me leaving in the morning, coming back to get my gear for a shoot, coming back again because I forgot something and returning in the evening after a really fun engagement session out on a blueberry farm. I think I'll do a video tutorial someday on how to do a simple time lapse like this. It really couldn't be easier.

Thanks for dropping by the blog! Did you update your camera raw for Photoshop and Lightroom today? I did. Now I just need a new camera that has the raw format I updated for. :)

By the way, I got to hold the Nikon 400mm f2.8 today on a D3s. Yup, I'm so good I took a shot hand held. OK, my arms were shaking. It was heavy. Sweet lens though.

Here is a shot of my W90 in the tree held in with elastic bands on a cheap tabletop tripod.

Wait before I run....I just was thinking today how nice it was that I still own my Olympus E3. I had an e-session outdoors and the couple was really excited to do it despite very heavy rain. It did let up a bit and I used my 5DmkII a lot inside a barn, but I was reminded exactly what the value of a heavily weather sealed camera was today. I put that E3 right out in the rain, laid it on the ground, whatever. It just didn't seem to mind one bit. So whatever you shoot with, maybe consider having a camera body around that can stand up to the abuse of the environment if you need it too. A Pentax K5? Olympus E5? Whatever. I couldn't tolerate the risk of damaging my 5DmkII and the Olympus just doesn't seem to mind (if it could talk I bet it would say it enjoys it) being the 5D's stunt double.

Layers

2011-04-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

I have a confession. While I consider myself very proficient at using Lightroom and several plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom, I am not the best at using Photoshop. I have the things in Photoshop that I know how to do and features I use all the time, mainly cloning, healing, masking, liquifying, burning and dodging, but when it comes to some features I am often kind of lost. Normally, when I hit a wall in Photoshop I just search through my books or hit Google and try and find a tutorial, like the time I wanted to create steam coming out of the hood of a car. Usually when I hit a wall, it has to do with me fumbling with layers. Now I can do basic layer work no problem, but I'm not fast with it at all and I often have to cheat back to my books to see what is next in a step. Sometimes, I admit it, I just don't know how to do what I want to do to an image and I just give up.

So I have been working really hard with Photoshop for the past few months and I'm proud to say that I've come a long way, but the one thing that still eludes me is complicated layer work. A while ago I had seen the first edition of Matt Kloskowski's book 'Layers,' but I never bit on it even though it sat in my Amazon wish list. On an impulse when the second edition of the book was released I bought it.

So what can you expect from it? Did it solve all my questions? Well I will say that it definitely revealed to me that I knew more than I thought I did. And what I didn't know was laid out for me in little lessons that made it easy and un-intimidating. This book definitely demystifies Layers. If you find yourself struggling with them it is absolutely worth the purchase. It will be sitting on the shelf beside my computer for quick reference. I find that when I pull a book to walk me through tutorials in Photoshop that after a couple of times I memorize the steps and don't need to refer to it any longer. As my comfort level with Photoshop and what's under the hood in Photoshop has grown I have been more willing to plough through things and experiment and find my own answers.

This book breaks down layers into nice little useable categories and lessons. The illustrations and layout of the book are easy to follow and understand. You will probably find that there are parts of the book you can just blow through as you already know the information. Others sections will be light bulb moments for you and you'll say "wow that was much easier than I thought it would be." Matt does a great job of making this stuff simple and understandable.

And, now just as this book has gone from my 'to be read' pile to my 'all done' pile On One Software has released the Beta of its Perfect Layers plugin that allows you to use Layers in Lightroom! I just watched the tutorials and downloaded the free trail of the software so I don't know if I like it yet, but it is pretty exciting. I'd say that 80% of my images never leave Lightroom and this plugin may bring that number up higher. At some point, with these add-ons, I can see a division coming where Photoshop is really just for Graphic Designers and Lightroom and Apple's Aperture become the total answer for photographers.

I have been using Aperture by the way. Apple had it on in their App Store for so cheap I just couldn't resist it. I will say though that I'm surprised with how difficult I find it to use. Possibly I'm just used to Lightroom, but I have not been able to fumble my way through Aperture at all yet and it is not a part of my workflow. I'm still glad I satisfied my curiosity and got it, but I'm not sure it is for me. Having said that though, I will say that it's integration of video, book design and slideshow creation is light years ahead of what is available to Lightroom users.

