Welcome to the K.R. Williamson PhotoBlog | Great photos and the stories behind them | All things photo | My opinions on the photographic world | Leica, Canon, and Sony experiences and thoughts
Preparing for the annual Christmas pageant
This past Sunday after church the children were all downstairs putting on their costumes for the dress rehearsal of the annual Christmas play. It was a fun time as the shepherds, kings, angels etc. got ready. Some costumes fit just right but others had to be adjusted. I brought my Leica M9 along like I usually do just in case a good photo might come up. This day was no different as good photos were happening everywhere. I use the 35mm Summicron on the M9 as a carry around lens and for things like this it works great. One of my friends had their granddaughter there who is very young. She is going to be an angel which suited her perfectly. Here are some of the images I made of the kids getting ready.
Shooting tip: When photographing children make sure to get down to their level. Looking down on kids while you photograph them is a classic mistake. Then only way to get their perspective on things is to be at their level. B&W conversions are not the best. I will try to clean them up if I can.
Before the end of the month I will be posting images I made of the governor-elect in Massachusetts Charlie Baker. I was over to his home to make photos for an article on his new administration this past Monday.
Christmas in Rockport with the Sony Nex-7 and the 20mm f2.8
What a great experience the annual Rockport Christmas Pageant is. Every year folks from around the North Shore of Massachusetts gather in Rockport for this annual christian spectacle. Townspeople dress as shepherds, roman soldiers, Mary, Joseph, etc and make a pilgrimage from Dock Square up to the Congregational Church. They stop along the way at the Rockport Art Association (acting as the Inn in Bethlehem) and then stop at the church where the baby Jesus is laid down for all to visit. The story is narrated along the way with giant loud speakers. Here are some photos I made during the event not really trying to cover like I normally would but just for fun since it's pitch black out. The Sony did very well shooting at 6400 at f2.8 on the 20mm. With the Nex-7 (a cropped sensor) it becomes a 30mm. Not bad and it was small and easy to use. I thought about bringing the Leica M9 but it's poor low-light capabilities soured me on it. I also considered the Canon G15 because of the zoom lens and the low aperture of 1.8 to 2.8 but in the end it was the Sony sensor that won out. It is much better in low-light than the other two. The shot below is my favorite. These women were a bit chilly with the wind blowing outside the Art Association. The woman in the middle is putting on gloves despite being dressed in period costume.
Yes ugly fill flash. Interesting flash globs flying around from the on-camera flash. I show this because it's the best of the bunch. Ya ugly.
This was the scene from far away as it is really tough getting close to the creche scene at the church. Look a that crowd wow! Christianity is a live an well no matter what the media says.
The Red Ford Truck
The other day I was on assignment in Ipswich, MA at the Russell Orchard & Winery. I was illustrating an interesting story on how they make hard cider. What I found was a mixture of giant plastic jugs and a vintner with an eclectic look. No oak barrels or anything really interesting to shoot. So it was with some surprise and delight that I noticed this old truck on the side of the barn with a vintage gas pump next to it. It had been snowing lightly off and on and the snow had collected on the windshield. I had used the Canon 5D Mk3 with the 24-70 and had it in my hand so that's what this frame was done with. The Leica was in the car but I was having a hard time keeping the barn cat out of the car so I used the Mk3 instead.
Shooting Sports in the Rain - what fun, not really!
It was with some hesitancy that I hauled my gear out to the car last Saturday. It was pouring rain and I had a long drive ahead of me. One of our local football teams was playing in the high school football Super Bowl and I assigned my self to shoot the game. I have photographed way to many Santa Claus events in my time and that was the other choice. So off I went to the Meca of football in New England, Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. It poured rain all the way down and when I got there it kept it up. I try not to shoot sports in the rain if I can help it and that means I have not dropped a ton of cash on rain protection. Let's face it a good heavy trash bag will do the trick. That's how I usually roll. The heavy contractor bag with a hole in one end for the 300 f2.8 lens and either tape or an elastic band over it to keep it on. Then another hole for the mono pod. There is enough bag left over for you to cover your head which is awesome. The only problem can be condensation so I tend to give it some air every once and a while. This is great if you are only using one camera. If you are using two you have a problem. Most of the cheap plastic covers don't have a way for you to hang the camera off your shoulder. So if you shoot some frames and forget to cover the back of the camera you have a large puddle forming on the back of the camera ... not good.
Canon 7D w/300 f2.8L
Canon 7D w/300 f2.8L
Canon 7D w/300 f2.8LWhen you can't see through your glasses what do you do take them off and squint of course.
