Champions All

The St Patricks college senior boys soccer just won the state private schools flag.

This, added to several other state and northern titles has put the school on a bit of a high and rightfully so. It is the biggest school in the state, but sport is not compulsory, unlike many other private schools.

Playing one down and giving away a decent height advantage, they won out through their strong team ethic, skill and tenacity.

Nice to shoot on a smaller ground with only a zoom.

I may have hitched my wagon to the right horse.

Interestingly, the crowd grew to apparently the second biggest soccer crowd of the year at 500 odd or about 30% of the school body. Entry was free, but not compulsory.

The Wider View

Another hour, another town and another shape.

Japan Within Reach

All things willing, we will be in Japan soon.

Just a taste of what less than an hour can produce.

Those We Left Behind

Had a couple of mammoth weekends lately.

Football finals of all ball shapes, editorial pressures, some things unexpected all amounted to a rush of work, some of which slipped through.

Not as big an audience, but still nice to give them some air.

Life Before And After The "Perfect" Camera

The G9 Mk2 excites.

If you are a M43 user, it is the pinnacle of the offerings so far, especially if like me you are a generalist who needs the best rubber-meets-the-road performance now, but with plenty of upgrade options.

The OM-1 is a beast, but if you are a hybrid shooter, still a little photo-centric.

The GH6 was arguably the top dog, hybrid especially, but is suddenly sidelined to all but the most video centric shooters by a true hybrid that lacks little and improves on much. Yes I would and will happinly swap a fan and flippy-dippy screen for twin SD slots, better AF, stabilising and stills features.

Gimbal like stabilising, professional video specs, best in class stills features, ideal form factor and cross compatibility (my S5 rig will fit it), all with a minimum of fuss. my recent post about video options seems almost quaint after the drop of this camera and all for the price of a low-mid range full frame.

If you are not a M43 user, best be aware. The advantages of the format are many, while the disadvantages are becoming less and less relevant.

Shallow depth of field rendering, meaning often impractical but “on trend” super shallow depth, like an 85 f1.4 used close, is a great look, but rarely of any use in the real world (it can also be matched for DOF by a M43 56 f1.4 Sigma that is much smaller and cheaper). Lenses like that used to assume best in class build and glass pedigrees, but these days, that is rarely the case. Lens perfection can be found in little gems like the 45mm f1.8 Oly, Sigma 30, 15mm f1.7 Leica or the base model f1.8’s from most brands.

A M43 user can and will use f1.8 for a lot of things a full frame user would avoid. Personally I shoot groups three deep at distance with the 75mm at 1.8 for that snappy sharp/soft look. The full frame user is more likely to use f1.8 and wider sparingly, falling back on the old workhorse professional setting of f2.8 (also the pro zoom maximum), achieving much the same* in the end, but losing over two stops of light while getting there*.

Which brings us to the second “biggie”, low light performance. In many scenarios M43 has answers for all the low light head aches. More efficient stabilisers, improved sensors, many with some form of dual ISO or dynamic range lift, then shot over to ever improving software can often fill in the balance.

ISO 6400 cropped, with a hand held 600 f4. Notice the DOF is actually too shallow to get the kicker and wall.

Get yourself out of an Adobe only workflow and ISO 6400 holds no fear, go even higher if needed**, which when combined with the 2x magnification and smaller sensor stabiliser benefit and extra focus depth allowing for wider apertures to be used safely (see above) and you make up 3-4 ISO settings, all while being smaller, lighter and cheaper.

Of course the full frame file can be put through the same “soup” and/or bigger, dearer lenses bought, evening out some of these factors, but at the end of the day, for all practical uses, M43 provides plenty, only beaten in direct test bed comparisons with the always better by definition full frame sensors, but these comparisons are often without real context**.

There is alway more to be found somewhere, but enough is actually enough.

In direct comparison to the S5 Mk2, the only genuine advantage to the full frame camera is extremely high dual ISO performance (8000+), but only if the camera sports a similar fast lens. This is something that in video is a tougher fix for me, not running a super computer.

I am happy to have the “older” S5 for just that (one of the areas the Mk2 offers no actual improvement), but even then, I am keen to use it in Super-35 mode (APS-C crop) as there is little actually lost.

The G9 Mk2 will then do the AF, stabilising work and provide better format choices for me than even the S5 Mk2 would, all while tapping into my huge M43 lens arsenal.

For stills, even the twin EM1x’s are under some pressure, but each of my stable, old and tired or relatively unused****, are all relevant in some way. Even two of my original EM5 Mk1’s still take images that please me and are reliable enough to have been in the running for our next trip to Japan.

Shooting this hand held with 100mp may be interesting, but 25+ is actually plenty. Once the job of a monster tripod mounted camera, I shot a series of these hand held at a school excursion with a long lens.

The older G9’s can now just be my stills/run-and-gun video cameras, basically stills cameras that can more than “do the job” when needed.

Tons of quality, nice and practical, easy to find Bokeh in balance. I used to get excited when eye lashes were visible, now I assume it to be the case.

The G9 Mk2 also fixes the little issue I had with some of my video “rigs”.

The Samllrig shoulder and chest mounts used with the G9 Mk1’s I had to deal with manual focus and stabilising that was good for static work, but less capable than the Olympus cameras for movement. The Olympus cameras offered better AF and stabilising, but were not the best video performers.

Basically, I could put a G9 on a shoulder rig with a wide angle, set focus to a few feet with f5.6 and move with the subject putting the M43 depth of field advantage to good use. There were a few scenarios this worked in, but many ideas that I just had to cut loose.

It looks like the Mk2 would allow me to trust the camera with both its active stabiliser mode and face/body detect AF with any rig***. Suddenly two possibly ill-conceived ideas have fully found their feet.

*1.8 M43 = 3.4 ff in depth of field equivalences.

