GerrySiegel

Bill, friend, I do like the sailor nurse hookup sculpture, romantic ized as it might be on the cover of a pulp Harlequin novel, a good effort to award acclaim for Eisie, gordlovehim, except, hm,. that I can't help a lil nitpic on styles of the 40's as reconstructed here in this NY objet d'art. I mean : Sure the nylons had seams, she got that right- but nurses wore WHITE stockings with no skin exposure.....bah yeah artistic license I know!. With the shortage of nylon the gaams might even have been cloaked in cotton mygosh.... Me-> Really pickypickypicky....a recreation ought to be faithful to such detail nay?. A kiss is just a kiss opportunistic as it is, but it is fundamental thing of life ( as time goes by. ) Now wait a minute, did she give CONSENT to the embrace, per the rule book of many states and campuses? Oh, forget it. War is war. Sailors are sailors then and now and the world was jubilant then. Aloha and happy smooching mates wherever you are nesting.....just ask before you grab and bend....

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Different strokes, yet how come the micro four thirds looks so great on my 40" HD TV....I print nothing much lately and go to concerts merely to listen to music and snore at opera. No cameras allowed at the Blaisdell Hall alas.... But that is how we must come to our sensors, one and all. Aloha and happy trails and a salute to diversity. Pluralism makes for fun chatter.

At current price, a well specified camera. I tend to find that Panasonic does better on its menus and its controls. With the 20mm lens (es) this would make a good travel kit. Color of your choice as long as it is silver or black:-). Japanese are supposed to turn on to bright colors. I saw a pink VW yesterday. A chacun a son gout or somethin'.

A reflector just out of the frame may produce a more flattering fill either handheld or on a stand. F stop and focal length for your format depends on how much blur you are after. I don't care for too much mushiness which gets to make all pictures look same same. Depends on how much you are into cropping as well. Many ways to attack this one I think, but I like the zooms nowadays no matter subject. Even those new small but long ones for mirrorless do well enough if the background is not on top of the subject personage.

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James Cameron stores his image captures by a process that lets him animate the people afterward in motion and space. A future where deceased actors male and female can be brought back to life. Coming soon to a beer commercial near you, if the estate grants permission and royalties. Why not. I'd rather see Connery do a new Bond film even as a simulation. Or not...

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Sensors are doing a great job. They must mate with the optical parameters of the lens array. Future will bring better quicker autofocus by combining sensor sites for different methods. And will be released with new and sexier bodies to attract buyers. I like Ricoh for its experiments however. Never have seen a Ricoh in real life. Are they a part of Pentax now and how are they doing?

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Interesting that before I got to your post, Steve, I had already spent time with Ms Olivia Bee's portfolio. My impression: Nice. One of enjoyment in her variety of experience. I love the idea of someone exposing their joy and wonder and playfulness and willingness to open up their lives as these youth. Their intimate moments and expresssions. (Not once did I think to reflect on the artistic merits of any one image; got taken for a drive down an adolescent countryside waiting to see what is around the next hill. ) Putting it personally , I felt a friendly connection, an intimate view of freshness and use of photography for exploration. Invitation and welcome to her world. Refreshment. Like Lannie, I liked this visit to their world and it is indeed one of refreshment and palate cleansing. You know what I mean.... A cool sherbert on a hot afternoon, a vanilla cone with jimmies on top, a naked plunge in a cool lake. Even a little walk on the wild side with a sly humor . Unforced. No scripts on how we want to be seen or were told to look. Anyway, for Olivia bee for one, I give a silver medal for seeing the world from all sides and sharing. Not for me do I leave with ennuie, anomie put me off stuff. Go for it kiddos.

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Is it true that the teleconverter can only be used with this lens. If so, I wonder why that need be. I would like to see Panasonic offer a teleconverter for their very fine 35-100mm lens which still fits a small sling bag compartment. This big bad fellow is kind of huge for the micro four thirds system from the photos shown. Might as well consider an ED 50-200mm which also has a tripod collar and has greater reach. Happy I don't enthuse over BIF or birds in flight. ( Babes in frills - thass another story:-)) Pet peeve is the apparent fact that Oly likes to sell you a lens hood for sixty bucks as though you really don't want to use one for taking advantage of the high end optics....makes no marketing sense or photo sense to me. Is it like the airline charge for a pillow?

