An otherwise unremarkable shot, but I'm refining my process. (Fumbling around with it is a more apt description.) OM-1 bird subject detection, ensured focus didn't grab the grass in the foreground or background.

It was cloudy and breezy on the walk this morning. Brought along the E-P7 because I didn't think I'd see many birds and I wanted to get familiar with the camera. This is with the Dramatic Tone II filter, which makes the otherwise mundane scenery a bit more visually interesting.

Just needed to post a pic to make sure I remembered how to do it!

It seems giving my E-M10 Mk4 to my son has prompted a broader examination of how I wish to "take pictures" on my morning walk.

For a long time, I was content with the M10 Mk4 and the 14-150mm/f3.5-5.6 because it was a lightweight setup, and I could do pretty much anything with it. It's a close-focusing lens at 150mm, so I could get nice closeups of flowers, lizards or insects. 14mm is equivalent to 28mm full-frame, so I could get some landscapes if I wanted. And 150mm (300mm equivalent) isn't bad for birds, and with 20MP I could crop quite a bit for the little pics I shared.

But then I wanted to get closer to the birds, and the landscapes were pretty monotonous on the walk anyway, so I started carrying the 75-300mm zoom. It's often maligned among micro four-thirds users, but there's sample variation and mine happens to be sharp enough to please me. With the M10 Mk 4, it remained a very lightweight setup, about 1.7 lbs, and I shot with it a lot without experiencing any knots between my shoulders, or spine issues.

Since Monday, I'd been carrying the E-M1 Mk3 with the 75-300mm. That combination weighs about 2.4 lbs. Yesterday I noticed some additional creakiness in my spine, but nothing very alarming. It did seem related to carrying the heavier camera, but I wasn't sure.

So today I decided to try something different. I carried the OM-1 with the 40-150mm/f2.8 Pro, with the MC20 2x teleconverter mounted, which gives me the same reach as the 75-300mm, but a slightly brighter aperture at f5.6 versus f6.7, a half-stop faster. That rig comes in at a whopping 3.5 lbs! (Both the OM-1 and the E-M1 Mk3 have RRS bottom plates mounted.)

The biggest lesson I learned is that that's too heavy for a sling. I could do it in a pinch, but it was uncomfortable by the end of the walk, and my spine has been creaking and popping quite a bit since I got back. Most mornings, I bend over and do a modest inversion, holding my elbows and letting them hang below my head. I can usually feel one or two pops from the lower part of my spine. This morning there were about five, all along my spine! I've got a little muscular discomfort along the left side, just below the shoulder blade. The sling rests on my left shoulder. It's not the same knot that would develop when I carried the camera by my right side with the sling over my left shoulder. The weight vector is more nearly vertical, so there's less of that side-force pushing me out of alignment.

The other thing I learned is that I need to adapt the way I shoot with that combination. Most competent photographers would shoot in shutter priority with a long lens mounted, to minimize the possibility of motion blur in the image.

I've been spoiled by the light weight and excellent image stabilization of Olympus cameras. I normally shoot in aperture priority, with ISO fixed at base and relied on ~4 stops of image stabilization to get a sharp image. My 75-300 is modestly sharper stopped down, but it's pretty sharp in the center wide open. I mentioned I seldom shoot birds in flight, where I would shoot in shutter priority. But for birds just perched on a limb, or standing by the pond in good light, aperture priority usually gets me something IBIS could handle easily, even with a slow lens at long focal lengths.

I found the heavier lens is more challenging, for me, to hold steady. I'd already noticed this with the 100-400mm zoom, but it kind of surprised me with the 40-150. Many people prefer a heavier lens for a steady grip. I suppose there's a sweet-spot for everyone. But it seemed like the image was moving around in the viewfinder a bit more than I'm accustomed to.

A hooded merganser landed in the retention pond just as I was leaving it, so I turned around and tried to get a few shots. It's a dark bird, against a dark water surface and I wasn't paying attention to the shutter speed. I was getting speeds around 1/50s, and those shots weren't sharp at all, a lot of visible motion blur. I suppose the camera was doing okay with the body and lens movement, but the bird was probably bobbing around a bit in the water as well.

They weren't all horrible, though most of them were. I'm going to post one on Flickr that cleaned up fairly well in Topaz Sharpen AI, but it's not something I'd brag about.

In any event, I think I'm going to switch to using shutter priority whenever I have a long lens mounted. If the ISO goes up a couple of stops, no big deal.

The bluebird above seems to persuade me that my 40-150 with the MC20 mounted isn't significantly sharper than my 75-300. I'll have to shoot with it some more, to become more accustomed to how it feels in my hands. I might be able to get something more out of it. But for just taking my morning walk, I think the 75-300 punches above its weight as a "kit" lens, and it's a hell of a lot more comfortable to carry.

