sound bites grill art

Dinner!

MMM good! Filet skewer with mashed potatoes… Sound Bites Grill. Sedona, AZ.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming for this space.

Had my Lumix LX100 an energetic little point and shoot with me when I went out for a meal with my wife. I try not to get too carried away with my camera gear when we are out for a pleasurable meal so I just bring the little guy for the occasional frame grab when something grabs my attention. So when the entertainer went on break I noticed the lighting on the mic and stage and thought “There’s a pretty cool scene…”

sound bites grill photo

Sound Bites Grill stage waiting for the return of the guitarist.

This is a pretty powerful little camera which I have dubbed, “the professionals point & shoot”, with all the pro settings available outside the electronic menus on easy to use dials. I set this for Aperture Priority and knocked the the Exposure compensation down about one stop to preserve the highlights. Brought the shadows back up a bit when processing in Adobe Camera RAW. Shooting at 3200 ISO gave a bit of noise in the shadows so I used NIK Define 2 to knock out the noise. Make a square crop and Viola…

Yours in Creative Photography,      Bob

PS – I was at a client restaurant for dinner and entertainment and will gift them this image and a couple others to use for some marketing. Solid long time client!

airline to atl and back part two

Yesterday I shared a few images from the window seat and today here are a few more. As a Panasonic Lumix Luminary (check out the Lumix Lounge) I get to work with a lot of different pro and advanced amateur camera gear. On this trip it was going to be very quick run to Atlanta, and back to Sedona, through Phoenix within 72 hours so I wanted to travel light. Camera-wise I couldn’t get much more compact than the camera I’ve dubbed the ‘Pro’s Point & Shoot’ the Lumix LX100. Lot’s of powerful features in a solid, easy to use piece of machinery. All images were captured with the LX100.

sunset window view

You need to change the exposure compensation quite a bit to make this sunset image work. Easy to do as the Exposure compensation is on a metal knurled dial right by your thumb. Up to three stops under or over.

cloud vista from above

I like this view of clouds from above. The layers feel like it might be some kind of lunar landscape. And who knows? It just might turn into one in an art piece…

jet wing over clouds with sun

Working the wing to silhouette over a cloud back with flare from the sun.

Sometimes you just need to push yourself by limiting yourself to find the capabilities of a camera. I hadn’t spent any quality time with this camera before this trip cause I had some other favorites always at hand. Because of this if you have any questions about which Lumix camera might be the best for your needs get in touch and I can share some ideas. [email protected]

Yours in Creative Photography,          Bob

airline to atl and back

Love looking out from the window seat at 33,000 feet. The views and cloud formations can change at a moments notice! I am inspired now that I am flying quite a bit to capture images. Main inspiration comes from Julianne Kost and her book Window Seat – The Art of Digital Photography and Creative Thinking

On this quick trip to Professional Photographers of America headquarters in Atlanta for a committee meeting I was able to grab some pretty interesting images. Some can stand alone but I have a feeling that most will enter my files as textures and forms and vistas for my art creations.

Here’s a few of the captures…

sun rays over clouds at 33,000 feet

Sun rays over clouds

jet wing over clouds

Jet wing over clouds

 phoenix skyline from airport at sunset

Phoenix skyline from airport at sunset

 

I used the Lumix LX100 which I have dubbed the “Professionals Point & Shoot” camera. It has fast glass opening to f1.7-2.8. 25-75mm Leica DC Lens. Full video capability including 4K Photo capture. I really enjoy that all camera controls are ‘Old School’ in addition to the menu capabilities. All settings are available via dials on the exterior of the camera including aspect ratio, exposure compensation, focus settings, aperture and more. It’s a rugged little camera that is almost pocket size.

The LX100 was the only camera I brought with me on the trip and I wasn’t disappointed with what I was able to capture. It’s a sweet little machine.

Yours in Creative Photography,    Bob

feeling green

FEELING GREEN…

Much like Kermit the Frog would say that’s not a bad thing. Living in the high desert as I do the predominant colors spectrum is pretty muted and in the red and brown neighborhood. And if there is green it’s on the dry side not vibrant. Contrast that with being in Florida and almost everywhere you look green pops out at you. When I am looking for personal subjects to shoot I often look for a target like a subject or a color to make me look harder for images and toe stretch. So the last day or so I’ve been looking to make images for the color green…

You just never know where it might lead you… Top two images were captured with the Lumix GH4.

backlit green banana leaf photo

I love the glowing color and wavy detail from the underside of a banana leaf that is back lit from the sun.
Lens Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f2.8 1/125 sec f4.5 ISO 200

green bee photo

While the prominent color of the image is in the warm tones the neon green bee jumps out…
Lens Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f2.8 1/200 sec f6.3 ISO 1600 – added 26mm of Vello Extension tubes That is one small critter!

green screen photo

OK let’s make a visual pun. Can anyone say ‘green-screen’??
This was shot with the DMC LX100 1/125 sec f2.8 ISO 320 I call this camera the ‘Pro’s Point & Shoot’ as all the controls for shooting settings are available outside the menus on dials with click stops like the old days… Feels pretty retro.

I find that little self assignments like this make me look harder for images, and usually, I’ll make better images than just pointing the camera and shooting. It seems to make me look harder no matter what the ‘assignment’ might be and seems to lead to better photos in the long run.

What’s your next ‘assignment’?

Yours in Creative Photography,     Bob