the daily flashkube

In his article in the New York Times about his experience with the Olympus E-P1, David Pogue brings up some good points about the shortcomings of the new camera. I think perhaps his expectations were too great. It is a compact camera and should be judged as such. He is dissappointed with its slow, contrast-detection autofocus, a standard for all cameras of this size. He is dissappointed with its lack of optical viewfinder with exposure data. To that I say: Show me a compact with this feature. He is dissappointed with its lack of built-in flash. Granted, many compacts have a built-in flash, but this one actually has a hot-shoe! Most compacts don’t. I usually agree with Pogue’s articles and reviews, but I believe he misjudged this product. After reading his piece, read the comment I posted (below).

Instant Love, Followed by Letdown

Image by Stuart Goldenberg

By DAVID POGUE

Published: July 29, 2009

Technology is like romance. When everything clicks, you’re on top of the world — but every now and then, your heart gets broken.

via State of the Art – For the Olympus EP-1, It’s Instant Love, Then a Letdown – NYTimes.com.

“Disappointment is always the result of one’s expectation. While expectations can be influenced by others (such as camera manufacturers), they are largely of our own making. This camera was not advertised as one coming with a flash. It was not advertised as one with a dedicated AF chip. It was not advertised as one with built-in viewfinder.

If you are hoping to replace your full or medium-sized DSLR with this, disappointment is inevitable. If, however, you are hoping to own a camera that takes the highest quality photographs of any compact camera on the market today and that supports more lenses than ANY camera ever made (including DSLRs) then you will most likely not be disappointed.” -flashkube

These portraits were shot in my Father’s front yard last Saturday. He had a few empty frames and asked if I would fill them. The image of my daughters above was very difficult. (above) Their 9 year old instinct told them that they could go on playing as soon as they heard the shutter click. I had to beg them to remain still after each shot. Eventually they got the hint, but only after my tone became threatening. Here is a snapshot of our struggle. (below)

In contrast to the kids, my wife was the perfect angel while I adjusted and readjusted both composition and exposure. (below) Perhaps she did not want to cross me after seeing my wrath toward the girls. I learned it is quite difficult to find a background that isn’t distracting in the suburbs. I enjoy making photographs of people but formal portraits just aren’t my thing. I would have much rather incorporated the surroundings in some way, but this was an assignment of sorts after all.

I think they came out alright. The one of my wife and I has some obvious undesirables. For one, I would have had her remove the camera from her shoulder. I would have also picked out a shirt without a donkey on it. As I look back I think maybe we should have set the background much farther away so it blurred out even more. Maybe I could have composed us against the green grasses that extend out from my Father’s yard across the suburban landscape. Shoot and learn. It’s why I maintain this blog.

Diana and Nikon: Essays on Photography by Janet Malcolm

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book I found by chance while scanning the photography section at my local library. It is a series of essays written between 1975 and 1979 by Janet Malcolm, a journalist and critic with The New Yorker. Although her understanding of the history and aesthetic importance of photography is broad, a certain evolution of thought is apparent over the short span of four years. This I think speaks to her open-mindedness. Too many artists and critics have taken immovable positions on the question of photography’s importance as an art form.

What made me take it home was not her insightful and descriptive writing style. Neither was it the many reproductions of major works under discussion. It was, instead, the first paragraph of the first essay, which made me laugh quite audibly in an otherwise silent library. In it she quotes from Dorothy Norman’s Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer:

“A woman of about fifty looks at a Marin exhibition in bewilderment. She turns to Stieglitz: ‘Is there someone who can explain these pictures to me? I don’t understand them at all. I want to know why they arouse no emotion in me.’ Before Stieglitz realizes what he is saying, he replies, ‘Can you tell me this: Why don’t you give me an erection?’ He walks back into his office. The woman acts as though she isn’t quite sure she has heard him correctly.” Neither is the reader of this passage when he comes to it near the end of Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer, by Dorothy Norman, who for many years was Stieglitz’s disciple, assistant, and self-appointed Boswell. Nothing that has come before in the long text has prepared him for it. The man who has all too insistently emerged from Miss Norman’s worshipful illustrated biography is a person of such surpassing pomposity, sententiousness, emotional dullness, and Teutonic humorlessness that it is hard to credit him with a course mind, let alone being the most gifted and daring of American photographers and one of the most radical and influential forces in American modernism. But the photographs are there to confirm the artistic reputation, and so are the facts (though they are none too easy to extract from Miss Norman’s over-detailed and undercritical text, and can be better pieced together from such sources as Roberty Doty’s The Photo-Secession and Beaumont Newhall’s The History of Photography).

Her open criticism of other writers is refreshing. (I must admit I was also a little proud of her reference to Newhall as it is on my shelf.) Malcolm proved also to be a bountiful reference to other writings on photography as well as photography books by major figures. For example, she refers to Georgia O’Keeffe: A Portrait as “Stieglitz’s posthumous masterpiece.” And here that book sits at my library table waiting to be opened!

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I like watching the approach of these airplanes on my lunch break. When the economy improves, the building attached to this parking lot will most likely be occupied and I’ll lose my personal control tower. For now, it is safe. These I shot last week with my Olympus Digital PEN.

