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.
Coppersmith Barbet Psilopogon haemacephalus – Lumix G9 with the Leica 100 – 400 mm. Exposure triad: f/6.3, 1/640 sec, ISO 8000
Barbets are a species of tropical birds in the family Capitonidae (order Piciformes). Barbets are named for the bristles at the bases of their bills that they use to dig holes in rotting trees where there will nest. They have large heads and short tails and are not agile fliers. They eat insects, lizards, birds’ eggs, fruit, and berries.
The Keoladeo NP has three species of Barbet. I was able to photograph only the Brown-headed Barbet Psilopogon zeylanicus and the Coppersmith Barbet Psilopogon haemacephalus, The third, White-cheeked Barbet was not found.
As these birds sit in very dense leaf trees the light is hard to work with and high ISOs become mandatory.
Brown-headed Barbet Psilopogon zeylanicus – Lumix G9 with the Leica 200mm and 1.4X teleconverter. Exposure triad: f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 1600
Tricolored Heron Reflected – Exposure triad: f/5.6, 1/1600 sec at ISO 640. Focal length 800mm (Full Frame equivalent)
Last week at the Florida Space Coast Wildlife and Birding Festival this image was shot hand-held using the new Lumix G9 and the Leica 200mm lens with the 2X Teleconverter. What I really love is the ability to handhold this combination, yes 800mm equivalant, for the entire morning. The image stabilization is exceptional and the lens performs great. Mind you the lens I was using is a pre production sample and I am sure when I have the production version, it will be even better. In addition, what is truly great about the G9 is the way it renders color – it’s just fantastic!
Great Blue Heron in early morning light. Lumix G9 with the Leica 100 – 400 at 528 mm eq. Exposure Triad: f/8, 1/320 sec ISO 800
It was a gorgeous 84 degree day yesterday when I arrived in Titusville for the Space Coast Festival but this morning it was a cold 51 degrees. This rapid change is no good for bird photography as most of the birds were hunkered down in the mangroves. The few that braved the cold were mostly way out of reach even with an 800 mm equivalent lens.
These are a few decent images albeit severely cropped. Now for the good news – the new Leica 200 mm f/2.8 arrived and I have just unpacked it. Will give this lens a shot tomorrow morning.
Snowy Egret. Lumix G9 with the Leica 100 – 400 at 800mm eq. Exposure Triad: f/6.3, 1/6400 sec ISO 400
Spoonbills and Great Egret. Lumix G9 with the Leica 100 – 400 at 800mm eq. Exposure Triad: f/6.3, 1/2000 sec ISO 200
Spoonbill Preening. Lumix G9 with the Leica 100 – 400 at 800mm eq. Exposure Triad: f/6.3, 1/1000 sec ISO 200
I have been asked this many times and no matter how much I explain it there is still some confusion. Basically, the Post Focus function in the supporting Lumix cameras rely on the high-resolution video capability in conjunction with focus racking to capture a sequence of images that can be selected by defining the plane of focus. So as an example, if you were to set up a yardstick and let the camera take a post-focus image – the camera would focus on the nearest point to the lens take an image and then gradually refocus a bit further out and take another image till it reached the end of the frame at the farthest point. There would be a series of images each one at a different point of focus. Note however that this sequence is captured using the video mode of the camera.
Once the images are captured, the camera does internal processing that then allows you to tap on the screen to select the image that has the best focus at that selected point. You can then opt to save this selected image. Supporting this function is post-capture peaking to confirm focus and in addition, you can magnify the image for a selective selection.
This feature is further augmented with a merge function. You can merge all the images captured into a single image that is tack sharp from the closest focus point to the farthest. However what is even more useful, particularly if you use large apertures for a shallow depth of field and you want to keep your background out of focus. You can select the range you want to merge and thereby leave the remainder of the scene out of focus.
The following image that I used as the lead image was captured in post focus and merged in its entirety.
For this next Post-focus demonstration I placed a postcard on the background and merged the entire set of images. As you can see the postcard is in focus as are the flowers.
Next, I used the same Post-Focus set but this time iI selected just the range I wanted, just the flowers and executed the merge. The following is the resulting image with the postcard nicely blurred:
I hope this gives you a better understanding of the power of this feature and the many ways you can use it. Please note that when these images are captured using 6K Photo Mode, the resulting images are 18 MP and suitable for very large enlargements when processed with the appropriate software.
