Author: Kevin

Panasonic Lumix G3

Kevin

A picnic this week provided opportunity for my fIrst test drive of the Panasonic Lumix G3.
I am very pleased with the ease of use and the image quality. I was super impressed by the face-detection auto-focus and the LCD-touch-screen focus selection.

 Shown here is my favorite shot, Balasankar dishing up a nice overhand serve.  As you can probably guess, I am holding the G3 over my head for this shot.  An articulated/swivel display screen is very helpful for overhead shots and also down-on-the-ground shots.  I quickly learned to love this feature on the C-5060 (very few cameras had this feature back in 2004/5) and I absolutely required it for a replacement camera. The 3-inch swivel-touch-display on the G3 is a sweet upgrade.

ISO 800, f\6.3, 1/800 sec, auto white-balance
Shot as JPG  (not RAW)

(click the image for a larger view)

 

And here are a couple more shots with the same 14mm lens (equivilent to a 28mm on a full-frame DSLR).

 

Camera Upgrade – Panasonic G3

Kevin

Across two decades, I have owned/used three film cameras, two digital cameras, and one video camcorder.  Recently, I acquired a new camera to replace my old digital compact.  The new camera is a Panasonic Lumix G3. 

The G3 is a relatively compact camera with interchangeable lenses.  It is half the size of my Canon DSLR.  The G3 is a Micro Four-Thirds camera.   Because Four-Thirds and Micro Four-Thirds are both open standards (jointly developed by Olympus and Panasonic), the camera can accept lenses from different vendors, such as Olympus, Panasonic, and Leica.

The biggest reason I replaced the old compact camera is poor low-light performance.  The old camera had a maximum ISO of 400 and was prone to a good deal of chromatic noise.  The new G3 has a maximum ISO of 6400 and the noise is far less than the old camera at ISO 400.  

The ability to record images in low-light is largely a matter of the image sensor.  Most small cameras employ small image sensors, which perform poorly in low light.  In recent years, some small-to-medium size cameras have been employing larger image sensors.  The G3 features a Four-Thirds sensor, which is about six times larger than the sensor in the old C-5060 and is half the size of the image sensor in my DSLR.  G3 has three times more pixels than the C5060, while the image sensor size is six times larger. So the individual pixels are larger; and, theoretically, larger pixels can take in more light.   But this is theory; the proof is the actual image quality.

 

Colorado Wildflowers book

Kevin

Here is the new wildflower book (the images are from 2007, but I just created the book this month).   The link below provides a preview of the book.   It is a thin little book with 36 wildflower images.  (Yes, you can purchase copies here via this link.)

This book is PoD (publish on demand) via Blurb.  Specifically, Blurb refers to this 6×9 format as a “trade” book.    The paper thickness is “text” weight rather than the heavier paper typically used for photo books.   Until this year, Blurb offered the trade format only for black&white books, but they now offer color. 

This particular book is 40 pages, meaning 20 double-sided papers.  Why?  Because Blurb pricing is based on 20-page increments.  A book with 22 pages cost the same as 40 pages, but a book with 42 pages would cost a bit more.

 

Different Light

Kevin

In some parts of the world, the weather is known to change quickly and people often say: If you don’t like the weather … wait a few minutes.  With regard to outdoor photography, the same thing can often be said about the quality of the light:  if you don’t like the light … wait a few minutes.

 

Case in point, the attached photos of Purple Fringe.  The first shot was captured in open sun near mid day.  Bright light like this causes not just shadows, but hard-edged shadows (transition from light to shadow is crisp rather than soft).  This is sometimes refered to as hard light.

For the second image, I simply waited for clouds to obscure the sun, resulting in soft light.  This eliminates the harsh shadows, but the image looses overal contrast. 

Keep in mind that light can change quickly and can greatly impact the mood of an image.  The second image here was captured 3 minutes after the first image.

Typically, I prefer soft light or side light.  I prefer the second image.  (Many outdoor photographers will tell you that mid-day hard light is “bad light”.)

However, both images suffer from cluttered background of grasses.  Perhaps I was so enamored with this amazing flower that I did not pay attention to the background.  I don’t recall.  A lower camera angle might have helped eliminate the grasses from the photo, but likely not enough. Perhaps the only recourse here is to walk away from this plant and find a different Purble Fringe with less grass nearby.

 

When the Light is not quite what you want

Kevin

Friday evening, as Hurricane Irene thrashed the coast of Florida, the weather in New England was clear and the warm glow of the setting sun raked across the land.  I went a short distance down the road to photograph the river.   But, to my surprise, the light on the weeds and grasses was largely back-lit and unflattering.  So I planned to return and try again Saturday morning, as the weather forecast called for overcast clouds.

