CHROMAGENIC

One of the things I enjoy doing in Amsterdam is joining some friends on a Photo Walk. One of the busiest members of Meetin Amsterdam is Michael and he arranges these every month or two. The downside to a photo walk is that there is sometime no chance for anonymity. When one person finds an interesting viewpoint, 3 or 4 others will try it too....at the same time. The passersby just have to deal with it.

Wow, its already been about a month since I got back from Australia. Where did that time go? I already wrote up a little entry about the trip, but I really need to get to the photos. Here is one of the first. One of the benefits of driving up the coast of Australia is that I can stop anywhere. I try to keep a lookout for interesting things, and when I find one, I then look for a place to turn around. Driving a 7 meter long campervan made that a bit more difficult than in my Golf, but I managed to get to most places I wanted to go. 

I am not really sure where this photo was taken. But its a place I would love to spend more time wandering around. Well, that describes almost the entire country. This image is a 3 image HDR, handheld. I brought my tripod to Australia, but I hardly ever used it. 

It all started with a single blog post on TheLeggett.com. A post about a new lens coming out from Noktor, a 50mm/0.95. Incredible. The images that he linked to were pretty cool, but they used this system I hadn’t shown any interest in up until then: micro four-thirds. I know nothing about it. So I started researching a little. Nothing really jumped out at me until I noticed the Panasonic GH1. Hmmm…

In the background, I have been impressed with some of the amazing videos coming out of the Canon line of cameras; always hoping that Nikon would finally get into that game as well. But it just doesn’t seem to happen. As the owner of a few incredible Nikon lenses, I really wasn’t interest in jumping ship for something that I am sure Nikon will eventually wake up to. But still, those videos are incredible.

And that’s why the GH1 looked so interesting. The GH1 does full HD: 1080p at 24fps. Hmmm. But new lenses…ugh. And then it got more interesting. There happened to be a post a little while ago talking about the new adapters from other mounts to the micro four-thirds. In fact the Nikon version even has an aperture ring to accommodate for the newer Nikon G lenses, like my 50mm/1.4. Well, that becomes very interesting. So then I started looking around for good examples of the GH1 in use with both the stock lenses as well as either Canon or Nikon SLR lenses.

One of the first that I saw was this amazing film by Philip Bloom that was part of the GH1 launch:

Wow. But then I looked for videos by normal people. People not in the film making business.

One of my favorites on YouTube turned out to be this amazing little short

Then I fell upon a few videos on a site called Exposure Room. In fact the series that totally sold me on the GH1 was a trio of videos from Joshua Morin’s Christmas vacation trip to Egypt. Here is the first one, but I definitely recommend going to the site and looking at the other three.

When I saw that one of my preferred shops in Amsterdam had it in stock, I decided to take the plunge. Now this was about 6 hours after I initially learned of its existence. I stopped by Fotobooms about 20 minutes before they closed and walked away with the GH1 with the kit lens, a 14-140mm/4-5.8. Time to start playing.

I have now had the kit for about 3 days. Its fantastic and I am shocked that the videos it produced came from my hands. But I clearly have no idea what I am doing. I am using different video editing programs and I have even less of a clue about how to edit anything. But I made a first attempt at a video and have posted it to Vimeo. Its about 4 minutes long but really should be cut down to 40 seconds…but I posted it so that in 6 months I have a starting point I can reference to see how far I (hopefully) have come. Check it out here:

Morning Fog from technovangelist on Vimeo.

Much more to come…

Enough was enough. I was starting to notice a lot of focus problems with one of my main lenses I have loved for 20 years. When I was still in high school and working at the local island camera shop, I bought a Nikon 20mm lens to use on whatever film camera I was using at the time. And it served me well through the rest of school and into my first 20 years of work trips. But the front focus ring was starting to move on its own. Looking online, there were plenty of reports of this. It looks like it is a cheap repair, and I will probably go through with it, but it was time to replace the lens. From all accounts I have been able to find, the much newer Nikon 12-24mm/2.8 lens is an absolute dream for everyone. Well, except for the massive weight of the beast.

On the 13.5 hour flight from Singapore, I had plenty of time to justify it to myself in my head. So when I arrived in Amsterdam I started looking for places to buy it locally. Kamera Express down towards Delft has everything, but it was 1499 Euros. FotoKonijinenberg, another shop I go to often had it for 1399. Was the extra hour to drive there worth it to save 100 Euros? Another more local shop is FotoBooms and they often have some odd things at good prices. Looking on their website, I saw they had it for 1389. Fantastic!!! It was cold and blowy outside, so I splurged the 10 cents for parking and drove over.

Within 10 minutes in the shop, I had purchased it. They are obviously not making a lot on this sale, so in order for me to keep up my habit at a reasonable price, I encourage the one or two Dutch readers to buy lots of stuff at their shop. Since my PIN card was broken, I had to use my American Express card which meant an extra 3.5 percent, or about 50 Euros. But that still was less than I would have paid at Kamera Express and who knows how I would have paid for it.

Now I am sure someone is going to tell me I missed my chance to get a better deal in Singapore at a place like Sim Lim Square. Well, not really. Now that we are in this global economy, it rarely makes any sense to buy anything outside of your home area. Electronics are no cheaper there than anywhere else on the planet. Of course there are some companies, like Apple, that come up with screwy pricing for Europeans, but for the most part, we are in one large consistent marketplace. The best price I was getting in Singapore was 2600 Singapore Dollars. That is the same as about 1315 Euros.To make up for the difficulties in getting things repaired, it would really have to be a difference of at least 20-30%, so I still feel that I got a great deal.

When I got home, it was time for bed. Even though I was asleep for 8 of the 13 hours from Singapore, I had only arrived a few hours earlier and I was beat. But the next morning I was eager to try out the lens. And thankfully the gods were in agreement and it managed to snow a few centimeters overnight. So I had a perfect chance to capture some of the canals of Amsterdam under fresh snow. The clouds aren't great in these, but I am very pleased with the results nonetheless.

Early January 2010 was a rough time in the UK weather-wise. I was there to attend training with some of my colleagues, but the snow started coming down hard on the first night. In fact, by morning about 7 inches had fallen around the hotel in Reading. The UK doesn't get a huge amount of snow, so anytime they get more than an inch or two, things start to shut down. 7 inches means everything comes to a complete stop. On the second day of our class we couldn't get to the office and neither could the trainer. Class was cancelled.

A few of us decided to go out for a walk on that first morning. Although traffic was light, occasionally a car would sneak up on us. It resulted in all of us frantically trying to remember what side of the road they would be driving on. While the roads were clear, I caught this typical view.

3 image HDR, then processed with Topaz Adjust.