Lunchtime walk around town

On my lunch break, I needed to take a walk down to the post office to get a package that I missed delivery on and few books of stamps for Christmas cards.  So of course, I packed up the camera bag (Panasonic G3, Pana 20mm,  Oly 45mm) and off I went.  After the post office, I meandered around downtown Scottdale.  Since downtown consists of 1 main street 2 blocks long, it didn’t take much time at all.  I wasn’t really seeing anything of interest until I detoured down an alley.  Right in front of me, there it was.

I’ve walked past this numerous times, but never really stopped to look at what was there.  Everything just clicked into place.  Looking a bit further and I found this.

Having exhausted all of my free time, it was time to walk home and get back to work.  When I got there, I found this waiting for me.  I don’t think the cat moved since I started work at 7.

After turkey-day with a deer and the Oly 45

Let me first say that I hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving with their families and friends.  My family had a great time getting together, even if it is very busy and sometimes crazy.  We had one more side of the family to visit today, so I had one last chance to gorge myself on a wonderful home cooked meal.  Before that could begin however, I noticed a young deer walking behind the family members house.  I excused myself, grabbed my camera and tried to sneak around out back quietly.

For the people reading this strictly for the gear… I had my micro 4/3’s kit.  The longest lens I currently have is the Olympus 45mm f/1.8.  So that gave me an equivalent view of 90mm (in 35mm terms).  How I wish I would have the 45-200mm right then.  So these shots are cropped in fairly close.

The deer was about 40 yards back when all of a sudden something spooked it and it ran directly toward the house and close to where I was standing.

When it got within 15 feet of where I was standing, it finally realized that I was there and stopped dead in it’s tracks.  Apparently it was rather used to people, because it just stood there for a few seconds looking at me.

Apparently I wasn’t that big of a threat, as I was quiet and I could hear numerous gunshots in the distance (we were in the mountains).  The deer slowly trotted back from where it had come from.

I followed it for 50 yards up into the woods along a path.  The ground was wet and made it easy to be quiet and not make any noises.  The deer knew I was back there all the time, but just didn’t seem to care.  The next 3 shots were all taken from about 12 or 15 feet away.  That was as close as I could get.

After following and observing this deer for about 15 minutes, he simply looked at me one last time, decided she’d had enough and bolted.  It was a great and very peaceful experience, one that doesn’t happen often enough in our busy lives.

Family shots with the G3 + Olympus 45mm f/1.8

So I guess this will be the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 review, part 2.  Tonight I grabbed a few frames of Brooke and Dayna playing around before bedtime with the G3 + Oly 45mm combo.  It worked surprisingly well in the low light of her room.

This was at ISO 2000 and it cleaned up quite nicely in Lightroom.  The noise is fairly well controlled and the image doesn’t suffer because of it.  As I use the the G3 more, I’m feeling more confident about the high ISO of the camera.

I don’t have much else to say about this combo right now. The more I use it, the more I love it.  The sensor is so much improved over the GF1 I last used.   Olympus and Panasonic have really stepped up and brought a number of high quality lenses out as well.  All I need now is a wide angle to complete my prime kit.  Eventually it’ll happen.

A Busy Saturday

Below are a few images from my day yesterday.  I first took some family portraits for some friends.  I decided on an old historical house that is being fixed up and turned into a bed and breakfast.  The main living room has a mix of great antique furniture and newer pieces.  The woodworking around the house is phenomenal as well as the accent pieces displayed.

Next up was taking some pictures of a house that will be on the house tour in Scottdale.  It was decorated to be an old time diner. The room itself was rather tight and difficult to capture everything.

The amount of detail and the care taken to arrange everything was impressive.  Waiting for me at the counter was even a sandwich, donuts and a Coke!

This place will be on the Scottdale Historical Society House Tour coming up