The Future Of News

I feel sometimes, that the news paper industry, TV and the internet are all heading to the same point and just do not see it.

I shoot video next to a TV camera so we can add that element to an online story, while the TV journalist often shoots stills for their Facebook or web page and the TV camera operators often use cameras similar to mine for their overlay or “B” roll. Ultimately we are all heading towards an online only platform, but still with an ever decreasing “older” format to support.

When will we just merge into the same thing?

Shooting both is difficult, especially for me, because I like candid images and candid video, but it is do-able*. Slowing things down and doing one or the other means that one is “staged”, something I am not fond of especially for video, which is always better first time around.

Does it work?

This is news delivery in the now.

On Monday I put up five videos. One got 3000+ hits (short presser at police HQ about a suspicious death), one got 2000+ hits (ever popular dogs home plea for funds), the other three, all niche stories, accumulated 1000 odd between them, the very worst with only 180 hits (of colourful Highland dancing which I found odd).

To put that 6000+ hits in a day from one source into context, it is a decent percentage of our overall engagement for the day, running both as story toppers and in a newest/top five editorial stories playlist. Like all good monsters, it eats it’s own tail, feeding the machine.

Yes it works, but it is also hit and miss**.

It is inevitable that the various forms of media will merge towards the one true platform, being online, but I do not intend be there to see it from the inside. For those that are, things will change, but change is the norm, not the exception.

*Shoot video during the interview until you have a decent 1-2 minutes of continuous audio, then shoot some overlay and stills.

**The Pressbox, our weekly podcast that we do in house for local sport varies between 1500 to 15000 hits depending on season and event covered. The top end is by far our best performer, usually in football finals month, the lower end is the bar to reach with other subjects.

Is It Worth It?

I currently have potentially three jobs to choose from, but none of them are complete or very compatible with each other. On top of that are all the volunteer groups I am involved with, which are becoming increasingly important to me, but need some compatibility with paid employment.

One school has made an offer that is slightly better than the previous one. More money budgeted for photography post COVID), but no security. This is a tough one because I reluctantly left them, missed a second chance to reconnect when the paper stuffed me around and now have to probably cut ties for good.

The other school is having an imminent staff change which may mean more or less work and security for me and the paper is the reluctant constant, seemingly with a place for me, even if on my end a relatively undesired one.

I have lots of potential capabilities yet to be unleashed, plans to increase these and a desire to empower which ever organisation I am involved with, but realise that no single one will give me the room to use all of these, not even half of them as it goes and I do not seem to be able to come up with a combination that works.

I often think if a choice is impossible to make, don’t make one, just change tack. As someone said recently, if nothing is going right, turn left.

I doubt I can be bothered with photography or video as a hobby any more, so getting out of this industry will likely mean killing off my one over-riding passion of the last three decades, but sometimes hanging on is worse than letting go.

Is it worth it?

Was the last five years just a distraction or my true calling finally faced up to?

I came to it late, so I have no history to fall back on. My skill set previously was in retailing, but that fails to inspire.

Should I just give it up and re-train, maybe go into something that gives me a fresh start, a fresh perspective and cut loose what was mostly pipe dream driven (sound, video) and just stick to what is working?

Back to the daily grind?

I have found often that the day after I make sweeping decisions, I usually cut off options for when things inevitably change, but I am in the situation now, at 2 in the morning, of facing a yes/no answer to one of the above tomorrow, without knowing where the others sit and just realised it may actually be a relief to cull the herd.

Most importantly, I need to think of my long suffering wife.

She has done the lions share of the earning over the years and always steps up. I am also not as they say, getting any younger.

Happiness or responsibility?

Can either survive without the other?

Definitely the G9 MKII.......Or The S5 MKIIx?

The G9II is a no brainer I guess and a large part of my motivation is to continue with M43 as I know it is the smart choice, but a talk I had with a student at the school the other day did sow a seed of doubt.

I recommended to him the S5 II (should have insisted on the “X” as he stated clearly he was interested in video).

This was because I still feel twitchy recommending M43 to anyone who shows any reluctance to embrace a smaller sensor. The problem is, doubts tend to lead to scapegoating. Something does not work well enough, blame the sensor.

In all probability, the sensor has allowed the user to take advantage of the better stabiliser, AF/depth of field advantage and cost to quality benefits, but that advantage often comes from awareness of the benefits through experience, not blind faith.

Looking at the S5II and the G9II, there is no contest for me.

The G9II is an incremental improvement in all areas except very high ISO performance (but solid enough) and that is something the S5 that I already have can handle (according to Ed Prosser even better) and it justifies me owning that one. The G9II has (very) high bit rate All-i, USB to SSD recording, better stabilising, more reliable AF, better slo-mo, more relevant stills features, even higher resolution.

Very high ISO work would likely be manually focussed and a single camera, so the single S5 is fine (when a powerful G9II with 1.4 lens fails) and the newer cameras do not apparently improve on that. Anything else, especially multi camera shoots would be lit properly, well within the tolerances of the G9II (or even G9.I) with a fast prime, of which I have many.

The S5IIx is maybe another matter.

For a lower base body-only cost than the G9 (assuming lenses are available, which they are), the 5IIx matches the G9II’s video features, but with the higher ISO benefit. The saving is off-set by the need to buy a 24mm f1.8. I would intend to use the full frame/super 35 options to make four focal lengths out of two (24>35 and 50>75). If I get that camera, I will get that lens, if not I will stick with the current combo of the 20-60 and 50 only.

