Tag: e-m1

Posted on

Oxford Instameet

Oxford has a very active Twitter community, and I’ve probably made more friends through Twitter than any other way since living in the area.  It won’t surprise you to learn that many of my Twitter friends are also photographers (I feel a Venn diagram coming on…), and naturally Instagram has a growing community in Oxford.

So when I heard fellow Instagramers Natasha (aka Candy Pop) and Rosie (aka Oxford Rosie) were organising an Instameet, meet up of Instagram folk, I just had to go along. 

I met up with Natash, Rosie, and lots of people I’d never met before at the Jam Factory.  After a coffee we set off and walked along the canal and into the Jericho part of town.  I saw lots of bits of Oxford I’d never seen before – doing this with a group of people makes you feel a lot safer when you’re walking around viewing the world through a lens.

Although Instagram is a mobile photography platform I decided to take my ‘proper’ camera to get the most out of the day.  So I packed my Olympus OMD E-M1 along with 12-40mm and 70-300mm lenses, knowing that I could use the wireless function on the camera to transfer photos to my phone for editing and uploading in the Instagram app.  

As Instagram photos are square (no, I don’t believe in the new-fangled non-square formats!) I set my camera to take photos in a 1×1 aspect ratio so that I was composing correctly.  For the photos of flowers, below, I used manual focussing with the focus peaking function to get the focus and depth of field correct.

My ten photos from the day are below, and if you’d like to follow me on Instagram you can here.  

If you’d like to see the photos others took, search for the hashtag #oxfordinstameet or look up @shotatanangle, @candypop.uk, @ibasicallytravel, @jazza, @charis.magick, @annamundayox, @independentoxford, @kinshipofoxford, @benm.photo, @igersoxford, @makingforliving, @byvanessaleigh, @bazmund, @gemblina, @lifesasneeze.

Posted on

Bye-bye MX-5

After four years together it’s time for me and my 21 year old Mazda MX-5 to part company.  As I was preparing to advertise the car it occurred to me that I’d never got around to do a proper photo shoot… so in a brief break from the April showers I headed out, camera in hand.

This is my third MX-5.  Previously I had a 2005 mk2.5, and before that a 1999 mk2 version.  I love that MX-5’s are fun to drive, sporty, stylish, and have legendary reliability.  My next will be a rare green mk3.5 Sporting Black edition, hopefully.

Once I got into MX-5 ownership and the enthusiastic community of the MX-5 Owners Club I knew that one day I’d have to have a mk1 with pop up headlights.  The most popular colour for that age of MX-5 is red, but I wanted white as something a bit different.

This MX-5 may be old, but with a mere 64,000 miles on the clock and having grown up in Japan before being brought to the UK, she has no rust and is in great condition.  She also appears in a post about the new MX-5 and a post to celebrate her 60,000 mile ‘birthday’!

In photography terms it’s one of the few blogs filled with photos using just my Olympus 25mm f1.8 prime lens.  A couple of features of my Olympus OMD E-M1 camera came in really handy… The flip-out screen meant I could get the camera down load and use live view to frame the shot.  And by mounting the camera on a monopod and raising the camera five feet above my head I could use the wifi function with the mobile phone app to live view, frame, and shoot photos from high up.

After four years together it’s time for me and my 21 year old Mazda MX-5 to part company.  As I was preparing to advertise the car it occurred to me that I’d never got around to do a proper photo shoot… so in a brief break from the April showers I headed out, camera in hand.

This is my third MX-5.  Previously I had a 2005 mk2.5, and before that a 1999 mk2 version.  I love that MX-5’s are fun to drive, sporty, stylish, and have legendary reliability.  My next will be a rare green mk3.5 Sporting Black edition, hopefully.

Once I got into MX-5 ownership and the enthusiastic community of the MX-5 Owners Club I knew that one day I’d have to have a mk1 with pop up headlights.  The most popular colour for that age of MX-5 is red, but I wanted white as something a bit different.

This MX-5 may be old, but with a mere 64,000 miles on the clock and having grown up in Japan before being brought to the UK, she has no rust and is in great condition.  She also appears in a post about the new MX-5 and a post to celebrate her 60,000 mile ‘birthday’!