Also I recently received the new version of Nik Software's Viveza and their HDR Pro program so I'll be working with those in the next little while and posting my thoughts.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Thank-you so much for dropping by my little blog!

(selenio oscuro)

2011-04-22T10:13:00.001-07:00

(selenio oscuro), a photo by HomeSick() on Flickr.

Have a great Easter long weekend everyone! I just finished the 'Layers' book you can see in my 'what I'm reading' link on the top right of the blog so I'll be chatting about that soon. In the meantime I thought I'd share this cool photo taken by 'HomeSick' with an Olympus E3 (f4.5, 1/250th of a second, ISO 100, 150mm with the 40-150mm f3.5-4.5 Olympus lens) and posted in our Flickr group. Want your image featured on the blog? Post it in the group!

I'm not usually into flower images, but this one has such a mood to it that I enjoyed it. Find out more about HomeSick here.

Hope you all get lots of chocolate Easter eggs!

Custom Smugmug + Local Gear Rental

2011-04-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well since we have become Smug Leaders we decided it was time our Smugmug gallery looked awesome so we hooked up with Billy Young from FastLine Media to build us a custom Smugmug look. You can check it out here. Since a lot of photographers use Smugmug I thought you might be interested in getting away from the standard layout. First impressions mean everything and I think FastLine did an amazing job for us. In addition to being happy with how it looked, they were fast, had great communication with us throughout the process and even talked with us (yes, a real person) today on the phone to do a one on one tour of our new features. It was awesome. Nice people, great service and a wicked good product. Can't go wrong.

I bought some 'Bling' for my GF1. An old school leather case, matching leather wrist strap and electronic viewfinder.

I recently decided I just couldn't fully enjoy my Panasonic GF1 without a viewfinder. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but using a camera strictly with an LCD is just a pain. So it was either spend $200 on an electronic viewfinder or sell the camera. I have looked at the Olympus viewfinder that is used on the PEN cameras and in my opinion it is much better than the Panasonic one, but it doesn't work on the GF1 so I was stuck. While I was there at the store spending money I figured I might as well buy the cool leather camera body case and a matching wrist strap. The GF1 now looks positively cool for the first time ever. Kind of sheik retro. Now I can hold that camera right up to my eye like cameras were intended to be used and I'm totally cool and in style while I do it! The wrist strap is a nice change too. I don't use neck straps on my DSLR's so why should I on my little fun cameras? They just bug me.

Also I was super happy to go hang out with a photographer buddy of mine this week (we may have consumed some beer and spirits) at a local PPOC meeting and not only did I discover he had a blog (ahh Greg, it's so nice you are a fellow geek) but he is going to be renting equipment on Vancouver Island! Nice to have a local avenue for gear if you need it. So if you get a chance pop by his blog and say hi.

Thanks again for visiting the blog. I really appreciate you dropping by. If you like it, please share us on Facebook using the links at the end of each post. Have a great weekend!

The Fast Track Photographer Business Plan

2011-04-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

I had some fun with a local makeup artist and wardrobe stylist shooting some Cruella images about a week ago. Canon 5DmkII with 24-70 2.8 lens.

I'm not really going to call this a review. There is no point really. You see, I just finished reading 'The Fast Track Photographer Business Plan' by Dane Sanders and I realized just before I finished it yesterday that when I reviewed his first book in the series I had done it some injustice by trying to tell people what the book was about.

So this time I'm going to simply tell you what the book isn't about. It isn't really a step by step answer to how you will be the next Richard Avedon or Jerry Ghionis. OK it is. Well sort of. You see, the book does go through a step by step process for designing or envisioning your business. This applies to whether you've already been running it for two decades or whether you have just bought your first new, nice and shiny D300 and are considering hanging a shingle. The process is all there. But the answers are not.

What? No answers! And that is why this isn't a book review. You see when I read Dane's original Fast Track Photographer book a year or so ago I was stumped. I almost put it down because it just wasn't all sinking in for me. I had to regurgitate what I was reading to my wife and talk about it all openly before I started to understand what I was reading. I had to take the online tests and do the homework (yes there is homework). All the information was there in between the front and back cover, but I had to work for it.