**The other two togs at the paper use f2.8 zooms and the new Z9 Nikon’s processed through Lightroom and the sports team still ask me why my night and indoor sports shots look brighter and cleaner! The power of modern M43 cameras with faster glass, put through Capture 1 and the occasional dip into ON1 No Noise (oh and the reality that a sensor 4x bigger is not 4x better).

***Another combination is the weighted shoulder rig with a top handle carried low, that seems nearly perfectly balanced for running hand held.

****Near new; S5, EM1x, G9, Pen F, OSMO, Worn in; EM1x, EM1.2, 2x EM10.2, G9, 2x Pen Mini-2, Bit tired; 2x EM5.1, EM1.2, Worn out; 2x EM5.1.

Future Video Pathways. So many Options, Nothing Perfect....Or Is There?

This post has been sitting for a while and just became redundant.

So, I am happy enough right now with my video offerings, but there is room for improvement.

A case of the more you know……. .

The S5 is awesome and considering I get decent enough results for my needs from a G9 in Standard profile, it feels to me like a massive problem solving upgrade is always at hand, but there is a small short fall that could be addressed in one of several ways.

The camera has some ghosting artefacts when following a moving subject. The whole juddering thing has been doing my head in, but I am reconciled now with the reality of it and can mitigate it well enough, but the ghosting issue is a fixable thing.

It comes from LongGOP (long group of pictures) mode a form of IPB recording, where the camera records full detail frames intermittently, “filling in” the rest with frames made up of mostly retained or repeated information, only recording what changes (a bit like an old, hand drawn cartoon with a background sheet and animation placed over the top). They vary a little by brand etc, but are in effect the same.

IPB formats are ideal for semi-static subjects, like interviews etc and they keep files nice and small, but this failure to re-look at the scene every frame can make busy subjects look less detailed and smooth. You could make a movie with IPB formats, but you have to know what it cannot do.

IPB loves this type of thing, but it is not all you will do.

All-i (all-intra) mode on the other hand records every frame as an individual capture, using up a lot more space with this added information (400mbs compared to 150mbs for example, all else being equal), but interestingly often processes more easily, because it is less compressed (un-compressing is one of the big processing strains).

This type of thing is the Achilles heal of IPB.

The G9’s and S5 mk1 do not have All-i recording. The EM1’s do, but fall short in other ways.

The reality is, I do not really need it for most things, but also, it is not actually hard to upgrade to better, although that does come with some caveats.

The big question is I guess, am I willing to pay the price of more information and versatility, the price being massive storage needs or indeed get a camera just for this.

I want it, possibly need it, but I do not love the compromises it may force.

Options up until recently;

GH5 Mk2 $2000-. This camera offers All-i and high bit rate recording (400mbs). It also has live streaming capability and takes the same batteries and M43 lenses I have now. In the sales last year they were about $1600, which was tempting. Basically, apart from the Vlog-L upgrade included and the couple of All-i recording modes, it is a G9 with no top screen and maybe less capable AF/stabiliser. The reality is, This may have been the only form I would probably take All-i footage in, because it does it with minimum fuss. Any more effort smacks of overkill for me, and the camera is a perfectly capable G9 backup for stills, but with continuous recording and steaming. It can also take a Video Assist, gimbal etc. In hindsight, this would have been a good value filler.

GH6 $3000+. The above upgraded, but more than I need and possibly less? The need for a high speed CF card as second memory put me off last time and I doubt I will use half its maximum capabilities. This is overkill for me and with strings attached. Apple ProRes is great, but huge files and a messy workflow are not enticements.

BMPCC4k $2500+. This thing has a lot of video image quality advantages, as well as a free software upgrade and pro video interface, probably filling the hole I have, but with all my other cameras staying relevant as there is much it cannot do. Too many compromises, too dated even? The price includes all the added extras needed to make it work.

Sigma FP $2000+. A video specialist like the BMPCC4k, one that would take my Panasonic-L and retro glass. I have the screen and lenses, so only the camera is required. Cinema DNG eats 22GB per minute. Sorry, no way and even at it’s most workable settings, one TB is only 3hrs of footage.

Black Magic Video Assist (12g) $1000-1300. These will smooth the files and reduce ghosting on my existing camera (S5), give me the same software as the C4k camera and BRAW, but only the S5 will benefit it seems, because even though I have seen footage from G9’s made through them, the G9 is not listed as fully compatible, nor the EM1’s.

Ninja-V $800. Frustratingly, this is compatible with all my cameras, but not a DaVinci work flow (ProRes, not BRAW).

Then this dropped;

G9 Mk2 $3000. The just announced super hybrid. All the benefits of the GH6/S5mk2 with few of the down sides, some new stuff, some improvements, parameter shifting even, perfect form factor, accessory compatibility, no exotic needs. If I designed a camera for me, this would be it, although maybe I would have stopped short, not wanting to over-ask.

No limit or crop 4k, All-i/10bit/422/60p in LOG would have been the dream, but even more! External SSD storage without an interface, in camera 6k open gate, internal ProRes, dual SD cards, Gimbal-like stabilising, useable AF, are all bonus features!

I think we assumed at least recording limits, limited bit depth or paid for Vlog-L, but there are very few holes in this offer. It replaces the OM-1 and GH-6 as the respective top stills and video options.

The big bonus for me is I get all this while buying a genuine stills camera upgrade with no strings attached! It is a real cake-and-eat-it proposition. I could buy it and only ever use stills and 1080p, without feeling I have a single purpose machine being severely under utilised. If I want or need to go “full noise”, then 4k or even 6k are there, no issue, no upgrades needed, just there.

Two of these and I could possibly sell everything else, even the S5. No kidding. I won’t though, because they do not cost a cattle station each, so I might as well hold onto the depth I have and just flog them all.

Getting one soon for video and another when they price drops for general use makes sense. The Mk2 for example could do the job of an EM1x for sport, but so do they.

It is like I will have the “one ring to bind them all”, but all the other rings do their specific jobs just fine as well.

