EM1 | alan frost photography

Posts from the ‘EM1’ category

An Easter display – Mono where there should be colour

Easter display

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would take some photographs for publication in our parish magazine of the truly beautiful flowers which were on display in my local church over the Easter period. I did not need to ask if they wanted colour or black or white images. Of course they had to be in colour and that was absolutely right.

The dominant colour of the flowers was yellow, a sign of Spring, and new life and growth. Irrespective of your own personal religious beliefs this time of year is always a joy; as Winter turns to Spring, the trees turn green and the dawn chorus can be heard each and every morning as night turns into day.

I was pleased with the images I took but as my first photographic love is monochrome and not colour, I could not resist the temptation to convert one of the pictures into black and white. It works for me but it would never have been selected for the colour centre page spread in the parish magazine! Nevertheless it’s one to share on my blog and I hope you agree.

A return to Bath and an alternative view

Tradesmen only

At the end of October last year I spent a very enjoyable day in the beautiful Georgian city of Bath in Somerset, on a photographic workshop with Andy Beel FRPS. I wrote about it here. More recently I was travelling back from South Wales and had agreed to pick up my daughter in Bath and we would return home together. The weather was very different to my previous visit. It had been raining heavily in the morning and by the time I arrived in Bath the rain had stopped but it was still grey and overcast. This was in complete contrast to the bright sunshine I had experienced towards the end of last year. I had a couple of hours to kill and decided that I would try and adopt an alternative approach to before. The weather conditions offered very different lighting and I thought I would challenge myself by sticking to just one lens – the Olympus 75mm f1.8 on the Olympus EM1. Because of the crop factor this lens equates to a 150mm on a full frame 35mm camera. Ordinarily this is not the lens I would choose to take photographs in a crowded city with large buildings and confined areas in which to work. Reach for the wide angle, others might say; try to get everything into the shot. Although I covered a similar area I was looking for new angles and arguably the less glamorous parts of the city which had been the obvious things to shoot last time round. I finished up with the selection you can see here.

Old steps

Behind the Georgian facade

Porticos

Resting pigeon

Sash window

Back street

Going down

Walking on a Sunday

Street lamp

I took great pleasure from revisiting Bath and taking an alternative view. When I compare this set of images with those I took at the tail end of last year, there are some common features, but I think the overall impression they give of the city is very different. I also enjoyed restricting myself to just one prime lens. It made me look for images which only worked with a more limited and compressed depth of field. If you missed the link to my earlier post on Bath, it’s here. Do click on any of the images to view a larger version which will open in a new window.

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone – a belated report

Rosberg through Becketts
Probably my favourite shot from the Grand Prix.
Nothing is sharp, but there is movement both in the car and also in the sweeping lines of the track at Becketts corner.

I have to admit it feels rather bizarre writing this entry at the end of December, when this great sporting event took place back in early July. Perhaps it just sums up how busy the year has been.

Despite being a keen follower of F1 for many years, I had never been to a Grand Prix, so when my good friend suggested we might go, it was an opportunity too good to miss. It was a special occasion as it was also the 50th Anniversary of the British Grand Prix.

We attended all four days and to avoid the worst of the traffic (it can be notoriously bad) we arrived on Wednesday evening, pitched the caravan and didn’t leave until Monday morning. Whilst I took a fair number of photographs, this was never going to be an outing with my camera, as I wanted to enjoy the racing, the atmosphere, the people and the whole experience, which is what we both did.

The rain came and went, as it always seems to do during the British Summer of sport, but this did nothing to spoil the racing in fact it only added to the drama. For anyone who follows F1 you will know that Lewis Hamilton misjudged how quickly the track would dry out in qualifying, and others, including his own team mate Nico Rosberg posted quicker lap times, leaving Hamilton in 6th place on the grid, and Rosberg on pole. The tight duel between them was nicely set up for a thrilling race, which Hamilton won, much to the delight of the home crowd. He was of course helped by Rosberg breaking down with a gearbox problem which happened right in front of us. The partisan crowd around us rather unsportingly cheered loudly as Rosberg, with head looking towards the ground, walked away.

The tide had started to turn in Hamilton’s favour and the rest of the season is now history. Hamilton won his second Formula One Championship and joined an elite number of British drivers who had won the title more than once. The others being Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart. Only time will tell if Lewis Hamilton will go on to win more titles.

The photographs included in this entry hopefully capture some of the flavour and atmosphere of being at a Formula One race. Even with a 200mm (400mm equivalent) telephoto lens on the Olympus EM1, it is not easy getting close to the action, and even when you can, a wire fence will be between you and the track.

Fence in the Dunes

In my last post I went back in time to 2012 when I enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon taking some photographs at East Head in West Wittering along the Sussex Coast. At that particular time I was still using my Nikon D90, which I guess was my first serious or shall we say semi serious camera. A very capable DSLR with a cropped APS-C sensor. It has now been sold in favour of my Olympus micro four thirds system. Which in itself is still only an enthusiasts camera, although there are now a number of professionals who are happily using the Olympus EM1 and some of the best lenses available for this format. I am lucky enough to be using the EM1 and have done so since the early part of the year and although I really don’t feel I put it to the test I have been delighted with the results so far.

Anyway back to the reason for this entry and another image taken at East Head. I had previously dismissed this image, but two years down the road I like to think my processing skills have improved and the result is displayed at the start of the entry. Like so many of my images this was processed in Lightroom 5 and Silver Efex Pro. As opposed to a straight black and white conversion this photo has a ‘coffee tone’ added in Silver Efex, which gives a warmer feel I think it works on this occasion. I hope you like it.

New Forest Ponies

The New Forest is a very well known National Park in southern England. Bordering The Solent to the south, it is situated mainly in the county of Hampshire but extends to the north into Wiltshire. It covers an area of 218 square miles and is home to some 4,000 ponies, deer, cattle and pigs which can roam freely through the ancient forest woodland and heaths.

For reasons which will become clear in a future blog entry we had to visit the New Forest quite recently on our way down to Dorset. Time was short but I did grab the chance to take a few photographs of a small group of ponies as we drove through the quiet narrow lanes of the forest. It was also the first chance I have had to use my new camera, the Olympus OMD EM1. Paired with the Panasonic 35 -100mm f2.8 zooms lens, the camera performed effortlessly and handles so much better then the EM5 which has been my workhorse to date. I will write at greater length about my new acquisition but for the time being I hope you enjoy these few images of the New Forest ponies.