Even with a second kit lens, the S5IIx is only slightly dearer at the moment than the G9II body only.

This would mean I would sacrifice the handiness of the G9II, a camera I consider as close to a gimbal free camera as there is in this class, the best M43 AF for video and the best M43 slo-mo options (4k 120p/1080 300p), for a shift to full frame only for serious video. The S5x is actually slightly behind in video specs, but not by much.

Feelings now are still leaning towards the G9II otherwise my large investment in lenses and work flow habits are less logical. Some loyalty to the system that empowered me to this space is due and given, but video is a special case in some ways.

So.

Do I want to have limited M43 for video, using the system only for run-n-gun straight from camera work (2x G9 mk1’s) and stills, then focus on S series only for serious video? The S5x can of course take stills, but I would only have a handful of lenses, all short and no intention of going down that path again in great measure. So far $2500 has bought me a seriously good FF backup system, but $3500+ would be needed to get it up to semi-complete (S5x and 24mm).

The image below is a screen shot of beautiful 1080p/10bit/422 OOC quality, all I need for quick use, but the AF, stabiliser, dynamic range and codec choice of the G9II would be good also.

Alternatively, do I buy the ultimate M43 hybrid, really only intending to use it for video, but be able to switch it out completely to stills if needed and cut my losses in full frame for now, relegating that format to the role of support/static and high ISO work?

The S5.I is not a bad backup, only lacking All-i recording and the handling benefits of the G9II, something only one camera needs to do at any one time.

I have 14+ lenses for this system, basically a full video kit on top of my stills gear and the thought of using my 300mm in some other indoor venues for stills is tempting. Adding more lenses would also not be out of the question, because it is still my main system and they are cheaper, smaller and lighter.

One factor, though not a big one and thanks to Sam Holland’s review here. The G9II colour matches the cooler S5I better. The S5II and GH6 share warmer tones, but nothing a simple Lut won’t fix.

The G9 is the favourite now, ironically because there are fewer compromises.

• AF > G9 wins. The deeper depth of field and next gen application.

• Stabiliser > G9 Gimbal like, where the S5’s are next level down.

• Battery life > G9

• Non cropped video formats > G9 again ironically thanks to the smaller sensor.

• Slo-mo options > G9

• Ergonomics (extra front button and smaller lenses) > G9

• High ISO > S5 (any model, so I actually have this knocked).

• Overheating > theoretically S5II(x), but most reviewers have stated it is a non issue up to battery life, even when stressed.

• Lens selection > G9 (14 M43 lenses covering 16-600, even up to 2000 FF equiv).

As usual the format’s power and advantage’s come down to lenses. I have those.

This is something that needed to be explored before, not after, but explore I have.

The G9II is closer to the S5x than the S5II, superior in many ways to the GH6 and it empowers my stills kit a few generations past the EM1x, my current champion. I held off on the OM-1, GH6 and even EM1 Mk3, because they basically only added one or the other feature set. The G9II offers an across the board upgrade.

Yep, no brainer.

On Travel.

I live in a beautiful, sheltered place.

The down side can be travelling from it.

The trip from Japan to home (Tasmania, Australia) was technically eleven and a half hours of train (Kyoto to Kansai 1.5 hr), air (Kansai to Cairns 6.5hr), air (Cairns to Melbourne 2.5hr) and a final plane trip (Melbourne to Launceston 1hr).

It travelled, including a short trip before leaving, for 40 hours and that was with relatively few hiccups.

We awoke on the 11th at 6am for a 5-6km walk (normal), then a three-train trip to the little community of Kibune out side of Kyoto, a lovely walk up the road from the train station, which was unfortunately semi-shut down due to a combination of mid season break and we assume some COVID closures.

Worth it, but a less drastic travel experience would help keep the connection.

The walk back and tri-train return, then a break to change and prepare brought us to 4pm, which was departure time for Kansai. About 80 minutes by train and you are in the mini city that is the Kansai international airport. We have to arrive early to avoid mix-ups and fit the not too early-not too late, window the airline enforces.

With post COVID flight reductions, the untrustworthiness of our national carrier* and some expected unknowns, we often had to take the safer option over the more time expedient one for transfers, which meant taking the 4-5hr lay over, rather than the 2-3hr. Add in a few expected delays and you enter the “dream sphere of doom” that is modern air travel.

Hours on hard seats, aimless walking, bad and often expensive food (Cairns international terminal the record holder with a $16 packet of sandwiches!), with sporadic and restless sleep all add up to a major circuit breaker between home and the holiday just had.

It often takes us several days to settle back into our memory space of enjoying the trip, sans post trip grumpiness.

I have deepened my natural dislike of airports, the process of travel and generally the sacrifices made to get somewhere worth going.

Seems a looong time ago.

We will see how long it takes to dampen the memory enough for me to want to go anywhere again. Europe, with its 26hr + flight time used to be a two year recovery/forget process, but even Japan, with no real jet-lag and relatively short travel distances is going that way.

ed. a couple of weeks later and it all seems like a distant memory. Maybe with less travel angst, it might seem closer?

*an issue even they have recognised with a new CEO and board shuffle hopefully changing things.