Soft light / overcast sky

As expected, the morning provided soft diffuse light and I snapped a few images.  To get a bit of elevation above the river, I used two familiar tools.  One, a portable telescoping ladder.  Two, a tripod fully extended and raised far over my head.  The latter requires a bit more shutter speed to compensate for the unstable camera perch. 

A bit later, after returning home, the sun was peeking through the clouds and I considered repeating my brief excursion in different light.  But, in the end, I did not.

As you can see in the image here, the soft light features no distinct shadows.  This is not automatically good or bad.  A diffuse light avoids high contrast and specular reflections, but it can also reduce sense of  shape and depth.  A moderate light from the side (side light) will wrap around a subject and enhance the subject shape.  But too much and the shadows may be too dark, loosing all details.

When dealing with natural light (not electronic flash), sometimes we can anticipate the light we want.  But sometimes, the light really is not doing what we expect or want.  When that happens, sometimes the right thing to do is simply try again after the light has changed.

 

 

 

Park Wildflower Project

Kevin
multiflora rose

Working at an office park, anyone with an inclination towards the outdoors world … simply has to get out of the office and walk.  In this course, I discovered that numerous wildflowers grow around the periphery of the park.  Being both photographer and sometimes amateur naturalist,  I began photographing and cataloging the various flowers. 

That was the humble beginning of what I will refer to as the Park Wildflower Project.  My catalog is more than 60 species …  but I’m not done yet.  I find it necessary to return frequently.  From year to year, the species can vary.  (This year, Common Tansy has invasively taken over the northwest meadow.)  I find flowers that I have not seen before;  and I no longer find some of those that I have seen.

 For identification, I rely primarily upon two books.  For a quick visual reference, I like “Wildflowers in the Field and Forest” by Clemants and Gracie.   But that’s not always enough.   Newcomb’s “Wildflower Guide” is absolutely essential !

 

CreativeLive.com

Kevin

If you have not yet heard of CreativeLive, you are really missing out!
Free training on a wide variety of subjects: studio portraiture, food photography, wedding photography, film-making with DSLR, Photoshop, Lightroom, Final Cut Pro, making eBooks.   Great instructors such as Art Wolfe, Zack Aris, Vince Laforet.

This weekend’s 3-day class is taught by Gail Tattersall, director of photography for film and television (http://galetattersall.com).

It’s simple.  Go to CreativeLive.com, see what classes are coming soon.
Four ways to learn

  • to attend in-person (Seattle WA), you can apply per each class
  • watch live for free on the internet
  • watch re-broadcast free at the end of the day
  • purchase video download

The internet video stream is available in two different sizes, standard and low-bandwidth.
A smart phone or iPad should handle the low-bandwidth stream just fine.

If you want to have the video permanently, you can purchase video download.  In fact, this is how CreativeLive operates as a buisiness.  The content is so good, many people pay for the video. 

I’ve been happily learning from CreativeLive classes ever since their first 3-day class more than a year ago.  Back then, there were some technical glitches (e.g. loss of audio), but those days seem to be long gone.  The reliability of the internet video stream has been really solid.  More important, their instructors and class content have been stellar.

www.creativelive.com

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Equine photography

Kevin

A fun and eye-opening day today photographing horses with Lisa Cueman and David Middleton. 

With a forecast for rain, we headed out to visit the horses early in the day.  (David’s wife, Claire, responded that sometimes in rare momemnts,  David does something smart.)

First, we had the opportunity to photograph the younger horse, Reva, running.  Being cooped up in the barn all morning, Reva welcomed the oppotunity to run around.  Then, after a expending some energy, was more accepting of standing around for some portraiture.

The technique of photographing a moving horse is theoretically similar to photographing a person running or riding a bicyle.  A perfectly sharp image requires a high shutter speed, but this is perhaps not the best idea because the photo fails to communicate motion.  Instead, we were shooting around 1/100 second and then following the horse’s movement by panning the camera.  With a bit of practice and a bit of luck, you can get a sharp image of the horse, but the feet show motion blur.

Simple right?  Well, maybe not.  In reality, an animal’s movements are unpredictable, making unexpected turns, stops, & starts.  So there is a bit of “spray and pray”.   Set the camera to take multiple photos in quick succession, press the shutter button for a few seconds, capturing numerous images, … and pray a few of them look good.   This is necessary particularly because the feet are constantly changing position and the most aesthetic position cannot be predicted.  Don’t think that it is simply dumb luck; it’s not.  As a photographer, you have to pay close attention to everything … but the position of the feet … that is mostly luck.

Then we practiced some of Lisa Cueman’s equine portrait techniques.  My image included here below is clearly inspired by one of Lisa’s images.  This angle of view is a bit counterintuitive, but the aesthetic forms of the horse from different angles like this is really eye-opening.

For a larger view, click on an image.

