Late Night Final

GRD, f9, 1/1250, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Took this picture after work today. On a Friday evening when the sun is out Canary Wharf goes mad, there are people everywhere stadning outside, drinking and talking. The reflections and shadows make picture taking really nice but the ammount of people make it quite difficult to get the desired composition at times.
If you wonder why I took this picture at ISO 400 in bright sun, it is because I like the noise/grain I get from the GRD at this ISO. Clean and noisefree pictures always look digital to me and don't have enough character.

Untitled

GRD, f2.4, 1/100, ISO 64, JPG b&w

Took this picture on my way home. I wanted to get some motion blur and have added some noise to it.
I could not think of any title so decided to use 'Untitled' again.

Ricoh CX1 Full Review - Part 1

Most of the time when a manufacturer releases an upgrade to their cameras it is to only add one more MP and maybe some additional scene modes or blink/smile detection 'features'. Ricoh has never been a manufaturer to follow this and has been consistently improving their cameras by adding useful features and taking in user feedback.
Their latest release is the Ricoh CX1 and the changes and improvements from it's predecessor, the Ricoh R10, are so big that Ricoh has decided to change the name.
This review will focus on the main new features of the CX1 and will also look at other improvements and changes from the R10. I will not go into detail of every single option in the menu so if you want to see the manual or read all the specs you can find it all on the Ricoh website.

Green & Grey

GRD II, f7.1, 1/100, ISO 100, RAW

The weather has been again typical for the British summer we have here, grey and rainy for most of the day. I did not take many pictures and only took a handfull on my way home.
I wanted to give this picture a slight depressing and surreal feel to it. I have added vignetting, used fill light at 100%, added some noise and changes the contrast slightly. The result is what I had in mind although at first I wanted to have it in b&w.

Going Up

GRD II, f3.5, 1/540, ISO 100, JPG text

I think the Text mode in Ricoh cameras is pretty unique and very cool but not utilized enough. Maybe it is because people don't quite know what to do with it. It is not an easy mode to use for general photography so I will try to post some pictures taken with it and see what works and what doesn't. Then maybe have a whole Text mode week soon.

Talking Past Each Other

GRD II, f6.3, 1/500, ISO 80, RAW

Today, Ricoh has announced the GRD III. It has some pretty impressive specs and makes a great camera for street photography. The main standout features are the fast f1.9 lens, the user configurable Snap focus, the full-press Snap AF option, the improved 10MP 1/1.7" CCD sensor, the impressive 3" VGA LCD and a lot more. Head over here to read more about it and see some pictures.

I took this picture with the GRD II using the Snap mode and only slightly cropped it.

By the Pond

GRD II, f5, 1/320, ISO 200, RAW

The weather has been pretty bad today and it has been grey and raiing the whole day. Not great for walking around and taking pictures so I only took a handfull of pictures.

Hastings Outing

The LPMG had organized a trip to Hastings today. The weather was great although the light was pretty harsh for taking pictures. This was not a big problem for me because I like my high contrast images and even chose to overexpose some pictures.
The best place in Hatings to take pictures was not the (disapointing) caste remains but the shipyard with old ships, rusty tractors and other interesting and old things.
I have decided to post a series today but have some more pictures in my Dropbox gallery here.

Street Crossing #2

GRD, f4.5, 1/400, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Took this picture on my way home. On rainy days it is good to have the GRD I with me, the high contrast b&w mode is really good for this kind of light. I tried to frame the girl by using the different lines in the picture, it was a shot from the hip while crossing the street and I had to crop it slightly to get to the 2:3 format.

Mastermind

GRD II, f2.4, 1/750, ISO 80, RAW 2:3

Took this picture after work. I liked how the guy was strolling along with his hands behind her back. I added some vignetting and increased the contrast.

Ice Cream

GRD II, f2.4, 1/680, ISO 80, RAW

After the rain of the last days we had a bit of sunshine today. On my way home I took a few pictures around Greenwich park.

Don't Do This!

GRD, f2.4, 1/750, ISO 400, JPG b&w

I just like the noise of the GRD I pictures when shooting in b&w, this is something I have not seen from any other camera and one of the main reasons why I still use my GRD I. Unfortunately I doubt there will be any other camera which can give a similar quality to the b&w images.
The images from the GRD I at ISO 400 look great if exposed correctly, even at 200% magnification they still remain nice and crisp without any smudging or artifacts visible.

