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.