Music. Photography. Thoughts.
Dino Aranda has some nice images posted on his initial impressions of the Fuji XT-1 camera which he bought from a friend. I especially like the ones taken with an OM Zuiko 50mm/1.4 lens like I have it as well…
Oh, and have you seen yesterday’s entry on the Flickr blog? Some cool ‘celebrity’ shots there.
I was finally able to get the paperback version of Kirk Tuck’s first novel, called “The Lisbon Portfolio“:
The Lisbon Portfolio
I’m only some 50 pages in right now, but it seems to be a fun read. Espionage / suspense thriller, and for photographers I consider this a good one already. And now you have to excuse me – can’t wait to finish Kirk’s book…
Thanks for viewing.
P.S. (Update, from Tuesday, Oct. 14th, 2014):
I’ve finished it. Yesterday evening or rather this morning at 3 minutes past 12 (midnight). Just couldn’t stop.
And it’s a real nice book. Fits right in the list of spy fiction authors, and people like Jeffery Deaver, James Patterson, or the Kellermans (Jonathan and his wife Faye) come to mind. And while as a first it’s not as polished and perfect as these, it’s fresh instead.
If you know Kirk’s Blog and have seen some of his photos, you’ll admire how he describes the ‘making of’ of some of them.
This is no book review, so I’ll stop here. But I really recommended it to Mitchie already, since our bookshelf is full of the authors mentioned above, so I think she’ll love it as I did.
So this is really recommended, especially to photographers, but also to fans of the modern espionage thriller genre.
Normally I rarely show photos here which I didn’t take myself. But here’s one I found at work:
IBM Debuts Analytics for Everyone, by ibmphoto24 on Flickr
The photo shows IBMs next big thing, called Watson Analytics. And the slightly blurred colleague who holds the tablet PC is actually IBMs youngest Vice President (of IBM Big Data and Analytics, and since I’m working in Business Intelligence and in the IBM Software Group like her, she’s actually one of my highest bosses), Mrs. Inhi Cho Suh.
It’s an impressive technology, and if you want to know more about it, just visit IBM. I’m just showing it here because I also think that this is a nice photo.
Thanks for viewing.
I’m a bit busy at the moment, so I don’t have much own content which I could show (and some ‘follower’ on Flickr asked already).
But look at the downloadable preview of this book:
It really makes you think, not only about those pictures (which are great), but also about your own creations…
Seems that I need just another book about photography, and it also seems that this is a good one – and it’s not about technique, but about the photos, and about how to see them.
Interesting anyway, so you could also consider to follow Brooks’ blog (which I also do). And if I consider purchasing a book, then you can be sure that I would also recommend it.
Found via George Barr’s blog.
Yesterday Zuleikha took my picture while I took hers:
Panasonic TZ7. E-PL5 with 45mm lens at f/2.
Haven’t seen her photo yet. But who knows – maybe she’ll blog about it as well?
Thanks for viewing.
I had mentioned Mike Johnston’s question about opinions regarding the Olympus OM-D E-M1 already; now he asks the same from owners of the Fuji X-T1. Mike has both but wants to keep only one; it will be interesting to see his choice (and to read about the reasons for whatever choice he will make).
And Thom Hogan also tries to find an answer on the question which of the better mirror-free cameras to choose, and for whom. Interesting.
Paul Liu describes his experiences about changing from a Canon 7D to an Olympus OM-D E-M10 on Steve Huff’s page, and he has very nice photos there as well.
Pekka Potka tried a Sony A7R again, and still doesn’t see much of a difference between it and his Olympus OM-D E-M1.
Lindsay Dobson invites everyone who’s interested to take part in an Olympus Proteges program; you’ll get an E-M10 to keep, so I applied. I chose the class with Damian ‘The Big Dog’ McGillyCuddy tho. Let’s see if I have what she calls ‘the X factor’ 😉
Update from July 7th: I haven’t read the terms and conditions before applying – I don’t qualify since I’m not a resident of the United Kingdom. Too bad…
PhotographyLife welcomes Sharif aka Alpha Whiskey Photography, and he shows beautiful photos indeed, well worth a look. Much better than only to read about cameras all of the time IMHO.
And Reinhard from Pen and Tell shows an impressive video of a Cello player which he made with two E-M10 cameras. You can read about it on their page or watch the video on Youtube as well, which I recommend (it’s bigger there). Astonishing what you can achieve with cameras for 600€ (plus a few heavy and expensive Four Thirds lenses of course) 😉
Ok, that’s it for this lunch break… more perhaps later, should I find anything else.