The G9 Mk1’s are still my favourite stills cams for some jobs, and decent B-Cam options for video. One of these is near new and may even get the VLOG-L upgrade.

The S5 has super high ISO performance as long as I use a fast lens with it, or the advantage is mostly lost. The shallow depth thing is a factor also, although not as much as many assume. Full LOG means I have two matched cameras at the “pointy” end. This has done very little work and will still be my static interview cam.

The EM1x’s are my sports cams, as much for their form factor and sheer value as anything else. Probably about 80% working life still left in each. Like the G9’s, one of these is hardly used.

The EM mk2’s have paid for themselves over and over, so every day is a bonus. No idea of shutter count, but even the older one is still a daily user.

The Pen F is special, if limited. Hardly used, it is my personal ride.

The Pen mini, EM10 & 5’s are handy shelf warmers, good for camera risky, personal or low stress jobs like travel or studio. Just these, all well used and a couple over ten years old probably still have 1-200,000 shutter fires left in them in total. That’s a career for some shooters.

Something Of Interest (Or Understatement Of The Year).

The G9 Mk2 has been launched and it safe to say, the era of so-so hybrids is over, maybe also the period of M43 being seen as a lesser option in a world of what to compromise choices.

Numbers like 5.7k/10 bit/422, 4k/120/10 bit, 800mbs/240p/1080, built in Log, ProRes, phase detect AF and better overall specs mean the OM-1 (in my opinion) has its match in a stills camera, and the GH6 and S5.2 as video cams.

All this, no catch?

Compared to the OM-1 it is now offering class leading AF, stabilising, resolution, hand held high res, ergonomics, screen resolutions and probably more, but I got lost after the first five minutes of better and more specs.

It is also cheaper than the GH6 or OM-1.

As a video cam, well where do you start.

I guess mostly with “yes” far more often than “no”.

All-i, internal ProRes, direct power in and storage out to SSD via usb-c, 6k internal, VLog (full), 10 bit/422 in almost all frame rates and resolutions, video interface support (wave form, vectors, anamorphic etc), near faultless AF, best in removable-lens-camera stabilising, are all a yes.

There are a few minor no’s, but compared to all other cams in this space, they are minor or still better than other options.

To me the Pana engineers were given the following parameters;

• Beat anything previously offered in M43 or APS-C crop formats in a true hybrid camera.

• Dominate the M43 specialist feature sets, like hand held hi-res, more efficient stabe, better implementation of expanded dynamic range etc.

• Develop the already much liked S5 II improvements with the advantages of the smaller sensor.

• Offer a camera that can match the OM-1 in stills, then kill it in video.

• Make a camera that can match the GH-6 in video, then beat it in stills.

• Make a camera with the same six year staying power of its predecessor.

• Remove the “built in compromise” vibe of previous offerings like limited record time, accessory or firmware reliant upgrades, paid for Vlog. In essence take away the “yes…but’s”. In other words, raise our expectations into the future.

• Blow our minds.

From what I have seen-read, it is a GH6 killer except for the internal fan, an OM-1 killer-period, an S5 mk2 killer with better video specs internally than the S5 even with off board support, a cost to features all-brand killer.

What can’t it do?

Match full frame super shallow depth of field and their top end high ISO performance. Does it have enough here? I think so, because the lenses available are enough and affordable in practical terms and other benefits match it.

We always want more, so it is rare when hopes are exceeded.

The S5 is still relevant for me for these two above considerations (just), the older G9’s as decent colour matched B-cams (with limits, but enough), the EM1’s are my work horse stills cams. The BMPCC4K, Sigma FP and off board recorders are out as irrelevant and to some extend even now dated options.

It even fits in the S5 cage!

I will be going here in November, chasing the dream of the one camera that does it all.

A Plucky Little Horse And Some Leftovers

A weekend shared between a school equestrian event and the paper.

Not the massive mount many had, but plucky, well loved and it turned on a dime, so really fast.

Also some football shots that will not meet the needs of the paper.

No contest. Cool pixelation effect down the leg from the running board.

For some, sport is a religion, prayer and all.

No ball, but strong none the less.

Growing tired of the paper dynamic, but there may be a light….. .

Shape Of Days

My days have a couple of dynamics that are as contrasting they are frustrating.

First job today, technically before official starting time, but all the better for it, was an interview with a local artist.

I love these.

No staged shots, just video, using a tripod this time and silent stills, all taken while the interview was being conducted.

Nothing like a passionate person in the space they call their own. The other photographers advised me to just wait until the interview was over and ask three questions as the basis of a quick video, then do the staged still shots. I cannot think of a better way to kill the vibe of the whole process.

How do you get someone to consciously repeat a spontaneous moment? You don’t. First time is the only time. Love the 16:9 shape.

Remembering her first visit to Florence to see Michelangelos “David”, discovering the unfinished works “The Prisoners”, and seeing first hand the chisel marks and first imaginings of the artist, “like he was right there”.

Then it all came crashing down to reality with a request for a staged, cliched, formulaic set shot for our winter appeal. The event and outcome were important, but the photo far from it.

No, not great, but done.

Probably more of a contrast than most because unfortunately, as I do not get many of the former.

Not much longer for this world of ups and downs I hope, but I seem to be useful for the moment and when I do get the chance to meet interesting people, well, I would not be anywhere else.

Old Glass Magic

I have been looking around and pondering video options lately.

After some recent success with the G9’s, I realised the S5 has been neglected, which seems backwards, but in that vein, I decided to give the old Pen 25 f2.8 half frame lens another go, this time in Standard profile, no changes rather than the flatter Natural profile with reduced everything (which I do not actually like that much).

So what is against the above image? A screen shot taken from a video clip, made with a dated G9 stills-hybrid camera in base Standard colour mode, 1080p (10 bit, 422), no other changes, ISO 3200, with a 50 year old lens in manual focus. A lens prone to low contrast veiling flare wide open, with “guesstimated” white balance, hand held, manually focussed using only the camera screen, minimal grading by an editor still learning the basics (a little white balance shift, some added contrast).

