Moving Slowly : dltphoto

Clearly I need to be whacked with the tardiness stick. My lack of interest of sitting at the computer for hours on end has resulted in an utter lack of posts. I have many images to post but since my new career change doesn't really have any bearing on photography anymore my urgency to post my strange images seems less important now. Its kind of hard to explain but I need to get back to my posting ways. All 3 of my followers are probably missing me.

So as not to rush into 100's of boring posts with images I'll start light and hopefully gain momentum and post more in depth thoughts in the future..

 Ill start with this little guy... just chilling at Green Lake covered in the weird foam created by the wind forced ripples on a sunny day. Shot with the brilliant little Olympus  TG-850. No editing needed but just a little cropping.

The Thompson River, BC

Sunset at Green Lake, BC (Olympus Dramatic Tone Filter) because I've  never used THAT before...

Seattle in Miniature :dltphoto

One clever little feature that has been added to cameras for sometime now is "diorama" or "tilt 'n' shift" mode. A clever technique of selective in focus and out of focus portions making the image seem like its of a little scale model of a city or scene. Ultimately as good as this option is on a camera, the scene is really the make or break to a successful fooling of the eyes. My initial attempts from my recent one night visit to Seattle have given me some better insight of how to approach future diorama shots and there will be more, I promise.
My new Olympus TG-850 has this diorama mode as one of its "art filters". So I am basically shooting the scene and the camera is doing all the work for me. The key to a realistic fake City picture is having a high view point of a street view with people and cars, ideally not moving  fast that they are blurred. No fake city model ever has fast moving static cars, got it??!!
Here are some of my attempts.

Just for fun I wondered through the city mall to see if that's viable too. One thing I lacked in both scene's was people. I managed to convince 3 'random' persons to wander through my mall scene though!!!

Still, Not an Addict, D's Choice :dltphoto

Some of you music lovers may have come across a Band from Belgium called K's Choice who have some brilliant music and a classic track called "not an addict".



Well I am not an Olympus "dramatic tone" addict, it's a lie.

Raccoon left a hand print. I hope he didn't burn himself.

I didn't realise it until after the fact. A little bug friend invaded my shot.

Some Addictions are Tough to Break :dltphoto

So I have come across my new addiction. It's kind of like when you first get that fisheye lens you always wanted. You've dreamed of all the crazy things you're going to shoot with it, then after a few weeks you realise that damn it's cool but then the cool drug wears off. Your worst fear. They love has dried up and you have lost the ability to creatively use it or that you have just about "done" everything you think you can do with it. You retire it to the shelf, it gathers dust until your next creative fisheye dream.

Well I mentioned about the Olympus Tough TG-850 I acquired, I have had the same "fisheye" experience.
I suggested I wasn't going to use it for everything, but well, I lied. It's so addictive. Especially for sky images. It's adds mustard to your hotdog, it's the rum to your coke. It's the filter for your art.

Chuck it: dltphoto

Pretty sure Olympus had this on their minds when they created this Camera. Olympus Tough TG-850
, but don't forget the floating strap....

It's Tough, but someone's got to do it :dltphoto

Feeling very fortunate at this time as I was one of the lucky draw winners at the very recent Kerrisdale Camera's Staff Party. What did I win? Not a Nikon D810 or a Nikon 1 V3 or a Fuji X20, I won a Fabulous Olympus Tough TG-850. Wooooah. Oddly, the one thing I don't actually own already is a Shockproof/ Waterproof and Crushproof Camera. My girls have them but a lower end versions of Olympus and they're pink, they have been holding up quite well, so far.

 I figured I should take some pics of it now whilst it is still clean and tidy, I don't think its going to look like this for much longer, not that I am intentionally going to put it in harms way as I do prefer working camera's over dead ones. I fully expect it to have some mishaps in the line of fire, especially in the work environment I am now accustomed to.

 The best thing about these little cameras is that they are still 1,000,000,000 times better than a cell phone. I would much rather have a camera on my person at all times than a cell phone and now I can, come rain, saw dust, mud, ladders or lakes this thing is good to go. I must remind myself if I do get it dirty I can just wash it off!

First off this camera should probably be known as the 'Selfie' camera since its flip up screen is totally gearing up for nightclubbers, Its amazing 21mm Ultra Wide lens makes this a full on party camera. "Party On Wayne, Party on Garth".

The first thing I did was turn it to the brilliant "art filter" option and there it was.... the 'Dramatic Tone' filter. My serious blog readers will of course remember a previous post when I used the Art filter on one of Olympus's Micro 4/3 camera of which I scored an 10/10 at our local photoclub! Since I was only borrowing the camera from the rep I sadly had to let that filter go from my life, but now it's back and its tougher!
I am not going to bore you with all the specs, they can be checked out here on Olympus Canada.

Here's a few dramatic tone images to wet your whistle and don't worry I wont use it on this mode all the time, I promise.