Tell A Story

The head sports writer at the paper (yep still there for now), is a big exponent of story telling images.

The decisive moment is fine, but apart from being down as much to luck as skill, it does not tell a story. The score board helps :).

Just as powerful or maybe even more. Now the scoreboard and the player are in sync.

How about the captain/coach congratulating the bowler with the dejected batsman walking off? The scoreboard would have been perfect here, but that would have been too lucky.

I love shooting end to end. It gives you the two principal players and potentially the keeper and umpire. When facing the batsman, you have to be small and still, often hiding in the background if possible, but the results can be worth it. When facing the bowler, there is no such limitation. The ball is missing in the one above, but the drama is intact.

Story; one of many balls that beat the bat. I actually got the wicket in a subsequent image, but the keeper obscured the shot.

Story; Close call, opportunity lost, surprise from the batter that they got away with it?

Story: more frustration from the other batter now. The bowler did eventually get a wicket.

Story; a fresh batsman is nearly dismissed LBW and everybody knows it.

Often the drama is the not in the peak of the action, but the aftermath or the close call. Much as in life, drama and people are the key, action is just the focus.

Moving On, Moving Forward.

I have some things happening at the moment that may mean I can move on from the paper.

Two schools, the one I used to work for and one I am now associated with have coincidentally offered the potential of some real hours and an employment commitment for next year coming.

The jobs that I enjoy the most at the paper usually involve sport, drama, music or schools. The sorts of things you find a lot of at….well…..schools.

I have never been a proper fit for the paper, shunning their older gear, processes, software, even computers and failing to feel part of the photo pool “team” if there is such a thing. I even struggle with their attitudes some times.

Tired of the “them and us” mentality, while I am trying to foster stronger connections to the journalists (you know, team work, cool idea that might catch on) and feeling like I am swimming against a tide of their making while often seeing a better way, have worm me down.

I use my own M43 gear and my $1500au Mac with DaVinci and Capture 1/ON1 to process, the issue $3500au HP with a full Adobe suite is used to upload only and my Nikon kit sits in a cupboard collecting dust.

Before doing this job, one of my very first for the paper last year, I was shown what was done the year before. Coming from a school environment, my inner voice said “you can and did do better in your last job, just look at the subject matter!”. Going with my gut, I shot like a school photographer letting the kids create the shot, not a newspaper tog controlling the situation and got one of my favourite images. Since then, the paper has ground me down until I was genuinely worried I had lost something.

Choosing will be tough, but a nice problem to have. One seems to be effortlessly able to offer flexibility and security, the other is less able to although trying hard, but the less flexible school has a two campus dynamic and I do miss the variety the younger kids add. I also have stronger contacts there from my previous three years.

It has been a good learning base, allowed me to adapt and grow, but overall, the needs and processes of a paper are less than ideal for me and my way of shooting than I need.

Giving it all up and just being a happy hobbyist even seems more enticing at the moment than sticking with the paper.

I will, it seems, leave a hole at the paper as my video gear and skill set have been useful in that changing space, and my affinity with the gentler, more socially minded subjects is appreciated, but that is for the paper to sort out. These were not a result of any training or gear allowances from the paper, they are all me, so I will be taking them with me.

I guess they know now what is easily achievable with video in particular so a bar has been set.

However, even that video was limited to a podcast done well enough (26 eps so far growing from 2000 to 15000+ views/wk) and the daily, straight out of camera, fly by my seat clips, 30 minutes in the making all up (shooting and editing) all while shooting stills. It seems I am the only one willing to turn one out every story, even if they are generally poor by definition.

Some jobs touch on a level of excellence I am after, but they are few and far between and the results are often truncated in the extreme.

Satisfying as it can be when it comes off, I want more than that. I am equipped for and keen to do better. I am sick of seeing work and thinking “I can do that” with little opportunity to do it, while perfecting compromise. There is a ton of gear that never gets a look-in, skills ever improving and cameras running on basic settings.

I need an outlet and some room to move.

One school wants video specifically and is where it started, the other is an open canvas with multiple opportunities for growth. The thing about video I am finding is, unless you produce it, nobody seems to know what can be done.

Photos are usually commissioned with a low bar of expectation, but you can star if you do better. Video seems to suffer from even lower expectations and awareness**.

For stills, there is nothing left to prove and much to happily cut loose. Captioning is a skill I have now, but one I will be happy to use sparingly as is posing photos, something I personally always avoided, but feel more capable with now. Time pressures equal poor or limited results and limiting gear to “only what goes in the bag” is frustrating.

I will miss sport, but again, no captioning or time limits.

One school even won several state titles this year, so I will likely get more than enough sport to keep my eye in and be better able to do them when there. Lots of heart, no elitism, decent enough speed and action with characters aplenty and no captioning.

I have shot national grade basketball, netball, cricket, BMX, motor sport, golf, soccer and AFL. Done that, time to move on. Some would miss that, I will not. I actually enjoy the local stuff more anyway.

Even shooting for the paper, I managed to capture a St Pats student, so yes, plenty of opportunity.

This last is a real issue because even compared to the other togs at the paper, I am limited to what I can carry in to work for two to four days a week, before I further limit myself to what I take to a job. They have supplied gear, long established habits and often pool cars allocated semi permanently to stash extra things. I don’t.

