A not so slow shutter speed - Rocky Coast of Acadia
(please click on the image for a larger rendition)
Slow shutter speed images are interesting and many are minimalist. But by the same token the use of slow shutter speeds seems to have become overly popular. Here in this early morning capture I wanted to slow the shutter down to get the action but at the same time show the motion of the waves as they crashed on the Acadia coastline. The warm glow and blue waters created a harmonious conflict.
The image is a blend of two splashes where both were exposed exactly the same. I used the Panasonic Lumix S1R with the Lumix Pro 70-200 mm f/4 lens at
Milky Way - Acadia NP
Aug 24, 2019 - we had just finished lunch and looked at the forecast. Clear night in Acadia - and perfect as the moon would not be visible during the time when the Milky Way core would be visible. We quickly grabbed our cameras, tripods and some snacks, and drove the 5 1/2 hours to Acadia.
We got to Bar Harbor and went straight to Sand Beach. Sand Beach is a location I had never shot the Milky Way from. My typical locations have been Boulder Beach looking out toward Otter Cliffs, or over one of the ponds. Sand beach did not disappoint.
Camera - Panasonic Lumix S1R with the Sigma MC21 adaptor, Lens - Canon 16-35mm, f/2.8 Version II. Truly waiting for the L-mount Sigma 14mm to be released. Exposure triad f/2.8, 20 sec., ISO 6400.
Narrative and Emotion - B&H Podcast
I am so thrilled to have been invited as a guest on the latest B&H Photography podcast. Thank you Panasonic and B&H for this wonderful opportunity and a special thanks to Host: Allan Weitz, Senior Creative Producer: John Harris, Senior Producer: Jason Tables and Executive Producer: Lawrence Neves. I thoroughly enjoyed our discussion and your hospitality.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE AND THE PODCAST
In addition, if you don't already, please do subscribe to the B&H Podcast for some great education and discussions.
Lumix S1R test - Red Arrows - North American Tour
Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team Red Arrows are on a major tour of North America. This is the first in more than a decade. It is intended to promote the best of British and deepen partnerships .
The Red Arrows are on an 11-week North American tour that started in Halifax, Nova Scotia July 8 and will end in Rapid City, South Dakota Oct. 8, 2019.
The aircraft are BAe Hawk T Mk1, a two seater trainer jet that has been replaced by the new Hawk T Mk2. However, the Mk1 will remain in service for another 10 years. Like the Mk2, the Mk1 is a fully aerobatic, low-wing, transonic, two-seat training aircraft that is still used in a number of roles for the RAF. 100 Squadron, based at RAF Leeming.
The show started about 20 minutes later than expected and unlike the flight path that was released the jets flew a completely different route.
My aim was test the performace of the continuous focus capapbility of the Panasonic Lumix S1R in a high speed fly by. The lens I used was the Lumix S Pro 70-200 f/4. The aperture was set to f/8 and the shutter speed was 1/2000 to freeze motion. The ISO was set to auto and resulted in ISO 250 to 320 for the incoming shots and 640 to 800 for the outgoing images. The focus was set to continuous, drive mode on high and the focus area "Zone Oval".
There are two sets on images - 20 incoming and 20 outgoing. All images are from single bursts in the exact sequence and unedited. The RAW files were converted and exported to JPG using Capture One. As you will see from these images, the camera and lens performed exceptionally well in maintaing focus.
This the incoming gallery
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This is the outgoing gallery
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The Yellow Walls of Hoi An
Hoi An Ancient town is located in Viet Nam’s central Quang Nam Province, on the north bank near the mouth of the Thu Bon River. The city of Hoi An is beautiful but is inundated with tourists. This old town has a number houses that are painted a deep yellow and make for a wonderful photographic backdrop.
Why yellow? The Vietnamise believe that yellow is a symbol of royalty. The yellow color reflects the beautiful culture of Vietnam, symbolizing luck, pride and prosperity.
We spent two days in this amazing city this March. We photographing the markets in the aery morning, fishing villages at sunrise and sunset, street scenes during the day and lots of night photography along the river. We could easily have spent a few more days here.
Hoi An has nearly 1,000 ancient houses and of these 844 houses are included on the list of UNESCO's cultural heritage. Visiting these home requires a small subscription of about $5 and is worth every penny.
All images in this post were captured with the Panasonic Lumix G9 and the Leica 12-60 lens. Please click on the images to open them in a larger window.
Elders in Vietnam
In 2019 Vietnam has a median age of only 26. But it is ageing rapidly. Currently individuals over the age of 60 are 12% of the total population. It is expected that this will go beyond 20% by the year 2040. Clearly this iforecase ids one of the quickest increases in the world. Remember, most of the would be elders today were wiped out during the long war. This image is of one gentleman who survived and at his age, he is full of humor - he would like to marry again, "in a heart beat" he says.
The people of this country are truly wonderful. They understand the devastation but accept it - "it was not the Vietnam war" they say "it was the American war" - collectively they are building for a better and stronger economy. I have yet to see a population that works as hard as the Vietnamese.
Image captured with the Panasonic Lumix G9 with the Leica 12-60 mm lens at 50mm. Exposure triad: f/4, 1/50 sec., ISO 400. Image was converted to B&W using Capture One.
Please click on the image for a larger rendition.
Lumix S1R High Res Mode - Palouse Sunset
This is a scaled down version of a 187 MP image of the rolling fields in the Palouse at sunset. The low angle of the sun creates lovely shadows and definition of the undulating hills. This was also a test of the Sigma MC21 with the Sigma 100-400 mm EF mount lens on the Lumix S1R.
Exposure triad: f/6.3, 1/60 sec, ISO 200. Focal length as shot: 400 mm.
I will be in Spokane, WA for the PSA conference and would like to do a photo workshop after the conference. If you are interested let me know so I can make necessary arangements.
Click on the image for a larger rendition.
Happy 4th from Cape Poge
Happy 4th to all. I am spending a few days with a dear friend in Cape
Photographed with the Panasonic Lumix S1R and the Lumix 24-105 f/4 lens. Exposure triad: f/8, 4 sec, ISO 640.
The Palouse at Sunrize
The fields of the Palouse photographed along the road about midway to the top of Steptoe Butte. It started with cloudy skies but then the sun peeked through providing lovely light. The detail captured using a 47MP full frame body with a Leica Certified 70-200mm is just exceptional.
Captured with the Lumix S1R and the S1 Pro 70-200 mm f/4 lens at 200mm. Exposure triad: f/11, 1/40 sec, ISO 200.
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.
Marineland Beach - A1A St. Augustine
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.
Lumix S1R - The value of great resolution with good pixels
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.
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.
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%.
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.
To further test the quality of images from the S1R, I took this small jpg image above and resized it 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.
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.
Vietnam - 2
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.
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.
Why miss an opportunity - here are his bulls that he had unyoked from the wagon.
A young Cham girl plays with simple toys while sitting on the dunes in a pile of tires.
Vietnam - March 2019 - 1
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.
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.
Burrowing Owlet
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.
Barred Owl - Corkscrew Swamp
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.
Hands-on with the new Panasonic Lumix S1R
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.
Thievery & A Dying Industry
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.
The Lumix S Party on TWiP
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.