So I do my best to shoot long stuff for the first half unless the team I am covering gets near the end zone then I start shooting with the camera that has the 70-200 f2.8 on it. When the action is close the 300 is not a great lens and the shorter telephotos are better.
When I get into the second half I take off the 300mm and set things up differently. I put the 70-200 on the 7d and the 24-70 on the 5D MK3. This gives me more flexibility. So at the end of the game I can get all the sideline action as well as some decent on field action with the 70-200.
Canon 7D w/70-200 f2.8LMelrose's Christian Pizzotti just misses this pass at the end of the game as Dartmouth's Marley Dembitski attempts to break it up during Melrose's close loss to Dartmouth 14-7 in the MIAA Div. 3 Super Bowl Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014.
Canon 5D Mk3 w/24-70 f2.8LEnd of game reaction is so important. Getting the distraught player in the foreground and the excited players in the background are key.
Problems did arise as the cool cheap plastic cover I had does not allow for the camera straps uggh. Therefore a puddle was forming on the back of the camera. I noticed it in time and was able to wipe it off, thank god, or the 5D would have been toast. For the second half it worked out great as I did not use the camera straps. My other camera was a challenge as I grabbed a trash bag out of the press room and just covered it up until I needed it. I then poked a hole in the end and stuck the lens out. Yes I was pretty soaked but the LL Bean 3-1 worked great. I wound up with 13 images transmitted and another 18 images of the crowd transmitted as an online gallery.
Canon Rumored to Introduce New Mirrorless System - Really?
So that's the news floating around the internet. If Canon is not working on a full frame mirrorless system they are missing the boat. Pros are already using a Leica, Sony or Fuji for many of their jobs, why because they don't want to lug the big heavy DSLR's around any more. Try shooting a big job with a 1DX or 5D Mk3 w/battery grip times two. I shoot with a 5D M3 with grip and a 7D with grip and two monster lenses a 24-70 f2.8 L and a 70-200 f2.8 L the lenses and cameras are excellent, superb even. But lets face it they weigh a ton. I am a photojournalist and have started using my Leica M9 and a Sony Nex-7 with Leica lenses as an alternative - what a load off. I have even thought of buying a Sony/Zeiss 16-70 f4 (24-105, 35mm equivalent) and a Sony flash for most of what I do - again what a load off. What keeps me from that is that my main camera (the 5D Mk3) allows me to shoot in Auto ISO up to 12,500 with no loss in quality (for newspaper repro). I love it. My back doesn't.
The little EOS M was a start in the right direction but has major issues. Like no EVF and the new mount has few fast lenses and is not a full frame sensor. At one time I thought Canon was onto something with the G1X and I bought one right away. I loved the results from the camera but hated almost everything about it. No EVF, lousy macro, slow lens at the long end and on and on. The new version is much better with the optional EVF, close focus macro and much faster lens at the long end. See my blog post here on the first version and my complaints about it - which they fixed with the new one.
Canon G1X a user complainsThe Canon G1X taken with the Nikon V1 which allowed me to get close to it.
I sold this baby almost as fast as I got it. Nice results but lousy typical Powershot G series viewfinder and the lens was a 2.8 to 6.3, yikes. So that brings me to the point of this article. Canon, I hope you have thought this through! As a working pro I will be all over a system that does a number of things. The first is a full frame sensor which will enable it to shoot at high ISO's without sacrificing quality. The second is small and light weight. This is a key element. Third the EVF has got to be top notch no ghosting or lag. Basically everything that Sony now has with their A7 series cameras. I will need to be able to use an adapter for my Leica glass including my 21 Super Elmar. Of course Canon may not think that's a big deal but it is to me. Now for the biggie. New fast lenses for the smaller format camera. I can't jump completely into a system until I know I have lenses like my monster L series glass. Canon you better think about that one long and hard. Fast, small, light, glass at f2.8 or better. Using my giant lenses on a smaller body only makes sense for one lens my 300 f2.8 so I can shoot sports with it. So the adapter they sell better be able to handle fast autofocus. So as you can see this is a tall order for Canon and lets hope they come through because even though I own a Sony Nex-7 I really don't want to buy the Sony/Zeiss 16-70 and a Sony flash to do my job with. Why - because I'm a Canon guy!
The interesting and bizarre with the M9
I was out with a friend yesterday in Somerville having the sensor cleaned on the Sony Nex-7. There was a piece of crap on there I just could not get rid off myself. So in we went to have sensor cleaning done. While we were waiting we stopped in to a local pub/restaurant in Cambridge to have lunch. The sun was blazing in through one of the windows and the barkeep came over to lower the shade a bit to cut down on the glare. I had the M9 with the 35 Summicron with me so I grabbed a shot with the shadows and the interesting gargoyle thing above his head. I made the shot, then discovered there was this guy in the window trying to get the barkeeps attention. He was an interesting character and came into the pub to talk with the barkeep. He noticed my camera and struck up a conversation with my friend and I about it. Ya it was a weird day.
