Humble Beginnings

Everybody has to start somewhere; one wonders what Henri Cartier-Bresson's first ever photos looked like.  (I do, at least.)  My very first camera was a Polaroid my father gave me when I was 5 or 6 or so (and to be honest, at this point I'm only guessing given it's so long ago).  I don't remember which model, but, as with everyone's first Polaroid if you grew up in the analog age, it was one of their instant cameras.  At 13, I got a Pentax Espio 115, and it served me extremely well.  If I was so inclined, I could put a battery in it right now and it would be perfectly functional, giving me great photos (though it needs to be cleaned slightly).

The first digital camera I had any relevant experience with was my ex-girlfriend's Sony something-or-other.  It was a small pink camera (she was that kind of girl).  The first digital camera I personally owned was a Canon EOS XSi/450D/Kiss X2.  (I knew I was into photography by then.)  For those actually interested, I bought it as a Boxing Day sale in December 2008 (the 28th, as I remember it).

Looking at all my photos taken with that camera, I can definitely see how I've evolved as a photographer.  The first shots were mostly of my cat (Swarley was the best cat, ever), or of general city landscapes.  Everything was experimental and new.  I was trying to master all the different settings and how they interact with each other.  Most of the results were standard fare; just generic photos of someone starting out.  I don't look back and wish I could have taken any of them differently because at the time I was in a learning phase: taking photos of everything I could to figure out what type of photos I enjoyed taking.

Given that I now consider myself a street photographer more than anything else, I wanted to share my first street photos that I still remembered.  The first shot I truly consider my first street photography photograph is the first one under here, of the lady walking down the street.  Funny thing: I had the hardest time actually finding this particular shot amidst the 7200-or-so I took with the XSi, not because it was particular hard to find, but because I could have sworn it was black and white (and so I was scrolling through trying to find my black and white photographs).  It turns out, I'd seen it a year or so back, and at the time re-imagined how I'd have edited it with a more mature photographic mind, and that's the picture I remembered taking in my head.

At the time I was taking RAW and JPG at the same time, not because I particularly edited my photos, but because I'd heard it was the best thing to do.  As such, the photos here are presented unedited as they came out of the camera.  I could tweak them and improve them a little bit, but that wouldn't be as authentic as presenting them as they actually are.  I hope you enjoy these.  It was fun scrolling through my first shots again.  For those interested, these are very early shots out of my camera, numbered 236, 520 and 5160.

Again, I consider this shot my very first street shot.  Oh, I'd taken shot of random people before, but it was at Winterlude, which is a festival, where people are plentiful.  Besides, those shots are not as good as this one.  I took this photo simply because I liked the way the lady looked walking down the street.  She's tiny in here but it was a start.  If I were to edit this photo again, I would definitely change it to black and white, and perhaps lower the highlights to lessen the whites of the snow.  Overall, I consider this a good start.

This is perhaps simply a good shot because of the reflections on the ground.  I also like this because I don't know if I'd trudge through the rain again to get some nice shots (though I probably should).  There's nothing special about this shot, but the composition is good and the reflection add a nice touch.  If I were to edit this shot, I might just play with the clarity and contrast, but not too much else.

I actually remember walking through the Market and hanging around while the blurry guy on the left was doing magic tricks for crowds of people.  I remember sticking around for a while, grabbing shots here and there.  There's one shot of the magician I have, where he looks intense and energetic and, oddly enough, a little desperate in my eyes, though that last thought may completely be a reflection of my own feelings at time.  Looking back at the photos I took that night, I prefer this one.  My outlook on life has changed, and the sense of wonder and happiness in this lady's fact seems more my style right now, which is why I chose this photo.  

