street photography

In between moving the Footless Fish to a new sever (which has just been completed) and being in the busiest time at work, I have had the opportunity to spend a few hours transiting through Sydney, and like any keen commited street photographer who wants to master their art, I had to take a few random photos on the street.  Each street always offers a unique opportunity for a photographer - the hardest part is often seeing that opportunity.

The last week has been a little hectic (or chaotic), though I have managed to keep a camera fairly close by as I have been travelling around.  The following photos really are just another random collection from the last 10 days.  The photos are shot of people/places that interested me or stood out while I was wandering around. They are all shot on the streets of Brisbane with whatever lens or camera I had with me at the time.  In some cases this was just the iPhone 4s or the Olympus OM-D with usually the Voigtlander 17.5mm lens.

My random wednesday was cut a little short today, however I still did manage to get a couple of photos out on the street.  Its often very easy to find an excuse not to take a photo but one of the things I have learned in street photography over the years is that if you are not out taking photos then you are not learning and possibly missing a great moment that may have appeared right in front of you as you were walking.  As far back as I can remember, my approach has just to randomly walk (often with som eflexible idea in mind).

This weeks collection of photos really is just random - really random!  It includes a little astrophotography with the GH3 mounted directly to a telescope to photograph the sun and the moon.  I did also photograph Saturn - but was not at all happy with the resultant photos (mainly due to the tracking not working on the telescope.  I also used the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the iPhone 4s.  I seem to always have some device on me that I can use to take the occassional random photo and if that is an iPhone or something similar, such as the Samsung phone then thats what I will use.

My normal random Wednesday routine was interrupted this week due to several workshops I needed to present during the day.  However, I was able to capture a few photos with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the Pansonic 7-14mm lens in between workshops and during the late evening (without a flash).  I had to bump the iso up fairly high and slow the shutter down a little to ensure I was able to get a few usable photos with this lens.  The lens is an extremely sharp lens and under the right conditions you can obtain some really good shots.

Over the last three months I have had the opportunity to play with the new Panasonic GH3 and each time I go to take photos I always opt to take the Olympus OM-D EM-5. Don’t get me wrong here - the Panasonic Gh3 is a great camera - there is just a few things that annoy me when I am on the street taking photos. From a video perspective - I only use the Panaosnic GH3 now. I have been meaning to write a review about this camera for a while now but I like to ensure I actually use the camera regularly before making any wild claims about what it can and can’t do.

This weeks shoot on the streets of Brisbane was a little quieter then usual, maybe due to the constant rainy weather that is still hanging around.   I decided to play with the 45mm f/1.8 lens a little today just for a little change from my obsession with the manual Voigtlander 17.5mm.  It was a little different using autofocus again.  I also did something I don’t do much of  - and that is actually photograph some of the buildings. 

Its March and its still bucketing down rain in Brisbane.  I always see these days as a great opportunity to get and take photos with a weather sealed camera rather than sitting at home waiting for the rain to stop.  The results are often very different then every day photos taken in beautiful sunshine.  Today while I was on the streets I was using the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and noticed that in the heavy downpours it was taking photos by itself.

It has been quite wet in brisbane over the last few weeks (in fact it is still raining).  I have had to empty the rain guage several times recently with one of those times having more than 10 inches of rain in it and over flowing.  This is not a common occurrence for Brisbane, despite what people might think after the last couple of floods.  Even though it is quite wet on the streets at the moment it does make for some great photo opportunities if you are willing to get a little wet (and your camera).  This is where having a weather proof camera like the Olympus

It was another random wednesday out on the streets of Brisbane this week as I embarked on a little street photography.  However, this week was going to be a little different in terms of how I wanted to shoot.  I decided that this week I would take the Olympus OM-D E-M5 out with the 17.5mm Voigtlander lens set to about f/4 and manually focused between about 50cm and 90cm (I changed this slightly most times I shot).  This meant that I had to shoot up and close to whatever or whoever I was going to shoot.  I also wanted to play around with over em