Diamond in the Rough

My wife has been experimenting with arranging flowers and wildflowers picked from our garden, definitely a boon for my photography. Late afternoon light was streaming in from a nearby window and made for a very nice natural still life. I was shooting with the Olympus E-330 digital camera, a teenaged four thirds camera. The 25 mm f/2.8 pancake lens was attached. After doing a little internet research, I learned that the E-330 sports the same sensor as the Leica Digilux 3 and the Panasonic Lumix L1. The older Olympus cameras sure do produce pleasant images. Poor man’s Leica? Only you can decide, but for $75, it’s fun to discover for oneself.

And May the 4th be with you!

Warts and All

In a few days, I'll be completely used to it, but for now, the difference in light quality due to the recent time change is very apparent to me. There is enough light to take photographs into the early evening hours, and I like that. Another thing that I am in the process of getting used to is the digital noise apparent in dusky photographs, especially those made with older cameras with smaller sensors. I've learned to embrace the grain and other imperfections in film photographs because I know that if I want perfect fidelity I can just reach for my fancy digital camera and boom, it is done. In a similar vein, I have been revisiting the look of images made with older digital cameras. The digital noise in those files doesn't bother me so much any more; in fact, I'm inclined to let it remain visible or even enhance it a little. Once we are confident of our ability to achieve a certain level of technical perfection, does that free us up to explore the aesthetic properties of older, imperfect technology? 

Tasting notes: Olympus E-500 digital camera (CCD sensor), Olympus 35 mm f/3.5 macro lens, ISO 200.

Long Live Ded Tech

To me, one of the defining characteristics of photography is that its practice is so intertwined with technology. Indeed, there is a well-respected history of photography textbook that uses innovations in technology as one of its main organizational principles. I think this relationship has much to do with why many photographers, myself included, collect cameras in some manner, and why we like to play around with old cameras from time to time. For example, today's image was made with about a hundred dollars worth of 'dead' technology. Dead this, dead that, cringe. Anyway, in this case, it is a teenaged Olympus E-500 digicam with a 35mm f/3.5 Olympus 4/3 macro lens mounted. Now, that is a combo you won't see very often on your Instagram feed.

Tasting notes: Olympus E-500, 35mm Macro, Photoshop.