And the same goes for the Business Plan book. If you just want to pick up a book that will outline your career in plain easy to read text for you. If you want all the answers served up in generic fashion. If you just think there is some hidden secret the established pro's won't share that is going to finally put you over the top and this book will contain that secret. Then don't buy this book. This book is a process. It is a journey toward a system and a truth about your photography business that can't be achieved over a cup of coffee. I haven't even completed all the tests contained within the pages myself yet. That will take time. All I've done is give it a first read.

So don't buy this book. Don't buy this book if you don't care to invest time and effort into your business. Don't buy it if etherial thought doesn't appeal to you or the challenging kind thought. I think Dane is probably one of those people that wins in life by genuinely coming from a place of sharing and helping. At least that's my impression, or one I get from the books. I did meet him once, and I think I've blogged about that before, but it was a clumsy hello on my way to get a fresh Corona at the bar. If I remember right he was pretty gentle about my somewhat tipsy statement of fact that he was indeed Dane Sanders. I should have bought him a beer, that might have been better.

Anyway, the book. Well, like I said, this isn't a review. Want some help, guidance and a plan for your photography business? Are you prepared to sit down and fill out questionnaires' do homework and write plans, standard operating procedures, dream, organize and work through your business stuff? Are you prepared to try things, fail at them and try again as you revisit the book? Do you want a plan that is unique to you and your business? If so, then yes you will love this book, it is the best there is, or at least that I've read in this style. If not then there are other books out there that I've read that are also good, you should try them.

Before I leave you I thought I'd mention a couple of things. First up is that we'll be hosting 'Smug' meetings here in Nanaimo on the last Wednesday of each month. Smugs are sponsored by Smugmug, but don't require that you use Smugmug to attend. They are free social gatherings of photographers where you can network with others. We'll be bringing in vendors as well as guest speakers. Adam and I talked with Smugmug and convinced them that Vancouver Island needs our own Smug (full disclosure, we get free hoodies, you know those sweaters that have hoods on them, as official Smug leaders. We like hoodies) so we are now the hosts and organizers. So if you live on Vancouver Island (or plan on visiting) we'd love to have you attend. They will be on the last Wednesday of every month at the Oliver Woods Community Centre on Oliver Road from 6:30 to 9:30pm.

And finally I'll leave you with some photos of a tasty assignment I had last week and get to wrap up this coming week with Destination Nanaimo. We were asked to photograph some local desserts from several restaurants. Food photography isn't my normal gig, but that could be a good thing. I ate a lot of dessert that day. It was a lot of fun to get out there on a unique project and concentrate on lighting and staging something other than a person. I still prefer portraiture and weddings, but diversions do so much for keeping us fresh and excited about the craft of photography. Even if you do only photograph one thing in your work or hobby as a photographer, I'd suggest that even just once in a while you go out and photograph something unusual and out of your comfort zone. You might just love it! Have a great week and thank-you very much for dropping by the blog. I appreciate you visiting.

Oh, and I just bought myself the Canon 135mm f2.0 lens, so look for some discussion on that at some point. I had the opportunity to borrow that lens last summer and really liked it, so I can't wait to bring it into my portrait work this year.

Editing a High Key Portrait

2011-04-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

First of all, sorry for my lame April Fool's post. I couldn't resist. :)

I've been shooting a lot of high key images lately. It must be a by product of the new studio. One thing I don't like about them is that if you don't process them right they often look a little washed out or lacking in contrast. I see this from photographers all the time. Of course you have to make sure your background lights aren't bleeding out onto your subject. A light meter is a great thing to own when you are setting up shots like this, but also having a system for how you process high key images can help. For me at least, I like my images to have a consistent feel to them when I'm using a particular style.

I have been using some trail and error and finally found a way to edit that is really consistent, and while it uses a few plugins it really helps me to get through editing quickly. I edit all my images in Lightroom 3, but in this example I'm using some other software that you may want to check out. I use Photoshop CS5 (photoshop elements would work fine) as well as two plugins, one is Color Effex Pro by Nik Software and the other is On One Software's Photo Tools. You don't need those plugins, but what they do provide you is a speedy way to edit that is consistent in output. If you don't want to buy them you could simply use levels and curves in Lightroom or Photoshop and develop an action or preset.

