Sat. 08.11.18 – Every time I have been to Disneyland in recent years, I stand by the Mad Hatter Tea Cup ride trying to get a good colorful, blurred photo of the madness that is the spinning. This time, I was fairly successful.
Embrace the blur. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Lumia 950 camera phone.
05.27.18 – The Persian restaurant, Hafez, on Hereford Rd in the border-land that could be Bayswater or it could be Notting Hill, has a rather wondrous approach to interior restaurant decor. There are cookbooks everywhere, the walls and ceilings are festooned with antique and vintage silver and brass culinary and serving implements. Hafez is a delight to not only eat really good food but also a delight for the eyes.
This was directly above our seats this evening. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Lumia 950 camera phone.
This was originally posted as Early Access at my Patreon account.
I have received requests for videos on the adventures of RV living, so here is the first.
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Feb. 20, 2018 – On Saturday of President’s Day weekend, I drove to the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge to camp and take some night sky astro photos. When I arrived, I found the Kokopelli Spiral Labyrinth on the road to Palm Canyon.
The afternoon was beautiful and the earth art spiral was beautiful.
Video taken by Ms. Jen with her Lumia 950 camera phone.
This was originally posted as Early Access at my Patreon account.
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Feb. 12, 2018 – I am finding that the differences between the photos that my camera phone, the Lumia 950, and the new Olympus micro 4/3rds Pen E-PL8 mirrorless camera are both evident and very subtle.
As my previous post states, I had hoped to replace a camera phone photo practice with a very small mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. The transition is coming along in fits and starts.
The immediate difference between the two example photos taken yesterday while on a hike to Palm Canyon in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is the way that the cameras handle color. The Lumia 950 is rather famous for its yellow-tinted take on the world and the Olympus Pen E-PL8 for its lack of neon saturation.
My eyes have become so used to the vivid to neon saturation that most camera phones produce that the subtler colors and tones of the Olympus Pen appear almost desaturated (top photo) until I look at the Pen’s photo carefully – wherein a world of beautiful tones opens up – esp. at the dusty horizon.
In the Lumia 950 photo (directly above), the sky, plants and rocks are much more cheerful in color and the horizon is just a few volcanic cones peeping up from the dusty, windy day.
For what the Lumia photo lacks in contrast and strong shadows, it makes up for in bright color. For what the Pen photo lacks in saturated color, it more than makes up for in mood, contrast, contour edges, and shadows.
What do you think?
This was originally posted as Early Access at my Patreon account.
Please forgive any awkward writing, as I wrote it quickly in the Patreon editor in a snit about all the super expensive flagship camera phones.
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Tues. 01.30.18 – Yesterday, I enacted out a strategy that I have been considering for nearly two years: I bought a small mirrorless micro four-thirds camera with interchangeable lenses that is not much wider than my camera phone in its wallet case.
Two years ago, when the top of the line flagship smart / camera phones were approximately $/£/€ 800 when purchased new and unlocked, I looked around and saw the the cameras on these expensive so-called tech wonders were only OK. Meh – certainly not worth $800.
The years of great leap forwards in terms of technology for camera phones are not necessarily over, but the companies that design and manufacture said smartphones do seem to be more interested in increasing their market cap than giving me the photographer a kick-ass camera phone.
In May of 2010, Roland and I were invited to a private meeting in San Francisco to help Nokia envision the smartphone of 2015. I asked for a mashup of a smart phone and a mirrorless camera system with interchangeable lenses.
Samsung released one poorly done mashup in the mid-2010s and it garnered more complaints than users. Since then it appears that no other tech company cares to try. This makes me sad.
I want good lenses, a good sensor, and good algorithms to power my camera phone. The newest versions of this or last year’s flagships have focused on algorithm and have taken out the photographer’s prized manual settings (I am looking at you, Pixel2).
My current $500 Microsoft Lumia 950, as of July 2016, is still performing better than the Pixel2 in a few blogger’s comparisons (Steve L’s post if you are interested) when the algorithmic magic is examined closely and photos compared at 1:1 crop. I have to fight the Lumia’s software’s choices on low light. Why would I spend $1,000 to fight a camera that wanted to make its own decisions about how low light should be rendered?
Most of all, I guess I am now officially Middle Aged, as the very idea of $1000 for a flagship smartphone makes me want to yell and shake my fist. Even with the best components that is over $750 pure profit for the tech giants. No.
Why should I when a vast array of tech companies are releasing more than sufficient Android smartphones for $200-400?
Thus, my new strategy: Buy a good small to tiny mirrorless camera system with wifi and interchangeable lenses on sale with rebates and then get a small sufficient Android when the Lumia 950 dies – all for less than a flagship smartphone.
Then go take photos with a darned good small camera that will fit in a corner of my purse and do all communicating and internet functions on a phone I can root and hack all for less than $1,000 in total.
Yesterday, I implemented the first part of this strategy when I bought the Olympus Pen E-LP8 camera and two lenses (14-42mm and 40-150mm) on sale with rebates for a total of a bit less than $700. My Lumia 950 is doing just fine right now, but when it is not, I will take recommendations for a nice little hackable Android phone.
My future is my now, for less than $1,000.
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Photo of a dad and his two daughters off across the sand for a beach day taken at noon today at the Huntington Beach State Park with my new Olympus Pen E-LP8 using the 14-42mm lens. I am very happy with the quality and color of the photo, I did crop it in Lightroom and do a few adjustments.
Photo of the Marble Arch at Dusk taken on Fri. Nov. 10, 2017 approximately a half hour after sunset when all the lights would be on but still some light in the sky for the Black & White No Explanation Challenge on Instagram. This is the original color photo before I used the Instagram editing features to make it B&W to post on that site.
All seven original color photos can be found at my Patreon.
09.21.17 – Yes it did snow on the last full day of summer in Mammoth Lakes and out in the Long Valley Caldera. It was very exciting!
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Lumia 950.
Sun. 04.02.17 – Still at least three weeks before fishing season starts and these three gentlemen are jumping the gun a bit…
On another note, there were skiers who had hiked up Mt. Laurel, skied down, and then hiked back to the Convict Lake parking lot in their Ski Boots!!! Ski boots for hiking the long trail around the lake – brave humans!
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Lumia 950.