Olympus OM-D - Is it just me?

 

A while back, I sold my backup camera, A Canon 7D. It was a fine camera. A great camera for sports and really the best all-round Canon under $7000. That is why I bought it in the first place. But then I upgraded to a 5DII which is definitely no sports camera but I don't shoot sports. I do portraits and commerical photos and this was going to be my tool of choice. This meant my 7D was getting no love anymore. I hated to see it sitting in my camera case, just sitting. It wasn't fair. I had to find it a new home where it would once again serve its purpose as a great all-round camera. I did find a new home for it and I think it will fit in very nicely. This meant I had to get a new back-up camera.

I made the move to the Olympus OM-D, E-M5. What a horrible name. I just call it the OM-D. This is a camera that has been receiving rave reviews and apparently some people have even switched from their full-frame cameras (like my 5DII) to this little Micro 4/3 sensor (1/4 the size sensor to that of the full frame cameras). I read many reviews before pulling the trigger so I figured I knew what I was getting into.

I decided to purchase the kit with the upgraded 12-50mm lens. The lens, I had been told, was fantastic. My experience is that it does have some cool features but picture quality is not one of them. My favorite feature of the lens is the customisable button which you can program to actuate one of many controls. I set it as my ISO button. And that is where my love of the lens ends. It just doesn't deliver the quality I expect. It has bad CA, horrible lens flare and weak sharpness. I just had to see if there was a way to get better images from this cool little OM-D. I did a little research and found a Canon lens adapter on ebay for around $49 which allows me to use my lenses for my 5DII on the Olympus. The downside is there is no aperture control from the camera - you have to do this manually on the adapter, like an old SLR lens and there is no autofocus. This makes taking photos a little more challenging and also a bit of fun.

 

 So, here you can see what the little OM-D looks like with the Canon 24-70mm L lens. Pretty crazy looking setup. I have used this, the 50mm f1.4 and 85mmf1.8 lenses, all with "Meh" results.But I wanted to try my Canon lenses which I know have fantastic image quality on the OM-D to see if the lens is the issue or if it is the camera. Ends up being a bit of both.

 No matter how careful I am with getting the focus just perfect, the OM-D just cannot touch the image quality I can get from the 5dII. For small images, up to maybe 5x7" and for web use, you probably can't see the difference. Once you look at the images at 100% you can quite easily see.

 So, I am just going to assume that everyone out there who has fallen for the OM-D has done so blindly. It is a fun little camera and I do take it everywhere with me, but I do not realistically see it as a replacement for people who need professional image quality. Am I missing something? Am I totally wrong here? I don't know. I really, really like the OM-D. I just wanted to love the images it produces. So far, I'm not there yet.

 

Anyone out there have some experience with the OM-D? Getting good photos, bad photos? Switched from your full-frame camera to the OM-D? Tell me what you think!

 

kurtknock.com

 

Dudes

Recently I found myself doing a lot of photos of dudes. It just kinda worked out that way. My buddy George works at a BC Hydro power station and asked if I'd like to check it out. I told him it would require him posing for a few photos. The building had this cool power control room where I decided I had to take some photos. 

Next up is Ian. I had some ideas I needed to try and this was the guy for the job! I found a grungy old building in town and went to work... Ends up Ian is getting into photography and he comes from a long line of photographers in his family. Its in his blood!

 

 

 

I met Jacob recently and we chatted about art, life, business and camera. He has a very nice new Nikon D800 and he let me use it to take a few shots. None of which I have posted here because I just couldn't tweak the images to look the way I like my images to look. Only because my version of LightRoom doesn't support those new Nikon RAW files... However, you will see a photo taken with my Olympus OM-D below. Try to figure out which one it is :)

Dan is a very busy man these days. He and his wife just had their first baby (a girl) days ago. I think it was about three days after I did this photo shoot with him. He recently opened his restaurant, Hudson's on First and he is setting out to compete on Top Chef Canada.

 

Dave was brave enough to step in as a test model for me as I need to try some shots at the local pool. Brave because he knew I would end up posting his photos here and there. So here they are! 



Thanks Dave!

 

And thanks to all the guys who let/wanted me to take their photos! I met some really good people and had lots of fun. Hopefully the photos justify the time spent :)

 

kurtknock.com



Tossed into a box...

