I am so delighted with my new camera system, the Olympus OM-D EM-1. Half the weight of my Nikon D300 with an equivalent lens (purchased 7 years ago), it alleviates a shoulder problem that developed from hefting it so many, many times a day to take pictures.
I found these flowers on my birthday walk. The images are unedited in JPEG format, except for resizing.
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Sunlight changes so quickly. This moment made me stop, and then run for my camera—adjusting settings on the fly. There was no time for a tripod setup.
On first review, I was dismayed to see that even at f11—the best exposure I could capture handheld—focus on the foreground vases was soft. Then I realized what actually caught my eye was the background shadow and light, and that is sharp. Yes!
This camera has been my best friend for 6 years now, and is showing some signs of age. I know it so well I can shoot without thinking, and it’s going to be hard to move to a new system. However, the Fuji XT-1 sounds very appealing and would bring me full circle to my first love affair with digital: Fujifilm FinePix E900 (dating back to 2006). I still have that one, though it was re-purposed for a “shoebox camera” in 2009.
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Nikon D300; 1/15 sec @ f11, ISO 3200 (handheld);
18-200 mm f/3.5–5.6 @ 112mm (168mm EFL); focus distance 1.5m
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I love the Neotec tripod.
Walking upstairs the other evening in our home, I was stopped by color in this scene. Light from the setting sun was changing rapidly, so I ran down to grab my camera which was already mounted on the tripod with a cable release attached. It took no time to find the right vantage point and set the legs on different steps. Even working that quickly, there was time for only two exposures before the moment was gone.
Noise was a problem during post-processing, despite in-camera long-exposure noise reduction. I exposed for highlights to capture the window as I saw it—spot meter +2EV—and let shadows fall where they may. In hindsight, to “expose right” even further and darken later would have been a better approach. Then, however, I’d have to rely on memory as a reference and try not to fall into the trap of opening everything up for detail.
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Nikon D300; f9.5 @ 20sec, ISO 200 (tripod);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 44mm (66mm EFL); focus distance 5.96m