In photographing hair lately I've been trying to find the balance of being a portrait photographer and showcasing hair design. In the image above I broke one of my solemn rules, never let the nose break the line of the cheek unless it is a full profile shot. It tends to make the nose look larger. But in this case I had the luxury of a model that had a nice petite nose and I felt that this was one of those times where I could break a rule when the real star of the show was the braids, not the person necessarily.

Click on this image to view video

I hope you enjoyed the video and found it helpful. Color Effex is available from Nik Software for $300 (I noticed it is on sale right now for $200) as a standalone product or $600 as part of the full suite. Photo Tools is available for $260 as a standalone product or $500 as part of the On One Suite of tools. I love the skin softener in Color Effex as it does a nice job without resorting to that complete plastic look of the skin. Photo Tools is a fun way to just create that polish or shine on an image. Both create great starting points on images, but you really need to finish off the job yourself for that perfect look.

Converted to black and white in Silver Effex Pro 2

We have been super busy lately, but our model work needs to come to a close as spring has sprung and we are about to be full time wedding photographers again. The work with models has been super helpful though this winter and a great way to work on my craft during the slow season so I can hit the busy times firing on all cylinders and creating the best images for my clients. Now I just need to clear my editing backlog and clean up all my gear for the season.

Speaking of which, do you ever clean your cameras? I'll be dropping mine off at the camera store soon for some sensor cleaning. I've only ever done it twice before but it does make a nice difference. The next time you are shooting at f16 take a look at the dust spots on your sensor. My 5D seems to attract it like a magnet and I have particles in the viewfinder that drive me nuts. If they bug you too, you may want to find a local repair centre or store that offers cleaning services, that is unless you like the idea of doing it yourself. Me? I'm a big chicken. I won't clean my own sensor. I'd just break it.

Thanks for popping by!

I've Been Really Excited To Tell You!!!

2011-04-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

This has really been weighing on me. The last 3 months have been so exciting and I couldn't wait to share the news. Now the time is right.

Sometime in January I was contacted by a camera manufacturer (I can't say who yet, but if you know me you probably know who they are) that wanted to "get back in the pro game." They had a prototype camera and wanted it used "on the job" by a working professional photographer, especially:

in tough low light conditions
with fast moving subjects, using CAF
using high sync speeds with off camera flash. The Flashe(s) must be controlled by Pocket Wizard brand triggers.

Well, let me tell you, they had their guy! All I can say right now (because the official announcement is just moments away) is that this camera rocks. It literally kicks the living crap out of the 1DmkIV, D3s and A900. It features:

a non 2:3 format sensor that is the same dimensions up and down as a 'full frame 35mm' sensor, but not as wide
sync speeds up to 1/2000th of a second
built in Pocket Wizard wireless trigger right in the camera
3.5" OLED screen
11 frames per second continuous shooting with the biggest buffer ever
faster autofocus including in CAF than the D3s or the 7D
built in battery grip, but amazingly it is a really compact, light and comfortable camera to hold onto
clean, and I mean CLEAN iso 6400. Usable ISO much higher
a deadly silent shutter sound, meaning just the slightest sexiest click noise
16 megapixels which they say is enough

This camera is going to be a huge surprise to everyone. I've not even seen a rumour of it and I've been looking. I understand dpReview has a copy to test as does only one other blogger.

Stay tuned...........

Power of Passion Tour and OM Lens on a GF1

2011-03-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-03-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

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

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

2011-03-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-06T14:47:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-02T15:40:00.000-08:00


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.

Mounting Studio Lights to a T-Bar Ceiling

2011-02-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

Alien Bees B800 on Ceiling Scissor Clamp

When we moved into our studio we knew we were dealing with a space that had lower ceilings than we would have wished for. The ceiling was one of those suspended t-bar kind of things. We could have removed that ceiling and gained an extra 14 inches of space, but the original ceiling was a real mess and we didn't want to spend the money, at least for now. So we found some Scissor Clamps online and ordered them. Originally we thought we would just use them for speedlights, worried about the weight on the ceiling but eventually we worked up the nerve to hang our alien bees studio lights on them. Large light modifiers won't fit that close to the ceiling, but reflectors and umbrellas do. As a bonus the light is off the floor, no lightstand so no tripping hazard. We keep a small step ladder around to adjust it.