In photography terms it’s one of the few blogs filled with photos using just my Olympus 25mm f1.8 prime lens.  A couple of features of my Olympus OMD E-M1 camera came in really handy… The flip-out screen meant I could get the camera down load and use live view to frame the shot.  And by mounting the camera on a monopod and raising the camera five feet above my head I could use the wifi function with the mobile phone app to live view, frame, and shoot photos from high up.

Posted on

A Chilly Day at Cotswold Wildlife Park

The day after visiting Westonbirt Arboretum (see blog post and photos here) I popped along to Cotswold Wildlife Park.  The weather was much chillier than the previous day and it was interesting to see how the animals outside were coping with the weather.  Some seemed to try hibernation and just slept, and others seemed to be active to keep warm.

The red pandas were particularly active.  So much so that they’ll get their very own blog post as I had so many photos of them.  Keep an eye out for that post coming soon!

For animals who were behind glass my Lens Skirt came into its own.  It really helped to cut out the reflections from the glass and get clear shots.  In the monkey enclosure the monkeys seemed intrigued by the Lens Skirt and came right up to the glass to take a look.  Unfortunately they were too close for the lens I was using at the time.

For this visit I was using my backup camera body, an Olympus E-PL3, with my normal lenses.  I’m very pleased with the photos I got from this body, and it goes to show much of the quality comes from the lens you use rather than the body.  The two drawbacks for me were the lack of viewfinder (using just the camera screen was quite awkward at times) and the body was too small to get a good grip of.  

The reason I had to use a backup body was that my Olympus OMD E-M1 and shiny new 25mm f1.8 lens were off for repair – the body was suffering from intermittent shutter lockups since fitting the new lens.  This was really annoying as it happened on a weekend away and left me with very few photos.  Luckily the E-M1 came with a Service Plus warranty and when I called about the issues I was having, Olympus picked up the camera and lens, zoomed it to Portugal for repair, and a few days later it was back in working order.  Great service!

Posted on

Circus photography with Damian McGillicuddy and Olympus

Last week I went to Giffords Circus for an event organised by Olympus.  Since moving from Canon to Olympus I’ve been impressed with how they market their products, and this is a great example… 

Olympus arranged for one hundred photographers to go to the circus where we could try out pretty much any camera body of lens from their OMD range with a few circus acts making for great photographic subjects.  The event was brand agnostic, there were many folk with Canon, Nikon, and other camera’s.  And this wasn’t even a sales pitch!

Damian McGillicuddy, Olympus UK’s principle photographer, was there to talk, give some hints, and show how us how he’d do a model photo shoot.  I’ve never specialised in any area of photography and was simply in awe of Damian’s knowledge, gained through years of experience in producing award winning images.  Damian was also a great presenter and thoroughly nice chap.

After the event we were all treated to tea and cake, and even got a goody bag to take home.

I hope to get to go to similar events in the future, a great way to learn some new tricks, meet some nice people, and practice photography in a fun environment.

Posted on

Scotland (part 2 of 2) – Edinburgh

This post is the second in a series of two about a recent trip to Scotland and is focused on Edinburgh.

A day trip to Edinburgh as part of the break allowed for just five-and-a-half hours exploring this amazing city.  It was the day before the Edinburgh Festival Fringe started, and so there was a real buzz and the city geared itself up for a month of fun!

After being dropped near Princes Street with limited time available I decided that Edinburgh Castle should be the first port of call (after a coffee, of course!).  The Castle, on the edge of the Old Town part of Edinburgh, overlooks the New Town part and beyond with spectacular views.  The famous One O’Clock Gun was a great photo opportunity, so I picked a place with a good view for photos and despite some rude tourists shoving to get a view I still got a good shot by holding my Olympus OMD E-M1 camera up high and using its handy tilt screen to keep everything in frame.

Leaving the Castle behind I went on an open top bus tour of the city to see the highlights.  Although I got caught by a passing shower (luckily the E-M1 is weather proof!) it was a great way to see the city and learn about some of its history.  

Time ran out on me, and I definitely plan to return to Edinburgh one day to see more of the city.  If I could combine it with a trip the Fringe, that would be amazing!