The lens is sharp, pleasant to use and almost ideally suited to video, with a smooth (very old) manual aperture ring, perfect focus throw and a natural organic softness, especially wide open. Bokeh is a little busy, but that does tend to add to the “snappiness” of the rendering.

Just to prove it was not a fluke, an image from another clip, this time with slightly warmer white balance (what I guessed before the slight fix). really like the 3d effect this lens adds and focussing, with depth limited to M43 f2.8 is a breeze. Notice the double edge on the gold frame. It is a little like the 17mm, but with Ni-Sen or cross eyed Bokeh as a bonus.

I know most G9 shooters use the Natural profile, often with contrast and sharpness reduced, but I much prefer the cleaner highlights and better white balance rendering of Standard. I found myself time and again putting back in what was taken out and Standard is basically right where I want to get. I just make sure I keep the histogram inside the right hand edge and all is workable.

If I am doing a serious shoot, the primary camera is the S5 in Flat mode, which grades very cleanly, the G9’s in Standard and grade the S5 towards them.

My shift to Super-35 with the S5 for most things and the G9’s coming right for me is making for a useful and powerful kit, a four angle outfit, the with the OSMO included.

The S5 and Super 35 As A Real Option

Super 35 is the original and most common format in movie making up until recently, when full frame “hybrid” cameras have become common.

It gets a lot of hate.

The S5/5II/5IIX all crop their 4k at the extreme end and this is seen as short coming, which I get I guess as it is sold as such. The lowly G9, a dated, photo-hybrid camera can shoot un-cropped 4k/60p/420 or 4k/30p/422 as is.

Is this really an issue or just perceived to be one?

Super 35 is a variety of formats based on the original purposing of 35mm movie film, which is when it was used sideways to 35mm stills film (or the right way I guess). In digital the format is still used in many top end cinema cameras, but the actual shape varies a little.

Cropping a full frame camera gets you something like Super 35 in the much maligned and oddly named APS-C format, which is still bigger than M43 and traditionally used by many semi-pro/pro cameras. Many of the big films from the film era were shot on S35.

A screen shot from a recent M43/G9 shoot, using 1080 in standard mode, with minimal grading. So much more on offer from even S35 in the S5 in FLAT profile, but even this “bare bones” offering is enough for most uses.

I have been doing a lot of reading and watching of videos on this topic recently and it seems that apart from a 1.5x increase (= more folks, more!) in focal length, there are actually few other down sides to cropping.

• The S5 in 4k does not lose quality. It is still true 4k with no loss of resolution. The sensor is actually a 6k sensor, so this makes sense.

• It does not add any noise or reduce light gathering, but the smaller surface area may show noise up quicker on close inspection.

• The rolling shutter performance is 100% better (from 21ms to 10.5ms), which is enough to take it from average up to the very good class of cameras.

• You are using the sweet spot of the lens, which is a plus for the 20-60 kit lens for example, a lens otherwise very stable except for soft corners wide open.

• The kit lens becomes a more cinema standard 30-90mm (with of course the 20-28mm option in full frame). This more normal range suits me ideally for general use. My preference is for normal perspective wide screen, not wide lens distortion and perspective.

• The middle of the road 50mm in turn becomes a true 75mm portrait lens for half the price of the 85mm and the 85 then becomes a 130mm f1.8! I actually like the slightly more relaxed and natural looking 75mm over the more aggressive 85mm anyway.

• More lenses become available, including the TT Artisan 35mm I already own.

• The loss-less pixel/pixel mode in FHD nets you a 3x increase in focal length. The 50mm becomes roughly a 225mm f1.8 and the kit lens covers 20-270mm overall.

• The variable aperture lenses also get faster for their relative focal length (30mm is F3.5 rather than about f4-5 etc). This is the secret of M43.

• The stabiliser is more efficient I am guessing, because it is the case with the M43 format, but this is probably balanced by increased magnification, if it is used.

• You gain a slight increase in depth of field at the same magnification for easier manual and AF accuracy. Your 50mm acts like a 35mm in these respects, so a little of the M43 advantage. Shallow depth is still possible of course, but light gathering considerations do not force you to extremes as quickly.

• All formats the camera offers now come with the same parameters, so no changing of “hats” mid stream. The cameras stats suddenly become a lot more exciting without the “oh but I have to switch” holdup. For me, UHD and S35 are fine so 100% choice.

• There may be a small advantage in file size or sampling rates. Not sure here.

• By embracing its potential, you effectively double your lens arsenal, using full frame as the “B” option. This means you could have the 24 and 50mm lenses, with 35 and 75 as your normal working range. To me this is the ideal four and in balance*

*A wide angle is often used sparingly, but is required for some shots, the standard 50mm is also in an odd space between the often preferred and more natural 35-40mm and is not a true portrait focal length (it is a good compromise, but a compromise none the less). The 35 and 75 on the other hand are the “perfect” pair.

Will AI Replace Photographers?

No point in writing this really as many more educated minds than mine have already gone here, but for what it is worth, as much for myself as anyone else, here are a few thoughts.

The first stanza;

AI can quite often replace the actual reality of a physical (digital) image. It cannot however replace authenticity.

Real person, real place, real time.

An advertising company can make an image out of ideas, an artist also and for school projects it will be handy (if allowed). For idle imaginings, time pressed projects or to fix the inevitable problems that arise, AI is an ideal, creative and fast path.

Would you let AI “make up” your wedding photos? How about your children’s school play? Will a news service (ironically using fewer and fewer photographers) be ok with a “something like the actual event” image and would their readers?

In some cases unfortunately they may, but authenticity and trust will be lost.

Made up is made up, no matter how good it may be. It is not the actual thing in the actual place at the actual time, so it does not count without some deceit employed. For many uses this is not important, for many more it is all important.

