I mentioned in an earlier post, that while recuperating from foot surgery I was spending quite a bit of time on YouTube. One of the things I was interested in were mirrorless cameras. As a Canon shooter I had high hopes for their release of a mirrorless. Reviews were not good, and kept bringing me back to Sony, Fuji, and Panasonic. As it seems Canon and Nikon topped the DSLR world, the others were for mirrorless. But much of what I read and saw was puzzling me. Photographers were not simply adding mirrorless, but switching. I mean completely! As in selling all their DSLR equipment and going totally mirrorless. I just can’t wrap my head around this.

About 20 years ago I lost all my photography equipment in a car fire. Everyone was fine, but the vehicle all its contents, including my equipment, were a total loss. It took me a lot of years to build it back up again; even to start the process, but that is for another post. I don’t know if this is part of why I feel the way I do. But I just couldn’t make a total switch.

Sean Tucker, a YouTube photographer, talks about the day he took all his equipment to be apprised with plans to move over to mirrorless. Now, looking at the cost of the system he was moving too, you are looking at a pretty penny. If I look back at the me before the fire, I would get this, one or the other. I guess I am in a different place now. I have a Canon 5D Mark III. I have worked through different models of Canon cameras to get here, and I just love this one. I have no desire to move up, as to me it is just more bells and whistles. I want my camera to take beautiful pictures, it doesn’t have to have WiFi, a touch screen, or any other fancy gizmos.

Panasonic LUMIX GX85, with 12-32mm and 45-150mm lenses.*

If you go on YouTube and do a search on switching to mirrorless, you will see many ( I have linked some below). People who actually sold all their gear and switched! Then I ran across the Panasonic LUMIX line. I thought about why I wanted mirrorless. It wasn’t in order to switch, but to enhance. Lately I have found myself opting to leave my camera behind. It is just too much of a hassle to take it. Too heavy, too cumbersome, and mostly too obvious. I am not replacing my workhorse. I am enabling myself to keep shooting. A mirrorless can literally fit in your coat pocket.

My Canon camera bag in the back, my LUMIX camera bag in the front.*

As someone who doesn’t care about all the latest bells and whistles, I looked for the best older model mirrorless systems. When B&H had a half off sale on the LUMIX GX85, with 12-32mm and 45-150mm lenses, battery, and included a memory card, camera bag, and UV filter, it was a no-brainer. I can now have the best of both worlds.

Now learning a whole new system, I am struggling a little. The LUMIX has some fantastic functions I hadn’t even heard about. Post focus and 4K photography to name a few. But for me, the ability to have it with me wherever I go, is well worth the time spent learning all it can do.

Some YouTube videos by photographers switching to mirrorless –
Sean Tucker moved from Canon and Fujifilm to Sony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI656MIUCsg&feature=youtu.be
Jason Lanier switched from Nikon to Sony https://youtu.be/7wM_5nROeaw
James Popsys switched from  Nikon to Panasonic LUMIX  https://youtu.be/pp3rlNzHGyw
Ian Smissen switched to Panasonic from Pentax https://youtu.be/X45GdX_tkyU
Christophe Van Biesen switching to Fujifilm from Canon https://youtu.be/wHlCHNFp2fo

*Note – While recuperating from surgery, I am using my Galaxy 6 cellphone for posts.

Downtown Dayton, OH

You are asked to do a photo shoot in a particular environment, and you haven’t a clue where to find the right place. This is where scouting comes in. You should be scouting locations wherever you go.

My youngest daughter and I love to go on ‘rambles’. We just pack up our cameras, pick a direction, and go. Sometimes we might have an idea of a destination; often we don’t. What we are doing is finding places we might use in the future and filing them away.

The opportunity to capture something doesn’t have to be with photography in mind either. A while back I was downtown for a meeting. I passed this wall and thought how much character it had. I took a quick picture with my cellphone and filed it away labeling its location. At some point if someone asks about an old wall, I will have this.

Always have that photographers’ eye. Wherever you go use it as a scouting opportunity. You never know when it will come in handy.

