olympus OMD EM5 | alan frost photography

Posts from the ‘olympus OMD EM5’ category

The first snow of winter

Here on the South Coast of England snow is a relatively rare thing but the weather forecast a few days ago told us of its imminent arrival and on this occasion their prediction came true. On Friday morning the snow started to fall and within the space of a few hours there was a thick blanket of the ‘white cold stuff’ covering the ground. Tempted to venture out, I decided to wait until the following day when the snow would no longer be falling and it would be easier to get around.

The presence of snow offers the black and white photographer so many opportunities. The grey heavy skies, bare winter trees all contrasting with the pure white snow. Whilst a ray of sunshine would not go amiss to boost this contrast even further, in many ways an overcast sky is easier to handle and adds to the atmosphere of the shot.

The images below were all taken with the Olympus EM5 and my new 12 – 35 Panasonic zoom lens which has a constant aperture of f2.8. This is the first time I have been out with this combination. All other ‘gear’ was left at home and I have to say in these cold conditions it was a real benefit to have just one lens on the camera. The thought of switching lenses, not to mention the need to take gloves on and off all the time, made for a more enjoyable walk and photographic experience.

Lone tree

Field of snow and ice

Cow parsley

Skeleton of a tree

Grasses in the snow

Tree in winter

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Full frame or not full frame?

The new year is now well and truly with us and as I have already looked back on 2012, its now time to look forward to 2013 and make some decisions and plans about what I would like to try and do and achieve in the next twelve months. I will elaborate on my future objectives in another post but for now I want to write about my choice of camera equipment.

As far ‘camera gear’ is concerned the first decision to make is whether or not to go full frame. This has been playing on my mind for some time, really ever since some very capable full frame DSLRs came to the market superseding older models. Last year Nikon introduced two new full frame cameras, the D800 (and 800E) and the D600. Whilst Canon upgraded their 5D Mark II and introduced the 5D Mark III, as well as releasing the 6D. Since their launch the prices have started to fall, so I know I made the right choice not to do anything the day they first hit the streets. Besides it was only back in the Spring when my high regard for the Olympus Micro 4/3rds system became a reality and I bought the E-PL3, shortly to be followed by the Olympus OMD EM5. For me both cameras, but particularly the EM5, produce great results and given that I do not want to print larger than A3 or possibly A2, why would I need a full frame camera and all that extra weight, not to mention the added expense? Providing you couple the best lenses for the Micro 4/3rds system with the EM5, then for a humble amateur who only shoots for pleasure and not for profit, I am very happy. I ought to add that there are some stunningly good lenses for this system and I am confident that more will be released by both Olympus and Panasonic in the future.

On the subject of new lenses, Panasonic did release two new zoom lenses during 2012, both aimed at the top end of the Micro 4/3rds market. The 12 – 35 f2.8 and the 35 – 100 f2.8. Both are beautifully constructed, dust and splash proof and replicate their ‘classic’ full frame equivalents of 24 -70 and 70 – 200 with a wide aperture opening of f2.8. Whilst prime lenses are fast, small and very sharp they do require the user to switch lenses on a regular basis to achieve the required focal length. This is fine when you have time on your hands, but a fast zoom lens covering the range of focal lengths offered by these two lenses can’t be beaten in certain photographic situations. Yes, the kit lenses are good but they are nothing like as sharp nor as fast. Unfortunately both these lenses come at a price.

The 12 -35 lens with lens hood attached

Mounted on the Olympus OMD EM5

Fortuitously luck was at hand when I spotted the Panasonic12 -35 lens in the window of my local camera store. I don’t know if it was an unwanted Christmas gift or being sold for some other reason, but it was virtually brand new, and the price heavily discounted compared with the cost of a new one. I took a few test shots outside the shop using my EM5, negotiated down the price a little more, traded in a Nikkor lens that I no longer wanted and the rest is history.

Panasonic 12 – 35 lens compared to Olympus 12 -50 kit lens

First impressions – well its a great lens, much faster and nicer to use than the 12 -50 kit lens, plus it is much sharper across the whole range of focal lengths.. It does suffer from chromatic aberration at 12mm (but I have read this is fairly typical of any zoom lens). With one click in Lightroom it can be removed and as I shoot mainly in black and white its really not an issue. I can’t wait to get out and about in the weeks to come and put it to the test.

Of course this purchase has finally put the final nail in the coffin as to whether or not to go full frame. I couldn’t wish for a better selection of lenses for my Olympus Micro 4/3rds system. The quality of the results is now down to me taking good pictures, good post processing and not down to the equipment I use. Great images have been taken on old, inexpensive cameras and I realise how fortunate I am to have what is in my camera bag. So full frame is off the agenda, at least until I win the lottery or I turn professional, neither of which are very likely! So I’m off to take some photographs with my fantastic, lightweight, Micro 4/3rds system which is a joy to use.