Only on the weekends do I get to park within fifteen minutes walk of work using the work car park and on those days I take a day bag, sports backpack and personal bag, but still no allowance for stands, mods or extra lights etc*. On a bad day, I have to walk back to the car with my video kit, day bag and personal bag.

I cannot leave much behind because I need it for other jobs and to be honest a little bit of me does not want to make that more permanent connection.

The flexible school has a strong music and drama department and a full photo studio.

But so does the other with a good return from a smaller faculty.

The less flexible school also lacks a recording and photo studio, which is where my go-anywhere studio could come in to play.

On one hand I have more to offer one, but less room to move, the other offers more freedom, but is more self sufficient.

Interesting future ahead I hope, one that will better settle me and my place in the world.

*I had to laugh to myself the other day when one of the other togs commented on how much gear I tote around as I walked in and he walked out the door past his three-screen, camera and lens cluttered desk, full locker and gear cabinets, with his enormous 400 f2.8 and Z9 to shoot some cricket. My kit was everything I need from my own computer, lenses from 16-600 (equivalent), four cameras, video and flash gear, all carried in one trip and not really that heavy. That is me pure and simple. I also shot my cricket with a 75-300 and EM1 mk2 and nobody complained.

**Yesterday I covered a board meeting for a not for profit and there was a video made for one of their projects. The interviews were 1-2 people on a stool in front of a green screen with a “New York loft” background, the rest of the footage was pretty standard gimbal movements etc.

This was an example to me of better than amateur gear and technique, but used fairly basically. The lighting was not even properly motivated, coming in from the opposite side to the background lighting and with totally the wrong colour temp. I know not everyone will have noticed these things, but they would have responded on some level instinctively.

I am continually surprised how video holds its mystique. I am no expert, but in a year or so, even I have gone from poor to semi-pro, something I could not have done in a stills photography paradigm.

Jump To It

As much as I am struggling with the paper, I am still managing to get the job done, even enjoy it occasionally.

The Longford Show is one of those successful country shows that has managed to stay relevant and vibrant in an environment increasingly apathetic to “old fashioned” events.

“Get me a front” said Hamish, or editor for the day. Not music to my ears, but part of the job and I get that.

Walking in the gate, the journalist assigned and I were met with an equestrian event in action on the main oval within the first minute. The backdrop was “sideshow alley”, which to me encompassed the show entire. I said to Declan, “If she comes this way and jumps over those two jumps, I may have my shot”. She did and I did.

Job done within one minute of getting there?

Probably, but it is never that simple.

The journalist was looking for something else also and found it in the form of “flying dogs”, a team of mostly Border Collies trained to run a series of obstacles, grab a ball, then return as fast as possible.

This is River, a veteran champ.

The other end of the process.

Dodging an annoying light rain, we managed to get several dogs going through the motions. Hard to stop them actually.

Finn, in a late image taken after the main shoot as they warmed up, was so fast, I missed focus on most of the shots, something I am not used to happening these days.

After this I shot a lot of Basketball with an unusually high hit ratio, proving maybe that a holiday can make a difference?

The bulk of these were taken with the Sigma 30mm f1.4, usually at f1.8-f2 on an EM1x or EM1 Mk2, and it performed well, but I will not use it again for the following reasons.

Wider open in this light, the lens exhibited odd colour and contrast, so odd in fact I thought the EM1x had something unusual set like an ND filter or false EVF setting, maybe even an “art” effect applied. Focus was mostly good, with the odd series of misses, which it tended to hold tenaciously, but incorrectly.

Also its hood kept falling off. The hood is a piece of crap really, flimsy and loose fitting and a little bigger than needed, so that has to go.

The images processed very sharply and had decent contrast, but were inconsistent and processed a bit like jpegs. On top of that, the lens was a little long for my needs.

I used the 75 for one end of the court, the 30 for the near end, but the 25 f1.8 (closer to a 22mm in reality) would have been better, focus more predictably and not exhibit the colour oddness.

Finally, I unsuccessfully visited the local school athletics competition, arriving right at the wrong time, with little time to hang around between basketball games.

These were not even submitted as they were southern state girls and only two competitors in one event do not make a story.

Seems like everyone had their feet off the ground today.

Big Guns

Pulled out the insect chaser today, the “big gun”, the brutish 9mm!

Weird thing is, the bees seemed less bothered by a lens only a few centimetres away, than a longer lens at a distance.

These blossoms were smaller across than the lens front.

Also good for moon landing landscapes on a flower the size of a coffee cup base.

In Praise Of A Little Ripper Of A Lens

My kit for Japan was pretty set early on. The surprise change for me was dropping the 12-60 kit and taking the 9, 15 and 17 primes instead, but the lens that was never under threat was the 40-150 Olympus kit.

Wide open, slightly cropped and fully extended. All good here.

This very cheap feeling, kit-est of kit lens is not underestimated by reviewers, many putting it front and centre for “best buy” and some even placing it higher up in the range.

I would not want better. The lens responds well to processing, starting from a flat, neutral base, but holding fine detail, good contrast and colour.

Very nicely behaved.

This behaviour is also ideal for mono.

It’s biggest problem is the forrest of competitors, Olympus alone offering three 40-150 lenses, Panasonic even more in that general class, but as the very cheapest and lightest, it is a travel shooters life saver.

