Scattered Thoughts . . .

As I suspected when my health crashed last night prompting the need for emergency medications, today was pretty much a down day.  I was groggy from the medications and lacking energy so I laid low all morning and napped all afternoon after lunch.   Just before making lunch, however, I grabbed my infrared camera and headed into the backyard.  I've been waiting for some leaves to grow on the foliage so I can really test my old camera that I recently had converted to capturing infrared light only.  Green foliage (well, really chlorophyll) really lights up and glows in infrared light so green leaves glow brightly against blackened blue skies in monochrome infrared photography.  Although the leaves are not fully grown just yet, there is enough small young leaf growth on the trees and shrubs to see how this old camera captures infrared light today. These first two photos show sunlight catching just a few leaves on a branch that are in a small bit of sunlight.  Just a little bit of sunlig

T here is no doubt that I am liking my newly converted infrared camera.  Well, I'm liking the images it produces.  I have always liked this type of black and white photography for its deep shadows, bright foliage, beautiful tonal qualities and remarkable clarity.   Before actually having one of my cameras converted to infrared, I didn't realize how affordable it can be to convert a camera to record only in infrared wavelengths.  Considering the low cost and the beautiful monochrome images this creates, I am very happy with my decision to have one of my camera bodies converted to record only in infrared wavelengths. As much as I am happy with my decision to have one of my old camera bodies converted to infrared, I am now finding that the old camera I had converted to infrared seems to be having some age-related problems as well as some service-related problems neither of which makes me all too happy.   Because of the latest and curious problem that I recently noticed developing

W e are in the midst of a bit of a snowstorm here at the moment so, while I wait for the storm to subside a bit before heading out to remove snow from our roof, I dug out some additional Panasonic G3 color photos that I shot while at the lake house back in 2015.   I enjoy getting out on a kayak and shooting wildlife photos.  While at the lake, these photos were mostly of loons.  I also have some nice duck photos and some Bald Eagle photos.  The Bald Eagle photos were shot with my Sony cameras though so they are not included here.  The past few blog entries have been solely about my little old Panasonic G3 so I've only included photos that I shot using that camera. The first two photos here were shot at dusk.  This old camera struggled a bit once the light dropped off to lower levels.  What I like about this first photo is you can actually make out the iridescent blue band on the loon's neck.  This loon was looking for fish to eat and I captured this photo just as he took his he

T oday I went digging into old hard drives searching for some old photos from the camera that I just sent in to be converted to Monochrome Infrared.  The camera I am having converted to monochrome is my old Panasonic Lumix G3.  I won't be able to shoot color photos with this camera anymore so I figured I should dig out some old color photos that I shot using this camera as a reminder of its colorful days.  Truth be told, I never really shot a whole lot of photos using this camera.  For a relatively short one or two summers, however, it was my main camera for wildlife photography while at the lake house due to its slightly larger crop factor (2x) which provided me with a longer zoom.  I have captured quite a few really nice images of loons, ducks, and nature but each of those images always needed a lot of post-processing work.  This camera was replaced as my primary wildlife photography camera when I purchased my first Sony camera.  Those Sony cameras produce so much nicer results a

Back a few months ago, I picked up an older used camera to use for my long telephoto needs. The camera was dirt cheap so I figured it was worth taking a chance in the hope that I could improve my long telephoto photography... capturing photographs of birds, loons, ducks, and all wildlife. I even use long telephoto gear for shooting photos of the sailboat and kayaks when they are across the lake. I have to admit that the telephoto range is impressive... the camera and lens is relatively small (compared to dSLR's with monstrous lenses)... but I am still left feeling disappointed.  I did manage to capture my best loon and duck photos to date but it really was a 'hit or miss' proposition. Many of my photos were lacking the clarity and crispness I had hoped to capture. Perhaps the lens was the problem... perhaps the tiny body made it difficult to hold steady enough. I don't know. Maybe it was a combination of both problems. This Panasonic camera in the Micro Four Thirds

About a week ago, I posted some photos of birds after my first 'practice session' in capturing photos of these fast little creatures with some new gear. That previous session was the first part of a series of tests of different parts of my gear used in different combinations.  (You can read that blog post here.) I'm testing some new Micro Four Thirds format photography gear to use for wildlife photography. I decided to give this format a shot after getting snagged in a few different obstacles in using other formats. So far, I have to say that this Micro Four Thirds gear is hitting a sweet spot for use in wildlife photography. This morning I happened to see a few more birds visiting my neighbor's back yard not far from one of our kitchen windows so I figured this would be a good time to test a different lens... today would be for the used lens I picked up a couple of weeks ago... the Panasonic Lumix 45-200mm Vario f4 -5.6 OIS lens.  Again, as I mentioned in my prev

Panasonic G3 camera, Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens As I was writing my previous blog post this morning, I could hear all sorts of birds and squirrels outside  for the first time in quite a long time . It was as though they all moved into the area at the same moment! It has been unusually quiet here for months... no small wildlife at all... no birds, no squirrels... just an odd silence outdoors. All of a sudden, this morning, this all changed. I grabbed my newest camera purchase... my Panasonic G3 with my old Olympus 70-300mm lens mounted on it. This combo gives me a very long telephoto reach equivalent to a 600mm field of view on a full frame camera. This is a loonnnggg telephoto reach in a rather small package! When I stepped outdoors, I headed toward the deeper part of the backyard with old, tall trees where I figured most wildlife would be located. As I walked back that way, I listened to hear where the birds were located... "hmmm..." all the noise seemed to be c

I recently picked up a used Panasonic 45-200mm G Vario OIS lens to pair with my Panasonic G3 camera body. As some opportunities present themselves, I've been giving this combo a whirl and I have to say that, so far, I am impressed. Don't get me wrong... This lens is not even close to being my sharpest, most impressive lens. However, for its cost, size, weight and format, it is pretty impressive though.  This lens has a decent amount of reach being equivalent to a 90-400mm in full frame terms and that means a lot considering the small size of this lens. Also, having OIS (optical image stabilization) is a pretty huge plus. This image stabilization could come in handy in less-than-ideal light.   If I could find some birds or wildlife in my yard, I would test this lens in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, our neck of the woods seems to be void of wildlife lately. It is actually pretty quiet out there... no birds calling, no squirrels chattering, nothing. I've come to the conclu