Wire to strengthen your ceiling supports

To combat our concern for the safety of hanging lights above peoples heads and not wanting to break our lights we went to our local home improvement store and bought some t-bar support wire. Then we went into the ceiling and added wire where needed and bolted it into the original ceiling to make sure the areas where we were going to hang lights were safe and secure.

This isn't a perfect solution as you can't use those big softboxes up that close to the ceiling, but it does work well and has been a lifesaver for us in a small studio space. Not having three or four lightstands is a big plus for a clumsy photographer too! The exact clamps we ordered can be found at Midwest Photo Exchange here. We put some tape on the clamp to ensure it stayed shut. Not sure if it was necessary as we haven't had any problems with them opening but we did it anyway.

Fuji X100

2011-02-26T08:22:00.000-08:00

So the guys at the Camera Store in Calgary did a video preview of the super sexy X100 Fuji camera. I hope Olympus and Panasonic are watching because this is what their next small micro four thirds camera should look like. It was a nice video review, I didn't know the Camera Store did those so it is worth a watch if you are interested in this camera as much as I am. I didn't know about the super high sync speed. That is something I feel may force me to buy that camera.

I'm still very busy lately getting the most out of my time with that 14-35 f2.0 Zuiko lens with at least one shoot a day from until Wednesday so I really haven't had time to blog as much as I'd like, but once I get some time to breath, look for a flurry of posts! Thanks for dropping by.

On our way home.

2011-02-24T11:28:00.001-08:00

On our way home.
Originally uploaded by Simon S Remark

I love this photo, posted in our Flickr Group. I have no idea what camera was used or what the exif data was but I suspect a cell phone camera. I love the dark silhouettes of the people, the grain, the square crop the vignette and the dark mood of the snowy night. The photo was taken by Simon S. Remark and his photo stream on Flickr can be found here.

Amazon.com is Now Shipping To Canada

2011-02-23T19:52:00.001-08:00

I've learned that Amazon.com is now shipping to Canada. They often have great deals on camera gear which is great so now we have an alternative to B&H which forces us Canadians to use UPS (I really don't like UPS) and can price shop there for the best deals. I'm not sure why Amazon just doesn't stock their camera equipment through Amazon.ca, but I guess it doesn't matter. You can find out more here.

Are You a Better Photographer Than Your Camera?

2011-02-23T11:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, it has been a very busy time for me. I'll be trying to get out my review of the Olympus 14-35 f2.0 lens shortly and also a closer look at the Panasonic GF1 and 20mm f1.7 pancake lens. It's snowing hard here today resulting in my afternoon shoot being canceled so I thought I'd blog a little about a little online quarrel I had with a photographer recently.

I had this interesting debate with another pro photographer on a forum last week. The subject was about Sony cameras and whether a professional photographer could use Sony for their work. There seems to be no debate that certain pro's could (commercial, portrait) but as far as weddings go or other jobs where high ISO ability is desirable the debate was somewhat heated. The pro I was debating with felt that his work was made better by the ability to shoot at ISO 12500 and produce excellent results. He felt that a choice of Sony as a primary camera for a wedding photographer was a negligent or poor choice. I believe he was a Nikon guy. I rallied back with the opinion that while having the ability to shoot at high ISO's is great, it has made for some really lazy photographers today. When I'm using my 5DmkII there are times when I've used ISO 6400, but rarely. I try my best to keep it at ISO 3200 or lower to get the best possible files for my client. I have no problems with using whatever light is available to me to get the shot, whether that is a flash, natural light or a studio strobe or video light. The other pro rallied back that using artificial lights was distracting and intrusive and didn't allow for natural moments.

There is a good point there, and the use of natural light, or understanding of it can be a powerful tool. I'm just reading between the lines here with statements that suggest that photographers must always keep purchasing the newest, most whiz bang equipment to do a suitable job.