There was a time not that long ago when an image as stable and competent as this one would have been considered “fine art” grade simply because of its quality. I remember seeing sublime medium format film era work that had that special something, which is of course what most modern digital cameras can achieve more easily, but the above came from a hand held, three model old base M43 camera (EM10 Mk2) and kit tele with a second hand street value of about $300au. How big would be too big for it? Bigger than I will ever need.

The lens has ideal characteristics for a landscape lens, edge to edge sharpness, fine micro-contrast and decent distortion control. It is also reasonably immune to flare and uncontrolled highlights.

This type of image can blow out easily, but the 40-150 and 12-60 Pana kit lenses control that well. Some of my lenses have more “glow”, but that can be a double edged sword.

To be honest, I used it too little, most of these images coming from our first day, with me switching to the 45 for the rest of the trip, but that was not the lenses fault, just my funk on the trip meaning anything would basically do.

Flat and even both in rendering and distortion characteristics.

In Capture 1, I find the de-haze control, which I often apply before Clarity, Contrast or Brightness, is less needed thanks to the inherently strong micro contrast, but Saturation and Clarity do add depth.

I have the other two 40-150 lenses Olympus offers, but see no reason to use these better built and theoretically superior lenses for this type of work. The shallow depth of the f2.8 is a creative option and the f4 lens is possibly the best value over all, but the little kit lens has no reason to feel inferior except in build and that has to be balanced with it’s easy replaceability (about $100 in a kit).

I honestly never feel ripped off by the results, never wishing I had sacrificed travelling comfort for “superior” results.

It even adds a little inner glow sometimes, like the 17mm f1.8 or 12-40 f2.8.

AF speed is excellent, smooth and silent enough for video, Bokeh is nice, better than the f2.8 on the whole and balance decent enough on most cameras.

Is it a war-zone lens? Not on its own, but realistically you could take three or four of them and feel safe enough.

Just magic.

Japan Retrospective

So back to normality as we know it, an odd concept as both meg and I feel genuinely torn between two countries, but with a little after holiday glow left and time to look at the process, the results and what I would do differently next time.

2700 images taken over ten days, which for me is not much, but it covered what was needed.

The weather was on the whole great for travel with mid to high 20’s C, little rain or humidity and no wind to speak of, but the strong end of summer light and sometimes tired looking plant life was not the best for my subject matter. Maybe a fortnight from now would offer Autumn colour, but school holidays here force our timing.

Images taken under these conditions were surprisingly ok though, so lesson learned. I especially like the Pen F files, which recover well and have that bigger format look.

One of many files I had mentally written off, but managed to bring back without heroic measures taken. The combination of Capture 1 and the Pen F can do much.

My shift away from street images was the result of many factors.

A more wary subject matter, some self consciousness, the less “natural” Kyoto environment (street becomes both more interesting and real, but harder in less touristy locations) and maybe a feeling of “done this”.

My re-discovered love of the landscape and found things though is interesting.

Gear.

I could have done the whole trip with the Pen F (or EM10 Mk2) with the 15 and 45 or a 12-60 and the 17 or 25. Really any combination that could handle general snaps and some occasional low light.

I bought a small street satchel bag in Kobe and used it for the rest of the trip. We called it “The TARDIS” because it held my camera kit of body and two or three lenses, all my travel basics and other bits, but was only the size of a large format paper back book with the little two lens Domke insert inside.

The Porter bag became surplus, the Domke F7 was an annoying hindrance (but was bought there for here, not here for there) and the backpack was a little big in hind-sight.

Next time;

Lowe Pro ProTactic 350 to get there (its smaller size may not attract the “weight police” every single leg of the trip!) It is also a handy foot rest on the international legs (no room in domestic) and the semi rigid structure adds some extra confidence. Then the little Kobe TARDIS or my little Crumpler or Kata bags, maybe the cross-body Turnstyle 10 or Mindset options.

No laptop. I may use rotating cards and a dual card camera for memory security (well used EM1 Mk2/G9 maybe) or not as I am yet to have a failure (but I probably just jinxed that). No Zoom H1 or OSMO Pocket as neither were used. Buying replacements other there is possible, but they are about 10-25% dearer new (second hand though is not overly risky and better priced than here).

I took 200Gb of cards and used about 32-40 over three cameras.

Two books. I read half of one on the way over and had to stow it until the return trip. The Rivers Of London series are recommended reading for that pick-up, put-down style of reading.

Fewer clothes, because yet again, I bought clothes there which I did, even coming home with a few items unworn. This is a newbie traveller sin, I should know better, but it had been a while. I consider myself a reasonably fit, slightly stocky average male, so sizing there was fine if I remembered to “round up” slightly.

Purchases were limited to several watches, which has become a semi-hobby from about two years ago (post coming on this generally), some clothes and the display Domke F7. My wife bought even less. I left with an 11 kg suit case and came back with 14.

More to think about, but overall no major faux pas, except over packing, but in our defence, we were expecting hot weather, with the possibility of not, so tough to get perfect.

Focussing On Focus.

A little semi-technical post, concentrating on one of the three things that are often at the core of photographic failure*. This should be on my technical page I guess, but it is not, so deal already.

Types of focus

Manual focus (MF) is where you manually move the focussing mechanism (usually a ring around the lens, but sometimes not), or choose a focussing point by touching a screen. Either way, you pick the spot, not the camera.