Shadows and Lines - exploring the designs they create
This afternoon the light was playing an interesting tune on the new fallen snow and my deck. This arrangement caught my eye and I made several images in different ways. The angled shadows of the deck railing newels and the actual newels themselves created an interesting abstract. The planter in front centers the image. The out of focus shadows in the foreground and background give the image depth. I used Silver Efex Pro2 to process the B&W. I tweaked it a bit in Lightroom after importing back in. Snow is a B&W photographers best friend as everything looks like a good image. Snow has always fascinated me photographically and this years Christmas card is one of those images that was really interesting. On the 25th of December it will appear here with my annual Christmas message. If it snowed in your area I encourage you to get out and explore with your camera.
Leica M9 w/90 Tele-Elmarit Vers.1
Exposure ISO 160 1/3000 @ f 2.8
The train yard and it's interesting lines
Yesterday was a beautiful day in Rockport, the sun was out and the air had a nice clean chill to it. I was headed to the hardware store which is next to the train yard so I thought I would bring the camera along. I had not used the Leica 21mm Super Elmar in a while so I put that on the M9 and headed out. The first thing I noticed were the brand new engines hauling the commuter trains. This was a revelation since I had not heard they had made an upgrade. These new engines have a modern look to them and had many new lines and angles to explore. I just shot a couple of them which are below. I am fascinated by the old crane that rots away in the yard right next to the trains and I know at some point I will spend some time with it before they decide to haul it away. I used a Tri-x grain and look to the crane photo which ads to the gritty old time feel. I made some images of it and one of them is presented here. The sky had plenty of clouds to exploit which I did using Silver Efex Pro when I processed the images. I explored for a short period of time with the wide angle but I did not have any other lenses with me so I had to pass up several opportunities. I have always loved the wide angle look but at times you really need something longer like the 50mm or the 90mm to separate out details that make great abstract images. Here are the images from the shoot.
The Beauty of Auto ISO with the Canon 5D Mk3
I was always a skeptic of auto ISO and never ever used it until recently. I was convinced that the camera was never going to be able to pick the right ISO without me setting it manually. Well I was wrong. These computers with lenses attached are really amazing and have changed how we use cameras forever. My thoughts on the matter come from being an old film guy and it was up to me to correctly set the camera ASA so the meter would give the correct exposure. The Canon 5D Mk3 will pretty much shoot in the dark which means I don't have to fiddle with the ISO to keep the grain under control. It's pretty amazing well past ISO 4000. So today while I was on an assignment I decided to use the camera on manual exposure and auto ISO. The ISO's the camera used were anywhere from 6400 to 2000 and as you will see the results are great. I like to shoot at between 1/200s and 1/160s to stop most medium movement while using the 24-70, so for static inside photojournalistic shots 1/160s @ f 2.8 works great. The amazing thing that the 5D Mk3 does is give you really great AWB as well. This really sets you up for concentrating on the moment and not worrying about anything but shooting. If you use program mode the camera will pick the wrong shutter speed at the worst time so I like to set everything manually except for ISO and WB. Here are some images from the shoot. I have converted them to B&W because I like the way they look for this type of subject. The first shot is a color image of the first image to show how good the AWB is. These shots were made with two bare lightbulbs at the very most in a very dark basement. Normally I would have shot with a Speedlight with a dome on it. It was in my pocket but I never pulled it out. I wanted to give the images the feel of working in the basement of a church rectory filling up Thanksgiving boxes and this did the trick.
Exposure ISO 4000 1/160s @ f2.8
Exposure ISO 4000 1/160s @ f2.8
Exposure ISO 2000 1/160s @ f2.8
Exposure ISO 6400 1/160s @ f3.2
Exposure ISO 4000 1/160s @ f2.8
Exposure ISO 4000 1/160s @ f3.2
Exposure ISO 2500 1/160s @ f3.2
The Sony Nex-7 and the Leica 90mm Tele-elmarit - always ready, even in traffic
I pass by this image every day and there is no place to park to make a shot. Bummer! But every once and a while the traffic stops at a stop light close by as was the case early last week. I had the Sony Nex-7 on the front seat with the Leica 90 attached and as luck would have it I stopped right across from this scene. The 135 focal length was still a bit short but worked out in the long run as it cropped in nicely. This bike is so old and cool I would love to do some closeups of parts of it but you can't park anywhere. I did some burning around the edges which I think helped it.
Sony Nex-7 w/Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit