Echoing Curves

May 18, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments
Echoing Curves

The beaches beyond Marineland in St. Augustine have some beautiful rock formations. This image was captured while the colors in the sky still had some magenta while the horizon was turning warm gold. The way the ocean had receded taking sand away from the front of this rock and exposing the bright green moss caught my eye. Even more interesting were the curves in the sand, the shape of the waves and the shape of the face of the rock. Each curve in harmony with and echoing the other.

Captured with the Panasonic Lumix S1R with the 24 – 105 f/4 lens. A Benro filter holder with a 3 stop ND, a polarizer and a 3 stop soft edge grad was used for this image. The lens was at 35mm and the exposure triad: f/8, 8 sec, ISO 100.

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Marineland Beach – A1A St. Augustine

May 17, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments

Sunrise on the Jetty

Sunrise the day before leaving St Augustine was mostly cloudless with just a small band just on the horizon. The few clouds were enough to defuse the light and create a lovely warm glow on the rocks. I set up the Lumix S1R with the 24 – 105 f/4 lens. A Benro filter holder with a 6 stop ND, a polarizer and a 3 stop soft edge grad was used for this image. The lens was at 52mm and the exposure triad: f/10, 15 sec., ISO 50.

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Lumix S1R – The value of great resolution with good pixels

May 16, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments

Last month I spent a few days in St. Augustine at Florida’s Birding and Photo Festival. I took the Lumix S1R along even though I knew I would be shooting predominantly with the Lumix G9 and the Leica 100-400, an ideal bird photography combination. I was also hoping to try out the Sigma MC21 and some of the long glass that Sigma makes – more on that in future posts. For my very first shoot I decided to lave the G9 behind and just use the S1R with the Lumix Pro (Leica certified) 70-200mm f/4. Boy was this a great combination. The following images are an example of what impressed me most.

I am a strong believer on exposing to the right to maximize the ammout of data captured and this root image is an example of this technique.

The image below is of a Roseate Spoonbill that had landed near some alligators to drink water.

Focal length 200mm – Exposure triad f/4, 1/800 sec., ISO 160

Typically I will adjust exposure, white /black points, highlights and shadows to get the image to what it looked like. These adjustments are shown in the screen capture as below.

As the composition was limited by the focal length of the lens I decided on a tight crop while maintaining the reflection as in the image below. The original image is 8368 X 5584 pixels and the cropped image is 1934 X 2528. Though not exact it is close to a 2X crop or the equivalent of a micro four third sensor. This provides a field of view equivalence of 400 mm.

This image has been resized down to 1400 px on the long side for web presentation.

Seeing the detail and the quality of the cropped image, I went a step further and cropped further to 1934 x 1434. This is approximately another 50%.

Once again this image has been resized down just a bit to 1400 px on the long side for web presentation.

In my opinion this is a perfectly good image and useable in and digital competition as most competition require the image to be 1400 X 1050 px.

So why not take it one step further. A severe crop of the neck and head.

This image has not been resized – it is 546 x 817 px

To further test the quality of images from the S1R, I took this small jpg image above and resized it to 1050 px high.

Resized to 1050 px high

Using the same original jpg image a further resize was done to 1920 X 2678 px. This is more than sufficient for any screen/monitor display and any photographic competition.

You should be able to double click this image to see it at 100%

ull disclosure, I am a Lumix Global Ambassador and use Lumix cameras and lenses for my photography. I will say that after using the S1R for a month, in my opinion, it is an exceptional camera and the best digital camera I have used to date.

The LUMIX S1R is Panasonic’s new 47.3-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor camera.

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Vietnam – 2

March 31, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments

Nam Cuong sand dunes were amazing – though there was not much texture in the sky the dunes were a beautiful sight. They were really pristine till a bunch of tourists started climbing the slopes. Managed a few shots before the decimation.

Panasonic Lumix G9 with the Leica 12-60mm. Exposure triad: f/8, 1/160 sec, ISO 200

A local Cham cowherd had brought his bulls and a wagon that had truck wheels to help traverse the dunes. Lovely warm light on this man’s made for an interesting candid image.

The Chăm Pa now a minority were dynasty that extended across the coast of central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century AD. They were absorbed and annexed by the Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mạng in AD 1832. They are the poorest people in Vietnam.

Same equipment as with the dunes. Exposure triad: f/4, 1/25 sec, ISO 200

Why miss an opportunity – here are his bulls that he had unyoked from the wagon.

Exposure triad: f/3.8, 1/50 sec, ISO 200

A young Cham girl plays with simple toys while sitting on the dunes in a pile of tires.

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Vietnam – March 2019 – 1

March 27, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments

Sitting at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City waiting to board my return flight. As there is a bit of time I have started looking at some of the images from this fabulous trip. Despite the heat and humidity (both bearable), the photo opportunities are just phenomenal.

This is a late evening view of the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh. It is not a part of the main skyline but to the right as you look across the river. Access to photograph the main city skyline was closed due to major construction.

Panasonic Lumix G9 with the Leica 12-60 mm lens. Exposure triad: f/8, 1.6 sec ISO 100.

Day three we drove past some very very large fishing villages. The image below is one that caught my eye. It was in the village of Mui Ne on the coastal route from Ho Chi Minh to Phan Rang. It was interesting to see practically all the varieties of fishing vessels you find in Vietnam.

Panasonic Lumix G9 and the Leica 12-60mm at 60mm, Exposure triad: f/8, 1/800 sec., ISO 200

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Burrowing Owlet

March 13, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments

This was an early morning trip to Cape Coral. I went back to the nest where I had seen the only known owlet in the city. I was hoping to get some warm early light on the birds. I was rewarded with not only decent light but this curious Burrowing Owlet stood and stared at me for a while before ducking back down into the burrow. One parent kept a watchful eye while the owlet explored.

Panasonic Lumix G9 with the Leica 100-400 Lens Exposure triad: f/6.3, 1/125 sec, ISO 1000.
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Barred Owl – Corkscrew Swamp

March 12, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments

The barred owl, also known as northern barred owl or hoot owl, at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Florida this afternoon. The swamp has way too much water and as a result, the number of birds is minimum. This owl remained with its eyes closed for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, when the park staff came by to say we had to leave, I stopped by to get this image.

Panasonic Lumix G9 and the Leica 100-400 mm lens – hand-held.  Exposure triad: f/6.3, 1/60 sec, ISO 500.
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Hands-on with the new Panasonic Lumix S1R

March 3, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments
Zabriski Point at sunrise – Death Valley NP. February 25, 2019. Panasonic Lumix S1R (pre-production) with the 24-105 S, L-mount lens at 65mm. Exposure triad: f/11, 1/40 sec, ISO 100

I had the pleasure of spending a few days last week in Death Valley NP with the new Panasonic Lumix S1R and two lenses. The lenses I carried were the 24 to 105mm S Macro OIS f/4 and the 70-200mm S Pro OIS f/4. The S1R is the 47.3MP Full-Frame MOS Sensor body while the S1 is 24.2MP. The body I used was a pre-production version that had firmware version 0.7. A long way from version 1.0 that should be in the production release next month.

I am not going to spend time writing about specifications as those are available from the Panasonic and numerous other sites. What I am going to say will appear fan-boyish but this is how I feel. Having used full-frame film cameras, DSLR’s and mirrorless cameras, this is probably the finest camera I have experienced. The camera is a beast and as someone commented on YouTube and I fully concur – the S1R is the current Holy Grail of full frame bodies.

Ergonomics are exceptional, the camera just feels right. Both lenses that I tried felt comfortable and well balanced. The redesigned menu system is intuitive and exceptionaly well grouped and sequenced. Despite being a pre-production sample the image capture was truly a charm.

I set the camera to capture RAW and JPG images in full resolution and set the color space to Adobe RGB. I shot a number of high-resolution images 187MP and standard resolution images. As there is no RAW converter capapble of processing the S1R’s RAW files, all I have been reviewing are JPG’s and am thoroughly impressed. The dynamic range is impressive, the colors are fabulous as is the amount of detail even in a JPG file.

I am awaiting a RAW converter from Capture One or Adobe so I can truly experience the full potential of these new bodies.

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Thievery & A Dying Industry

February 7, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments

It was so much fun joining Don Komarechka (The King of Snowflake Photography and a fellow Pnasonic Lumix Ambassador) on his weekly podcast episode. There is never enough time to discuss all that there is in our industry but here is the link for you to listen and enjoy.

Photo Geek Weekly Episode 56 – Thievery and a Dying Industry
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The Lumix S Party on TWiP

February 2, 2019 by sverma | 0 Comments
Panasonic Lumix S1 & S1R Virtual Launch Party!

What a great time was had by all at this first TWiP party. We discussed the Lumix S1 and S1R and I am so glad to have been a part of the launch party. So much fun with the awesome Frederic van Johnson, hosting Jordan Bunch, Don Komarechka, Matthew Sutherland and myself.

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