Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you plan and prepare, things will just go wrong. That was my weekend in general, but in relation to taking photographs today (Sunday) was the day that everything went wrong and no mount of planning and preparing could have changed it.
On Saturday, I charged batteries, packed a camera bag, left hiking boots and clothes out so I could get dressed quickly on my early start. Thinking ahead. I charged a little clip on camera (Insta360 Go2) to capture the deer the keep running out in front of me, and was good to go.
Sunday comes. Up, out get to the moors. It started with the Go2 and the sodding thing not working. The onscreen menu just stuck in a cycle of turning itself on and off. No amount of resets did anything to change it. Fine, that’s ok – I’ll just get on with the photos. But, no. The rear control dial (which I have set up for aperture) has decided it doesn’t want to work. It will work for absolutely everything except changing the aperture. Then, the battery (which is two months old) decided to go flat. Had I walked into some kind of dead spot for technology?
It’s -6 oC and nothing works, so I might as well give in.
Sometimes Landscape Photography needs a bit of luck. Yes, you need the gear, you need the know how, you need to get your backside out of bed early, you need to go to locations with interesting views and the weather to be kind. You can get all of that right and still come home without a single photo you’re happy with.
I faced this yesterday. 66 photos and didn’t like a single one. Then, the last one. A random shot into the sun. As I was taking it I didn’t see the man and his dog as the sun was so bright. I even told him as much after we said good morning to each other. So, I was surprised to find him in my last photo.
One man and his dog
I love this happy accident. A bit of luck. Right place, right time. Without it I wouldn’t have had a decent photo. Which, is fine. We had a lovely walk, some fresh air and nice views. But, I still love to take at least one good photo. Here’s to more happy accidents.
OF course, the answer to this question is subjective, and everyone will have a different answer. But, let me put the case forward for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM1.
My Lumix GM1 – with Star Wars Lego Minifigs, purely for scale (I didn’t have a banana in).
Just before Christmas I was in York (the UK original version) and I was using my GM1 to take some photos when this American chap came over to me. ‘Is that a GM1’ he asked. ‘Yeah, well spotted’ I replied. He asked if he could take a look at it, and as he didn’t seem dodgy I obliged. ‘It’s like new, how long have you had it’ was the next question. I told him I bought it in 2014 and that like all of my gear I like to take care of it. ,Then, to my surprise he offered me four hundred dollars for it. ‘No, thanks’. Five? ‘Still no’. Six? ‘Ermmm, no’. At this point I told him it wasn’t for sale at any price and made a hasty exit. What on earth was going on? Well, it seems the GM1 (and GM5) have gained a cult following, and with good reason.
The GM1 was released in 2013 and is still one of the smallest interchangeable lens cameras ever made. Ten years later, it still boasts fairly considerable specs for a camera so tiny:
Panasonic GM1 specs:
16MP Live MOS sensor
Built-in Wi-Fi (no NFC)
3.0-inch, 1036K dot touch-sensitive LCD
1080 HD video recording at 60i/30p
Built-in pop-up flash
1/16,000 maximum shutter speed (with all-electronic shutter)
Focus peaking
Picture-in-picture magnification for manual focus
Micro HDMI output
Magnesium-alloy shell with aluminium top and bottom plates
Why do I love this camera so much? Firstly, and most importantly it actually takes great photos. I know 16mp isn’t huge by today’s standards, however it’s big enough to make great prints. I may be a tad nostalgic, but from the camera this little thing delivers bright images that need very little editing. Next up, I can use all of my lenses with it. From the tiny 12-32 to the huge 100-300, they all work regardless of how silly they may look. The GM1’s best feature is its size.
I know we all have phones with fairly decent cameras, and they’re handy, small and always in our pockets. But, they’re limited. The GM1 is tiny, and you get full manual control – which, as photographers is what we really want. This camera goes in my pocket on dog walks. It goes in my bag on day trips. It goes to weddings, or parties. It goes where I don’t want to stick a big camera in someone’s face. All of that and full creative control. That’s why I will never sell this camera.
