Still life: a banana, a Venetian mask, and a Purple Heart | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS lens @ 14mm | Exposed 1/10 sec. @ f/4.5, ISO 640
Sometimes I’m amazed at what I can produce at 1/10 second with image stabilization and a tiny camera.
Dairy goat judging, North Carolina State Fair, Raleigh, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 45-200mm f/4-5.6 OIS lens | Exposed 1/40 sec. @ f/5.2, ISO 800.
Giant Horse Alive, North Carolina State Fair, Raleigh, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ 31mm | Exposed 1/400 sec. @ f/5.4, ISO 200.
On Sunday, Elizabeth and I went to the closing day of the North Carolina State Fair. You see a lot of strange things at events like that, but this one just depressed me. I don’t know what poor creature lives inside this tent, but I doubt its existence is a happy one.
Spiral Staircase in the Currituck Beach Light Station, Corolla, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and Olympus 9-18mm f/4-5.6 lens @ 9mm; exposed 1/20 sec. @ f/4, ISO 800.
While I had been up to the top of the lighthouse in Racine, Wis. before, when presented with the opportunity to go up to the top of another lighthouse in the Outer Banks, specifically the Currituck Beach Light Station in Corolla, N.C. (pronounced cuh-ra-lah, unlike the car by Toyota), I just couldn’t resist. Sure, it was $7 per person, which is a bit steep, but Elizabeth and I were able to set our own pace. There were no “groups” that went up–there are landings after every flight of stairs, so people can pass in both directions. This is decidedly different from the lighthouse back home, which was much narrower.
In the end, these are my two favorite images. Note that they’re both surprisingly sharp given an exposure time of 1/20 second. If I had taken the Olympus PEN EP-2 along for this trip, I suppose that wouldn’t have been so great a feat to have a sharp image at such a slow shutter speed, but the Panasonic Lumix G1 does not have built-in image stabilization (instead, they put the stabilization mechanisms in the individual lenses, like Canon and Nikon). That is a decided advantage of the Olympus method for image stabilization, but I like having the flip-out screen on the Lumix that the PEN series lacks. To each their own.
As always, comments and criticism welcome!
Currituck Beach Light Station, Corolla, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/20 @ f/5.6, ISO 400.
A sequence of two images made on the same night as my last post:
Incoming surf, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ 14mm; exposed 1/4 sec. @ f/16, ISO 100.
Incoming surf, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ 14mm; exposed 1/3 sec. @ f/16, ISO 100.
Washed up by the surf, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and 45-200mm f/4-5.6 lens @ 45mm; exposed +1 EV: 1/60 sec. @ f/4, ISO 400.
I’m still going through my images from the trip to the Outer Banks that Elizabeth and I took last week. I enjoy the patterns in the washed up seaweed.
Mallard drake in rainwater pool in the parking lot of the Ocracoke Lighthouse, Ocracoke, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/2000 sec. @ f/2.8, ISO 100.
On our last morning in the Outer Banks, Elizabeth and I revisited the Ocracoke Lighthouse, which is a relatively stout structure compared to the other lighthouses in the area, and featured a light that does not rotate, but is visible from 360 degrees around it. Overnight and into the morning we were visited by some heavy thunderstorms and showers, and as we pulled into the parking lot for the lighthouse, we were greeted by three Mallards. This drake was posing for us as we made our way over to the lighthouse.
Ocracoke Lighthouse, Ocracoke, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and Lumix 45-200mm f/4-5.6 lens @ 97mm; exposed 1/320 sec. @ f/8, ISO 100.
Wading into the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke, N.C. | Panasonic Lumix G1 and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens; exposed 1/10 sec. @ f/22, ISO 100.
Today, while sitting on the beach on the Outer Banks’ Ocracoke Island, accessible only by ferry, I decided to stand in the incoming Atlantic surf.
It was cold.
