New beginnings

Unfortunately I've broken my rule and missed a few weeks of this blog. I have been taking plenty of photos however, including the wedding of a friend's son, so Blog writing time has been at a premium.

So I'm back again with a new beginning, in more ways than one.

Many years ago my first film SLR was the diminutive Pentax MX. It was Pentax's answer to the Olympus OM1. I didn't like the ergonomics of the OM1, which had a shutter ring around the lens mount so forcing the aperture ring further out down the lens barrel. This gave rise to two disadvantages: the aperture ring was in a different position depending on the size of each lens, and the set aperture could not be viewed in the viewfinder, as it could be on the Pentax, via a small window in the prism covering. The Pentax also showed the set shutter speed in the viewfinder so, to me, was the better designed of the two.

What both cameras shared was small size and weight, especially compared to the Canon and Nikon offerings at the time. To me size and weight matter for two reasons: I am more likely to carry and use a camera if it and a few lenses don't require weight training sessions to carry about with ease; and smaller cameras and lenses are less obtrusive and attract less attention when trying to shoot candids. Indeed I would be a rangefinder man if it were not for the fact that rangefinders are useless for macros and telephotos, which are essential for nature and wildlife photography.

But gradually, with the addition of autofocus and motordrives and battery requirements film SLRs started getting bigger. Then when Digital SLRs came out even bigger batteries were needed so it was even harder to design small DSLRs. But if anyone was going to do it it was Olympus who opted for a slightly smaller sensor. This size advantage did not initially appear as they started the E series with a professional grade body (E1) and professional grade lenses. All these, whilst smaller than other manufacturer equivalent offerings, were still fairly bulky for my requirements. Gradually they have started filling the system out with smaller cameras and lenses. Immediately Olympus announced the new E420 a few months ago, coupled with a 25mm pancake lens, I knew it was the camera for me.

So I bought one, and it really is small and light. So I now have another rule, apart from doing this blog once a week, and that is to carry the camera with me all the time. That should open up some opportunities that would be missed otherwise. Watch this (blog) space!

After a couple of days getting familiar with the new camera I decided to put my my 50mm macro lens on it and go out into my garden to see what was around. Unfortunately the buddleias are not in flower yet so there were no butterflies around and I had to be content with getting in close to a few flowers.

This water lily is the first to bloom in the pond this year. To get a close in shot I had to hold the camera out in one hand and used the 'point and shoot' technique of Live View on the rear LCD:-



This small rockery flower looks quite insignificant in real life but when you get in close it really glows and seems to float above the foliage:-



My favourite of the session is this chive flower, which sits on top of the straight chive stem and just seems to explode into life:-