By now I should just assume I am walking into a challenge every time I arrive at a shoot location. Recently I was asked to do some advertising photos of Todd Blumel for Bow-Mel Chrysler, in Duncan. I made sure to ask that we have a room of certain dimensions to be able to fit the gear required and to allow for full-length body shots.

Sure enough, the room was the right size but it was full of storage shelves and there was just, barely enough room to get the job done. No worries. After tinkering around a bit to get the mini-studio set up I got about shooting the photos. At least one of these is going to be used as a life-size cut out for some advertising in the car dealership. The others are going to be for newspaper ads so we just played around and did silly "So, you want to buy a car?" type poses.

And to be quite honest, I'm getting used to shooting a pure white background now. It has been beaten into me now and I can accept that. I'm even learning to make it work for me creatively and that's fun!

That's all for now :)

kurtknock.com

Family Day

Today is officially Family Day here in British Columbia. Just in case you need an excuse to spend some time with your loved ones ;)

Which brought me back to August of 2012 when I was sent on a day trip to Kelowna do photos for the Marsh Family.

 

The day started with my flight from the Nanaimo airport at the crack of dawn.

Upon arrival in Kelown I was whisked away to the Father Pandosy Mission historic park for the photo session.
Now, keep in mind, this is August in Kelowna. When we arrived at the park it was about 11:00am and already over 30 degrees Celsius. I had to be as time efficient as possible and keep people out of the direct sun otherwise this was going to be a meltdown in no time.

 I did a range of photos while there, trying to get everyone in some creative shots and taking in the historic buildings.

After we figured we had enough photos and enough heat, it was time to head into town for some lunch.

 Then back to the airport for my flight home. I had a little time to kill while waiting for my flight so I grabbed a couple photos of the airport. And yes, I asked the airport security if it was ok.

 When in Vancouver to catch my connector back to Nanaimo, I was treated to a pass to the Maple Leaf Lounge (thank you Sean and Amber!). This was a great way to kick back for an hour or so and have a drink or two and some food before my final leg home.

 The foyer of the lounge was quite impressive.

 

As was the view of the goings on outside.

 

And after a long day of travel, I arrived back at the Nanaimo airport with the sun starting to set.

I appreciated being part of the Marsh family get-together as it was significant enough for them to understand they should take the time to have some photos of everyone. It is harder to get everyone together as families grow and sometimes move away. Schedules are difficult to synchronise and everyone is busy. It was a fun day for me too. It felt like a big field trip, with 1-1/2 hours of hard work in there to keep me on my toes!





With this being Family Day, I took the boys out for a ride on the big rig, my town bike equipped with Wee-Ride carrier for Rhys and the Trail-A-Bike on back for Kole. Yes, it is an absolute beast to ride but I tell you, there is nothing I'd rather be doing when those boys start squealing with delight as we zoom down our favourite trails! I just wish Nina could have joined us today on our adventure but sadly, she had to work. Almost forgot, the above photo was taken by Kole. He is getting pretty good with the camera :)

Happy Family Day everyone! Get out there and make it special :)

kurtknock.com

Great People

It has been way to long since I last updated my blog. Sorry but life and work sometimes get in the way of blogging :)

My last entry was on a beautiful wedding I shot last August and it was to be a three part series but the last parts was not really needed in my mind. It was going to be the portraits and reception. And, I'm so backlogged in my blog I thought I'd jump ahead a bit...

So here we are in 2013 with a new entry.

I was happy to do another shoot for Clemens Rettich, business coach extraordinaire. The subject this time is the incredible Gifty Serbeh-Dunn, owner of Shea Butter Markets.

I arrived a little before Clemens and chatted with Gifty. Right away I felt this warmth of her character. She is just one of those people who radiate a good vibe. And the more you know about her story (read the interview) the more you like her!  

I won't get into her story as Clemens is the one who has made the effort to tell and share it. I'm just going to share some of the photos I captured while there. 

 About half way through the interview we took a break for some more formal portraits. See below:

For those who don't know Gifty, make an effort to stop by her shop and say "hi" or buy her products when you see them in the stores. It all goes to good causes thanks to a great lady!

 

kurtknock.com