The second stanza;

Imagination needs inspiration.

Nikon South America has been advertising the benefits of actual photographer’s work. Much of it is from nature and much of it only means anything because it is real. Some of it would be dismissed as the workings of a fanciful mind, if not.

Want a purple tree? Does it mean anything other than as adornment for a sci-fi movie or children’s book unless it is an actual thing. Is it amazing just because it is purple and beautiful, or because it is real.

Sure, we manipulate now, but whole-sale manufacture is surely different.

In this jaded world of contrasts and contradictions, advertising fatigue, normalised falseness and an increasingly less engaged and trusting audience, is authenticity going to be the next big trend?

What would be the point of faking these guys? Apart from breaking the one main tenant of news reporting, authenticity, it would simply be a pointless exercise. Removing the stack of chairs from the background? Well that is another matter.

The third stanza;

From nothing or from something?

Most AI needs more than one base image to work from. A blank page to AI is as blank as it is for us. You ask it to do “X” and it needs to know what “X” is, what “X” may look like especially if “X” has many variants and it needs a context to modify “X” within.

“I want a mountain with a sunset, a beautiful lake and autumn trees” means nothing to AI if it has no stock library to draw from, no terminology to reference, so somebody has to take the images in the first place, then share them with the AI tool.

Are you ok with someone else always taking the images?

Variety may also be the first victim if we all get too lazy to go out and freshen up the pot!

Ponder this also.

How much effort are you willing to give an AI tool to make up your image.

Are you going to spend days describing every minor detail to an artificial mind or just accept its version? If not much, then why not just go and take it, then manipulate from a stronger base. Maybe take up painting even, might be quicker. Artists often abstract fine details for this very reason.

Nature does a lot of the heavy lifting here.

We rely on the world filling in a lot of the blanks, happy that it does so with simple reality. Take away that solid base and you have a lot of details to worry about. Obsessive compulsives may be busy.

Stanza four;

Why?

As I said above, why do we do it?

I take photos because I like to document the real things I see. I avoid blatant manipulation, because of the same thinking. Nature, humanity, life generally are all amazing, more amazing than anything I could come up with without enormous effort, much more effort than return.

As soon as one of my images looks a little “fake” from processing, I ditch it or start over.

Would a good travel or street photographer be happy siting at home and making stuff up from other peoples work?

How about a portraitist manipulating increasingly generic looking, fake but “perfect” people? Might save on lighting, but an unsatisfying path maybe.

People it turns out are real. Just ask them.

Would your family be happy with some pretend family pics of ever absent uncles and aunts, or would they prefer to actually see them and take their images while together?

Yes the time pressed advertising or commercial shooter will be happy to work with little to make much. This has always been the case. Want a perfect banquet, then make one up. It will just be easier to do and cost less, more of a skill switch than philosophical change of mind for some.

I was there, it was real and I shared. I could have lifted a similar image from the web and manipulated it, but it would not have physically taken me there, so it would have been irrelevant.

If we ask ourselves what are we trying to achieve, sometimes the best path is the most obvious.

Is it possible to get where we are going authentically, because maybe the journey is important also. Like the search for the perfect mechanical dog, maybe a dog is just better by design even if you need to employ some training, which in turn gifts you with a feeling of accomplishment and helps you develop more skills.

The Finale;

Stuff changes, always and forever, but the important things do not.

Some deeper, stronger things need to stay the same in that flowing river of evolution, like a stubborn boulder, because we need anchors in our lives.

We need authenticity or we question our relevance in this world.

You only have to see the recent trend towards “retro” ways of doing things, especially from our young, to see that authenticity is still important even for IT (and soon AI) natives.

It seems we all want to believe in something real.

AI is a wonderful tool, but it is not by definition as powerful as the real thing (it’s in the name Artificial Intelligence).

Of course the big problem will be identifying the real from the fake, or more likely who will care?

I can see a time when third world artists and creators will be much sought after, because they will have untainted, authentic voices.

While we are at it, the music industry may be the big looser. Music is a finite collection of combinations and variants, very mathematical as it goes. Give AI a generation and real musicians may no longer be needed, just song “makers”. The next big hit may be Elvis or The Beatles, back from the dead.

The Demise Of The Ten Percenters.

Ten percenter has two connotations here.

Being a photographer for a local paper means you need to be in the most literal sense, a photographic jack of all trades, a “ten-percenter”.

I have been a specialist in several fields either by passion or employment.

Specialising means making an effort to put all your skill, resources and focus into a single type of photography (or video) over all others, for a period long enough to matter.

A little obsession helps.

A basic portrait image of a subject for the paper. Where did the process come from? Years of thinking about photography in a variety of forms and genres.

This may mean a full day or several days concentrating on a drama production, months creating a landscape portfolio or years even, accumulating a travel stockpile.

Travel, street, landscape, studio portrait, environmental portrait, candid portrait, sport, wildlife, still life, astro, event, drama, music, time lapse, in film, digital stills or video, even sound. You name it, I have had a period, long or short, where this has been the keen focus of my interest. I tend to work things through to their logical end and move to the next interest, then sometimes come back again, sometimes not.

The candid shooter in me (a favourite), loves the down time between events.

Being a news paper photographer, especially at a small local paper, means you will tap into most of these interests regularly, so it is best you have them to call on.

The trick is to bring your best kernels of that wisdom, when and as required.

I have gone to press conferences that turned into sporting events, local news stories that turned into semi-formal portraits, low key drama previews that produced a full rehearsal with the works and unknowns that have taken to all sorts of creative places.

Never used in this form, but this is the one I liked. These guys are specialists.

You have to adjust your thinking. You have to learn to do the best you can, compromise and hero practicality over quality.

So 10% means two things.

First it is a rough estimation of the amount of experience and training you will tap into from any single specialist field on a given assignment. I guess you draw from it all, but the reality is you can follow the trail back to a single experience in your photo “memory catalogue”.