Many new cameras have repurposed their in body image stabilization to create high resolution images employing sensor shift capture. The Lumix G9 uses the same concept but shifts the sensor by 1/2 pixel rather than a full pixel. It captures 8 images in raw and combines them in-camera to generate a single 80 MP Raw file. Whats more is that you can capture a single standard resolution RAW file of the same image in addition to the high resolution image. This is a great feature for studio based product photography, still life and architectural photography. As there is (releatively) significant capture time, any scene with moving subject matter is not suitable for High Resolution capture.
I set up a simple shot of a Gerbera Daisy with an artificial background to test the resolution and imprtance of this feature. the image above is what I was photographing. The shutter delay was set for 15 seconds to give me enough time to exit the room and to stabilize any vibration or tripod and camera body. The exposure triad:f/8, 1/200 sec at ISO 200.
The red stroked are is enlarged below for comparison. Of significance, is the minimal pixilation of theis crop in the hi-res image compared to the standard 20.3 MP file.
Cropped section of the High Resolution Mode Capture
Cropped Section of the Standard 20.3 MP image
The base file at 300 DPI is approx. 34.5 inches by 26 inches. I have sussessfully enlarged this image to 30 feet by 22.5 feet and the image maintains exceptional quality.
This is a late post but never the less the Out of Acadia conference was spectacular. Over a hundred participants and multiple instructors made the event a great success. Between leading excursions and doing classes there was not much time to do a lot of photography but this was photographed on the last day at Little Hunters Beach. Given the shape of the cove and the direction of the sunrise, one has to wait for the light to hit is peninsula.
I used my new Leica 12 – 60 mm with the GH5 that I am loving more and more – particularly with Version 2.1 of the firmware update. Exposure triad: ISO 200, f/7.1, 6 sec at 12mm (24mm equivalent). Benro filter holder with a polarizer and 4 stop ND and a grad.
The image below is the same converted to B&W using Capture One 10.
Spending Labor Day weekend in Ogunquit, Maine. At 4:30 AM trip to Cape Elisabeth to photograph Portland Head Light. No fog no clouds but still some nice light on the rocks and the lighthouse. A 3 min 24 sec exposure.
Refugees Welcome
After a lot of debate I decided to title this image “Refugees Welcome”. In the past 6 months the topic of refugees has been dominant in the news. With Canada as one of the countries that has openly welcomed refugees, I felt this image represented the statement appropriately. The concrete totems can be viewed as either emerging or going into the St. Lawrence river in Northern Quebec.
A little back story on this image: we had picked a number of location to photograph this morning but the incessant rain messed up our plans. So we stopped for a second breakfast and more coffee. – Well one just cant keep sitting in a restaurant for ever so I decided to get this image rain or no rain. It was pouring but I had my GH5 with the 12 – 35 mm f/2.8 (version 1) lens attached. I wanted to slow the shutter down so as to prevent capturing the water drops splashing on the water but was not going to venture back to the car to get my ND filters. I had my polarizer on so I closed down the aperture to f/18 that was enough to give me a shutter speed of 60 seconds at ISO 100 – yes it was quite dark and miserable. I held my hand over the front of the lens to prevent rain from ruining the image. The camera and lens were soaked but I got the image. I am convinced, first hand – the Panasonic Lumix GH5 is great in the rain. One day I might consider doing a dust test – Africa or India would be great for that.
The following images are ones I have already posted on Facebook but wanted to include them as a record of the trip to Northern Quebec and New Brunswick over the 4th of July weekend 2017.
Himalayan Blue Poppy – Lumix GH5 with the Lumix Vario 30mm macro. Exposure triad f/2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO 400.
Potato Field – New Brunswick. Panasonic Lumix G7 IR converted, Lumix Vario 14 – 140 mm. lens.
Fields of New Brunswick. Panasonic Lumix G7 IR converted, Lumix Vario 14 – 140 mm. lens.
Northern Gannet Pointing
This was one of my very first images captured with the GH5 using the Leica 12 – 60 lens while the model was being prepped. The image is a jpg capture in sRGB. Click on the image to view it larger.
DP review
