Digital Photography Blog

Well, I thought that as portrait photography goes, horses are a very under represented pieces. So there is a time to correct that. In Richmond park, they have those stables, where few horses roam freely in the pen. I approached them very carefully because horses do make me nervous, since they themselves are known to be a very nervous animals. As the tension between two nervous animals approaching each other grew, one pedestrian and one equestrian, I realized that quite possibly I could have been wrong about the nature of the horses.

This anonymous horse turned out to be a very friendly fellow, and indeed it seems that he is very much used to a little presents since it immediately started licking my hand.

Luckily I was holding my Lumix G1 in the other hand. You can just try to imagine what would it be like to try to take photographs with the camera lens that just had been liked. That would be one hell of chromatic aberration! As Mr Horse realized that I had no sugar cube, it started turning away from me and I lifted Lumix G1 to get ready.

When I used to have Coolpix 990, I was always composing from the small LCD it had on its back. But since Lumix G1 became my main camera, I turned back to composing the picture via viewfinder, since on the Lumix G1 you can take about 60-65 shots with LCD and about 350 if you use viewfinder. Yes, 65 shots on LCD and 350 on viewfinder. Currently I have only one battery, but this might change in the future. But there is a severe shortage of the genuine Panasonic DMW-BLB13 batteries, and I have two on a back order.

So, if you are buying Lumix G1 or GH1, get a spare battery straight away. And take care, since genuine Panasonic batteries are chipped, which means that if you get a cloned battery it will not work with he latest firmware. I know, clones are 300% cheaper, and Panasonic must be making a kill on those genuine $80 batteries.

Web Bicycles

I used to ride a bicycle to the work every day and the biggest enemy that I had was the rain. It seeps under the collar down to your bones. That is why I couldn’t resist taking this photo, which might not mean a lot to somebody who hasn’t experienced the same type of slow torture.

Because scene was so evenly illuminated, I had simply set the Lumix GH1 exposure measurement to P or Program AE Mode and, as usual I used AFS single auto-focus mode. Because it was raining I thought it would be a good idea to use the lens hood, supplied with Lumix G Vario 14-45mm, just to avoid getting the raindrops onto the lens.

Towards the hoop, camera: Lumix GH1

I do not play basketball as often as this blog suggests and I never really tried to do sports photography, but that’s somehow how this blog is developing. They have this strange basketball court near the place where a friend of mine lives. Rock solid steel grid basketball board. Ball bounces of it like a brick, one just can’t get the right feeling when shooting at such a thing.

Anyway, I have grown so fond of my Panasonic Lumix GH1 that I am carrying it with myself all the time. It is not really a pocket camera, more like rucksack camera, so that is how we now go.

I set the Lumix GH1 into the shutter priority, combined with high speed Burst mode, which is bit more than 3 fps, and fired away, while my friend was shooting. With Lumix GH1 it is important to have Auto-Focus set on continuous when doing moving objects, because it means that it will continue keeping the image sharp even while exposure is taken.

River Fence

I was walking along the Thames and I noticed those old spikes. If this river fence was designed nowadays those spikes would definitely be out of the question. I peaked at them with the zoom set to 14mm (28mm relative to old 35mm film format) on the Lumix GH1 and they looked right. So I took several compositions.

What I didn’t notice was that Lumix GH1 was accidentally set to B&W mode. And that omission was mostly due to the fact that scene itself was almost colorless, since Thames water is really a very pale brown muddy color and railing was just plain black.

architectural detail

On our way back from basketball, I couldn’t resist to take a photograph of this interesting bridge over the railway. It is actually more of a raised walkway, than a bridge, but it is an architectural element so hopefully it fits with the rest of pictures. Here in UK, Health and Safety is so strict that one can not jump of the bridge even if he wanted. That is why we have them bridges so pictorially clad into wire cages.

I thought it wold be a nice scene for a cover of a pank-rock group’s album. Unfortunatelly rebelion had gone out of a fashion long ago.

Low angle shot of a basketball player

I have been to my friend’s Paul place so many times, and there was always this basketball, sort off, in the way. You certainly know the feeling, because Paul never talked about the basketball, he was into weight lifting and salsa and that type of stuff. Sporty, but not into any sport, if you know what I mean.

So, since I am into a basketball and shooting at the hoops, I tossed the suggestion that we go out and give old bouncer few spins. Sure enough, Paul liked the idea and we went to the basketball court, that was only 5 minutes on foot anyway. And since I am into making pictures and he is into being photographed I took my new Lumix GH1 with me as well.

I’ve done about 40-50 shots, but this one was standing out. I must admit that I did it why laying down on tarmac, just to get the angle right. I thing this photo brings some of the basketball spirit out. One thing I forgot to try, was Panasonic Lumix GH1’s 3 fps continuous shooting mode, but I’ll save that for the next time.

I think most photographers avoid shooting in a full sun, because doing so produces those harsh facial shadows, not to mention that direct sun makes people squint and frown, what doesn’t always look flattering in the photographs.

One easy way around, is to shoot while your subject is in the shadow. Particularly if you are lucky enough to be taking photos in the area where there is a lot of natural shadows, like in urban and built up areas. One can always help the situation by placing subject into an evenly shaded are in the path of naturally reflected light. The same principle applies when shooting in more open space. One can always look for white or beige reflective surface, like wall or a gate or a large vehicle like lorry or van. Between choosing to turn the subjects towards the sun, or to shoot the back lit photo, personally I would prefer to go for a back lit portrait and just ad 1.5 stops to compensate for darker face. Using the natural reflectors would save you lumbering and setting up all the additional kit, and shorter set up time will certainly make the photographed person more relaxed.

Using the natural reflectors will give you confidence to take on more shooting situations and would certainly make you proud of results.

Hendon Way Spirals - photo with Panasonic Lumix GH1

This was my first afternoon of handling the Panasonic Lumix GH1, after I was lucky to take it out of the box, I was impressed with just what camera can do. Instruction manual is a quarter inch thick and one would need a Phd degree, just to get going. I wanted to get a red one, but red ones were all snatched, so I had to put up with a black body or postpone my holiday!

The body is unbelievably compact and light. It comes as a nice surprise that chassis is a mixture of plastic and metal and aesthetically the camera is pleasing – certainly to my eye.

A 14-140 Lumix HD lens, shooting was easy-peasy. There’s a lumpy Mode dial on the top right-hand side of the camera body, with the all usual settings, bellow which with touch of practical genius Panasonic has provided on/off button. Dial has a quick switch that makes changing all the multi shot modes easy.

If you want to become Lumix GH1 expert and spend endless hours tweaking the setting, do go ahead. But, Panasonic had cleverly provided point-and-shoot-out-of-the-box settings that will make average snapper very happy.

23-point auto focus system works extremely quickly and makes portraits relay easy, meaning that every face in the picture will be in focus when shutter button was pressed. Count the Face Recognition feature and you will forget about $1,400 plus that vanished on your credit card when you finally acquired this marvel. zkq8n6utxf

There is one of my first photos with done with Lumix GH1:

Fast turn - photo with Panasonic Lumix GH1