Because it was night, I have a lot of blurry shots from this night, either from bad focus or slow shutter speed.  Even though this was shot 5160 I took with this camera (not including the photos I was taking with my 2 point and shoots at the time), I was still learning (why I took this photo at ISO 200 is beyond me right now, but c'est la vie).  Taking this shot now, knowing what I know, even with the XSi and 50mm f/1.8 lens, I would definitely get better results.  I'm still learning now, but I feel I've come a long way since then.  I don't ridicule myself for not editing my photos back then, or shooting night scenes with ISO 200, but the fact that I see issues with my older photos means that I've moved on and I've learned new things.  Hopefully my photos have gotten better, and hopefully as time goes on, I keep getting better.  Maybe in another 6 years, I'll go through my 2014 shots and do a retrospective post like this one.

Rainy Day Start

It's raining like crazy outside today (though if you don't like the weather, and this being Ottawa, just wait 10 minutes), and it's my first day off in a long time I can't go walking around to take photos.  As such, I figure it's a great time to post for the first time in an even longer time.

Housekeeping things: I haven't stopped taking photos, I've just stopped posting them.  There's no particular reason for that, with the only exception of laziness.  I've started posting on Flickr again thanks to a co-worker that wanted to see some of my newer photos.  Another big deciding factor in starting to post again is I have a new toy.

I won't get into details now, but I'm now mainly shoot my street photography with a Leica M and 50mm Noctilux.  I'll probably write/film a review later, but I'll say I love this camera in its entirety.  Other than that, I still have my Canon 5D Mark 3, S100 and Fuji X10.  I still shoot with all of them, though my 5D is mainly used for shooting and filming wedding this year.  I don't think I've used it in any other way this year.  I still love this camera, it's just a bit unwieldy for street.

As always, I still plan on shooting, and I will make a effort on posting to my Flickr stream.  I will also try to update this blog every now and then.  For now, I will leave you with this album.  No real reason for it, I just like it for some strange reason. Clothes on Stuff.

Oh, well look at that: it's now almost sunny outside.

I Want Some More

First post in almost a year, but that doesn't mean I haven't taken any photos.  First thing that happened is that I sold my Canon 7D and bought a Canon 5D Mark 3.  I've also just been editing my photos and not really been doing anything with them.  I may also go through my backlog of photos I haven't even retouched and do something with them.  It may be laziness (probably, in fact, a chunk of it), but I've also been busy with other things.  (Mostly laziness, though.)

In any case, it's getting warmer, which means I'll probably end up spending more time outside, and so more time photographing random things; indeed, in the past two weeks I've done much more of that than in the past two months.  These six shots are just a small part of the photos I've edited, and an even smaller part of the photos I've taken and want to edit.  I've posted more on my Flickr page, which you can go visit if you want to see other things I've posted that aren't on here.

I'm also still wondering what to do with this blog: whether it should be more instructional, informational, demonstrative or just random ranting.  I'm sure it'll be a bit of everything, as it's been before.  I've used a few cameras I'd like to recount and I'll definitely talk about my newest photographic acquisitions.  I'm also being a videographer for a wedding in a couple of weeks, so that will be interesting to discuss, and definitely a different experience from photographing a wedding.  I'll let you guys know how everything goes.

Here, then, are a few starter pictures.

This is an employee from a fish market in, well, the Market, in Ottawa, on break.  Incidentally, Wang's Noodle House is probably my favourite place in the Market.

I do take some shots in colour, but not this one.  There's a lot of construction going on in downtown Ottawa,  and these are just two guys doing their job.

This little kid seemed pretty excited with the cheese shop, though the parents seem less interested.

This was taken a little while ago, but I still like it.  No comment on the picture itself - you guys can figure out what's going on.

Last one for now:

This is Jen.  This was pretty much the first time I used the Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 in actual practise.  It's a manual-only focus lens, which make focusing really annoying.  Some of the shots were terrific, though, and it's a great lens.  Regardless, this is probably the best shot of the evening, unless you like pet cats.

Another reason I'm deciding to add more to my blog is that I'm paying for my Flickr account, so I may as well make use of it in some way.  No doubt I'll get bored in a few months time again and stop posting again for another little while, but until then, I hope you guys enjoy!