Touch the Screen

GRD, f5.6, 1/400, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Did not have much time for photography but managed to take a few pictures during lunch today. This is the one I like most.

iPhone Diary - Day 7

This is the last day of the iPhone week and I can conclude the following. As a camera the iPhone is probably at the bottom end of all current phones, as a phone is fares even worse, asa music player it suffers from the horrid iTunes and Apple restrictions but as a gadget, internet device, gaming platform and lifestyle device (plan your train/tube/bus jouneys, find restaurants etc.) it is fantastic and the best you can currently get. So overall it is through the great interface but better third party software that this is such a great device. I can fully recommend it if you want a MID but not if you are looking to buy a phone.

I edited today's picture with the free Polarize app.

Ricoh CX1 - Multi Target AF

Other than the DR mode, the CX1 has a few other unique and interesting features. In this last part I will look closer at the 'Multi Target AF'.

iPhone Diary - Day 6

Taking pictures with the iphone is fun but the biggest problem is not the slippery surface, the shutter and AF lag and it is also not the pretty poor image quality. The biggest problem for me is to use a camera without EV compensation, I don't need full manual controls most of the time, A or P mode with EV compensation gives me everything I need. Not having it is quite a problem here.
I also gave up updating the blog using the iPhone, it is nice and does work but I can't rename my pictures and due to the lack of a Blogger application it is more hassle to update everything.
Today's picture has been edited on the iPhone using the new 'Lomograph' filter from the PhotoBox application.

Ricoh CX1 - DR Mode

One of the main standout features of the Ricoh CX1 is the DR Mode. Small sensors have two major shortcomings when compared with larger sensors found in dSLRs. The first is the noise, which is often smeared away by the in-camera noise reduction, the second is the limited dynamic range, this is more difficult to hide or fix in-camera.

iPhone Diary - Day 5

I tried a different processing with this picture to make it look a bit surreal and bosted the saturation.

iPhone Diary - Day 4

Before going out in the evening I already had my picture for the day but then it started raining and I took this picture. I really like it and after processing it slightly to make it look older it looks very good. This to me proves that having a camera with you at all times is the most important thing, no matter what the quality of the camera is.

iPhone Diary - Day 3

Took this picture on my way home, this time it's not edited at all but as it came from the 'camera'.
I have also tried the email posting through Blogger, uploading pictures works great but it does not yet pick up the text.

iPhone Diary - Day 2

I still haven't figured out how to upload photos directly from the iPhone. There is a free app for Wordpress but none for Blogger.
I have edited today's picture with the PhotoBox app on the iPhone, it is not quite as convenient to use as Mill Color but does not resize the images. The post is written and published on the iPhone though.
Other than the Lomo and Holga look and feel, I wanted the picture to look a bit like from the 70s with the same colors.

iPhone Diary - Day 1

I have done it, I have joined the dark side, the evil fruit empire called Apple has managed to lure me into buying one of their (overpriced) products. About a week ago I decided to buy the new iPhone 3GS and so far it is the worst phone I have ever owned and probably ever will own. The battery life is pathetic, the reception is prety poor (mostly thanks to O2 for that), the shape is horrible and it is more slippery than a thin bar of soap and it is ridiculously overpriced thanks to the monopoly Apple has created wth the providers (where are the EU watchdogs if you need them?).
BUT and a big but here, if you are looking for more than a phone this is where the iPhone realy comes into it's own. Apple has tried hard to lock it down as much as possible and has ignored features every manufacturer had in their devices for years now but after 3 years Apple has finally managed to release the best iPhone yet. As bad as it is as a phone it is the best MID (Mobile Internet Device or beter Multimedia & Internet Device) out there at the moment. The interface is great, the apps are plenty and some are extremely usefull or just entertaining. Everything just works great in this respect, especially if you defy Apple and jailbreak it. This is the reason why I bought one and if you are looking for an MID and don't care much about making calls you should seriously consider this as there is not much that comes close.

This should not become a iPhone review however but more the start of an iPhone week. Don't get me wrong, I would not suggest for a minute that the "camera" in any phone is a real camera. Instead I will treat it as a Lomo camera and try to just have fun with it without considering technicalities or the final technical quality.
It seems that recently any self respecting photographer needs to take some pictures with a phone camera ;).