Secondly, it is a rougher estimate of the resource pool you will be able to draw from. A portraitist uses lighting control, a sports shooter uses a clutch of otherwise over the top cameras and lenses and a landscape shooter worships a “built like a tank” tripod and filter set over all else.

How to pose an image? Place the subjects in their space, let them do their thing and capture the magic.

You use 10% of your skill awareness and 10% of the time and gear you would like to have to shoot for the top 10% of results.

The most common issue is gear.

Ignorance is probably bliss here, because knowing what you would like to do is often at odds with what you can do. My bag covers (full frame equiv) 18-300 with mixed zooms and primes, three light sources (flash, LED, reflector), a mic, phones and a pair of camera bodies all in a relatively small and light bag (Domke F2). Sometimes a tripod comes with me, often not.

What I would love to carry is a light stand or two and brolly or soft box, a bigger LED, tripod (always), more lenses, multiple flash units, several sound options with cables, a camera better suited to video (S5 or G9 properly rigged up) etc.

Because I do not work exclusively for the paper and we do not get designated cars, I do not have the luxury of having these at hand.

Sport has its own needs, but thankfully, you usually know what they are.

If I cannot carry it, I cannot use it.

If I cannot use it, I cut it out of my creative processes.

All I can do is take what I may need and hope for the best.

The second biggest issue is time.

Never enough, never the right time and always turn round speed over quality, so quality has to come from efficiency, selective compromise and acceptance.

Every specialist sees time differently. The landscaper thinks in perfect days and hours, the portraitist in split seconds, the sports shooter in even less than that. As a journalistic shooter, I see time as simply a “make the most of” proposition. Sometimes you get lucky, usually not.

Light, being the grist of our mill is usually a tug of war thing, which is where time is so cruel.

Sometimes it does not matter much. Light just is and the subject has to do the heavy lifting.

Sometimes it is hard to improve upon.

Sometimes you just have to make it work.

So, why the demise?

I doubt in the near future there will be a pool of long term photographers to draw from, cadets are thing of the past and the need is shifting to more “journalist with a phone on the spot” thinking. Ironically video, which is technically harder, should be where photographers migrate, but probably not.

The thing lost, as with so many similar stories like printed papers, or free to air TV, is that as soon as it becomes an unknown to a new generation, they do not know to miss it.

Happy Place

So, I have been reminded why I do this crazy thing called content creation.

The new school asked me to cover their Rock Band Challenge, which to be honest blew my socks off!

Several of the artists and bands were good, some were incredible and all were very, very, cool.

I shot both stills and video. The video was limited to static, because a student was wandering with a gimbal, but if needed I would have used a G9 on a shoulder or chest rig as a second angle, running the full set, but only dropping in the meant bits, ignoring the footage where I shot stills (if I use the shoulder rig, an advantage is it can be set down, looking slightly up, so it provides a second angle even when ignored).

Sound was the tricky bit, but a chance to try new gear.

I tried a simple system that for my needs (video) was safe and fine. I used a single LCT 240 mounted above camera on a goose neck and shock bracket as a “room” or ambient mic. This went into the H5 then to camera.

I got the same thing the audience got, warts and all, but on the whole, the balance of sound and video was more than ok. A few tracks had some noise and interference, possibly me turning the mic down too low in the face of quite high sound levels (that it actually handled just fine).

If it was all about me ( ;) ), I would have miked them up directly, especially the lower end instruments and the acoustics, or gone straight to the mixer, running as a side car to the whole thing, I chose not to. At least I have provided enough quality to sync to.

Impressed by the little 240. It was not given much of a fair go, but did really well and noticeably better than a standard shotgun mic in that space. The advantage was control in an environment that sometimes stretched that too far.

I could complain about limited space to work, excessive noise or constant “gear fear”, but not when you can have this much fun and contribute to the genuinely passionate efforts of these kids.

Next the paper asked if I could go to a late night rehearsal of The Cat In The Hat, put on by, you guessed it, my old school.

Knowing me, they requested me over unknowns and I returned in kind. A half dozen for the paper, 150 for the school-off the clock.

Every show has its “Horton” or Donkey (from Shrek) and they tend to be camera magnets.

Fatigue and the Future

I think I am a little worn out.

This sneaks up on you, but when over a few years you have been constantly opening new doors, changing and adapting and worrying a little or a lot about the future, finances, your relevance and the future of your career type as a whole, it soaks in, wares you down. I am also aware of a pending trip to Japan, something I have sorely missed over the last few years.

The paper was a good move financially, a bad one for peace of mind and personal happiness. I have learned a new way of doing my art, but also had to accept a lot of limitations and to look at the world a little differently. I would miss some parts of it like the access to sport and an awareness of the arts etc, but not much of the rest.

Know your true love and chase it. A lesson learned form others.

I knew this going in, but the period from December to April where I was held in limbo by the paper was past annoying (my resignation email was actually in the inbox of the editor who was terminated that very day. A sign or a bad habit continued?), so my journey at the paper has turned more into a holding pattern, a “wait and see” than a future pathway for me.

There are signs of light and life. The paper is switching to a more online footing which gives us more scope for images and video, even more scope for ourselves to function independently retaining some relevance.

Probably the biggest strain though has ironically been artistic frustration.

My ideal is to be in a dynamic environment where lots is happening and I can record it with stills, video, or sound, without the impediment of space, captioning and time limits. Somewhere where I can make a difference, help people realise their best self. A place where what I have to give will help others and as it goes, me to.

That should be a school right, or maybe a volunteer organisation even a news paper?

Problem is, all three schools I have been involved with are slow to embrace this. There are privacy issues and internal dynamics which I am aware of, but stuff is always happening and these kids come and go so fast, their lives and exploits are so short lived like capturing fire works.

The volunteer organisations are more of a surprise though.

