A nice bit of decorative silversmithing on display at the de Young museum in San Francisco, California.
Bacchus sends his regards
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Author Archives: Eric
A small bouquet
This is probably my favorite photo from an afternoon spent experimenting with my 90mm macro lens:
For scale, the “vase” in this photo is a bit over 0.5″ / 12mm across at its widest.
EXIF:
OM-System OM-1 camera
M.Zuiko 90mm f/3.5 macro lens
Olympus FL-700WR flash
KR Macro Diffuser
f/11, 1/10 sec, ISO 100
Fun with infrared light and modern architecture
Over the past few years, I’ve dabbled here and there with infrared (IR) photography, but didn’t take it very seriously until I recently took an online course in the subject from Derrick Story (a.k.a. The Nimble Photographer). If you’re at all interested in IR photography, I can highly recommend the seminar — you’ll learn a lot from the instruction, and quite a bit as well from your fellow students.
In particular, one of my fellow students recommended taking IR photos in office parks with mature vegetation. You can, he said, get some nice results with the architecture, windows, and greenery.
So as my first example of this subject matter, here’s the Pacific Western Bank building in the Denver Tech Center (Denver, Colorado):
The above is a quick reference photo I took with my iPhone — it’s poorly framed but still a good comparison for the images below.
The Runabout
This is a 1904 Ford Model A Runabout — on display at the Seal Cove Auto Museum in Seal Cove, Maine:
From the placard:
The first Ford made was the 1903 Model A. This early 1904 model differs primarily by having a larger radiator and flywheel. An alphabetical series of Fords followed the Model A. In 1928, after building the 1927 Model T, the designation “Model A” was used again from 1928-1931.
These vehicles usually had a rear-facing hinged door [to allow passenger access to the back seat]. The open, rear passenger seating compartment was called a “tonneau”. The first U.S. tonneau with a side door was made by Peerless. This led to the development of the modern sedan.
EXIF:
OM System OM-1 camera, M.Zuiko 8-25mm f/4.0 Pro lens
12mm, f/10, 1/30 sec, ISO 10000
Across the channel
Looking south from Venice proper toward the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
In 2022, we were able to visit Venice during the “shoulder season” just before the onslaught of tourists in the summer’s main tourist season. Taking a late-day gondola ride was one of our best choices — scenic and quiet!
EXIF:
Olympus E-M1 Mark III, M.Zuiko 8-25mm lens
15mm, ISO 500, f/9.0, 1/60 sec
Disrupted breakfast
An American Bison (a.k.a. Buffalo) keeps a watchful eye on me while hunting for grass under snowfall.
Seen at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge just outside of Denver, Colorado.
EXIF:
OM System OM-1 camera, M.Zuiko 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 lens
100mm, ISO 200, 1/1600 sec, f/5.6
Foxy Friars
Floor tiles showing foxes dressed as pilgrims (with hats, walking sticks, and back packs) in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.
This tile design is unique to Christ Church, but the tiles are not original to either the first church on the site (built around 1030), or to its 12th and 13th century rebuilds. Due to insufficient foundations, the cathedral roof collapsed in 1562 — shattering most of the medieval tiles, so what you see today are copies of the originals, installed in the 1870s.
EXIF:
OM System OM-1 camera, 12-40mm f/2.8 II lens
ISO 10000, 38mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec
Strange planet
The Flatirons, just west of Boulder, Colorado. But seen in infrared, and with some color tweaks in post-processing.
I love the Flatirons, but they’re one of those subjects that is exhaustively photographed here in Colorado. So, how to make a shot of them that doesn’t look like a million others? Oh, and I went hiking on kind of a “blah” sort of morning — light overcast, some snow on the ground (but not enough to really set off the rock). My regular color photos taken with a regular digital camera were… underwhelming.
Fortunately, I also took along my E-PM2 camera body (which I’d had converted to full spectrum imaging), and a 720 nm infrared filter. Do a little color channel swapping, fiddle a bit with levels to separate the rock from the trees, and presto — you’re on a distant world.
EXIF:
Olympus E-PM2 camera (full spectrum conversion), M.Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ lens, 720nm filter
ISO 200, 19mm, f/8.0, 1/250 sec
Home on the range
A pair of American Bison (Buffalo), taking a break from grazing through snowfall.
Seen at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver, Colorado.
EXIF:
OM Digital OM-1 camera, M.Zuiko 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 lens
f/5.9, 186 mm, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200
OM-1 Battery Testing
As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been mulling over battery options — partially because OEM batteries are fairly expensive, and partially because some 3rd party options have potentially attractive additional features.
I’d gotten busy with regular life activities, and almost forgotten about my promise to do some testing, when I ran across this interesting video on YouTube. In the video, a Finnish gent tests an OEM BLH-1 battery and some 3rd-party replacements for it, using an OM-D E-M1 camera. I liked his approach, with a few provisos — namely, that I think using the internal intervalometer was causing him some of his issues (camera stops recording before the battery is fully discharged, residual charge level varies from battery to battery).