You cannot buy creativity!

"Go your own way" - Fleetwood Mac

 It seems that everybody is looking in these strange days to buy something if not somebody. Fame is now an highly materialistic think and money can buy anything and everybody. We live into the individualist games of the more aggressive and egocentric that are now the emperor of this crushing human world. To best the best, suffice to grab your chance over the unlucky, the less advised or the softy ones.

You can buy beauty, you can buy fame, you can buy likes, you can buy anything but... can you buy sensibility, can you buy cleverness, can you buy creativity? Sorry those last ones are not available over the Web by simply clicking your credit card. Sure electronic brains seem to replace our present deficient mind but is it creativity or is it simply preprogrammed existents algorithms? Is it human or is it simply machine extrapolations?

We don't want to reverse the material evolution surrounding our fragile life and its fantasy world. No. we understand that we are also a productive part of this evolution. But we are still asking for some originality, for an un-standard vision, for something provocative that will push higher in the scale of universe over our ephemeral physical tiny lifespan. Yes, trying to be different, to look over the fence of conformity, can be very insecure but it can be also very exciting at the same.

No you cannot buy creativity! You have to earn it by yourself and, I know, that each of us can do it, it is only a matter of self-confidence. Not just try it but do it, you deserve it.

Photos Daniel M: Olympus OM-D E-M5 III / M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm II

Low light !

 When we speak about available light, many times we are referring to low light situations. Capturing these darker moments is not an easy task for any photographic classic or modern devices. It stretches them to their technical limits to get an acceptable image rendering. The "quality" of light is often associated with "quantity" of it meaning it add a lot of density of the picture definition and more density can help in image post-editing.

Be able to record low light contexts can be very rewarding because these pictures add a lot to the mystery and the magical of the subject. Intimate, strange, scary, ethereal, all these qualifiers can be evoked to describe a low light photograph. Recent digital camera models are now better equipped to record those special contexts. They have access to higher image sensor light sensitivities (ISO levels) that we had never expected to be available and sufficiently workable during the traditional analog-film era. Now it is manageable as long you take a minimal special care in holding your camera and be aware about the blur induced by the subject movement if it happens.

A special care could be also taken by the photographer not to destroy the "scarce" light distribution that definite the low light context of the subject. For most of the time the details of it can be more suggested than fully definite like in the daylight or well-lit contexts. Experimentations can help by bracketing your exposure to get a range of different light interpretations for example. Digital photography permits you these different image essays at low cost and with easy executions.

Many photographers are easily discouraged by low light situations, but they are avoiding a lot of original opportunities to get special pictures and it is a pity because these image contexts are often interesting more that their full lit counterparts. There is no reason not to try and not to succeed today in that very peculiar photographic task.

                                                                       

A "Low-Light" Setting Memo:
Hold steadily the camera or use a fixed stand (tripod, wall, floor, table, etc.); Pay attention to your (slow) shutter speed; Be aware of your focus point especially with a shallowed deep of field when using a larger lens aperture; Note your image sensor sensibility (ISO) that can influence your image quality (by definition increase image noise presence); Have a good comprehension of the light distribution of your subject that will compose your final picture; Don't hesitate to review the taken picture and do it again if the first result doesn't please you.

Photos Daniel M: Olympus OM-D E-M5 III / M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm II / ED 75-300mm II

Fog-O-Lit

 

Photos Daniel M: Olympus OM-D E-M5 III / M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm II

Other Ormstown-Scapes with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 III & M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm II

 

The Express 57 incinerated dream.

Not long ago I have proposed a post that give you a short sneak view of a nearby small town, Ormstown, from the place I use to stay in summer. From this quiet countryside and appeasing village, there are the habitual focus points to go like a general store, a bank, two churches, a small school, two taverns and few restaurants or cantines. One of those was the Express 57, renowned for its retro fifteen cachet with full of past of artefacts and with very sympatic owners and team to serve you. Doing a Ormstown photographic essay must require to get some Express 57 clichés which I did without second though.

A week later, the unthinkable happens and during the night, the Express 57 was literally incinerated but their owners who were living on the second floor manage to escape with the aid of the local and courageous fire brigade volunteers. Today The building has been locked up waiting its restauration or simply its demolition and because of its very central location, the place is a constant and inevitable reminder of this drama and its tragic consequences.

Photos Daniel M: Olympus OM-D E-M5 III / M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm II 

September at last!

 We all love the summer season but at the end of it in late September (for the northern hemisphere), the arrival of the roman "seventh" month in Latin (Septembribus) represents the very beginning of the fall season which signify a kind of appeasement from the frenetic heat of the vibrant summer. Bathing suits, for those who still wear one, will be stored in the drawer until next year or for all those light clothes and sandals.

But what is all about the autumn period may be the multiple and rapid changes of temperatures and landscapes all around us. Even nature have a different odor spreading from all these dying leaves on the ground. For those who can spent time to observe (instead of inside working!), the fall season can be experimented in many ways over a short period of time. Even the colder temperature may be seen as a relief from the past hot summer.

September can be also a nice break in life to do some introspection about the already travelled road and about the one which coming ahead. The fast pace of summer leave place for more relaxing thoughts. Today more than ever, we need to have access to some king of regenerating pauses and get a more philosophical point of view in life in general.

In photography, by opposition, the September month use to be a kind of “back to school” period with numerous outings, exhibits, courses, various club activities, etc. However, the Web expansion, the social media and surely the pandemic restrictions have partly changed the photographic landscape to a more individual approach that have limited the mobility and the gathering possibilities for all the photographic passionate people.

The colors of the Autumn season have been always a very inspiring and productive photographic subject. The green landscape leave place to a kaleidoscope of warmer colors and tints. The sun is lower to the horizon that create more interesting tridimensional effects even in considering the lowlight challenges that are facing the photographers. If you intend to work in more adverse conditions (rain, wind, cold), photo devices that are weather-resistant (WR) got the preference over less protected piece of equipment.

During the fall season, you can expect less crowed urban areas giving you a real chance to emphasize the architectural aspects of your subjects. I have also found that people are often less annoyed by photographers than during the summer season. It is an excellent time to experiment and to document the very near surroundings that we tend to neglect otherwise.

Forever the reasons we may evoke to underline it, the return of the month of September means for many of us an important departure to new photographic adventures that we are pleased to enjoy fully.

Photos Daniel M: Olympus OM-D E-M5 III / M.Zuiko 14-150mm II ED MSC