Can you shoot a wedding with a Sony A900? Yes (many do). Can you do a professional job and deliver your clients a great product without being negligent by having (what he thinks is) substandard gear? Yes.

Frankly, I am getting kind of tired of the endless pursuit of the best and brightest equipment as a crutch for the excuse that "I'm not as good of a photographer as (insert famous name) because he/she has a Nikon/Canon so and so camera and lens." Higher ISO's, more megapixels, whatever, they might make our jobs easier but they don't make us better photographers or artists. The work done by photography icons years ago were shot with film, and crappy dslr's and far surpass the quality of the work done by most professionals nowadays. Any venture over to Flickr will show that there are some young talented photographers getting amazing results from point and shoots.

I'm as much of a gear nut as the next guy. If you've read this blog before you know that I can obsess about lenses and cameras beyond what is reasonable, but I draw the line at letting my equipment define me as a photographer. I get offended by the people that are so brand loyal or hung up on owning the newest camera that they look down their long noses at photographers using 'old,' 'outdated,' or 'inferior' equipment. Give Marco Grob a point and shoot and most of the rest of us a D3x and he'll kick most of our artistic butts all day every day (in no way has Marco endorsed my opinion or have I even met him, I'm just using him as an example of someone that could probably kick by arse with a point and shoot). So while I've been shunned and looked at as loony by some of the folks in my professional photographer forum, I stand by my right to be dumbstruck by those that proclaim that anything short of the newest, best equipment is a offense to professionalism. You are a better photographer than your camera, or at least you'd better be unless you have very deep pockets. The only people that should disagree are camera manufacturers.

Roller Derby & Thom Speaks Olympus Doom

2011-02-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

Olympus E3 with 14-35 f2.0 lens ISO 100 f9, 1/100 of a second

Well I used the E3 again yesterday for a series of studio shots of a roller derby team. Yes I'm still loving the lens and the shoot itself was tons of fun. You can't beat 15 roller skaters and a referee all in crazy getups and skates piling into your studio. Plus I learned something....don't ever call them rollerbladers. They don't like that! I got a pass because I had the camera and they needed me alive.

One of the skaters brought her daughter along that is in high school. She wants to be a photographer as a career and asked my advice. I simply told her to buy any camera with manual controls, no matter how cheap and take photos every day. I also loaned her a good beginners photography book and offered for her to tag along with an upcoming shoot. The hair stylist we often have in the studio was one of the skaters so I thought she could tag along the next time she comes in. It's very cool to see someone with an eye on the photography profession so young. Her enthusiasm was awesome and it had me jazzed. I even gave her the E3 to take the group shot above after we were outside and all done. I couldn't resist the attention of all the fun skater ladies!

Ever wonder what I do with myself when I'm alone in the studio? I get bored and distracted sometimes and fall victim to my low attention span. I was about to do that video in the previous post about the Lumopro LP160 and thought I should refresh my memory about how well it worked, or didn't work. So I took some photos of myself using the timer on the E3. Yes, it is true, I am a nerd and one day I will burn out my retina.

Thom Hogan is creating a stir again on the 4/3 rumour forum where he is predicting Olympus will either have to:

fix their financial woes (maybe sell more cameras and stop dropping formats like I suck back coffee in the morning)
Sell the imaging division of Olympus and stick with Medical equipment which is profitable (maybe sell to Panasonic)
Close the imaging division all together.

I doubt Olympus will close, but I can't really disagree with Thom on his statements. They are just one of those loveable little photo companies (hey I like them) that has always struggled with a direction. Pentax was like that for a while, but with the Kx, Kr and K5 seem to have found their way. Sony is overtaking Nikon is sales and Canon gets more and more boring every day at the top of the pile. Possibly Olympus' new CEO will bring direction and vision to the brand. We can only hope.

LumoPro LP160 Video Review

2011-02-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

Click on the Picture to start the Video

I wanted to play with the Panasonic GF1 video. Yes I could have reviewed the flash in text but I thought it would be a nice video review of the quality of the GF1 Black and White Dynamic video. Put together quickly in iMovie and using only the on board microphone of the camera.

