The missus n’me have been layin’ low since March, and I haven’t really done any shooting away from the house.
This time has given me an opportunity to go back, review, and reflect on the last 16 years or so of my obsession with photography.
I recently passed the 7,000 mark for images posted on Flickr. I’ve had that account since August 2004.
I fiddled ’round a bit with their search tool to help organize a few fave shots by color.
It was a fun little exercise, and brought back lots of memories. I’ll be posting these on the first of each month.
Here’s the color blue, first in a series.
A Gerber Daisy macro, backyard shot. Made with a new shutterbox in my collection, the very cool Olympus Stylus XZ-2.
The garden’s looking good, hopefully it’ll be a cooler June than last year.
I joined in on a photo stroll with a new club I learned about a few months back.
The Round Rock Image Creators had their first walk yesterday in Georgetown. Yup. Right smack dab in the middle of the town’s annual Poppy Festival.
A short drive from our house, I got there about 8 a.m. to make sure I could park near Town Square. Good strategy.
I slowly made my way to the neighborhood just north of all the festival activities, shooting my Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 with the Thingyfy Pinhole Pro S11 attached.
Today is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. I wanted to make sure I had a few shots in the can if I don’t get a chance to get out.
After about 45 minutes of walking around I headed back to the Escape to switch cameras for the stroll. I also brought the Panny GX8 with the ƒ2.8/12-40 Pro.
Anyway, a small group of folks from the club met at the north steps of the courthouse and proceeded to walk pretty much the same route I had earlier, but this time around the streets were abuzz with people and vehicles lined up for the Festival’s parade.
Naturally, I lost the RRIC group somewhere along the line.
That made for lots of good shooting. And, naturally, I lost the RRIC group somewhere along the line.
Perfect timing, just like when I organized a stroll around the Day of the Dead parade in Austin back in November of 2011. Shooting in the staging area makes for a lot of up-close and unscripted moments.
I got to meet Chet Garner of Daytripper fame – one of my fave PBS shows here in Central Texas.
I didn’t stay for much longer and was able to get out of Georgetown without any problems, traffic-wise.
Torri and me have been adding a lot of color to the backyard this Spring, so it made sense that a majority of my shots for ‘Roid Week would end up being botanical in nature.
I even managed to get in a few shots from one of the local nurseries we visited.
I’ve gotta’ use up some of the Fuji peel-apart film in my stash next time around.
Here are my 12 contributions for ‘Roid Week Spring 2019, April 21-26…
Happy Spring!
The color activity in the raised beds is heatin’ up! The ranunculus tubers are the latest to reveal their beauty, starting with this gorgeous red flower.
In Texas, Spring goes by incredibly fast, but it’ll be awesome to work in the yards again.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 is one of the smaller cameras in my collection, but its size doesn’t mean it’s a slouch.
A cool little shooter, I’ve been using the LX5 since April 2011.
It has a Leica Vario-Summicron lens, ƒ2.0, a max shutter speed of 1/4000 second, with 24-90mm zoom. At 10 megapixels, and an ISO range of 80-12800, the camera does well in low light.
The camera has a rubber grip on the right-hand side, with just enough of a presence to make holding the LX5 easy and comfortable. Looks nice, too.
At the top of the lens barrel there’s an aspect selector for 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, and 16:9. On the side of the lens barrel is a switch for auto, macro and manual focus.
The zoom is a lever incorporated into the shutter, with the camera mode dial slightly behind and to the left. There’s a small chrome switch for powering on-off far right on the top of the LX5.
I’m a big fan of the Panny menu system. It’s clean, simple, and easy to use.
The rear display is a roomy 2″ x 3″, but I added the external DMW-LVF1 viewfinder and, even though the LVF1 display is smallish, it works nicely. I especially like that it can be flipped up for low-angle shots. Along with a diopter adjustment, there’s a small, yet convenient button located on the side of the LVF1 for manually switching between the rear display and the external viewfinder.
The control ring and function buttons on the back of the camera are arranged neatly on the right side of the body. There’s a thumb wheel just above them. Handy for changing aperture size and exposure compensation with a simple press or rotate.
The LX5 has a pop-up flash, activated by a small switch, on the left side of the top of the body.
I’m a big fan of the Panny menu system. It’s clean, simple, and easy to use.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 is a nice, tight little package that’s a joy to use.
A few samples.
I had a great time today participating in a PhotowalksGTX adventure at Pioneer Farms in North Austin. David Valdez lead the Georgetown crew and for as hot as it was, we were 10 strong for this outing. There were even a few folks from the PhotowalksATX crowd in attendance.
Pioneer Farms is really pretty cool. There are six themed historic areas open to self-guided walking tours and in between the heat of the morning sun we were able to take momentary and inspirational refuge in historical buildings and shady wooded areas along the trail that cuts through some 90 acres. A lot of good picture making!
We shared the trail with other groups, young families, and a few older folk, as well.
I got to see a Longhorn up close today, another Texas first. 8^)
There was so much to see and photograph and conversation is always easy with folks interested in photography. I enjoyed this particular photowalk quite a bit.
A hat-tip to David for having a cooler filled with ice-cold bottled water waiting for us at the end of the walk. Quite refreshing and oh so welcome!
From around 10 years ago, found while sifting through the archives.
I don’t always see the good in an image ’til later. In this case, much later.
I love how the eye is lead from bottom to top, in a clockwise semi-circle, with the last flower barely visible in the blown-out background.
It’s like the little blossoms are lining up for take off.
Shot with an iPhone 4S. The image quality beats the hell out of the first digital cameras I owned. Technology is really something amazing.
Russ Morris. Slightly Obsessed With Photography since 1964. 