I've been off-list mostly since last June as I went AWOL to deal with
flood clean up in my hometown, mainly on my own property but also my
mother's condo. The flood was twice as bad as the first time I went
through this in 1993, but I was more prepared for it this go-round.
We moved back in our home the first of August. All of my immediate
neighbors but one are still rebuilding. My mother may get back in her
condo by the middle of this month. I feel tired, but I also feel
lucky.
Anyway, photography. Haven't done much. I took some photos for
insurance purposes but let others less emotionally entwined do the
flood stories and photo documentaries. I've lived somewhat
vicariously through a friend, work colleague, and motorcycle buddy who
picked up an E-500 and kit lenses at a good price a while ago. I had
been out shooting with him a bit over the past years, but shooting
with another person involves a subtle sort of negotiation which we
haven't quite mastered. I think he looks to me to provide prospects
which will improve the discovery aspect of his photography and I look
to him for serendipity. I suppose we both want to invade and conquer
each other's creative consciousness. All that aside, it's been fun
and a diversion to watch him develop and enjoy the craft of the
camera, and to see the outcome especially as he documents the
development of his beautiful family.
The one bit of photography I have done has also been family related.
My daughter has entered a somewhat competitive phase in gymnastics,
and so I've been turning up at her meets as the "dad with the big
honking camera." It's allowed me to explore the capabilities of my
cameras to follow focus, fuss with WB, and generally refine the
argument between creative planning and throwing a lot of exposures at
the problem of a moving subject. That argument is not yet resolved,
but this is kind of how it has gone for me:
Creative planning -- After much observation and repetition, you
develop the ability to anticipate the kinds of things you'd like to
catch, knowing that the opportunity will probably be repeated. Case
in point, here's one of my favorite images:
http://flickr.com/photos/99378213@N00/3010832127/in/photostream/
Throwing lots of exposures at it -- This is easy but not as productive
as I thought. I found a lot of difference between my cameras (E-1 and
E-330) on this point. In Rachel's earlier meets, I used the 330
exclusively, trading off between AF and MF. After a certain amount of
success and frustration with both methods of focusing, I brought out
my E-1, which I much prefer for manual focus because of the
viewfinder. In the end, I was chagrined to discover that despite its
shortcomings, the camera's AF, especially on the 330, is largely
superior to my ability to focus manually at speed, try as I may.
White balance is another issue I had not worried much about before
either, largely because I have mainly shot in RAW mode and just left
the camera on Auto WB, changing it if I want to in PP. I prefer to
shoot jpgs when I'm shooting multiple frames per second, so I have to
settle on some kind of compromised WB in the various lighting
situations inside gymnasia of all different sorts. I should have
brought along the apparatus to do a custom white balance, but never
did. I did something close by shooting a predominantly white
scoreboard at various WB settings and using the best-looking one as my
custom setting for that gym. Worked OK.
In the course of all this fussing about WB and focusing, and
anticipating my family's biennial trip to Hawaii for the holidays
among my wife's klan, I decided to make the move to the E-3. In
general, I really like the camera and it basically overcomes aspects
of the E-1 and E-330 which fall a little bit short in certain
situations. Mainly, it marries the virtues of both cameras together
for me and adds several more. (Someone will say Yeah, it weighs the
same as both cameras together!) Follow focus, particularly with my
old DZ 50-200 is faster and more accurate. However, though there are
11 focus points available, I can't really use them all. I think I
have found just setting the focus up like an E-1 or E-330 is best.
For the most part, I just try to keep the subject inside the circle
and let the camera do its magic. Anyone have a better suggestion?
This post is going on forever, but I'll end with just a couple more
comments on the E-3, a subject which is probably ancient history by
now. Being a somewhat inveterate E-330 user by this time, I like the
way Live View lives on in the E-3. The availability of the histogram
in LV takes me back to the wonderful C-8080 and a feature that I have
always felt was the most clever thing about that camera. With the
live histogram and AE lock button, you can largely get perfect
exposures every time with the C-8080's electronic viewfinder, which
for all intents and purposes is the precursor of LV. On the E-3, the
AEL button has a different purpose in LV, but my hunch is that LV in
manual mode with live histogram will be just about as good. Anyone
doing exposure this way?
In my experience with the 330 and DZ 50-200, LV is required to get
precise focus at the far end of the lens, so even in landscape work I
have tended to use it a lot, and I expect to do the same with the E-3.
The live histogram will be a great asset, I hope.
Best regards,
Joel W.
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