The Zuiko does the RCMP Appreciation Ball

2011-02-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

f7.1 ISO 100 1/200 of a second with the Zuiko 14-35 f2.0 lens and Olympus E3

So we were hired last night to photograph the annual charity RCMP appreciation night for the local Crisis Society. They gave us a tiny 10 by 10 foot photo booth surrounded by draperies. We didn't want to photograph on the black drapes as a backdrop as it was a formal event and there would be a lot of black suits so I put up a grey cloth backdrop (wouldn't clash with anything anyone was wearing). I wanted to keep the lighting simple with one studio strobe through a large umbrella. I like using the large umbrella for this kind of thing because it is a brutally non-directional light, yet soft. It simply throws light everywhere which lets me be sloppy about it when I'm photographing groups in a hurry. The strategy with people that wear glasses is to put them on the side where the light is (the light was on the left) so that we don't get reflections and I don't have to chimp to make sure. We put a piece of hockey tape on the floor so people know where to stand and the whole thing runs well and fast.

I used the Olympus E3 and Zuiko 14-35 f2.0 lens last night. Shot in jpg the whole time with a flash white balance. I find the Alien Bees strobes are normally about a 5050 Kelvin rating for white balance, but if you are in a hurry you can just set your camera to flash WB which is 5500 and everyone looks pleasant with slightly warmer skin tones than absolutely correct. Those red jackets of the officers really popped and the Olympus did a great job of nailing almost every shot. I did between 5 and 15 shots of each grouping of people depending on how big the lineup was. We then took the CF card out of the camera and gave it to Adam who was sitting at the laptop burning them to CD to give to the people. It worked well except for the one time I forgot to put a card back in the E3 and it wrote to the XD card that I forgot was even in there (I rarely use it). If there isn't a CF card in the camera, it automatically switches to the XD card if there is one so I didn't get a 'no card' error. We hadn't brought an XD card reader so I now have to deliver a CD of images to the RCMP station this morning to make up for my mistake. Oh well, there has to be one goof a night right? I left the XD card out of the camera the rest of the night.

E3 with 14-35 f2.0 lens. ISO 100, f7.1 1/200 of a second

The E3 with the four thirds sensor is perfect for this photo booth type of thing. The jpg files are nice and small (just under 5mb) and the colours are nice. Plus for those people you photograph that wish to print later to the most common enlargements (5x7, 8x10, 11x14) the sensor area is really close to that already so not much print cropping will occur. When I use a 2:3 sensor crop like in my 5D I always have to be aware to keep room on the sides of an image for cropping later. This is one of those instances as well when the large depth of field of the crop sensor is actually a good thing. When I'm using the full frame 5D in a studio situation I'm often cranking up the lights to get to about f11 or at least f9 so I can make sure to get everyone in focus in a group photo. With the crop sensor Olympus I can somewhat relax at f5.6 and at f7.1 I'm golden. I can just focus on the person dead centre and not sweat that everyone's pretty face will be tack sharp. That means I can run my strobe at a lower power, it recycles faster and doesn't blind everyone with every pop making it a somewhat less traumatic experience for my subject. The shallow depth of field of a full frame sensor is a wonderful tool and advantage most of the time, but everything is a trade off in photography and in this instance the crop, especially with the right lens, is the perfect studio tool. Having said all that, you do need room to stand back in your studio as the magnification of the crop sensor means you can't stand as close to your subject, so a tight studio space is a place where you will need a full frame unless you want to photograph everyone with a wide angle lens.

I did bring my 5D mk II last night though as well as Adam's 7D. That 5D is a miracle camera in some ways the Olympus just will never be. I walked out to the main area and took photos of the pipe band and tables at ISO 3200 and 4000 with no flash and nailed some really usable images. Plus it focuses accurately in the dark, though not nearly as fast as the 7D. I grabbed Adam's 7D for some shots as well, and I have to say that thing can grab focus so fast you wonder if it even worked. It really is amazing.

I'm off to photograph a roller derby team today which should be a nice change of pace. I have never photographed anyone in roller skates before. Has to be a first time for everything. I'll be using the E3 and 14-35 lens again, still trying to get a lot of use out of it. If I think of it I'll set the GF1 up on a tripod and video some of the shoot.