Lisa’s website is currently undergoing an update, so you may want to check it anew in July.
http://lisacuemanphotography.com/

Special thanks to David Middleton (and Claire Middleton) for providin this opportunity.
http://www.davidmiddletonphoto.com/

Infinite storage for photos and video

Kevin

Maybe you are running out of storage space on your computer … because of video or fat megapixel photos.  Or maybe you need to backup your files, for safety (in case your computer storage drive should die).  You might save to optical disk (CD, DVD, or BluRay disc) but the storage capacity is quite limited.   A standard DVD will store less than 5GB.  A BluRay disc stores up to 25GB and a dual-layer BluRay disc will store 50GB. But that is still not enough.

You may be contemplating adding a disk drive with larger capacity.  But sooner or later, you will fill up that amount and still need more. Cramming bigger disk drives into your computer is only a temporary solution.  External disk drives provide a long-term solution of unlimited storage. 

Let me suggest a relatively low-cost option called an external hard drive dock.  A dock is basically an adapter that allows you to use internal type drives externally.  Why? Because internal type drives simply cost less than external drives. If you divide the price by the number of gigabytes, external drives range from 6 – 20 cents per gigabyte, while internal disk drives range from 4 – 14 cents per gigabyte. Removing a drive from the dock, then inserting another drive, requires mere seconds.

How does an external disk drive or dock connect to your computer?  Here is a quick survey of available interfaces.
USB 2.0 : up to 480 megabit/sec
USB 3.0 : up to 4.8 gigabit/sec
eSATA II : up to 3 gigabit/sec 
eSATA III : up to 6 gigabit/sec
1394a FireWire 400 : up to 400 megabit/sec
1394b FireWire 800 : up to 800 megabit/sec
1394d Firewire 6400 : up to 6.4 gigabit/sec
Thunderbolt : up to 10 gigabit/sec

Strangely, these interfaces are typically rated for throughput in units of Mb/sec (megabits per second), while disk drives are rated in terms of MB/sec (megabytes per second).  The difference is simply a factor of eight.

Inside your computer, long-term data storage devices are typically based upon SATA. 
SATA II (a.k.a. SATA 3Gbps) provides data transfer capability much faster than most disk drives.  (A SATA II disk drive will typically move data to-and-from your computer at a rate less than 700 megabit/sec.)  SATA III was introduced to support solid-state drives (300 to 500 megabyte/sec).  External SATA (eSATA) allows external devices to connect directly into your SATA storage system.  This is ideal for connecting external storage, but most computers do not include any eSATA ports.

Firewire has some interesting technical features, but current products do not offer speeds above 800. Thunderbolt is very new, currently available only with the new 2011 Apple MacBook Pro. (Just within the past couple months, there has been a rumor that Sony will soon offer Thunderbolt on an upcoming Vaio laptop computer.) 

In 2011, USB 3.0 seems to be the clear winner.  Simplistic speed ratings suggest that USB 3.0 is faster than eSATA II, but some tests have reported that this is not necessarily true for currently available USB 3.0 products.  While USB 3.0 usually outperforms eSATA when reading data, eSATA may have a slight advantage when writing data.

If you already have an eSATA interface, you can buy an adapter that converts between eSATA and USB 3.0. (available from Bytecc, Addonics, and NewerTech.)  Cost is about $35 – $40.  But for a bit less money ($30), you can buy an expansion card that adds USB 3.0 ports easily to your existing computer (if you have an available PCIe expansion slot). 

If you are buying a new computer in 2011, read the specifications carefully to make sure you get USB 3.0.  While you can connect a USB 3.0 devices to a USB 2.0 device, they will communicate at the lower speed.

If you are looking for a high-capacity disk drive, here is a 2010 comparison of 2TB drives:
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Definitive-2TB-Hard-Drive-Roundup

St.Patricks Day Parade in Southie

Kevin

From California to Georgia, there are a dozen notable St.Patrick’s Day parades that are staged annually in the United States.  But the mac daddy of them all occurs in South Boston.  In 1737 the Irish Society of Boston hosted the first parade to honor St. Patrick’s Day.  Today, this parade can draw a crowd of spectators numbering more than 800,000.  You won’t find big expensive floats like the Rose Bowl Parade or Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, but come on now … the Irish are bit more down to earth.  This parade is a casual affair.  People have fun.

Above all else, anyone thinking of attending this event should be aware of one thing … don’t expect to find a parking space!  Take public transportation.  Parking in Southie is a scarce on normal days; but when the parade route is cleared of all parked vehicles, those displaced vehicles (belonging to local residents) fill every available nook and crany.

 The light was a bit challenging this year … bright sun and deep shadows.  In such situations, a little fill-flash is often the solution to reducing unwanted facial shadows.  Though I had a flash in my bag, I neglected to use it because it has been quite some time since I have done a shoot in this light.   This means a lot more work in post-processing to recover the shadow details (not something I really want to do if I can avoid it.)

(click on an image to see a larger view)

http://www.saintpatricksdayparade.com/boston/boston.htm