Happy New Year!

Reflections on Salisbury

At the end of last week the preview evening for the annual Southern Photographic Federation Exhibition took place in the Wiltshire county town of Salisbury and I thought it woud be a good idea to attend. It’s about 60 miles from home so it made sense to me to go there for the day and take a look at the City and its Cathedral. Although I had passed through Salisbury, I had never actually stopped, so I can’t say I knew the place at all.

The River Avon passes through the centre of Salisbury and the Cathedral which dates back to 1220, has water meadows to the south and west. In 2012 the UK experienced its second highest rainfall total and it was particularly bad towards the end of the year. As a consequence the river was badly swollen and parts of the water meadows which are normally dry, were flooded. The photo below was taken from, believe it or not, playing fields which adjoin the meadows. You can just about make out three benches in the middle distance which were inaccessible but for a pair of wellington boots or waders.

‘Reflection of a Spire’

Once inside the Cathedral I was very taken by the four cornered font which was designed by William Pye and installed in 2008 to commemmorate the 750th Anniversay of the Cathedral. Consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury the font is used for baptisms, but it also serves as a wonderful reflective surface as you will see below.

‘Arches in Reflection’

I am delighted with this image. Out of necessisty it was hand held with the camera just above the surface of the water. I doubt a tripod with its head could have been placed in this position. I also doubt that an amatuer photographer would have been allowed to use one anyway. I did ramp up the ISO to 2500 on the EM5, but using the Olympus 12mm @ f2, I still managed a shutter speed of 1/60th sec. On my return from Salisbury I processed the above image and uploaded it to Flickr. It was the second consecutive image of mine to be chosen for ‘Explore’ and as a result it quickly became my most popular image, nearly 3,000 views and over 300 ‘favourites’ in a 48 hour period. Does this make it a good photograph for a club competition or future exhibition? In this case I think it does and I will look forward to entering ‘Arches in Reflection’ in the near future.

The Cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral are the largest in the UK so had to be photographed. The theme of this entry is ‘Reflections’ and this image still has a place but this time the reflections are of a different nature – Reflections of the Spirit. I could just imagine monks or countless numbers of worshippers over the centuries seeking peace and quiet in this special place. I deliberately kept the bench seat small in the composition as I didn’t want it to detract from the wonderful arches of the building.

‘Reflections of the Spirit’

As I walked around the ‘water meadows’ I came across a man sitting on a park bench and eating his lunch. A normal event but on this occasion he was ankle deep in the flood waters. It makes for a rather amusing scene.

‘I always sit here!’

And lastly the same individual but having changed the composition there is a greater feeling of isolation and I am left wondering what thoughts are going through his mind.

‘A moment to reflect’

Looking back on 2012

Without any question 2012 has been a good year for me photographically speaking; a year which had a number of highlights, so please forgive me for some self indulgence in the next few paragraphs.

Let me start by selecting my favourite image of the year. It would be all too easy to pick Sand Waves, as I have enjoyed a lot of success with this image during the year. However it was actually taken on a course with Bruce Percy in September 2011 and therefore it doesn’t qualify. So it has to be this one – Storm approaching East Head (shown below). I just love the sky and the last of the afternoon sun lighting up the dunes before the rain arrived. It’s perhaps no coincidence that I decided to use a crop of this image to be the header for my forthcoming website.

Storm approaching East Head

So what happended during the course of the year? Well, at my camera club back in May I was awarded four end of season trophies – Winner of the ‘B’ league for both Prints and Projected Images, the Most Improved Worker and last but by no means least the Best Projected Image of the Year – Sand Waves. As a result this image appeared on the front of this season’s programme. Fame at last! The consequence of this success was to be promoted to the ‘A’ league for all club competitions and I could now look forward to competing with the ‘big boys …. and girls’!

Havant Camera Club Programme

At about this same time I found myself taking, or to be more exact, converting the vast majority of my images into black and white. Did the success of Sand Waves inspire me to take this course or had it been happening sub consciously to me for some time? In truth I don’t know but its now very rare that I take and like a colour photo, as entries on this blog will testify. Am I therefore now a black and white photographer? Well I can’t answer that one either, but for the moment I have found a branch of photography which I really enjoy and over the next 12 months I want to learn more about what makes a good monochrome image and how to use post processing to produce the best results. I recognise that I have a lot of work to do.