Randomness from the Past Couple of Months

Like I mentioned a few days ago, I posted some 35 pictures on my Flickr page, but I decided to post only 10 here, the ones I consider the better ones of the bunch.  There's nothing particularly special about any of them, they're just nice.

I will mention the 8th picture down, of the gentleman on the table looking like he has a headache.  He did not like me taking a picture of him.  He didn't say anything but he looked at me really funny.  I'm actually surprised he saw me.  I was in front of him, but he seemed in his own little world.  In any case, it's probably my favorite picture of the past few months, so at least this guy can feel good about that.

Here goes:

I woke up one morning and just couldn't really see the parking lot 150 feet down.  Maybe Tux had better luck.

For some reason I like these kinds of shots.  It's been edited to look contrasty and somewhat sharper than it was, but I like the texture and feel of the shot.

I'm not sure what kind of story this shot tells you but it says something.  I suppose, taking it again, I'd want to get something in the background because as is, it doesn't really situate the beer can anywhere.

Some people waiting for the bus in a dark, dark bus stop.  One guy pulled out a fantasy book of some kind, the other just sat on the chair.

This picture is better if it's a bit smaller.  Why are clubs so dark?  I like the idea of some random guy looking at these two girls getting freaky on the dance floor.  That stupid Rickard's sign blocks out some of the scene, but hopefully you get the idea of what's going on, anyway.

More waiting at a bus stop, this time at a different stop on a different day.

Wide-angle lenses are pretty nice.  I took this with the Canon S100. I was actually walking on the sidewalk and managed to get these two people looking over the river, with the 24mm-ness (equivalent) wide-angle end of the lens.

Regardless of what this gentleman thought of me, I love this shot.  I just like him looking the way he does, with the two birds going about their lives, not really paying attention to him.

I found it funny how people were using this building to advertise this movie.  It's also interesting because, say it was a dictator's place, it would definitely be private property and you wouldn't be able to trespass on it.

Last of the bunch for today.  I was walking around the Market and it was fairly dead, but I did catch a few shots, this being my favourite of them.  Just a guy playing guitar, busking for money.

I hope you enjoyed these, and there's hopefully going to be more coming soon enough.  I don't have much of a backlog, but I might go through my archives and post things I haven't touched in a while.  We'll see.

Mini-reviews: Canon Elph 320, Olympus TG-820 and Nikon P510

It's been forever since my last post, but because it's much nicer outside now I'll hopefully have more to post.  I should have a few pictures up in the next few days, but here's something a little bit different: a few mini-reviews.  I suppose I should call these mini-overviews, given I can't really talk about the picture or video quality; I played around with the cameras, but didn't really have the inclination to put in a memory card to see what the results would be.  In any case, here are my impressions of these cameras.

Canon Elph 320

This is Canon's touchscreen camera model and, quite honestly, the touchscreen isn't very good.  Sony does it much better with their T/TX series.  Sony's screens are simply more responsive, which, what with the screen being touch sensitive and all, is the most important part.  There are no issues with the layout and interface on the Elph 320, but the screen seems a bit stiff, especially compared to the Sony TX10 or T110.

The 320 has wifi capabilities, and these two features (touchscreen and wifi) are what distinguish this model from the Elph 110, because other than those, both cameras are exactly the same.  They both have the same 16.1 MP sensor, Digic 5 processor and 5x optical zoom.  The addition of wifi is nice, but the only interesting feature is being able to send pictures from camera to camera, though I'm questioning the practical use of this option.  Standard options like emailing and sending pictures to Facebook and Twitter, videos to Youtube, are also included.  Samsung seems to have better wifi integration, and allows you to control the camera through your smartphone (provided you've downloaded the iOS/Android app), whereas Canon only allows you transfer files and send them to various services.  Samsung also allows you to send your photos to (among others) SkyDrive if you use that, whereas Canon only allows their Canon Image Gallery.