Christmas is coming....:dltphoto

This year I am going to inform you that all the camera's are great. All of them, really. Every manufacturer has caught up and everybody is producing a decent product with wonderful image quality.

This year I believe is the year that the Mirrorless Camera will emerge as the dominant product people are after. Since they are so small and so capable, plus we are seeing some nice price reductions due to some newer models being announced. This is the best time to pickup some great deals and still get a camera that is very new in the world of technology. First the Nikon 1 series of camera's are being switched to a new model which has had a very soft upgrade to the new version (series 2). Olympus Pen E-PL3 is one of my fav's in the Olympus lineup.

As for the Compacts.. again, they are all good. A feature that I have enjoyed is the Sweeping Panoramic system. Available in most of Nikon's upper end models with the 16MP Sensor.
As for the styles that seem to be most popular are the Shockproof, Waterproof models. These  models are fantastic for butter fingers, too many times have I seen camera's with "impact" damage. The same applies to how many times I have watched a Cell Phone hitting the ground and dispersing into 20 glorious pieces. The need for these camera's is evident! Nikon AW100 or Pentax WG-2 and both excellent for under $249.

Then we hit the serious enthusiast Pocket Camera's. Canon has an impressive lineup at this time, includes the Powershot S110 ( now with WiFi and Raw capable). Sweet little 5 X Zoom and sweet customizable Ring Feature. We can kind of slip the Fuji X10 and the New, but not yet available Fuji XF1 in this category also. All very well made camera's with a whole bundle of capability and great for creativity.

Lastly, the DSLR's. All looking very impressive. Best value for a DSLR designed for our dreary weather system is Pentax's K-30. Soooo weather sealed. It's insane. None of the other sub $900 DSLR's have any kind of weather sealing like this. So give it a thought! All offer HD video, some now offer WiFi capability such as Nikon D3200 (WiFi adapter required for $70), Canon EOS 6D (built in WiFi)

Probably some of the best-est bets this year will be accessories. Bags, tripods, filters..... FLASH'S, Yes. As a wise man once said " Flash is your friend"... oh, that was me! Without light you are powerless, unless you have F1.2 lenses, but who really can afford them! If your current camera can take an additional flash then get one that can change the light direction. Starting at $100 the Metz 24 AF-1 (available for all manufacturers in TTL), simple, powerful. Makes indoor shots nicer.

Then wrap up all the Christmas presents with a One on One Lesson with yours truly  Then they can have a nice camera and I can start to teach them how to use it.

APAC: Photoclub Submissions, May 2012: dltphoto

SO... May's submissions were very, very  interesting.
We had been informed that the usual CAPA judge would again be replaced by somebody not trained with the "rules", this Judge was an Artist (painter) and a teacher I believe. Something different!

My first Image up was for the Assigned Category, this months topic was "Junk".

"where beds are laid to rest" (score 20)

It was a junk store I came across last summer on one of our camping trips, Shot with the Nikon D200 and 70-200 2.8VR, I thought it had decent colour and detail.I hoped the bed frame would look obvious and people could distinguish it, it scored ok compared to all the others, it wasnt scored the worst!

Next Up... A shocker!

"skies that surprise" ( score 10)

So, I have shown this image before on my other blogs for Lens and Shutter etc.... So, I am sure other APAC club members had seen it before, but the Judge has not.... SOOOO she gave it a 10... blimey, a 10. The only 10 of the night!
So I had to give a quick spiel about it, Shot with the Olympus Pen E-PL2 with the stock 14-42 lens, right out of the camera using one of the ART Filters called "Dramatic Tone". Basically it then offers the operator , regardless of photo knowledge, the power of well edited images without any of the after shooting non-sense ( a kind of in-camera photoshop).

Then, to top it off I had this image. A little more on the creative edge. I thought since its a Non-Capa judge I might get lucky and I scored an 8... very pleased she recognised it as an interesting composition. She even selected it to critique at the end. Of which she offered it sparked and emotion from her, she was mad at it as she wanted to move the leaf off centre for some reason, but she enjoyed the image.
As for the title I don't think anyone quite understood which is fine, it sparked a reaction... Titled 50/50 due to the fact the leaf was sitting mostly  50% over the blue paint and the road... not 50% of the blue and road which most people assumed what I was suggesting. Also this one was shot with my Phone, this is my highest scoring phone pic...

"50/50" score 8

Olympus XA2, gone but not forgotten: dltphoto

Heres a few "winners" from a roll of film I found from the Olympus XA2 which I acquired from somewhere!
The XA2 was an interesting little camera, super small but so simple. It was introduced in 1980 and was a more simplified version of the XA. The only "negative" (pun) of this little camera is the silly zone focusing system. Three little symbols, one that looks like two snowmen, the next is two people shapes like bells holding hands and the third is the classic symbol for a mountain.