"The Huddled Masses" Peace Park, Columbia, Mo. | Olympus PEN EP-2 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/320 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 200.
Apparently, the recycling bins didn’t hear that Earth Day was last week, and gathered together for a mid-day vigil under the trees in the rain.
Bread from Colin Spitler, before we dove in... | Olympus PEN EP-2 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/100 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 400.
Fellow Picture Story and Photographic Essay student Colin Spitler, who is separated from our class by the distance between Missouri and California, sent us a care package with two loaves of bread that he had baked earlier this week. It was very nice to munch our way through our Friday class…until a seed got stuck in my wind pipe. Ouch.
David Rees, with his trusty towel thrown over his shoulder, slices the bread before class begins. He said that he always cooks with a towel. | Olympus PEN EP-2 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/40 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 400.
Violet Wood Sorrell (Oxalis violacea), MKT Trail, Columbia, Mo. | Nikon D700 and 105mm f/2.8 G ED Micro Nikkor lens; exposed 1/125 sec. @ f/3.5, ISO 800, hand-held.
Over sixteen years ago, when my dad put a camera in my hands, I began to explore the world of the small. Macro photography continues to be one of his specialties, but it’s something that I didn’t feel that I had the patience for. At the time, I was right. Who knows, that still may be true to some extent–I was hand-holding, after all–but as I begin the process of bridging documentary photojournalism with nature photography, a need to enlarge the world of the small has arisen.
In another day or two, I should have a new Canon 100mm macro lens, but in the mean time, I am working with one of the university’s Nikon D700 bodies and a Nikon 105mm macro lens for the close-ups for on a new project on the MKT Trail. The trail runs through Columbia, Mo. to McBaine, and then connects to the Katy Trail–a large trail that runs where the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railway used to have its tracks. While it is conceptually similar to the piece I made on Stephens Lake Park, it is because I remain curious how people in urban environments connect back to nature. For some of them, parks and trails may be the closest they ever come to experiencing something truly “wild.”
"Food for thought" | Olympus PEN EP-2 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/30 sec. @ f/3.2, ISO 800. Double-exposure made in-camera.
It’s been a long time since I’ve played with multiple-exposures. Sure, they’re easy enough to create by merging a couple of layers atop one another in Photoshop, but the unexpected and random nature of running a roll of film through a camera body twice was simply lost. Well, it still is, unless you’re actually running a roll of film through a camera.
There are a lot of gimmicks in the Olympus PEN EP-2, chief among them is an entire dial mode for “art filters,” a library of goofy effects that can be processed in camera for those who don’t know how to produce identical effects in Photoshop. Strangely, the only non-goofy, but still decidedly an “art” effect, is multiple exposures. However, instead of being bundled with those art filters, it’s buried in the menu. Go figure! That said, when this little camera works, it does appear to work well.
More thoughts forthcoming.
Canon 1D Mark II N body and accessories for sale - two chargers, two batteries, original (un-used) strap, and AC power adapter
I have decided it is finally time to say goodbye to a good friend, my Canon 1D Mark II N camera body. I purchased this camera new in the summer of 2007; it was one of the last on the shelves of Adorama as the 1D Mark III had just been released. This camera has been with me to a number of places across the country, as well as to Kenya and the Galapagos Islands.
In total, there have been 82,436 shutter actuations according to 1D Count; the shutter is rated over 200,000 exposures. In January, I sent the body to Canon for a “clean and check” and they replaced the hot shoe, adjusted its shutter speed, exposure, and focusing systems, and otherwise brought the camera back up to factory settings. Since then, I’ve photographed one basketball game, and then put the camera away, waiting for the right time to sell it. I believe that time to be now.
Cosmetically, the camera does show signs of wear (see photos below), including a few scratches on the top of the body, along the prism. There’s also some worn paint near the top shutter button, and a small scratch on the bottom of the body, on the back-right corner.
I am selling the camera body, original box, original charger, original AC adapter, original strap (never used–I used my own strap), and an original Canon NiMH battery. I am also including a Camera Devices-brand NiMH battery (which is actually of higher-capacity than the OEM battery), and a Camera Devices-brand wall charger. This is the charger I actually used the most with this camera, as it was much smaller than the bulky Canon-branded charger.
I am asking $1,400.00 US Dollars for the kit, and that includes FedEx Ground shipping within the United States.
I would prefer to keep the sale limited to North America–I’m sorry, but I had a bad experience selling overseas when I sold my Canon 5D. Please e-mail me or leave a comment (I will not publish it to keep your privacy) if you are interested in the camera.
A cashier’s check would be preferable, although I will also accept personal checks. I will wait until the check clears before shipping the camera. Alternatively, if you are willing to pay the extra 3% that they charge, I will accept PayPal money transfers provided that the address on your PayPal account matches the shipping address you ask me to deliver to.
If the camera doesn’t sell within the next two weeks, I will list it on eBay. I’ll post a link to the auction should I do that.