I am offering free video and stills for any event large or small giving them the opportunity to show the world what they are doing, but it ends up with me sitting and waiting. Even if I am in the habit of reminding them at regular intervals, I tend to only hear from them with “we should have called you” or “would have been great to have you there, but “a” thought “b” had it sorted” comments.

So far, the bulk of what I have done is end of year report portraits, which are fine, but not all I signed up for.

Gigs like this are perfect, but so rare. Sometimes it seems, you cannot even give it away.

The key is to be there under peoples noses all the time, but where, why and under what umbrella?

On a positive note I have realised my life was devolved down to all things photo based, so I have re-awoken my other hobbies, hoping to give myself some form of artistic release and the new found sound sphere is sitting patiently for me to get in, get on and use it.

The games room that became a studio has gone back to being a games room giving me more room, because the squeeze was getting to me and the reality is, I go to them, not they to me.

I have re-activated the games page on this site, something that does not sit perfectly for me here, but I have put years into it and don’t want to run three web pages and it gets considerably less traffic anyway (more of a thinking out aloud exercise for me).

Keep swimming I guess.

The Gentle Art Of The Video Smash

The current needs of the paper are for stills and video for every job.

Sounds fun right?

Given roughly 10-15 minutes at a job and sometimes as little as half an hour at the other end turn around*, the fun tends to fall away as efficient processes take over.

If you are lucky, there is a sit down, where both are possible. Then you just need a little B-roll.

Shooting both at the same time, because my process is to avoid the cliche shots, leaning to my strength of capturing people in action, not posed, I have a basic process.

Not posed, found. She was sitting to the side waiting for the ok to go and I grabbed this portrait. Semi-posed I guess.

Start with video (G9), but switch between stills (EM1 mk2) and video as able. If there is an “anchor” shot for video, that is an interview or presentation, then that settles the process. All you need then is some B-roll or stills for a slide-show.

The other togs recommended to me that I wait until after the interview and ask three questions, but I reject that, because the questions have been asked, the natural responses made. Video can be a natural result of the journalists interview, not its own thing. Revisiting this space has little appeal to anyone and the big difference is, the interviewees are looking to the journalist, not to camera.

Spontaneous moments either video or stills are golden.

Trying to shoot stills at the same time takes two shapes.

Video must be the priority, stills the tack-on, because video is based on the audio and a linear for, stills have no time stamp, no order needed.

Sometimes TV are there also, lights and all.

The first idea was to place the video camera on an ifootage monopod and shoot stills at the same time, but that had issues of stability, the need for a tilt head (I bought the 120cm) that did not then fit in the supplied bag (frustrating) and it did not weigh any less than the Velbon tripod I already own. I may revisit this on occasion with a proper tripod.

Performers perform, simple as that.

The second is to hold the camera as still as possible, which with the static stabiliser mode in the G9 is very still, then shoot stills with the other hand. If I get some nasty drift or jumps while doing it, I use B-roll or stills to cover it up, just as long as the sound is clean. I will carry the feet and head of the ifootage unit as a mini tripod option, but rarely have that luxury.

Some moments are not repeatable.

Processing then becomes a two pronged thing.

1. Process stills to support the words.

2. Do some video to tell a short version of the story, but not at odds with the written content.

To be honest, I feel we are headed towards a video only dynamic, but then that would be TV wouldn’t it.

Occasionally, you walk in and everyone performs.

I won’t pretend I have this knocked yet, but something gets done every job unless there is simply nothing to get.

All good practice.

*We roughly budget 2hrs perk job on average including travel, but some are much shorter, a few much longer.

Our National Game, Grass Roots Level.

Australia is good at a lot of sports.

World champions quite often in the two codes of Rugby, three forms of Cricket, Hockey, Netball and a ton of others, as well as strong enough to be taken seriously in many other world sports (Soccer, Tennis, Basketball, Rowing, Sailing, Cycling, snow sports etc), it is a surprise to many, that the most popular Australian winter sport is ours alone.

Australian rules “footy” is however, a game that is hard to describe.

Possibly a case of two merging into one,

No offside, no padding or protection, few limits on tackling (no blatant punching, strangling, pushing, tripping or kicking, but most else goes), it is seemingly formless until you get your eye in. It is suited to any body type, the tall, strong and fast, but mostly the brave.

or growing some more arms,

One of the very few games with two scoring grades* (6 pt goals and 1 point '“behinds”), it often bamboozles new watchers, but it can also mesmerise.

or maybe helping a friend perform a needed face plant,

Deceptively simple, the game is rough, tough and fast. At the top level, players can run a marathon in a game, criss-crossing the huge field multiple times each quarter.

but at the end of the day, the ball is all important. So they say.

At grass roots level, the game lacks some of the “aerial ping-pong” label the higher version is often tagged with, becoming more mud and guts.

few come away unscathed (yes, that is a boot mark on his face and no officer, he did not get the number plate),

No matter the level, the passion is the same, in fact there is a special place in sporting heaven for these local games where sons, daughters, mothers and fathers are on the field as their loved ones stoically watch on or join them on the field.

Taking a “mark” gives the taker a free kick, so great lengths are gone to and the results can be game changing.

This was the mark that led to the goal that tired the game and led to the home team winning. Even after the siren, the kick can be taken making for some famous moments.

Just confirming also, women and girls play with every bit as much passion.

With a recent surge in popularity, womens football has grown and grown.

Personally, I am not a huge fan, which makes me a bit of a pariah in my family as several relatives including a quite famous grand father played as high as state level (1937 best on ground vs Victoria and we won), but I have to admit it is the best sport to photograph.

*Its closest relative and sometimes representative teams play against each other in a hybrid version of both games, is Gaelic football, which also has a dual scoring system.

Some Thoughts On Work Practices

I am getting to the bottom of my inability to click with the paper and after a day at the new school, it made a lot of sense.

I have been blaming the chore/circuit breaker of captioning, but that is only part of the problem for me.