Sand Waves

June was the month when I embraced technology and more specifically social media. As a relatively private person I was not sure about this at all but at the beginning of the month I decided to start a blog, this blog. I had never done anything like it before but several months later I am pleased that to have made the effort. For me its been a great way of recording what I have been doing, expressing some of my thoughts on this hobby of mine and I guess a way of showcasing some of my work. In the same month I also started uploading images to my Flickr account. Primarily it became an easy way to add images to the blog but inevitably I started to join in with the Flickr community, sharing comments and hoping that someone might think one of my shots as a ‘favourite’ of theirs. The statistics for both these online sites are readily available but more of this later. I also created a Twitter account – @ar_frost and started tweeting. Not sure what my family thought, but its a bit of fun if tweeted, sorry I mean treated, correctly! I am currently working on the design and content of my own website which I hope will be ready to go live during the early part of 2013. It will incorporate this blog, so effectively be a one stop shop for my photography and ongoing journal. The domain will be http://www.alanfrostphotography.co.uk so watch this space!

At the end of July I attended a ‘People and Places’ photography course at West Dean College in West Sussex. It was an excellent week and it definitely cemented my committment to black and white. It also gave me a reason to finally bite the bullit and buy the Olympus OMD EM5 micro four thirds camera. I had already bought the Olympus E-PL3 and one or two prime lenses earler in the year. I was so attracted to this format that the OMD had to be added to the kit bag. Its a great camera. Sadly the Nikon D90 DSLR which was my first serious camera purchased about 3 years ago is not getting much use and I need to decide whether or not it should be exchanged for other micro four thirds lenses. The temptation to go full frame is also there, but I’m not sure the capital outlay can be warranted. We shall see.

Olympus OMD EM5 with one part of the battery grip, Lumix 20mm f1.7 prime lens and Olympus 45mm f1.8 prime lens

One of my favourite images taken on the course – Fork or Fingers?

In August I had my first and very modest public exhibition of my work at the Bizzare Bazaar, a local event to raise funds for a new Church Hall in my local village. When I volunteered it was to give visitors something else to look at, never dreaming that I would sell any of my prints. Shock, horror(!) – I sold five prints and I was delighted to donate the proceeds to a good cause – The St Peter Project.

September soon arrived and the camera club season was underway again. At around this time I thought I would enquire about seeking a distinction either through the Royal Photographic Society or the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain. I opted for the RPS Licentiate Distinction and on 2nd December I went up to London for my panel of ten images to be assessed. I passed! I was and still am delighted. My aim is now to work towards the ARPS (Associate) distinction in 2013.

In November our club hosted its National Exhibition and three of my images were selected. Sand Waves (yet again) recieved a Highly Commended from the judges. This and Sea Swirl have also been chosen for the annual Southern Photographic Federation exhibition in Salisbury which starts on the 5th January, but that’s 2013 I hear you say. Yes, but the selection was made in 2012 ;o)

Back to statistics. I mentioned in an earlier entry entilted ‘Early Thoughts’ that it would be all too easy to get addicted to stats, how many views, how many hits etc, but it is a way of measuring traffic and I guess, interest and popularity in my work. As I intend continuing this blog I would like to be able to look back in 12 months times and see how the figures compare. So I have noted down the figures and will look at how they compare in a year from now.

As at today the most popular image on Flickr is ‘Full moon over Swanage Pier’. It’s also the first photograph to appear on Flickr in ‘Explore’.

Thanks to all of you who have visited this site or looked at any of my images on Flickr, particularly if you have added a constructive comment which is always welcome.

With my very best wishes for a peaceful and healthy New Year.

Swanage Pier – a photo opportunity

Swanage is a small seaside town on the Purbeck coastline of Dorset. Although I had been to the town before I had not seen the pier, so a quick detour to our journey seemed like a good idea, despite the fact that we would arrive mid afternoon and the light would be fading fast. There wouldn’t be a great deal of time for photography but in many ways the short stop was to see whether or not another visit would be worthwhile when I had more time. As we parked the car I noticed a ‘Trompe L’oiel’ on a derelict building opposite the pier. In the bottom right hand corner was this inscription. An omen perhaps?

All the photos were taken using the Olympus OMD EM5 and Olympus 45mm f1.8 prime lens.

There are in fact two piers at Swanage. The remains of the original pier which was built in 1859 and the ‘new’ pier, which was built in 1895, the latter having undergone considerable restoration in recent years.

The original pier

As I walked along the pier I noticed that the vast majority of the wooden planks included a small brass plate with an inscription. In one or two cases a floral tribute had been left, probably on Christmas Day which only adds to the poignancy of the next two images.

Another floral tribute

There are many benches along the promenade looking out to the sea. On this particular bench was a pair of shoes and a single sock. I only hope the owner returned from his paddle, together with the missing sock, on what was a particularly cold day.

The magnificent trompe l’oiel I referred to at the beginning of this entry. The ‘photo opportunity’ inscription can be seen in the bottom right hand corner.