Events beyond your control

It really bites when your timing is spot on, and something just gets in the way of that perfect shot. That's what happened to me a few times today while shooting Muay Thai at the Asian Heritage street fair in San Francisco earlier this afternoon. The referee was just doing his job of course, and didn't really worry that he blocked several good photos. The fighters didn't help by moving around the ring so much. And why do they have to put all those ropes around the ring...

There's something to be said about having a press pass.

I did manage to take some good photos this year, out of 1,971 taken. At last year's event, I was too far from the ring, and two years ago I found out too late about the fights. This year I got ringside seats by dint of waiting for a few hours before the bouts started. The Nikon 28-105mm f/3.5~4.5 managed to keep up with the action, although it did mis-focus on a few shots. I would have liked just a little more FOV (maybe 24mm?), but until Nikon releases an updated 24-120mm, I'll use what i have in my bag. The 28-70mm AF-S would have focused faster, although it's a little on the short side. I didn't use the 70-200VR that I brought since I was close to the action.

Metering was off my hand, shutter speed, aperture and ISO set manually to match and adjusted as the lighting conditions changed. Fill flash? Always a good idea when you have bright sunlight in the background and a covered tent for the foreground, but flash wouldn't have been able to keep up with the action. And I don't think the fighters would appreciate an SB-800 blasting in their faces at 8fps. So I have a blown background, but that's fine with me.

I started out in machine gun mode, and managed to hit the buffer limit a few times. As my timing improved, I throttled down to shorter bursts and single shots towards the end of the event.

Batteries are charging for tomorrow. Need to get up early to reach my oft-missed goal of photographing the lead runner of the Bay 2 Breakers.

Olympus E-P1 + 14-42mm kit lens initial impressions

I bought the kit through Costco, and received two $50 refunds within two weeks of purchasing the camera. And I have 90 days to be satisfied, or it goes back, no questions asked. Gotta love Costco.

A new camera is always a fun thing, from unpacking the box, charging the battery, and finally being able to use it to take photos. The Olympus E-P1 fits nicely in my hands, and feels solid enough. The mode dial turns smoothly, with strong detents as befits a mode selector. The vertical dial also turns with a quality feel to it.

The kit lens is another story, from the flimsy focusing ring, to the loose front barrel. I guess that's why it doesn't cost that much more to buy the camera with the lens than without. And what was Olympus thinking when they picked the filter size (40.5mm!)? There is no hood available for this lens, another design flub.

IQ is acceptable. It's definitely better than my current pocket camera, a Fuji F45, with cleaner, more detailed output. I have seen some puzzling skin tones though, and bad white balance in the shade. It pales in comparison to the images I get out of the D3, but then that's not a fair comparison. I've been trying to get the JPEG output close to what I get from the D3, but still haven't gotten there.

The video quality is good, better than I expected. The sound quality is excellent, but the microphones pick up every little breeze, and every little nearby sound. It's too bad the body doesn't have an external mic port. The mic also pics up AF and zoom sounds, along with the shutter button. Editing all the video I've shot is going to be another story. I'll have to learn to tell a story instead of just letting my images stand for themselves.

So, will I keep the camera? I haven't decided yet. I have ordered a Nikon adapter, to see how well my Nikon-mount lenses work (Video at 500mm! I wish I had the adapter when I was at the North Shore earlier this month). The Sony Nex-series is also very tempting, but the initial images show poor lens quality and very few controls on the body.

Come back in a month or two for the final result. In the meanwhile, here are some photos from the E-P1.

Kahala resort

Small beach, but the view is very pretty. The dolphin pool is great for the kids. I didn't bring the polarizer, but the sky was blue enough in this shot.

The Diamondhead gazebo is tiny, but perfect for a small wedding. The staff was very helpful, and even comped the parking. The ceremony was sweet and short, a bonus in the hot afternoon sun. The strong breeze caused a problem for the E-P1's microphone, but without an external mic port, you live with what you get.

 

Remember to test your equipment first

Time for the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown in the city. Brought my usual parade kit, D3 + SB-800 + 70-200VR. Got to the event, started firing off some shots. Blinking highlights. Odd, but I ignored them and continued to shoot. Even more blinking highlights.

Decreased the aperture, and whoa, major overexposure. Stopped the aperture down (whoops, flash is strobing in modelling mode) and looked down the lens barrel: aperture is wide open. Removed the lens, and the aperture lever is stuck. It was easy to move it back to the fully closed position, and I moved it around just to make sure it was ok. No more blinking highlights after that fix.

Capture NX to the rescue. Of course it can't give me back the missing DOF, and some shots are just too overexposed to be of any use.

Lesson learned: always test your equipment before shooting, and don't ignore the blinking highlights.


On a side note, the Olympus E-P1 and 14-42mm lens are arriving tomorrow. New toy!

Struggling with night time parades

I've never understood why the Chinese New Year parade starts at dusk. Most of the participants don't come equipped with lights, and the fireworks really aren't big enough to warrant darkness. But it is what it is, and every year I struggle to get good shots of the parade.

This year I decided to skip using a flash, and went with the D3 and 35mm f/2. I set auto ISO to a limit of 3200, and got decent enough shots. The mix of sodium lamps, incandescent and fluorescent bulbs, neon tubes and flash makes white balance tricky, but I'm happy with this year's images, more so than with other years.