The real issue is low volumes of over thought images as opposed to many more taken in a more free form way, naturally and spontaneously. The captioning issue is a part of this, but it is more than that. I have never been attracted to the posed or constructed image. It is not and has never been me. I have tried, I really have, but never have I felt comfortable with “making” an image. Taker or maker, the subject of one of my earliest posts is clear to me.

I remember trying still life, waiting patiently for the right landscape light and after many weddings, I know which process I am drawn to.

I see, I take.

I do it a lot and I do it fast and quietly. The bulk of my “skill” such as it is, was developed around that process. This even comes out in my sports imagery. I do not shoot bursts, only single images using anticipation, practice and responsive gear.

I don’t mind studio work, in fact I really like it, but even then, it is about setting a scene and letting the players act within that. When I do shoot happily for the paper, I adopt a similar ethos.

Set the scene and let the players function within that, then capture the semi-scripted image.

Got to be natural, or as natural as possible.

Posing was not an option here, I did not even speak the language.

The give away was video.

Shooting video is for me, basically the same as shooting stills my way. The problem at work now is I want to shoot video and stills at the same time. The other guys shoot their stills in a set process at the end of the interview or press conference, they often shoot their video the same way.

I have to adapt, but the good news for me is having the school for shooting my way, I do not feel totally trapped in a foreign space.

Sound Practice.

Sound for me is more important than video.

Let me put that another way.

Video comes reasonably easily to me now, sound stresses and excites me in equal measure. It is quite certainly a case of superior application setting video free.

The sE sisters, the support act to the Lewitt band. There is also a soloist, some French allrounder.

So much to get wrong, but the potential for success is unlimited and to be honest, getting sound right is the ultimate “master the basics” scenario.

As I and many before me have said, sound is half of video, until it goes wrong then it is all of it.

Looking at my work flow, I have created an interesting niche.

> After matching a mic* to a subject, either a capsule or XLR feed,

> it goes into a Zoom interface (F1/H5/H8),

> which sometimes adds effects, levels, compression etc,

> is then sent to camera via a puny 3.5 stereo cable,

> and finally tweaked in Fairlight (DaVinci Resolve) to support the video.

The choke point is probably the 3.5 cable, or maybe the camera, processing, or more likely me in a form yet to be revealed.

An option is to send the audio to a DAW (digital audio workstation) via direct connection or SD card, then do a better job of editing, but to be honest, it is still only going to go to a video.

At the end of the day, the camera is the limit to my quality needs, the work up front merely designed to guarantee a good start.

Have I over done the mic thing?

Probably, but I have not spent a fortune and each is suited to a task (and darn cool).

*Type, quality, capture and handling needs from on camera shotgun to hand held dynamic.

Three By Two

The Lewitt brand grabbed my attention a couple if years ago when I deeply researched useful XLR mics for my H5 to lift it beyond it’s capsules capsules.

The mission was tough, as a videographer will balance practicality with performance, but I did manage it, even though the mics, a matched pair of 040 Match pencil condensers were rarely used.

They added a level of sound capture different to the capsules I owned, technically better, but mainly different in application and made the most of the H5’s full feature set.

They were an unlikely win for someone new to all this.

Lewitt seem set to add more dissent to the strangle hold Shure have had on the dynamic mic market for years, but it is in their condensers they produce some low cost winners.

The LCT 240 Pro is a medium diaphragm vocal and general instrument specialist. Like the 040’s this seemed to be one of those “punch above your weight” mics, although being a condenser it produced a problem, something that the H5 could not fix. The Zoom could only power two condenser microphones and I would have three to pick from.

It could however manage two dynamic mics with the EXH-6 adapter. I then went looking for dynamic mics and settled on the sE V series as the best modern upgrade to the venerable Shure pair (SM57/58).

I also picked up the Lewitt MTP 440, the polar opposite of the 040’s, but equally well reviewed and another “Shure killer”.

This quickly led to more mics, then the H8. The H8 opened up options, powering up to six condenser mics.

After this I did still get the LCT 240, deciding to use it as an either/or with the 040’s, then the a second 240, thanks to some stock shortages and mix-ups with other choices, which happened literally minutes after committing to the Zoom H8 so I can now use all together.

I finished the set with a second 440.

• Two 040’s for all things high and clear, with area coverage as a bonus.

• Two 240’s as the work horse mid-range vocal and instrument specialists.

• Two 440’s as low end and high sound pressure beasts designed to do their job without effecting their more sensitive friends.

The last 440 is on the way and I consider myself lucky to get the last one I could find. Some Lewitt mics seem to be scarce in these parts at the moment. No 340tt, 340 Rex, or 440’s and few of the others. I almost bought the Beat kit (340 Rex, 440 and 2x 040’s), because nothing would be wasted (and you get a cool box).

All three mics are gaining strong reputations as respective class leaders. All stand out, even in Lewitts own impressive and growing pack.

Why pairs?

Mainly because with pairs of the same mic, matched or not, you have consistent and predictable problem solvers with room coverage and stereo imaging.

Why the same brand?

Because when a brand makes a set of mics, they often have simialr tonal properties designed to overlap harmoniously. The 040’s cover all thing except the bass heavy. The 440’s are solid and smooth through the lower range, but effectively absent in the high register and the 240’s sit somewhere in the middle to high end.

(The thought has crossed my mind that 2x 040 and 2x 440 would have likely fixed most needs)

They compliment each other, without sonically fighting each other for space. High frequencies especially blocking up is a genuine issue apparently, something the 440’s help reduce by adding depth without adding top end unless wanted. They can work as a one mic solution up to probably strings or acoustic guitar, then show their weakness in very high registers.

These personify my philosophy of hunting down balanced and complimentary, best performers in their class, in reasonably priced forms of all types.

The sE series are the same. I have the presence pushy V3, neutral and solid V7 and wide ranged and versatile V7x, but being dynamics, their role is limited.