If anyone from Panasonic reads this – go and check eBay and second hand dealers for GM1 and GM5 bodies. They sell for as much now as when they were first released (if they’re in good condition). That’s if you can find one. There is a big market for Japanese models, and amazingly English speakers are buying them despite not being able to read the menus (apparently it can’t be changed to English). Again, they’re relatively expensive. My point Panasonic, is – make a new version. Don’t change much, maybe the same sensor that’s in the G100/G9 and leave the rest as it is.
This camera is what Micro Four Thirds is about. Small, fully manual, interchangeable lens system. It’s something we need more of.
It finally feels like Winter is back properly. Frosty, cold, dry – and no sign of rain for the next week! So, the weekend is looking good.
In the mean time, I took a couple of photos on our dog walk last night. Nothing exciting and I won’t even add them to my portfolio page, but it’s just nice to take some photos at last!
Once again, the weather absolutely sucks. Not that I could have gone out recently anyway, as I have a kidney infection. So, I’ve kept myself busy by rearranging my office. A roof leak meant I had to get a new monitor stand, a new Mac mini, and some new bookshelves. I decided to clear my shelves of junk and put some of my photos’ up instead. Similarly, I put some of my work on the walls. No point taking them if I never see them.
Photography wise – as I haven’t taken any in over a month I decided to go through some of my recent rejects and give them a second viewing. Most of them were still crap. Three of them got a second chance though.
There’s nothing spectacular about this one. In fact, it bugs me – it’s the wrong way around. The line leads to the left, and it doesn’t sit right with me. But, the edited version compared to the unedited version is much more representative of what I saw on the day.
Again, nothing outstanding. But, it’s not awful either. And, again also better after editing. The left hand side of it is messy with branches and the random sign on the fence. I think this would have worked a lot better if I’d stood two meters to the left.
This is the open moor near where I live. There is a good photograph somewhere in this vast space, but I’ve not found it yet. This is the best I’ve got so far. I don’t know why I disregarded this one, I actually quite like it. I think it needs more height so more of the wetlands are visible, and maybe a step or three back so show the exposed peat and give it more contrast in the foreground? What do I know?
So, three photos’ – none of them particularly good, and none of them absolutely awful either. What I’ve learned is it’s good to be self critical. To go back and revisit photos’ is a useful exercise as it’s allowed me to realise where I went wrong and that these spots do have a good photo in them somewhere. And, that maybe I shouldn’t be so hasty when choosing what photos’ to keep and which ones to go in the bin.
It seems a bit vain to choose what I think is my best photo of 2022. So, I’ve chosen this based on the number of likes my photos have gotten on Social Media platforms that are generally used by other photographers (Vero, Flickr, the M43 Reddit Sub), and this one was miles in front of the others.
The fact that it’s one of my most recent photos’ is pleasing, as I feel it shows that I’m getting better. It also shows that getting up early and a bit of planning really does pay off. I really took my time with this one and waited until the mist had cleared enough that the foreground was clear, but there was enough remaining in the distance to add another texture and mystery to where the line leads the eye. Well, in my mind anyway. I also worked to get into a position where the sun was behind one of the trees so that it didn’t over expose the top left of the image. I actually took two versions of this. One was a five stop bracket, and the other just a single exposure. This version is just the single exposure. The G9 did did a great job of keeping the contrast in the whole image, and the detail is amazing. One for printing and framing I think.
That’s it for this year. I’m really looking forward to 2023 and all of the trips we have planned. It’s going to be an exciting one.
After last week’s spectacular winter frost and mist s we’re back to the standard grey wintery days we get in this part of Yorkshire. Flat grey sky, damp, not particularly cold, all the leaves and plants are rotting or brown, everything is muddy – just dull, Not really great for taking photos’. Plus, it’s the run up to Christmas, so free time is rare but I am planning to get out on the moors tomorrow morning, even if it’s just for some quiet time and fresh air. I’ll take a camera – just in case.
More New Gear
My faithful old (2014) Mac mini gave up on me last week. Absolutely gutted as it’s been with me for so long, but it was getting slow, especially when running Lightroom. So, I ordered a new one. As it wasn’t the standard spec (I wanted as much RAM as possible) I had to order it from Apple’s web site, but it came all the way from China in a week. I’m very impressed with it. The M1 chip and extra Ram make it blazingly fast. It makes my 2020 MacBook Pro look slow and that was the highest spec 13-inch model at the time. I hooked it up to my Apple AirPort Time Capsule (yes, I still use one of those – I think they should still make them) and loaded my last Time Machine back up, and it was ready to go in no time. Hopefully, that’s the last I’ll need to spend on photography gear in a while now. It’s been an expensive year. That said, I would quite like a Macro lens…..