Where the 40-150 excels is in on the trail in the woods, where the light is much more challenging. And it's a close-focusing lens as well, so it's great for flowers and fungi and bugs too.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not carrying full-frame bodies and glass!

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:17 Thursday, 9 February 2023

I did remember to try again, bumping up the ISO. This one is at 400, and the shutter speed is 1/640s, probably because I also dialed in -1ev exposure compensation. It looks so bright in the viewfinder, even spot-metered. I could have kept it at about -.33ev and been fine.

Exported a TIFF from the RAW (.ORF) in OM Workspace because when I crop a jpeg so closely and then sharpen, I'm picking up some of the jpeg artifacts. Edited it in Photos only. I brightened the TIFF, added a little contrast and definition and some sharpening. Dialed back the highlights to keep the crater rims from looking so bright, but that's pretty close to how they looked in the original. Exported that as 1,000 pixel jpeg and voila.

Larger version at Flickr.

Woke up about 0130 and couldn't fall back to sleep so I figured I'd try to photograph the Falcon 9 launch. I did, but focus was off and it wasn't a very good shot. While I was waiting for the launch at 0258, I did some shots of the moon with the OM-1 and the 100-400mm zoom.

I took some in hand-held high resolution, some with the 2x digital teleconverter and the last batch with the MC2 teleconverter mounted on the camera.

This is probably the best of the bunch, with the MC2, and I'm fairly pleased with it handheld.

I had difficulty getting the HHHR shots. I eventually ended up with three, and after cropping, they weren't as good as this.

The ones with the 2x digital teleconverter were surprisingly good, better than I'm used to on any of the E-M1s, though they're never really bad. They were nearly as good as this, but just visibly softer.

This is the best one, with the MC2, heavily cropped. I took a lot of frames with the teleconverter on it, and this was the only one that didn't exhibit some motion blur. This is at 1/125s at 800mm (effective focal length 1600mm). This shutter speed is roughly four stops slower than you would use at that focal length without image stabilization. Technique matters and I haven't been practicing much lately. I did lean against a pillar on the house but it didn't seem to help much. Looked steady in the viewfinder, but that's not a real indication.

I could have bumped the ISO to 400 and perhaps had more success with no real noise penalty. I'll make a mental note of that (He said, confidently.) and do that next time.

Until then here's a Groundhog Day moon.

(Larger version at Flickr.)

Testing making a post from micro.blog the Mac app. #XZ-1 jpgs SOOC. #CCD.

Something I've never seen here before. This appears to be an American Pekin domestic duck, much larger than the mallard it's next to. Also seems to have something stuck in its bill.

Very breezy this morning, ahead of a line of thunderstorms expected this afternoon. E-M10 Mk4 with the 14-150mm zoom, dramatic tone filter applied. A mood.

Put the DJI Mini 2 up this morning for the launch. Not spectacular, but not terrible. The bright spot in the sky above the contrail is sun glint from a jet aircraft that happened just as I was taking the shot. Larger version at Flickr.

Click on this link in Safari on your iPhone (or other iOS device). Touch the "sharrow" and select "Add to Home Screen." See or hear a plane overhead you're curious about? Pretty cool.

I get a text alert from Spot the Station when the ISS will be visible overhead from Ponte Vedra. Since this would be about an hour after sunset, and the ISS is so bright, I thought it'd be a good opportunity. But there's still a lot of sky glow to the west, and there were high, thin clouds that I think helped diminish the station's brightness.

It was overhead for 6 minutes, but I didn't spot it until just before it reached the trees, about where light trail gets very obvious in the image, which I tweaked a bit.

I set up two cameras last night. Had a 25mm/f1.8 lens on the 16MP E-PL8 and a 12mm/f2.0 on the 20MP E-M1 Mk3.

I didn't use a CPL on the 12mm because you get weird gradients in the sky with a CPL on a wide-angle lens. So I stopped it down to f22 to get the exposure right for Live Composite. Normally, the cool kids would be screaming "Diffraction!", but this ain't art.

12mm (24mm effective focal length) is really too wide for this shot. I'd have been better off with the 17mm.

On thing I learned is I seem to have one dust spot on the sensor, which is disappointing since it was just cleaned. I'll take a stab at shaking that off, blowing or brushing it if that fails. Not a huge deal in this shot, I just cropped it out.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:11 Monday, 16 January 2023

It was still twilight when Falcon Heavy USSF-67 Mission lifted off. This was from an Olympus E-PL8 in Live Composite mode. I put a circular polarizing filter on the 25mm/f1.8 prime lens, which cut down on the sky glow.

Quick edit in Photos and Topaz Sharpen AI. I'm not sure where the weird colors came from, but editing made them worse. A little more effort might have ameliorated it, but I'm an instant gratification sort of guy. Alas.

You can see the two booster descent burns, which is pretty cool I think.