I thought I might devote today’s blog to getting to know me now. One of the biggest reasons for starting this new blog can be found under Hacks in the navigation menu. A few years back I started to develop pain in my left foot. As the bulk of my photography was event and travel, this became more and more of an issue. I did my last event at Christmas 2018, and the only travel was a trip to Florida in February, and Buffalo NY in March. So, time to get the foot fixed.

But what to do now? Fortunately, my business also includes graphic/web design which I can continue to do. But I have a camera, and a desire to shoot. I can’t get out much. I have enjoyed macro photography in the past, as well as setting up indoor shoots. Things like memorabilia – weddings, first baby, family heirlooms etc. This can be great fun, but it is hard to get it all set up on one foot. I decided to use this time to learn. I have a variety of courses through National Geographic, so I started re-watching them. In doing that I realized again how far and fast technology is changing.

So, here is one of my pet peeves, companies moving to the cloud, and not supporting older software. I started with Adobe Creative Suite 3 in 2007. I took courses, watched videos, and got pretty proficient at Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I used Camera Raw and Bridge and was very happy with it, and still work with CS5/6 today. I have a network in my house, so managing my photos was an easy thing. Then Lightroom came about. I resisted for quite a while, but finally got a free copy of Lightroom 5 with a camera purchase. I still hate the way the libraries work, having to import everything, but it is a great editor. I now have Lightroom 6, and refuse to move to CC. I have Luminar and On1 as well, so eventually I will get away from Lightroom.

You might ask why I refuse to move to Lightroom CC. I will not do anything that relies on the Cloud. For some it is a perfect solution. For me it is a personal preference. It is just not conducive with the way I work, and the setup I have. During the next few weeks of recovery I will be learning more about Luminar and On1, playing with photos I have already taken. Don’t we all have some folders of photos we took and never processed? I know I do 😊

As a photographer you can NEVER stop learning. This is true in a lot of professions. You would never want your surgeon to hold onto techniques from the dark ages as medical science keeps moving forward. Now I’m no doctor, but I do want to be the best at my craft that I can be. So here are a few thoughts to ponder:

  • Try new things – don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone.
    Street photography has never been my thing, but I went to NYC with my cousins and tried. Still not my thing, but it taught me to appreciate how hard it is.
  • Ask for Constructive Criticism – and take it with grace and gratitude. 
    Do not take offense – learn from it. It is never easy to hear criticism of your work. Remember you can only get better with the input given.
  • Put your ego away – there is nothing worse than a photographer snob.
    And I have known some doozies! You will look at their work and wonder how can they not see what you (and everyone else) sees? 
  • Learn editing restraint. When using sliders to edit, pick your number, and then back off a little.
    There is nothing worse than over-saturation or clarity! Other photographers know the tricks, so don’t try to say you didn’t, when we can obviously see you did.
  • Remember, Art is subjective. What one person loves, another may not –
    When you ask for constructive criticism you may get some critiques you don’t agree with, or they might be totally wrong. Even the best of photographers might not see your concept (refer back to bullet #two).
Try new things. Playing with new toys.
When I was no longer able to be on my feet for long periods of time. I turned my camera towards the things around me. Macro photography can be a lot of fun!

Many years ago I had a wonderful photography instructor. We were learning darkroom techniques to alter a photograph. As he put it, take it from a photograph to a piece of art. He then went on to tell us that too many artists take life too seriously. So as photographers we need to keep the humor in our art. At the time I just filed that away. But obviously it struck a cord, as it stuck with me. I bring this up because I found someone on YouTube I am totally enjoying. He is a photographer, and very entertaining. His videos can be educational, and he does share his techniques. But what I enjoy the most is he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

James Popsys is definitely worth checking out. He just released his first book, and my husband ordered it for me. Now some may say it isn’t that great. It is not printed on the best paper, and as such it doesn’t do his photography justice. But having followed his adventures, I get it. He is still building his business, and cost is a big part of that. If he had gone with a more expensive paper, he would have had to charge more, he may not have been able to make the book at all. Then I wouldn’t have it, and that would be a real shame. Also, because I follow him, I have seen most of the photos on his YouTube channel, website, or Instagram. I know how and where, and saw him taking many of them. I will treasure this book for the joy it has given me. But also the giggles I had sharing it with my daughter 🙂