Thanks for reading.
Do you know the Mansurovs? Well, as a Nikon photographer you may have heard of them, others probably not. But Nasim writes maybe the best camera reviews I’ve read so far, probably together with Gordon Laing and with Imaging Resource. And like Ming Thein for instance, he’s also photographer enough to show the potential of the gear he reviews.
Today he published his review of the Fuji X-T1, a camera which I handled too briefly to write anything meaningful about it. And as always, looking at the photos in his review, it’s much more than the “nice camera” I called it. See Gordon’s and Imaging Resources takes on the X-T1 as well if you’re really interested in that camera, or in cool review sites.
Nasim mostly writes about Nikon gear, because that’s what he and his wife are using. But he also has reviews about some other stuff, like the Olympus E-M5 and E-M1, some Canon or Sony, and even a Mamiya RZ67. Plus they also have useful articles and tutorials, so they’re well worth a visit. They? Yes, several people are writing there, see them on his “About Us” page.
So, Nasim’s site is called “Photography Life“, and well worth a visit (or as in my case, even a RSS bookmark).
I’ve read an almost similar quote in the past already, and in fact it was partly the reason for me to get into the mirrorless µ43rds system. But it’s even more true for the Sony A7 family with their “full frame” sensors which almost have the exact same size like 135 film used to have. To quote Giles about it:
“So , if you are familiar with mirrorless cameras, they aspired to become a universal digital back, because their short distance to flange allowed them to accommodate any FF35 lens, with no need to correct the crop factor which other systems have (as high as 2x, in the case of m4/3) with a focal reducer.”
(from his article in “Sony A7, or the Lego FF System“)
Right. The price, body-only of the basic A7 (24MP) model here in Germany is 1230€ (at Amazon and others, partly with free shipping). And I would have a really good Olympus OM 50mm/1.4 which would be very nice to have on such a camera.
Those 50mm lenses on the “Pens” (I used the OM Zuiko 50mm/1.8 at f/5.6 here, hand-held at 1/8 of a second at ISO 800, which wouldn’t have been possible on these Sony cameras, since they don’t have image stabilization built in. So using these I would have had to use an even higher ISO setting, or a tripod. Cropped to 3:2 format during post to get a feeling for that other format again.)
My brother Willi has a Canon FD 50mm/1.8, a Canon FD 24mm/2.8, and a Sigma Zoom with Canon FD mount which would also be very nice when used with such a non-crop digital sensor. Both the resolution and also the dynamic range couldn’t be met with smaller systems like APS-C or µ43rds, which makes that thought a very tempting one indeed. That new Sony system doesn’t have all the native lens options that Canon or Nikon have for their DSLRs, but as a mirrorless system with a built-in electronic viewfinder at an even lower price than these older DSLRs, the Sony would be superior at least when used with these “legacy” lenses anyway.
Thinking about it since a while already…
The quote of the day, for me, comes from David Taylor-Hughes, about using a lens with a “normal” angle of view:
“I like the lack of choices and I like the fact that It’s me that creates the image not some fancy optic and that there’s no stretching or compressing of perspective. It’s down to me whether what’s in the rectangle works or doesn’t. It is, in fact, my favourite kind of photography.”
It’s from this blog post of his. And he’s right – my 25mm lens (50mm-equivalent on film) is also my favourite one.
One who has and uses the newer 25mm lens from Olympus instead of my Panasonic/Leica one is Andreas Manessinger. See for example this post, and browse others from there as well. Impressive, to say the least.
I’ve decided to show the work of others here as well. Sometimes that’s possible, sometimes I would have to ask their permission first. It’s possible if/when others have or use the same or a similar CC licensing for their photos as I do – in that case, you can, if not, ask them. Easy as that.
One who is very well known, maybe because he shares freely, maybe because he’s simply that good – is Trey Ratcliff. Presenting him here isn’t really necessary, as he has lots of followers and people who admire his work. He’s pretty good even with HDR, and wrote some tutorials about it, and he has lots and lots of cool landscape and/or cityscape work.
His blog is called “Stuck in Customs“, since he’s also traveling a lot. And from his latest post which he called “Facemasks of Toyko“, here’s the first one he showed. Taken with a Sony A7R camera and using a manually focused Leica 50mm/1.4 lens:
Shibuya Hair, by Trey Ratcliff
Well worth a visit, if you don’t do that anyway already.
Thanks for viewing.