So for this week I will try to use the iPhone as a real MID and take, edit and hopefully post everything from the phone.
Today's post is written on my laptop but the picture has been taken with the iPhone camera and edited using the free Mill Color software on the iPhone.

Bee

GRD II, f5, 1/320, ISO 80, RAW

After the people portraits yesterday, I went out to take some nature and macro shots today. I think I could call this shot an environmental portrait of a bee ;). The GRD II works well for macro but I do miss the CX1 for these kind of shots, it was so convenient to have the zoom and the quality was very good.

Environmental Portrait

I chose to post a series for two reasons today. First I have been at an 'Environmental Portrait' workshop and took these pictures for the assignment there although I did not submitt any of these for critique afterwards but chose a different one. The second reason is because it is a series from the London Bridge festival.
All pictures have been taken with the Panasonic LC1 and have only been converted to b&w or sepia.

Guy in White

GRD, f5.6, 1/500, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Took this picture after work on my way to the cinema. I saw this guy from further away and knew it would make a great picture. I did take a few pictures around but this is the best, unfortunately I did not realize the people in the background walking into the picture. They are not too distracting but I think without them it would have been much better. I should have waited loger and retake the picture.

The Readers

GRD, f4, 1/250, ISO 400, JPG b&w

July's Ricohforum competition is about Readers/Reading. While waiting at London Bridge I decided to try and take a few pictres who fit that theme. This is the one I like most although I will not submit it for the competition, I have a different picture for this.

Smile!

GRD II, f2.4, 1/80, ISO 100, RAW

Another gray and rainy day in London without many pictures taken, I need to find a weekly project to work on.
I took this picture on my way home near the Greenwich Observatory, I find itreally cool that she is actually smiling in my direction instead of looking at the guy with the big dSLR taking a picture of her. I cropped the picture a bit tighter to get a closer composition on this.

Sandmountain

GRD II, f5, 1/500, ISO 80, RAW

The weather has been grey and rainy all day so I have not been taking many pictures and have been a bit uninspired. On my way home I saw this though and found it would make a nice picture due to the colors and contrast between the sand and sky. I added strong vignetting and used a very high contrast for this to give it an almost HDR look.

Somewhere Under the Rainbow

GRD II, f5, 1/320, ISO 80, RAW

After the heatwave we had in the last days we got the rain back today. The good thing about the rain today was that it created some dramatic clouds and shadows. On my way home I even saw two rainbows over Blackheath. It looked fantastic and while I was glad to have my GRD II with me, the CX1 would have been better due to the longer zoom for this since there were some nice detail shots I could have taken. I was split between two pictures for today, this one and one of both rainbows but somehow this just worked better.
I quite miss the CX1 and am thinking of buying one or the CX2 when it comes out to have in my bag just in case.

Race for Life 09 in Blackheath

This is a early blog update for me but after getting back from the 'Race for Life' event in Blackheath I think I found the 5 pictures I want to use for today.
I decided to use the Panasonic LC1, it has the zoom and color pictures are just great from it. I am highly impressed with the quality from the LC1, it has a fantastic lens but more than that, the sensor is very good. I believe 2/3" (or slightly bigger) and 6-8MP is the best size for a compact digital camera, it gives enough dynamic rage, very nice colors and does not have too much noise.

Pride London 2009

As it happened last year, I was just on my way into town to get a coffee at Camera Cafe and take some pictures in town. Once I got out of the station I saw people dressed up and heard music in Trafalgar Square, it was the Pride again. This meant my coffee had to wait so I set out again to try and capture the event. Overall my pictures were not as good as last year or as usual from events but these are the five I like best. All were taken with the GRD at ISO 100 and 200.

Wings of a Butterfly

GRD, f4.5, 1/320, ISO 400, JPG sepia

Took this picture on my way home today. I like walking through parks on my way home, it is always relaxing and you get sometimes unexpected pictures. For this kind of picture a camera like the CX1 or GX200 would be better but the butterfly way still long enough for me to get close with the GRD.

Emergency

GRD, f3.2, 1/160, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Todays picture does not quite work as I had hoped but I still quite like it. I tried to crate some blur to give a sense of urgency and chaos while trying to keep the text sharp. It did almost work out but it's not quite as good as I thought.

Flower Macro

GRD, f3.2, 1/160, ISO 64, JPG

After all the b&w and sepia pictures recently I thought a bit of color would be nice. I did not take a lot of pictures but took this while out for a quick walk in the park today.