Colors

S7, f1.7, 1/24, ISO 200, JPG

Tower Bridge

GXR, f6.3, 1/570, ISO 200, JPG, 50mm

Just some fun with the color modes of the GXR. It is great that Ricoh offers this much customization as it allows for some interesting effects, shame this is burried so deep into the menu system to be more usable.

Crushed

GF1, f2.8, 1/1300, ISO 320, JPG, 40mm

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.

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.

Waterlily

LC1, f2.4, 1/1250, ISO 100, JPG, 90mm

Took this while out for a walk in a park nearby today. I have darkened the blacks and added some vignetting to make the white waterlily stand out more.
I really like the LC1 and how it handles, for color work it is great. It is a shame that Panasonic has not released a LC2 and I can only hope they will release a LC2 based on m4/3 but only with the same fantastic 28-90mm f2.0-2.4 lens.

Under a Grey Sky

GRD II, f7.1, 1/640, ISO 200, RAW

Took this picture after work today. The weather was again not very good and it was pretty grey for most of the day.
I wanted to give the picture a very surreal feel, the sharp and soft areas merge together with very bright colors and the grey sky with dark corners from the vignetting. Not sure if I went slightly over the top with this but I do like the result.

Rays Through The Clouds

CX1, f6.2, 1/850, ISO 80, JPG, 200mm

I took this picture while having a drink in a pub near the heath. When I saw the rays coming through the clouds I thought it would make a very good picture. I really like the result but I had to use Photoshop to increase the contrast and brighten the shadows a bit.

Barriers

GRD, f3.2, 1/160, ISO 400, JPG

Got back from Dublin this morning. It was a dull and grey day so very boring for photography. I managed to take a few pictures during lunch and this one I liked in particular. When I walked past this I noticed the orange color in between all the grey and knew it would make a nice picture.

Pick Up

CX1, f6.2, 1/870, ISO 400, JPG, 200mm

I do not like Canary Wharf that much, it is too artificial and too busy during the week. Going out for lunch is not very nice since everywhere it's packed and quite expensive compared with the city. The nice thing however is taht there are always performances and other events during the summer months so you can get some entertainment while having lunch.

Sunday Afternoon Game

CX1, f4.5, 1/620, ISO 80, JPG, 74mm

Sometimes photography is 'only' about being in the right place at the right time and having a camera ready. This picture is one such an example. I am glad I had the CX1 with me and that it was ready to take the picture fast, only a split second later and the light was gone.
The CX1 captured the light and colors prefectly. This is taken in the normal mode and not using the DR mode, still the dynamic range is pretty good.
Still, looking at this picture I no doubt wish that the CX1 would offer a RAW mode or less processed JPGs, too much noise reduction is being appilied and Ricoh really needs to sort this out.

Under the Blue Bridge

CX1, f3.3, 1/8, ISO 800, JPG, 28mm

Maybe not my best picture with the CX1 but I did not have time to take too many pictures today. I do like it and especially the colors. There is too much noise reduction going on though so I hope Ricoh will release a firmware update that allows to turn the noise reduction off. It does look pretty good for a ISO 800 picture and it shows that the new multipattern AWB works very well.

Lines of Nature?

CX1, f6.9, 1/540, ISO 80, JPG, 85mm

I took the CX1 with me today. The first impressions are great, Ricoh always had a great interface but this has been improved even more here. The camera is very fast and I mean in every respect, especially the AF is now faster than on the GRD I. You can read more on my Ricoh GR-Diary News blog in the coming days.

I have edited this picture in Photoshop but will post some out of camera full size samples in the next few days, as soon as I get used to the camera more.

The Lonely Tree

GRD II, f5, 1/1150, ISO 100, RAW

Ok, probably every photographer has taken at least one picture of a lonely tree, I know I have taken a few. I took this today while walking in Greenwich park.

I posted about this very interesting post from Wouter before and want to post a few new questions here.
The top picture is my post-processed picture and it is how I like this to look but it did take qute a lot of processing work to get it to look like this as you can see from the unprocessed picture at the bottom.
Now, which picture do you prefer? Is the post-processed picture better or do you prefer the original? Does the post-processed picture change the reality in a bad way or is it still close enough to the original scene? How much post-processing should someone do and should we always make it clear that a picture is post-processed? What if you could achieve the same look in camera with scene modes, would it be a post-processed picture?
I find that sometimes I do quite a lot of post-processing to have the picture match my vision or even change my vision after playing around with the picture in post-processing, although I have always a pretty good idea of how it should look like.

I want to tell you also about another very interesting post that I forgot to mention before. Regular reader and fellow blogger Richard has posted a very interesting post about my WOOOW picture here. It's worth a read and I enjoyed reading about his feelings and view towards my picture.

Red Shoes

GRD, f5, 1/400, ISO 200, JPG

Took this while walking around Southbank today. I found it strange that someone just seemed to have left the shoes on the bench like that. What drew me was more that the shoes were red and had a nice contrast to the grey around them.
I did add more contrast and vignetting to the image to get it more to how I saw the picture in my mind. This also brings me to a very interesting post and discussion on Wouter's blog, how much post processing should one do? I have posted a similar question before but find it still an interesting question.

Lost & Forgotten

GRD, f2.4, 1/50, ISO 64, RAW

I took it easy today and just went for a walk in the nearby woods. I am really not very good at taking pictures of nature. I am more of a street and industrial photographer.
I did take a few pictures and quite liked a few but this I think works best. After a long time I even decided to use the RAW mode of the GRD I but it is not really worth the effort or wait, the JPG would have been as good.

Ms Incredible

GRD, f5, 1/500, ISO 64, JPG

Ok, this is a cheesy color cut-out picture but I think it looks better this way and at least it's different if nothing else ;).
Took this today while going out for lunch and I only got the shot because the GRD I was on and is very fast to focus and take a picture.

Overgrown

GRD, f4.5, 1/320, ISO 64, JPG

After the last two days of covering protests I needed some quiet and decided to take a walk through Greenwich Park on my way home and relax there.
Took this picture while walking towards the park.

Pink in Green

GRD, f2.4, 1/70, ISO 200, JPG

After the recent sun we had a rainshower today. I saw this while walking past a hedge and it caught my attention. The pink in the green looked quite cool and I liked the small petal in the big leaf. Made some adjustments to the contrast and added vignetting to make the colors stand out more.

On another note, there will be another official Ricohforum meet-up soon but I thought in the meantime if there is interest we could have another unofficial meet-up. On Saturday 4th April, we could meet at Camera Cafe around 12 since it is very central and move on to take some pictures.
If you are in or near London and are interested to meet up on that date let me know.
If you don't have a Ricoh camera but are interested in Ricoh cameras or just want to meetup you are welcome to join.

Staring At Me

GRD II, f2.8, 1/160, ISO 80, RAW, 40mm

After work I decided to take a walk and take some pictures on my way. I saw this cat and decied to take a few pictures of it. Turned out I took some of my most successfull pet pictures in the process. I am usually not very good at taking pictures, mostly due to me using wideangle lenses and having to get very close but also due to lack of interest on my part.
I used the GRD II with the 40mm lens since it is better at low ISO and color pictures than the GRD I.