I Hate Checking My Bag

I met my friend Mikkel Aaland last night at Oracle Arena for a Warriors game. We hadn't seen each other for a while, so I thought a rendezvous in Oakland would work out great. And it did.

Mikkel lives in San Francisco. So he took the BART train to the Arena. I drove down from Santa Rosa. We met in the Budweiser Club for a drink before the game.

I had my Walking Man Shoulder Bag with an iPad mini (the new one!), Canon PowerShot N, a few personal items, and a Stephen Curry bobble head that we each received on entrance to the arena. Everything fit great in my shoulder bag.

I was reading the SF Chronicle on the iPad when Mikkel arrived. He didn't have anything on him. Just his iPhone. I later learned that his backpack with Nikon and lenses had to be checked by Security. It was too big to be allowed in the arena.

I was able to keep my shoulder bag on me the entire evening because it was so light and was never in the way. Even when I was in my seat during the game it rested nicely on my lap.

We had a great evening, even though the Warriors lost in overtime. As we parted to separate exits, I couldn't help wondering if Mikkel would remember to get his bag on the way out. And if so, were the contents intact?

What messy thoughts. I hate checking my bag.

-Derrick

It's What You See That Counts Too

I was just reading a good post by John Martellaro about the iPad mini with Retina display kerfuffle. If you haven't read the news yet, its color gamut is narrower than that of the iPad Air, Google Nexus 7, and the latest offering from Amazon.

Basically what Martellaro says is that consumers generally care about a few key features, and the breadth of color gamut isn't one of them.

Actually, this notion of "spec peeping" comes up all the time in photography. We read a lab report that states that a new lens is 10 percent sharper than the one we own, and suddenly we start questioning our previous investment.

What I gently remind people of during our workshops is: "let your eyes be the judge of that." In other words, if you can't see a difference, who cares what a lab report says? 

Don't get me wrong: I love detailed reviews. And I think they make a good starting point for purchase decisions. But for the final decision, I look at all of the features.

With the iPad mini, I arranged four devices on my worktable and displayed the same colorful picture on each of them. I then took a picture of them and posted it on The Digital Story with the latest podcast. 

If you look at that picture and decide that you should pass on the iPad mini with Retina display, then I consider that a far more reasonable judgement than solely going off a lab report. You can do the same thing at the store with a variety of devices in front of you.

We're photographers. We should trust our eyes.

-Derrick

After the Workshop Is Over

It's a bit like the morning after a big party.

The studio is a mess. I don't care, but the cat doesn't like things out of place. So my first order of business is to wash the dishes, put away the tables and chairs, and restore organization to TDS Headquarters.

While I'm doing this, I should be thinking about the publishing that I'm behind on. Instead, however, I'm still mulling over the conversations from the weekend.

After a few years of leading workshops, the one thing I've learned is that photographers don't get to spend enough time with other photographers. And unless this is your passion, it's hard to understand the balancing act between technology and artistry. Because photography requires both sides of the brain.

That's why the conversations are so interesting. Topics bounce from lighting, to cameras, to travel, to personal history, and then careen off from there. If you're a photographer, this all makes perfect sense. If not, it's probably a lot of blah, blah, blah with a few juicy tidbits.

And that's why we need each other. If you're a photographer, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

-Derrick

I'm Tired of Killer

I know you've read it many times.

DSLR Killer, iPad Killer, Film Killer, Betamax Killer... OK, well, maybe the last one applies.

I've used the term once, tongue in cheek, and still wished I hadn't. Why? Because it's overused and I'm tired of it.

XXX-Killer (hmmm, that didn't really come out right) implies that in order for one thing to succeed, the other must die. And since people love to read about death, even though they do not admit so, the premise being the headline will attract more readers.

(The most likely exception to this theory will be this post.)

Outside of photo prints, I'm not really a black and white guy. In business, I like win/win over zero sum. In relationships, I prefer harmony to drama. And in the world of technology, I like options.

So if something new comes along, I don't want it to kill its competition (unless of course it's no longer useful.) I would rather the competition responds to the new challenge and improves.

The term killer has come up a lot around DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. DSLRs are far from extinct. And mirrorless cameras are far from perfect. But together, they give us a compelling set of tools.

I'm just saying, I'm not seeing any chalk outlines of my Canon 5D quite yet...

-Derrick

Testing Non-Native Glass on the OM-D E-M1

I was teasing Olympus on the podcast that I was one of the first to see the OM-D E-M1, and one of the last to actually get to test it. But I have it now. 

I've used the flagship Micro Four Thirds camera for two shoots so far. The first one was an outdoor family portrait assignment and the second was a model shoot in the studio.

For the family portrait, I tried the Four Thirds mount 12-60mm f/2.8-f/4 zoom. I loved this lens when I first started testing Olympus DSLRs, and I've wanted to try it on the Micro Four Thirds cameras.

It worked fairly well. The images looked good, but the focusing was still slower than I like. Plus the lens is much heavier than the native glass designed for the camera. So it's nice to have the option to use these optics from my lens collection, but I don't think that I'll be tapping them on a regular basis. Here's a picture of Joey that I shot with the 12-60mm.

For the second shoot, I used the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 zoom designed specifically for Micro Four Thirds. It was a joy to use on the E-M1. It focused quickly and yielded beautiful results. Here's a portrait of Kathleen that I captured with this set up.

There's lots more to talk about, of course, but my first impression is that the E-M1 feels like a professional camera when it has native Micro Four Thirds lenses on it. It's nice to have the option of non-native glass - but not for important assignments.

-Derrick