Thanks for looking and feel free to e-mail me with any questions you might have!
A couple of weeks back, I was thinking about some of my experiences from earlier in the semester, such as photographing the True/False Film Festival, where I tried cramming a couple of spare lenses in my small messenger bag in lieu of my normal shoulder bag (which, frankly, screams “camera bag!”). There are times when a traditional camera bag is fine–going to an assignment where I’m expected to come and photograph, for instance. But what about those times when I just want to walk around on the street and carry an SLR and a couple of lenses, but not be “noticed” as a photographer. Then, I stumbled upon Timbuk2′s own Web site where they explained how to use Domke inserts to transform one of their messenger bags into a viable and discrete camera bag.
Anyone reading this may wonder why not one of the new Think Tank “retrospective” bags, or even their “urban disguise” series, and the reason is that I wanted flexibility. I want the option of pulling the inserts out of this bag, and using it as a normal messenger bag.
Last weekend, a local store in Columbia, Mo. had a 25% off sale on Timbuk2 messenger bags, and I chose a medium-sized Commute 2.0 to transform into a camera bag. Unlike some other bags, it has a laptop pocket on the outside of the bag, and can be unzipped to lie flat, such as on the conveyor of an x-ray machine at the airport–I won’t have to remove my laptop for TSA any more! Also, the bag has the ability to be slipped over the handle of a rolling suitcase (as photographed below). This can be a tremendous advantage in an airport.
So, using the Commute 2.0 as the starting point, I purchased two Domke 720-210 “Standard Single Compartment” inserts, and a Domke 720-2JM “Adjustable” insert.
Timbuk2 Commute 2.0 Camera Bag sitting on top of a rolling suitcase (the messenger bag has a slot to slip through the rolling bag
While I certainly wouldn’t load this bag like this for anything but travel–and even then, I’ve filled it to the gills, so there’s not even room for a book to read on the plane!–I was curious just how much I could carry if I wanted to cram it absolutely full.
So, what’s in the bag?
1. Canon 5D Mark II body with a 24-70mm f/2.8L lens mounted
2. Canon 7D body (no lens)
3. Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens
4. Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS lens
5. Olympus LS-10 audio recorder
6. Two Western Digital Passport hard drives
7. Delkin Devices ExpressCard 34 CF memory card reader
7. Moleskine reporter’s notepad
8. ThinkTank Pixel Pocket Rocket memory card wallet
9. laptop & power cord
Mito - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. | Olympus PEN EP-2 and 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/60 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 800.
Over the next few days I’ll be using the Olympus PEN EP-2 in more “real world” situations than I have been able to of late, but you do learn a fair amount about how a camera works by carrying it around and photographing the things and the people around you.
One thing that I had already observed, but the EP-2 reinforces it, is that while I wish the 17mm f/2.8 pancake lens had a larger aperture, it is a sharp little lens, with well-controlled (minimal) chromatic aberration. I’ve been known to borrow this lens and use it on my Lumix G1. (Panasonic makes a 20mm f/1.7 pancake, but they want $400 US at the time of this post, which I feel is cost-prohibitive at this time.)
Jessica Cherry in our Picture Story and the Photographic Essay class | Olympus PEN EP-2 and 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/30 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 400.
So far, the highest ISO I’ve used is 800, which is about as high as I ever put my Lumix G1. That said, a number of people have been asking about its high ISO performance, and I will endeavor to find out in the coming days. The camera can allegedly be set up to ISO 6400, but I am skeptical about the quality that could be yielded at such a speed. Another reason for not going higher is that the camera has built-in image stabilization. This means that I often have no worries going down to 1/30 sec. for a photograph of a person (as seen above and below), or even longer shutter speeds for pictorial and landscape settings.
Left to right: Mito, Calin, and Val | Olympus PEN EP-2 and 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/30 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 400.
David "Yoda" Rees peers into the Olympus EP-2 in wonder, Columbia, Mo. | Olympus EP-2 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/160 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 100.
Two weeks ago, Olympus “Visionary” Jay Dickman spoke at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and this week Olympus sent the photojournalism sequence a shipment of the PEN EP-2 as well as the PEN EP-L1. This is an exciting development as the EP-2 was Olympus’ first Micro Four-Thirds camera to have an electronic viewfinder (EVF). The original PEN lacked this feature, which I felt made it somewhat superfluous–a glorified point-and-shoot. Now, with an EVF, the EP-2 is much more interesting (the EP-L1 can accept the same accessory viewfinder).
My “favorite” camera of late has been the Panasonic G1, which was actually the first of the Micro Four-Thirds cameras to come out. I’ve posted many images over the past year and a half with that camera, and have loved its EVF, but the EP-2′s accessory viewfinder is the first I’ve seen that tops the G1. And that, folks, is an accomplishment.
I’ll have more to say after I experiment with this machine in the coming days.