Manual focus is the best choice when you need focus to be locked on a point, to be very precise, maybe irrationally out of perfect focus (artsy speak there) or you simply do not want/trust the camera to choose.

Auto focus (AF) is usually when you apply pressure to the shutter button and the camera responds by finding a point of focus (which is a very important point). AF is also possible using the photographers eye, screen touching, sometimes simply turning a camera on and pointing it etc.

Auto focus is ideal when you need speed or when manual focus may be difficult.

The choice should be easy, but unfortunately, our reliance on auto focus tends to over-ride logic.

A prime example is street photography. In most cases, speed of composing and shooting is the key to success. Many street shooters need to compose almost instinctively and auto focussing adds one more obstacle. Taking time to focus > recompose > shoot is not quick enough. Also creative use of depth of field, blur, abstraction also matter. Zone focussing is a good starting point which requires manual control.

Using manual-zone focus (pre-set using a distance scale on the lens), the foreground subject was ignored, making the four in the middle more important. Incidentally, that is a Billingham bag over the boys shoulder, which in Japan would have likely set him back an eye watering $6-700au.

For a long time, during early AF dominance, but well before it was actually perfected, manual focus was often difficult, even impossible on new cameras. I remember buying a special screen for my 5D Mk2 just to allow accurate MF with a wide aperture lens, because the focussing screen supplied was tuned to about f4 to 5.6 dof to aide with AF composition. This made use of any wider aperture literally a guessing game in manual focus. This was so important to me, it was one of the main reasons I avoided the 5D Mk3 as it could not change screens.

Ironically, the latest, often AF perfect cameras actually make it easier to manually focus with electronic view finders and tools like “peaking” replacing the need for ground glass or split screens.

Depth of field and focus accuracy

Depth of field or literally the depth of in focus area in an image is dependant on a lot of factors. Aperture, magnification, distance to subject and its relative distance to its background are the main ones as is the “Bokeh” or transition from in-to-out of focus areas produced by any given lens (which is also effected by the above factors).

Depth of field falls mostly behind the point of best focus. Important point, that right there.

This is deep depth of field, easily produced using a semi wide lens (15mm), small aperture (big number like f6.3) and long relative distance from the camera to focus point (vending machine), but short relative distance from the focus point to it’s background.

Shallow depth of field produced even more easily than above by employing a wide aperture (small number like f2) on a long-ish lens (45), used quite close to the focussed subject (the sign), with the background relatively further way.

So, once you have determined your depth of field and focus point, you have taken the lions share of creative control into your own hands. Feels good right?

So, if depth of field is both sometimes limited and highly creative, how do we guarantee it will fall where we want it to.

Below is a simple example of focus being used to shift the sharp and soft areas of an image.

Ok, hold on, plenty to think about here.

If you are using MF, the main determining factor for accuracy, after depth of field selection which will determine the amount of in focus you have to play with, is some kind of focus assistance, like peaking (a coloured fringe around the in-focus bits), coincidental indication (a split or patterned screen that aligns and “pops” clearly into focus), or increased magnification either in the view finder or the rear screen. The first and last are digital innovations, the middle one is old school.

Work out what options you have, then decide on the one that works for you. White peaking is my go-to now or simply magnifying the rear screen for landscape, a laser matt screen was my preference with SLR’s.

Use manual focus when loose composition requires off centre focussing or you are doing slow and accurate projects like astro or landscape work.

For AF, you have to decide on a couple of things.

Single shot or continuous, which is as it sounds;

Single shot holds the chosen focus point until you shoot or re-focus, which is ideal for static subjects, while continuous constantly changes if the subject moves as long as you hold down the shutter button.

Focus point pattern or area. This is the amount of the screen area that is activated to focus. The fewer points or smaller the area, the more accurate your focus, but the harder it is to hit the subject. This can also take the form of touch, eye, animal or face detect focus.

Once selected, the focussing pattern can often be shifted around the screen, but also try to focus in the middle, then while holding the shutter button down (in single shot mode), re-compose and shoot.

This image was taken using a long lens with a group of three small boxes stacked on each other which is roughly “human” shaped. The stack is quickly shifted across the screen using five spaced columns for hard left/right, middle left/right or central area focus. It is accurate, but twitchy, allowing me to shoot a single person in a group, but I accept a higher hit/miss ratio than blanket coverage would allow.

For a shorter lens, I use a slightly “fat diamond” shaped cluster of five points, because a closer subject is often relatively bigger and faster. The finer control from the longer lens if used in the above image would possibly miss the pair or grab the ball.

Often for considered or precise work, a single focussing point is ideal, especially in single shot mode as you can accurately pick your point, then re-compose the image to suit. manual focus may even be better.

Face/eye/animal/vehicle detection can help if available (and trust worthy), but do not use these universally for obvious reasons.

In focus or not?

Actually acquiring sharp focus on the intended point of best focus is assumed, but what if it is not?

This image is in focus by most measures. Sharp from front to the main subject (assume it is the pumpkin head). Depth of field does drop off towards the back, which is fine.

This is the same image a little out of focus (pulled forward for even OOF rendering). The lights become “Bokeh” balls which are high quality thanks to the wide open, circular aperture of the lens (45 f1.8).

This is the same settings, focus pulled further forward, so the Bokeh balls are starting to overlap. None is more “right” than another, it is just up to personal choice.

Ok, so lets re-cap.