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<........courses, books or online tutorials, and learn, learn, learn :-)> Exactly. There is no shortcut to getting what you call crisp and colorful people pictures. Learn to use available light sources. Especially backlight outdoors. Learn to augment natural light with a reflector or fill in flash where mother nature needs some help. Take control of your subjects and pose or group them if people pictures are your special goal. There are tutorials here and everywhere. And a whole bunch of good books to walk you through a set up step by step. And then practice and get comments from someone whose work you like. Good luck. Baby steps. We all here are learners in some way. Learn from looking at the critique section here and any comments that make sense. I wish you well and hang around a while.

I got an idea, so call me brilliant.... Call or e mail Really Right Stuff and ask them re dimensions and clearances..... Also check diameter specs for the BH heads online viz their web site. I am not familiar with the tripod that folds up like that one. (One might wind up with different legs and heads in your stable of gear and that is not so bad),So I would certainly call or write the companies and see how the units work and get a return privilege- which RRS offers- just in case you.The BH 40 is powerful for its little size. I like it a lot. Works on all my goodies anyway...though I am easing towards mirrorless bodies and smaller gear. Also, just a personal habit is my twisting off the head from the legs when packing and traveling.....may not be critical to your choice if I understand your post. Good luck. All those companies seem to have quality ball heads. In the end, it gets pretty personal to choose which one fits your style.

I find something out almost every day, friend. Today, guess what. I located a menu in the gears department that lets you turn off the bleeding level in the viewfinder. Stumbled on it by accident. Don't ask me to remember how.... My hobby these days is quote learning the secrets of the E-M1 hidden in plain view unquote. (Bletchley Circle needed.)

There is a lot of quality competition lately so the old Manfrotto or Gitzo need not be the only reliable brands but I am sure you know that already. Can't knock the RRS tripods because I bet they are just great too....I looked for spending a wee bit less myself. I followed a recommendation here by Ellis Vener and bought a nice carbon fiber Induro brand. Mine has four legs for travel but does not lack steadiness. They make a broad lineup of leg numbers and sizes etc and have all the goodies you might want. CF on the legs. Easy twist grips for tightening. Hook on bottom for a weight.... Non rotating legs. Alloy and level on the spider, replaceable tips for dirt, included, little tool kit and good quality carry bag and latter at no extra charge. Lot for little these days. Check 'em out....a sleeper brand. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=Induro+tripods&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search= That RRS BH ball 40 head though is pretty darn nice got to report. Fits well with the Induro model legs.

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I have found heavy duty vinyl drafting board cover useful for objects not too large. Roll up and hold shape if supported. Vyco is one brand name.

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It gets down to what number of megapixels is enough megapixels. Recall that the E-1 had a mere 5 megapixels and was yielding good results. And the E-1 still delivers as testified by current owners. So with the current 10-12-16, our cup runneth over. My speculation is that Olympus has desired to work on other variables, eg. optimize the lens array for its 4/3 sensor and make its processing better. Lately I see discussions of wants going ahead about noise at high ISO levels and not about getting more megapixels per se. ( Hey, didn't I see a study that concluded that the current number of about 16 mp was equal in resolving power to medium format. Read that somewhere I am sure) Professionals who are after ultimate crispness and tilts and shifts and the like can already buy digirtal Hassies, Leica MF or perhaps a Phase One digital large chip back for Mamiya ...for a price that makes one cough:-0. I think Olympus has eased off in the race to more and more megapixels and concentrated on other factors like size and functionality of its semi pro models. And serves different consumer markets than you to be frank. That suits me. I crystal ball that MF, which I used to shoot and liked a lot, is now aimed at a really thin slice of photo as we continue morph to digital capture over film scanning. So if we are just betting on the future, I would say that we have reached a megapixel summit in Olympus's world. Yes, I agree with you that the 4/3 aspect fits my taste as well...