The little Red Camera

 

This dandy camera arrived December 14th 2019 and it was love at first unpacking. First off, it is heavy duty and weather proof. It's name says Tough and it is. I've dropped it from my mules, dropped it in the snow, fumbled it in and out of my coveralls and jackets, and walked with it in downpours and snowfalls.

I've worn the paint off one of the edges and basically I've been surprised by it.
It is not a DSLR camera but I've even put it up against my those cameras in some still life tests. The zoom is not something I use often but I do use the macro features A LOT.

The Olympus Menu has always been a confusing thing on cameras and this one is no different. The macro feature menu allows me to do macro, in camera stacked photos [I think this feature is the coolest. I normally can do it without a mini tripod!] With a tripod, you can also take frames to stack later in a program like Helicon Focus. 

There is a microscopic feature that is the bomb. They call it Microscope instead of Macro.

This is the mode for the following shot I took yesterday while hiking in the rain of raindrops on a dandelion.

In camera focus stacking. Wow.
Super cool Olympus feature, but this one comes in a little pocket camera.

The Olympus OMD EM 5 Mark III has it too but it only works with certain lenses.

And it works pretty well.

This feature called Focus Bracket takes several photos and lets the photographer stack them in post process. This is fine and you would want to use a mini tripod. 

I rarely do this only because I think the hand held Focus stack works well for me.

 

Super duper close. I like this for things like snow flakes and dew drops.

Check it out. I ended up getting a ring light that attaches to the front of the camera. It works pretty neat also.

Super Duper Close!

Snow flake

Caddisfly larvae encased in grains of sand.

I stuck the camera in Landscape mode and took this shot of the little gargoyle in my Forest Garden.

Easy peasy. No thinking, just point and shoot.

Other handy menu items are sunset and indoors. For great sunsets, I am not impressed with this camera. It lacks a bit of pizzaz in picking up the colors, but if that is all a person has, it does great.

However it does take pretty cool video in slo...motion! It does eat up the battery if you do a lot of video. There is a self portrait mode too which actually works pretty nice.

Does it produce the best photos compared to other cameras? I honestly don't know. I don't Pixel Peep and I don't care. I need a camera that will take abuse from me and is handy to attach to my belt.

It also has a cool feature which I used. It has a timer you can set and then ask the camera to delay the first photo and take a series of shots. That is how I got most of my 'snowy' adventure photos this year. 

Last note. On the dial menu there is C1 and C2. I've never used them. But if there is a particular 'way' you like your camera set up, you can preset your desires and set them to C1 or C2.  

After the Rains and a Micro Lens

I have a Nikkor 40mm Micro/Macro lens. I had put it aside for a while and decided to just shoot with the nifty 50 and the 85mm prime lenses. Now I don't have the pro lenses, but these nice primes are my go to lenses.
I tried shooting again with the 18-55mm lens but I just wasn't happy with the clarity compared to the primes.

With these fixed lenses, you can't just zoom in or out to 'get that shot'. You have to move your feet. I've found that I enjoy the challenge and now have a hard time going back to any other type of lens. I do however lust after a nice zoom.  I bought the Tamron 18-200mm last year thinking I had the bomb. Nope cheap lens, ... it does the trick in bright light but should only be used in mid range. And it is heavy. --- Edit on 10 17 17...eeks gads I took it out today and was able to make the Tamron work very well! ... Samples later!]

All right, with all of that garbeldy gook out of the way. What did I do? I put the 40mm on my Nikon and packed up my little old backpack and decided to go enjoy the fall colors. I planned on just hiking the 'bowl' up to the pine trees. This means a bit of brush busting through some deer trails.

Now as the name of the lens implies, it is great for close up work. And yes, you have to get 'close' up. Not so great when or if you are trying to shoot a bee for example.
However, it is great for the following.

Water droplets, leaves, and fungi. All such tiny things. I did have to kneel on the ground for the maidenhair fern. I had to get down close to the maple leaf and I got close and personal for the coral fungi. [That was a pure bonus!]

I kept walking down the trail wondering if I was going to regret this self challenge.

The woods were so incredibly beautiful. The colors were popping in the subtle light. The skies were overcast and letting in just enough diffused light to make the yellow leaves appear to glow.

I decided to explore this stump on the trail. Wow, I am glad I did.

I got a few of these droplets. All shots were hand held. I did get damp from kneeling and scrunching down in the leaves or leaning against the stump itself.

The light kept changing as there were breaks in the clouds once in a while.
I kept walking.

I cursed myself for not having a 'landscape' lens and then thought. Well, here is the challenge.
Go for it.

And I did.

Did I do okay? I think so. Did I satisfy my challenge? Yes I believe so.

It was a beautiful day to challenge myself. No tripod, nothing extra. Just a backpack with extra water and a pair of gloves.

I ended the hike at the soybean field at the top of the 'bowl'. I thought I'd try a hand held panoramic shot of the trees below me. The lone red tree was blazing away.

Yes, this worked! I can say with confidence that I can get landscape and micro/macro out of the same lens with nothing fancy.
Color me happy.
Color me satisfied.

Oh. And for the rest of the week the sun will shine brightly so I look forward to some fall adventures with Morris on some well groomed trails as well as a visit to the winter ice cave.
Fall is glorious.

Hopefully you can go out and enjoy it.

Bones. Still Life on a Budget.

I have to admit it.  I like to collect skulls and antlers when I walk in the woods.  I find them pretty fascinating and over the years I've gotten quite a collection.

I have bovine skulls, coyote skulls, 'possum, raccoon, and many deer skulls.
All of these bones and skulls have been discovered while hiking.

For my group on Fine Art Black and White photography, our assignment this week was on point of view or Depth of Focus.
I'd submitted a deer trail photo, then decided after seeing some 'still life' shots from other photographers that I'd try something inside.

[Good idea because it has been terribly cold here with wind chills in the -20's and below during the day.  Not fun for a photographer and pretty rough on the equipment too.]

I'd seen some beautiful perfume bottles, flowers, and other macro work.  But I am not a person who collects or has those things.

So I went out to my 'skull pile' and picked out some intact pieces to work with.

In the above shot, the left skull is raccoon, the middle is canine of some sort, and I am not sure what the right one is.  Possibly a 'possum.

This was a great experiment with my Nikkor 40mm Micro/Macro lens and the Dolica TX570 tripod.

I used a piece of black velvet and my old wooden chair to set the items on.

See?  You don't need an expensive set up to do some creative still life.  There is the brick wall, the beat up chair, the wrinkled black velvet and Morris's crate all in the way.

Yet I was able to work around this set up and create these shots.

I used natural lighting that came in from the window.

I plan on trying to do some shots like this tonight and use another skull or two from my collection, but use an LED flashlight and a desktop lamp to see what I can do with 'creative' household lighting.

So being a 'bone collector' finally had some benefits.