For speed and accuracy under pressure, but only if you can control where the subject may be or you have no better idea than the camera, so may as well trust it, use camera AF, with the tightest pattern of AF points you can get away with, but also look to touch or intelligent focus if suitable.

Use single shot mode for static subjects, continuous if the subject (or you) are moving. AF can also be useful in poor lighting situations with AF assistance (focussing on a small light sent from a camera or flash unit).

If time is not an issue, but accuracy and consistency are or you actually want focus to be more abstracted, use manual focus. If you control depth of field well enough, manual focus is also ideal for see-shoot situations like trap focus in sports or street shooting and often in studio situations, where AF can be fooled by low light and plain backgrounds or simply fail.

Hope that helps.

*Poor focus, poor exposure, poor motion arrest, which were the three biggies we used to concentrate on when showing people how to use their compact cameras.

The End Of My Journey, The Start Of The Next.

Street photography, specifically Japanese street shooting for me, is done.

This trip there was a shift in my perceptions, the tolerance of the Japanese for crude tourist habits and on a deeper level, I felt no connection to the craft.

I guess this is inevitable. Everything grows then dies, but before we went, I did not honestly think it would end completely. My love of street photography has been keeping me going for a while now and the lack of it was blamed for my creative funk.

Funk alive, street photography dead.

Where to now?

People who are aware of or alternatively oblivious of me, video of events, landscapes, found things, abstracts.

Beauty in the obvious.

Back to my roots in some ways and to the things that define my work also.

Beauty in ugliness.

Authenticity

I dislike news photography as I am forced to do it at the paper.

It often lacks the one thing I think it should champion and that is authenticity.

The set-up shot is, by its very nature, not authentic. The people are, their reason for being in front of the camera and even their props usually are, but the staging of the photo is “old school” news reporting.

“Say cheese”.

Advice has been given to me by others who are fully entrenched in this way of thinking, but I cannot bring myself to do it.

I think we can do better.

Over thirty plus years of seeing things and grabbing them as I go have given me speed, intuition and accuracy, all mostly wasted as it goes when “manufacturing” an image.

I have felt trapped in a world not best suited to my skill set or one I want to adapt to necessarily, trying to find a decent compromise between set-up and “as I see it” shooting.

Skating the thin ice over a lake of “what has been before and should be for ever more” basking in the fresh air of genuine naturalness. My usual go-to is to put people in their happy place and let them be themselves.

Video has changed this for me or more to the point, video has made this a more normal state.

This does not come from posing.

People it seems have been trained over the years to expect “the usual”, so ironically I have to sometimes re-train them to be themselves, sometimes with near comical results, but that just helps break the ice.

Nor does this

A couple of handy things are small, silent cameras that can be shot from many angles and I hate to say it, but getting to my age you tend to become invisible. Handy.

Even this came from an unguarded moment in a very set-up environment.

People do not want gimmicks any longer, posed images, fakery.

They want authenticity.

The world is full of manufactured perfection.

Look at the work of the young, they are trying to be natural, but they are flooded with not natural-natural media, but they want natural and in a world of AI, authenticity is even more under threat.

It may at the moment be one way of doing something that is at odds with the norm, but in the very near future, it may be the only way.

Real Street Photographer Or Something Else?

Street photography is a wide genre by definition.

It started with life in motion captures, moved through more cerebral, often humour fuelled stages of evolution then got a little lost, a little vague, lacking clear definition.

Today I had a mini revival, then an epiphany.

In Kobe, a much more interesting city for street than Kyoto, I found a spark.

Great light, new vistas and a more “real life” place let me shoot with more intent, but the other side of street shooting in Japan, the “watch your manners” contradiction came to bare. I was told off for taking a shot of a building, but the scolder thought some people, which I did plenty of, so I will take my lumps.

Then, responding to the art of another, I had a little fun with this composition.

Perfect Bokeh.

This may be my goodbye to the genre for me. Lacking purpose and engagement, I am done I feel.

I choose to define myself instead as a composition based “found things” shooter, not a street shooter by trade or hobby.

Harmless little things that usually go un-noticed.

Dissecting The Malaise

Not feeling it, but why?

First up, just happy to be here, but the photo thing was in hind-sight maybe predictable, inevitable even.

I have not been feeling connected to my photography for a while. Passion has been lacking, not allowing connection or satisfaction.

You have to be excited by your subject or the process and I am lacking both.

The subject is known, the season flat, locations familiar.

The process even more so.

Very occasionally I feel the old buzz, but not when I probably need to (which is when?).

Video has a feeling of excitement, or maybe a feeling of “I don’t quite know what I am doing yet, but the potential is endless and the results get ever better”. This can feel exciting, until it all goes wrong.

Known subject, known process, predictable results, record keeping.

Guess I am a tourist this time.

True Shapes? There Are Only Two!

Lets face it, when it comes to image shapes.there are only two.

The balanced, equitable square,

and theatrical wider aspects (16:9 or wider).

The Death Of Street Photography (Or The Birth Of The Phone Zombie)

Street photography (for me) is it seems, close to done.

The phone killed it.

I am not saying the phone replaced the camera, which would simply be a change of tools, but the phone replaced people interacting with their world.

Seems we cannot function now without them.

See what happens when you take their phones away? Total zombie land?

Some escape, going back to the things that came before.