Weather permitting I’ll get something worth photographing tomorrow. If not, lots of plans for next year already in the pipeline.
I finally got to take my new G9 this week. I had to wait longer than I’d like after having steroid injections in my eyes, but it paid off as winter has finally arrived.
An afternoon where the temperature didn’t get above -4oC meant the frost was around all day, and a clear sky meant I could see if the G9 stabilisation was as good as I hoped. It didn’t disappoint, as I didn’t need to get my tripod out until sunset (except to try the high resolution mode). I am loving the G9. What a great camera Panasonic have made, except for the flipping shutter button. Why did they make it so sensitive? If nothing else it’s forced me to finally get used to back button focusing.
Things I’ve learned this week
Bracketing – I need to do less of this and just focus on one photo. Peak Design Tripod – I need to use this more. It weighs more than my other tripods, but it works better and the ball head can’t be beaten. Going to the same place repeatedly- is worth it. I’m still finding new compositions and obviously places change with seasons. The value of backing up – my Mac Mini died this week. Thankfully everything was backed up onto an external drive, Creative Cloud and iCloud. New one us coming on Monday!
Winter has been good for photography so far. It’s important to go out prepared though. Always take tea!
I didn’t have to go far for this one. Just the landing window, my little G100, a 45-150 lens, and a Gorillapod. Really pleased with this one.
This version is a low res j-peg, but the original is a massive 140mg high res from my G9. Taken from about 500m away at 300mm. Not a great composition, but an amazing exam of what the camera can do.
Yup. Another camera, because two wasn’t enough. So, I got my dream camera the LUMIX G9. I’ve looked at this camera for a long time, since it first came out in 2018 but it’s always been out of my reach financially. There I was browsing the Black Friday sales and I found the body on sale at £700. I didn’t have £700 for another new camera so I closed the browser and got on with cleaning my camera shelves – where my unused DJI Mavic Mini 3 was sat gathering dust. Since I lost the vision in my right eye I’ve never felt safe flying a drone for photography, and I’m not sure I ever would. Anyway, lightbulb moment…..sell the drone I never use, buy the camera. So, I did. Part exchange, straight swap.
Not my actual camera….
After a faff around with deliver due to postal strike (posties have my full support), it arrived yesterday. It’s huge, and heavy compared to my current bodies, but not in the grand scheme of cameras.
Unfortunately, my eyes are painful so I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, and I’m in hospital next week. Hopefully I’ll get out with it before Christmas.
It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I used some of the money I got to buy my self a small photograph printer. I wanted to print 4×3 photos to use in a project book that I use to keep a record of my progress, and something small enough to take with me when we go on trips and holidays. So, I did some research and came across this recent model from Canon.
It’s a sublimation printer, so rather than printing lots of tiny dots next to each other it prints in several passes of yellow, red, blue and black to produce a better quality image.
Once the colours are applied it can lay over a matte or gloss finish.
Initially I found the images produced were a little on the dark side, but it was an easy job to find the right settings to produce something satisfactory.
The printer paper comes in packs with the ink cartridge. You can’t buy the paper or the ink individually, which means you’re tied in to buying both. The ink is just enough to suit the number of sheets you buy too. I bought two sizes, 4×3 and ‘credit card’ sized. For the credit card sized paper you will need to buy a different paper tray (about £15), which I think is a bit cheeky from Canon.
I’m really happy with the quality. I do think the paper and ink kits are a bit expensive though. There are cheaper none-Canon options available, but the reviews are hit and miss.
There are two ways to transfer your images to the printer. Firstly the Canon Selphy app, which is really easy to use. You can add filters, text, QR codes and edit your images. Or, you can print directly from an SD card or USB stick. I haven’t tried this way yet as the screen on the printer is too small for me to read as I have a visual impairment.
My only gripe with the printer is the optional battery is £180 – which is more than the printer. It would be nice to be able to go wireless, but not at that price. Other than that, if you’re looking for a small printer that gives good results then I would recommend looking at this one.
Shaun Madill Photography 