Had the opportunity to take a few days off and travel to the mountains of New Mexico near the town of Silver City. Stayed in a cabin in the woods with and old friend of ours from St Thomas, USVI… Reminds me of an old joke. “To the woods, to the woods!” “Anywhere but the woods!!” “ANYWHERE???” “To the woods….”
But I digress I did bring some cameras with me to play with.
Probably the best all around camera for travel and convenience from Panasonic is the Lumix FZ1000. I like if for it’s fast glass, range of 25-400mm with a digital zoom option to take it to 1600mm and super light weight about two and a half pounds. Here are a couple photos from the FZ near the cabin.
Nature’s camo! If I hadn’t had the camera set to a shallow Depth of Field that deer would be almost invisible.
These woodpecker were flitting from tree to tree in search of their next snack. Having a high perch on an upper deck made photographing them relatively easy. The 400mm reach of the lens didn’t hurt either.
Don’t forget to take your cameras with you on holiday. It’s a great time to learn new settings that can help you get better images while not under any pressure…
I believe you need to look around before you can see. And, you need to spend time seeing before you can create a vision with your photography. This is a post about an exercise I did and ask people to do to expand their vision. There are many variations on forcing yourself to study an area until you’ve come close to exhausting the photographic possibilities. In this case the ‘assignment’ was to photograph this subject without moving more than 5 feet in any direction for a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour.
Having a capable camera with you at all times helps to define your vision. The low profile and light weight of the micro 4/3rds system makes it easy for me to be more creative. In this case various Lumix lenses and the Lumix GX8 were used in the capture…
Here are contact sheets from the shoot followed by some of my favorites from the shoot…
Contact sheet one images are SOOC (straight out of Camera)
Contact sheet 2
Contact sheet 3… There were about 4 plus contact sheets all together but you get the idea!
Below were a few of the images I worked up from the session followed by a Time-Lapse of the shoot.
Black and white turned this into a very graphic feel and tells the story of ‘Place’
Aerial view with fish eye lens
Mood piece with some NIK Color Pro 4 FX. Dreamy…
Then it was on to the story of the Knights.
Many other images were captured during the ‘assignment’ but these were the ones I thought I’d share.
Time-lapse showing the shoot shot with Lumix FZ1000 mounted on tripod capturing an image every three seconds. Processed in camera to MP4. Very cool feature!
During the rainy season here in Arizona it pays to keep a camera nearby and one eye peeled for the ever-changing weather conditions. I was at dinner and noticed a rain shower passing by and thought I’d better go scope it out. I had the Lumix FZ1000 with me when I checked outside to find this rainbow (trying to double-up) from the deck at Sound Bites Grill.
Working on a double rainbow over the red rocks of Sedona
I used the Panorama Mode to capture the entire rainbow. With the FZ1000 I had to make a few passes for this scene because there was nt a lot of detail in the sky for the software to see and stitch. I was wishing for the Lumix GX8 or the G7 as they have new stitching that does a better job in situations like this. The FZ1000 has so many easy options it’s hard not to make it your carry around camera. Next time I’ll grab one of the others and my small Think Tank Mirrorless Mover 20 bag with a couple lenses to add a few more options…
I should also have captured a series of RAW images for later stitching in Photoshop or Autopano Pro. Next time.
Started out to be a beautiful morning. Up at 5:20AM to catch a flight to Nashville for my speaking and judging gig for the Tennessee Professional Photographers Association. Flight is 7:35 lift off… Err not so much. Maintenance issues called for the plane to not be in service…
So when do we anticipate our new flight? 10AM. Bummer!
Well work on tweaks to the program, answer emails and check some forums on the web.
The flight actually took off a bit later than anticipated about 10:30AM but before we boarded the plane they announced that everyone would receive a $100 travel voucher good until a year from now.
It’s appreciated.
I personally don’t want a plane in the air that’s not ready to go so I say fix that bad boy!
This is the first time I’ve flown Southwest Airlines in many years and I was impressed. I’ll be back.
Had a radio show interview with Mike Tabback on the weekly Tech Talk radio show. I’m on once a month to chat about cameras, photography, shooting techniques, Photoshop and more…
In this weeks episode we chat about some of the new Lumix cameras and our Luminary meeting in Sarasota, Florida. In the second half we talk about the International Photographic Competition for photographers put on by Professional Photographers of America. I am one of 45 the Judges who volunteer almost a week of their time to judge and critique entries. It is quite an honor and intense experience to be part of that event!
Finally catching up with some of my posts after being on the road for an entire week working with the Lumix Luminary Team and helping to judge the PPA International Photographic Competition outside Atlanta.
Here’s an image from our first night in Sarasota. This was captured with the Lumix FZ1000, a camera I find in my hand on a regular basis because it is so versatile. As they say, the best camera to create an image is the one you have on you. With a built in 25-400mm f2.8-f4.0 lens that weighs under two and a half pounds it makes it pretty easy to have on hand.
Sunset after processing with NIK Filters and Adobe Camera RAW Renders the scene closer to my memory of the scene. (OK maybe a little extra zing but not much)
Capture straight from the camera. I could have preprocessed the image in camera but we were busy enjoying getting together with fellow Luminaries and even though we are all photographers we tend to ‘grab’ some images when we are not officially being paid for a specific job.
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
Fotopro tripods are well worth checking out. You can learn about the ones I use and recommend by clicking on the Fotopro Tripods link at the top of this page. If you want to see what other tripods might fit your needs check out the Fotopro.com website. Check back with me before you buy as a Fotopro Ambassador I’m able to get you discounted pricing including complementary continental USA shipping for my followers that you won’t find through retail outlets.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
Cameras Get Smarter -
A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
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Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
