by successfulbob | Lumix G6, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography gear
Taking a couple weeks off for vacation slows you down a bit when it comes to staying up with regular posts… I’ll add in the Holidays to take the blame but enough excuses! I’m back on the horse!
Santa dropped off a package using the local Fed Ex driver… OK it wasn’t Santa but it sure feels like a present. The Lumix G6K is in my hot little hands and I gotta tell ya things just get better and better as each camera comes out. This is a Pro-sumer camera that has all the features. Great video with a fully articulating screen. Touch screen focus. A great chip and processing engine. Almost all the features of the Pro camera Lumix GH3 plus a few more. Yep it’s got the in-camera panoramic feature that I really enjoy. (just ask my fellow Luminaries!) The only thing that keeps this out of the full on pro realm is the fact it’s not built on the magnesium frame. But wait that makes it even lighter if you want to have a camera with you all the time. With a 2.8 12-33mm lens (35-70mm 35mm equivalent) this camera weighs well under 2 pounds! It’s on Amazon for just under 500 bucks with a 14-42mm lens. Freakin’ amazing!
by successfulbob | photography, photography education, success education
Sometimes you need to step away from the photography and fine art community to look for inspiration.
I have met many photographers that are so intense (I must admit I have been one at times) that they forget to have fun. You’ll find that your best work comes forward when you study intensely then let go… Let the information you have gathered gel & process inside that wonderful electronic computer storage center we call a brain. Then have some seriously good times, get back to it and see how a relaxed attitude can allow creativity to reign.
This month’s quote comes from comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
“Life is truly a ride. We’re all strapped in & no one can stop it… I think the most you can hope for at the end is that your hair’s messed, you’re out of breath, and you don’t throw up.” – Jerry Seinfeld
I’ve been on holiday for a couple weeks and ideas are starting to come fast and furiously. Yahoooooo!!! When’s the last time you cut loose? Get out there. You’ll be glad you did.
by successfulbob | Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography
She started her life as a character in a Disney movie and now the huge face presides benovolently over the sales counter at the Sea Hagg, Inc. in Cortez, Florida. According to the information shared by the clerk behind the counter she apparently likes her new place of residence as she gets a lot more attention in her new post.
If you happen to be in the Sarasota area you might want to take a little wander by the Sea Hagg, Inc. as it’s a target rich environment for the creative photographer. All things nautical, and some not so much, inhabit the shop just off Cortex Road West. There’s a fun playful atmosphere with mermaids, witches, floatsam and jetsam scattered throughout. Ask to have the container of eyeballs jostled on the front counter and you’ll get the idea…
She hangs in the corner presiding over her new domain after being retired from the movies. The Diva lives on.
Floats of glass and foam are everywhere waiting for the right composition.
Mermaids abound throughout the shop in metal, wood, bronze and brass. Illustrative Art setting on Lumix GX7. You can shoot in jpeg to get this rendition or as I do also shoot RAW at the same time for post processing options.
I just get the feeling that this typewriter has some serious history… I wonder what was written with it? A novel? News stories for a paper? Sales invoices?
by successfulbob | Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education
Been chasing color and realized I meant bright, saturated color. All things have color. Some are just more subtle than others. Just as when you learn and use a language of light you begin to see things differently, changing the thought of the TYPE of color I am looking for is changing the type of images I am trying to capture during my self assigned photography project during my new busman’s holiday. (to see the description of busman’s holiday if you don’t already know)
As I poke through the images from today it looks like blue has started to creep into my images as a target, sometime subtle sometimes in your face…
This bit of blue worked its way into the background of this photo featuring red making the red stand out all the more.
Neon can be difficult to capture… Went into into post-production to bring back some of the image highlights. That’s one great reason to shoot RAW. There was detail there to bring back. The Lumix GX7 had lot’s of detail though the bright range of pixels I thought would be gone.
Will end up at the Blue Rooster listening to some of my favorite music… The Blues!
by successfulbob | black & white, Lumix GH3, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography - art quote, photography education, photography gear, success education
COLOR!! Seems to be the theme for me this week.
Just after I decided to make color the target for my shooting while traveling in Sarasota I came across the quote for today’s conversation by Pete Turner.
“I am steadily surprised that there are so many photographers that reject manipulating reality, as if that was wrong. Change reality! If you don’t find it, invent it!” – Pete Turner
From Pete’s web site – A pioneer of color photography, Pete Turner’s career began during the infancy of color photography, at a time when color was used almost exclusively for commercial purposes. Unlike many contemporaries, Turner embraced color, seizing opportunities that allowed him to master the process and to create the imagery he felt compelled to make. Unconcerned with the labels of “art” or “commercial,” I invite you to take a peek at Pete’s photos before reading more…
Many photographers upon first starting out say things like, “I would never put a filter in front of my lens, that would be cheating!” Or, “You use Photoshop that’s not really a photograph.” They then trot out the example of Ansel Adams as the master of reality and they are trying to emulate him. What these photographers don’t realize is that Ansel Adams was one of the original manipulators of all photographic materials to show the scene the way he wanted people to see it. Think about the Zone System and his altering of exposure and development to get different details into different areas of the negative, not mention dodging and burning in the darkroom that sometimes took days to pull one print he was happy with..
In Ansel Adams An autobiography from 1984 Adams said, “I will always embrace a credo of excellence in craft and vision; both are difficult to maintain. Photographers are composers in a sense, and the negatives are their scores. In the electronic age, I am sure that scanning techniques will be able to achieve prints of extraordinary subtlety from the original negative scores. If I could return in 20 years or so I would hope to see astounding interpretations of my most expressive images. It is true no one could print my negatives as I did, but they might well get more out of them by electronic means. Image quality is not the product of a machine, but of the person who directs the machine, and there are no limits to imagination and expression.” – Link to full article ‘Inspired by Ansel’ on black and white imaging.
Please remember that the camera does not see as the eye sees. Your pupil expands and contracts imperceptibly allowing you to see detail in the darkest shadows and brightest highlights in a wide dynamic scene
So I offer these thoughts to you. Learn as much as you can to understand what is possible in our medium. Practice what you learn so you have it available to use when you need it. Have a vision and work to achieve that vision no matter what tools it takes to create the final image.
We now have cameras that can help fine-tune our images straight out of the camera. I was never one for using camera pre-sets but the technology has come a long way baby! Now you can tweak the settings from many of the in camera art type settings and make them your own. The Lumix GH3 has some wonderful black and white settings. The Lumix GX7 can do all that plus you can now set curves in-camera. It’s a great time to be a creative pushing the envelope with all the new tools at our disposal!!
And, isn’t it interesting that an article that started out about intense color and vision in photography ends with black and white??
Turner uses ‘in your face’ color and Adams uses the complete tonal ranges in black and white to tell their stories. How will use your camera to tell your stories in your images??