Some seek companionship.

Or actually know where they are going and just go there, both hands full.

No wonder I am taking photos with no people in them.

Photos that could have come from a time before.

Balls, We Like Balls.

I shot this a few years ago, but not with the 15 and 45mm lenses.

Manually de-focussed for near perfect “Bokeh balls” of light.

Kyoto station steps, Halloween.

Some scale

This is what it looks like properly focussed.

So, How Big Should A Camera Be?

This has been percolating for a while, but the new G9 II has escalated my thinking a little.

The EM1x copped a lot of flak for being too big for a M43 camera. The logic of a small sensor resulting alwys in a small camera was not logical at all.

If the EM1x does its job (it does), which is to quickly and accurately take images in any weather, used by any hand (more on this coming) and with any lens attached, then it needs to be the proper supporting element for that purpose.

When I shoot sport with the 300 f4 and 40-150 f2.8 lenses, I prefer either the EM1x or an EM1 Mk2 with attached grip. I rarely use the vertical mode and when I do, I still just hold the main grip and cock my wrist, but the handling and balance of the combination feel right.

The EM1x allows me to grab and shoot, everything where it should be, the rest locked off.

I have used the 300 f4 with an EM1 Mk2 body alone and it was ok, but not ideal.

My hands are average male medium. I can use smaller cameras and do, but the cameras that feel right to me are the bigger ones. The G9 II being slightly bigger than the Mk1 is actually a benefit in my eyes. Large cameras fit in most hands, small cameras only suit small hands.

Yes, they may have been able to make the camera smaller, but by doing that, some of the advantage of the smaller sensor would have been lost. A M43 camera in a decently sized body can out-perform a full frame sensor in the same body in heat dissipation, stabilising, codecs, etc (compare the nearly identical S5 II to the G9 II).

This added size also adds real estate for dials and buttons.

Using the Pen Mini II for a few days has reminded me how frustrating little cameras with limited controls can be. Two touch controls for exposure compensation, AF point shifts etc are not professionally viable and even an experienced shooter on holidays can get a little grumpy.

To me, the G9 I was the nicest camera I owned size to handling. The EM1x’s were ideal, but bigger and the EM1 MkII’s felt nice, but felt a little under done with my two larger lenses mounted and I never feel as happy with their handling compared to the G9, but the MkIII’s nubbin would have reduced the margin.

I did think on the entry blocker this creates for new shooters also. We try to teach new togs about the benefits of exposure adjustment, focus accuracy etc and then give them entry level cameras that lock out easy access.

The reality is, sensor size is not the real determining factor of camera size. It does determine lens size, which can have an effect on the real size determining factor, which is handling and balance fit for purpose.

Landscape shooters have the luxury of using pretty much any camera available, large or small.

Pro sports camera = a large-dual gripped, cleanly laid out, power meaty, tough and fast work horse, balanced for larger lenses and dual orientation shooting. Larger sensor cameras will have larger lenses, but still, the maximum needed is the same from M43 to full frame, which is to say hands are all much the same.

Small travel camera = dinky little sensor wrapper with enough grip for the average hand, probably no view finder, balanced for small primes or light weight kit lenses.

Video power house = standard configuration, or video-centric variant* with ports and cages to take a multitude of accessories.

A camera always seems to end up the same shape, no matter wht else changes. This is becasue people do not change. The early Olympus cameras tried to get away without the view finder, but not long into their growth the finder made its way back in. Some brands have messed with the grip size, shape, the dial placement, but in the end, we come back to the same shaped hand camera we have been using since the 1930’s.

*which may be a small box to a large brute.

Japan Renewed After A Break

Japan has not changed, but it seems I have.

My love of the place is as strong, but it is more mature, more realistic.

Even exposed pipes in temple gardens have to be “perfect”.

I have had a couple of days of wandering familiar and less familiar places and the images I am taking are, well, boring me a bit.

Something I noticed when I started to review and sort the images from my earlier trips was that the images of gardens, quiet places and temples were the ones that felt re-discovered, rescued from memory obscurity.

The street shots were there and still satisfied me, but the garden shots, often taken by reflex, habit even, were the ones that stuck.

From one of the earliest trips, somewhere in Tokyo. I would only frame a handful of the images from my previous trips, this and a couple of its friends would be in the mix.

Ginkaku-ji temple today.

I was aware there may be a change and have an open mind to adapting, so thankfully my mindset and technical processes are flexible.

The hero of the day was the 15mm on the Pen F with the 45mm and EM10.2 as runners up.

The complimentary contradiction tht is the 17/15 pairing defies some logic. Over priced for effectively one lens ($1300au combined for basically a medium speed semi wide prime), the two have very different dynamics in use.

The 15 is cleaner to work with for landscapes, the AF/MF switch being fiddlier, but more defined. The Bokeh rendering is modern (smooth-fast), the colours brilliant and light, great for bringing out gentle light and putting some snap into overcast days. The width just a little more relaxed, but it never seems distorted or obvious.

The 17 has the better for street use AF/MF click-back, but I have found for non street uses, the MF has to be watched (I like to set it to 5ft at f2.8-5.6 depending on light), but often find if I am not careful, it rolls around to infinity very easily. The rendering is deep and forgiving, ideal for “zone” focussing, the colours more realistic and better at handling contrasty light and the slightly tighter angle suits subject based images better.