(click image to visit color set)

Here are some color photographs made during Scott Kelby’s Second Annual World Wide Photo Walk 2009 last Saturday. The black and white images from that day were posted yesterday. I’ve already submitted my two entries for the contest. There were some great photographers there but I still have hope. Brad Moore, Kelby’s photographic assistant and former assitant to legendary Joe McNally, was our walk leader and will be picking the best photograph from our group for entry into the world wide competition. The prizes are rediculous. (And by rediculous I mean totally awesome.) Brad produces the official blog for the worldwide photowalk on the main page of worldwidephotowalk.com. He posted some pictures there of our group including our big group shot. If you look closely you can see just my head between a redheaded lady and a guy with a blue hat. Click the image above to see the set of color images.

Saturday I participated in Scott Kelby’s Second Annual Worldwide Photo Walk 2009. There were 49 other photographers there with me. Although I didn’t make any contacts (mostly because I wasn’t feeling 100 percent), I did enjoy seeing the city at street level from a photographer’s point of view.

What did I learn? Not much. With these group walks its not as if there is an instructor freely doling out nuggets of photographic knowledge. In order to learn a walker must interact with other participants and I wasn’t exactly a chatterbox that morning. One thing I observed (rather heard) was a lot of exposure bracketing going on. On several occassions I walked by other photographers and heard three rapid clicks of the shutter. It could have been white balance bracketing but not likely. Should I be bracketing my exposures? I’ll look into it. We ended up at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts for a talk by one of its founders about the current exhibit. They were also kind enough to provide us with pizza and drinks for lunch.

I decided when I got back that most of these images would be used for experimentation with Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro. It is a plug-in for Photoshop that helps with black and white conversions. After opening your image in Silver Efex you are presented with a long list of profiles to use as a starting point. You then tweak your image by adjusting a number of settings including brightness, contrast, color filter, vignette, film type, and something called structure. In addition, you can set control points to make local adjustments. Overall, I really like Silver Efex. Unfortunately, I kinda got stuck on two starting profiles that I really liked; Holga and Pin Hole. Next time I’ll try less stylized ones.

Click on the image above to see the flickr set of the black and white images. I’ll post the color ones later.

Tomorrow, over 30,000 people worldwide will be wandering around like zombies with black boxes mushed to their faces. These black boxes will be pointed at god knows what as onlookers stand speechless, amazed at the sheer number of them. The event is Scott Kelby’s Second Annual Worldwide Photo Walk and I’ll be one of those black box wielding idiots. The title is a doozy, but I swear that’s what they call it. For information about the walk check out the official site. The image above is me doing a pre-walk equipment check. We will be meeting at Indigo Coffee in Downtown Tampa (about a block from my home) and ending up at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts. I’ll post photographs, videos, and comments sometime this weekend.

(Click on the image to see the flickr slideshow)

Shooting at the aquarium is tough to say the least. For one thing, the lighting is horrible for photography. In the atrium area there is a sharp contrast between light and dark due to the rays coming in from above. This makes it very difficult to retain detail in both shadows and highlights. The rest of the place is movie theater dark except for the lighting at each exhibit. Glare from the tanks is also a major frustration. Flash is out of the question. Finally, most of the subjects are in constant motion, especially the fish.

The last time I shot there was in 2008 with a Nikon D80. It was a solid DSLR that served me well (RIP). This time I took my new Olympus E-P1 Digital PEN. Normally, I’d bring my Nikon D300, but I really wanted to see what the E-P1 is capable of. Having shot there before I knew the aquarium would really put it to the test. I have to say that I was very impressed overall. Controlling exposure was easy and the frames per second it can achieve is higher than any other camera of this size that I’m aware of. The Digital PEN has been everything I had hoped for so far.

As you can see from these images, a choice had to be made about exposing for highlights or shadows. Frankly, my D300 probably couldn’t do that much better in these conditions. Similarly, the glare from the tank glass would have presented a problem with either camera. It was in autofocus that the difference between a DSLR and this Micro Four Thirds camera really became apparent. Like most compacts, AF on the E-P1 uses contrast detection instead of distance information to acquire focus. This translates to a longer wait for focus to lock. With moving subjects, this is very frustrating. Also, the focus points are not as clearly defined as I am used to. For example, when setting it to the center focus point, the box representing that area is quite large, making it difficult to tell what the camera will try to lock on to.

Fortunately, one place where the E-P1 shines is in manual focus. The focus ring on the 14-42mm lens I purchased with it is very smooth and not sensitive like most DSLR lenses. In other words, focus changes very slowly as you turn the ring making it much easier to dial in the exact distance you want. Also, the live view zooms to 1:1 as soon as you turn the ring to give you a clearer view of your subject while focusing. At the aquarium, I used a combination of AF and MF to get the shots I wanted.

Overall this camera is going to perform where I need it to. I bought it because there are so many places I don’t want to take my D300 and all its supporting gear. Check out the flickr slideshow of my aquarium photographs. Then let me know what you think.

NOTES: I’ll need to get used to the 4:3 aspect ratio of the sensor. The D300 is 4:6 which is a common print size. For some reason the E-P1′s aspect doesn’t look “correct” to me. Some of these were cropped to 4 by 6 but I hate shaving off megapixels. Also, there is no RAW support for this model in Camera Raw or Lightroom yet so I’ve been shooting in JPEG. Hence, there is much less flexibility with color, tonal range, and white balance. I imagine these would have come out better had I been able to process them as RAW files.

Highway

Oncoming

Toll

Expressway

Ikea

Skyline

Brakes

Post Office

Garage