Follow the James Webb Telescope's Flickr account, get cool wallpaper. Click through to the official link in the description for larger images.

Since I was up early, I did do a bit of sitting. I'd installed an iOS app called Oak on my phone some time ago, when I was thinking about (or struggling with) getting back into a practice.

Be here now. Begin where you are, and so on.

Did the opening ten minute guided meditation. Went well, I sat a few minutes longer.

Prepped the drone for flight, just in case there was a red sky.

Took care of my inbox, went through my RSS feed. Checked the sky, didn't look promising. It may have been 48°F wherever my weather data comes from, but it was 42°F here. Popped the drone up anyway and took a look around, nothing remarkable. Red horizon, not much of a gradient.

Came back to the computer and took a look at Twitter and saw the FAA issue. Started scrolling that, but decided that was not what I needed to be doing.

Put on some warmer clothes and strapped on the OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom, hopped into the golf cart and went down to the kayak launch point to walk around a bit.

Put a few pics up on Flickr.

Walked back to the kitchen and saw a red sky for the first time in a while. Hustled back to get the DJI mini 2 aloft. Had to get some shoes on because the pavers are cold. Then had to fuss with the DJI Fly app. Just seemed to freeze, showed no GPS satellites and wouldn't even let me take off "with caution." Forced quit it twice and it finally decided it would go to work.

By then, the big show was over. So we hung around up there long enough to observe sunrise.

I'm planning to buy the mini 3, not the Pro. Since I mostly use it as a compact camera with a very tall tripod, I don't think I need the obstacle avoidance. I would welcome the larger sensor and the ability to tilt the camera above the horizon.

The gimbal is wonky, and apparently this is fairly common with the mini 2. It starts out level, then develops a tilt as you rotate the aircraft. Not a huge issue for stills, so I haven't spent any more time on it.

I think I should add that without the drone, there'd be no photo. Or, a much less interesting one. (Not that I find this one especially interesting.) From my backyard, I have no view of the horizon and I can only see the red sky through the trees. That's one of the downsides of Florida being so flat, there's often no horizon to speak of, and it can feel claustrophobic sometimes.

This is two images stitched in Affinity Photo 2. If you happen to look at the html, ignore the filename. Meant to type 1-10 and typed a 7, no idea why. Also meant to fix it, but got distracted when I noticed that Affinity Photo exports jpegs with the .jpg file extension, not .JPG, so I had to fiddle with that. Le sigh.

Anyway, shot the images so I figured I'd post something. I share your disappointment.

Things you don't see every day. Vocalizing like crazy. Seems to have lost its mate. Shortly after I shot this, it flew off. Neighbor said it sounded like there was another one behind his house, so hopefully they're reunited.

I don't intend for the marmot to be a meta-blog about the marmot. I suppose it looks like that at the moment. But I do intend to spend more time here, so I'm trying to get everything dialed in so I can be productive and not frustrated and fiddling with things.

I went down to the kayak launch on Friday morning before sunrise. The sky was clear, so I wasn't expecting anything in the way of a spectacular sunrise, but I wanted to get out of the house.

The road down there is a mess, so it was a slow drive. When I got there, I thought I had the place to myself. Then I heard faint music. Turned out it was a guy fishing, he parked in the trees near the river, so I didn't see his truck. We exchanged a few words about the cold and went about our respective endeavors.

If you happened to visit the my flickr photostream (I gather it's properly spelled with a lower-case "f"), that downed tree really was that red. That's what first caught my attention, then the slight mist on the still water. The Tolomato River is part of the intracoastal waterway, it's also more of an estuary than a river. It's extremely tidal. I didn't check, but it seems as though I might have been there around slack water, and there was no wind to speak of, thankfully.

I took the DJI mini 2 along with me. I don't "fly" it very much, mostly just use it as a very tall tripod. Got some shots and made a pano. The image above is just a single frame. I'll probably buy the mini 3 for the better camera. Florida is flat, so gaining a little elevation really offers a better perspective.

Because I've forgotten how this looks, I'm copying the embed code from Flickr.

This is one of a series of shots I made on Friday morning.

Just because it's there, right outside my window. I never get tired of doing this. Handheld high resolution from the OM-1. Cropped and tweaked in Photos.

Shot with #Olympus #E-M1X in handheld high-resolution mode, #HHHR, with the #mZuiko100-400mm zoom.

(Playing with hashtags. They don't seem to propagate to Mastodon via micro.blog.)

International Space Station as it flew overhead Ponte Vedra Florida this morning. #ISS #Olympus #LiveComposite #E-M1Mk3

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:17 Saturday, 7 January 2023

Playing around with micro.blog on iOS.

This is a follow-up test. Shot last March from an overlook just south of the north entrance.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:13 Thursday, 5 January 2023

Testing the automations set up for posting photos. This was from last March, one of my favorite images from last year.