I'm Feeling the Love for the 14-35 f2.0 Zuiko

2011-02-12T08:50:00.000-08:00

Olympus E3 with 14-35 f2.0 lens. 23mm, f4.5, 1/250 second at ISO 100. Lit with Alien Bees Monolight pretty much on axis to the lens with a beauty dish. Processed in Lightroom 3, CS5 and with plugins from Nik (Colour Effex) and On One (Phototools)

I need to find a way to keep this lens. Tonight I'll be using it for the more menial task of shooting photo booth portraits at the annual RCMP charity ball that we've been hired to cover. I'll be shooting jpg and burning CD's on site for the guests. I've pretty much put my Canon 5D away for a while so I can get as much enjoyment out of this lens as I can before it has to go back to Lens Lenders. Plus I'm still playing with that new Panasonic GF1 so my attention is necessarily divided. Now if I could just find a way to own the Olympus Zuiko 14-35 f2.0 lens I wouldn't be feeling all this pressure!

The little Panasonic has been proving to be a lot of fun as well though, yes I still miss the viewfinder. There is something about a great lens that is the ultimate equalizer for a camera. That 20mm f1.7 pancake is a dream. Lovely lovely lens. Look for some samples to come from it a lot over the next while. I actually own that one so I'm not in such a huge rush. I do plan on doing some video reviews of gear though using the GF1 and that lens over the next week or so.

I woke up this morning early just itching to go process some images I've been taking lately. I love that feeling when you wake up eager and driven to work on your 'job.' It is a sign of love that I haven't had in most of my earlier professions in life. That literal feeling of wanting to jump out of bed and go to work just as fast as you can.

Processed in the wonderful Nik Software Silver Effex Plugin

Thanks for dropping by, and if you like the blog please share it on Facebook or one of those other social media sites using the links at the bottom of each post. The series in this post was shot in our studio. It was a wonderful session with two people that were totally willing to engage with me in the process to make images for them. For the most part I used one light the whole time and the Olympus E3 with that one beautiful lens. I'll be sure to post up some samples from the RCMP ball, plus tomorrow we'll be photographing a Roller Derby team which is going to be pretty unique I think. Have a wonderful weekend.

Our Newest Dedicated Advertisor

2011-02-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

So DigitalRev approached me about advertising on this blog. I was pretty excited about it because they actually sell camera stuff. You know, like um.... cameras. :)

If you like this blog and are in the market for something, consider clicking on the banner ad on the top of the blog and then ordering your equipment. Of course I fully expect you to price check for the best price. If you do order from them I get a small percentage and my promise to you is that I will spend every dime irresponsibly on camera equipment that I can then talk about here on this blog.

By the way, if you live in Canada and are looking for the best prices for camera equipment, check out this link for Photo Price. We are all in this expensive hobby/profession together so we might as well save a few dollars when we can.

Still Testing

2011-02-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

This is the bookshelf in my office at the studio. I love photography books nearly as much as I love cameras. 20mm, f1.7 ISO 160 1/30 of a second

So I'm continuing to play with the Panasonic GF1 and 20mm f1.7 lens. I sat in my studio today taking random photos. They are jpg directly from the camera, no edits at all. A quick word about handling the camera. I'm really not digging losing a viewfinder. I think that if you are used to a viewfinder this would be a difficult transition for you. Younger people that have grown up with LCD displays wouldn't mind so much, but for me I can quickly see that the camera needs the external electronic viewfinder. The camera is a bit square for my taste but has little grips built into the front and on the back where your thumb goes so it feels OK. The weight is nice (very light) and the lens is super light and small making it very desirable in my mind. There is no balance issue with the camera, in fact taking the lens off or putting it on is barely noticeable in terms of weight or feel. The focusing of the camera is surprisingly snappy in good light. I'm not crazy about the buttons on the back which are small and have a clicky feel to them. The little thumb wheel is kind poor feeling as well, but it works very well. There is a flash, which I could care less about, but it is there if that is your thing. The LCD screen is big and bright and lovely.

ISO 160, f1.7, 1/125 of a second 20mm

f1.7, 20mm 1/200 second at ISO 160. The camera had troubles with the backlighting of the window which is pretty normal. It is on multi-segment metering, but a least there is detail everywhere for the important bits. Had I shot RAW I wouldn't have been concerned at all.