The camera comes with all the Canon bells and whistles offers, like a million different filters (B&W, sepia, vivid, super vivid, and the like), all the effects you can imagine (fisheye, miniature (still and video), colour accent, among others), as well as Super Slo-Mo video, shot at 240 frames per second.  This comes standard with all the cameras boasting the Digic 5 processor.  This mode is not very practical, but playing with it is definitely a lot of fun.  Standard video shooting is 1080p, and Canon has enabled all 2012 models to zoom while shooting video, which is something they should have done a little while ago.

All these features are a nice inclusion and won't be of any surprise to any longtime Canon user.  Also not a surprise is probably going to be the image and video quality, which I'm assuming are going to be great.  Canon has always had great processing and the Digic 5 processor is very strong.  The files out of my S100 are terrific and though shouldn't be compared directly with any Elph camera, they're a nice indication of what the Elph cameras should do.

Quite honestly, as far as a camera goes, the Elph 110 is a better deal.  The wifi integration on the 320 is nice to have, but people wanting to send pictures and videos to whatever website they want will generally take pictures and videos with their smartphone instead, and not be limited by access points and such.  The 320's touchscreen is its downfall, honestly.  I like the UI, but, with Canon, I'd rather have buttons to use.  If you can get past those, this seems like a nice little compact camera.

Olympus TG-820

Since last summer, I've only mentioned Olympus when talking about their scandal, but they've also been releasing cameras since then!  The OM-D is well-reviewed and I'd love to be able to play with it.  The TG-820 is now their mid-range tough camera (replacing their 6xx/x series), and I can say it's well-built.  I find the TG-810 slightly more solid, but the 820 has the same specs when it comes to toughness ratings.  Waterproof down to 10m, shockproof up to 2m, freezeproof to -10 celcius and crushproof up to 100 kg, this will definitely be able to withstand whatever you do with it.  Indeed, I've dropped it and stepped on it a few times and not even a scratch.

What's new to this camera is a CMOS sensor and based on what the OM-D can do, I'm really curious at the low-light/underwater quality of this camera.  The camera also has a 5x zoom, but has this intelligent digital zoom feature (also seen in Sony and Panasonic cameras) that allows you to zoom out to 10x, while still keeping full 12 MP resolution shots.  In a pinch, it's a nice option to have, but because the camera has to interpolate pixels, I imagine the image isn't as sharp as an optical 10x zoom.  Olympus isn't a leader in video, but I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the 1080p video quality.

Not only does the TG-820 have standard effects/filters (B&W, fisheye and the like), it also has some very interesting retouching features I've never seen inside a camera before.  After taking a portrait, you can go in and tweak the smile, skin, eyes and facial features to improve that portrait.  It's like having a mini-photoshop edition in your camera.  The changes are not drastic, mind you, but the subtle changes can take a nice picture and make it just that much better.  One nice filter they added is called 'Fragmented' and I like the look it has.  It takes your picture and breaks it up in small, offset squares, giving, well, a fragmented look.  I thought I'd mention this because I like it.

The one thing Olympus took out from last year's model is the GPS, which, for a tough camera designed for hiking and travel (and especially coming from Olympus), is pretty much a necessary inclusion at this point.  Olympus's flagship tough camera, the TG-1, will have it, but they should have also included it in this model, as well.  All in all, this seems like a respectable camera if you want a tough camera.  It's well-built and has a very nice set of features.

Nikon P510

Just to get this out of the way first: yes, this has a 42x zoom, which is insane.  Moving on.  This zoom is going to be the main reason the general consumer would buy this camera.  Most people don't seem to care all that much about many of the bells and whistle that companies cram in their bodies, so they'll look at the zoom, because most people want a quick, responsive camera that will perform well in the dark and that has nice zoom.  I have no qualms about this camera's responsiveness, provided there's enough light, obviously, and, to be honest, though I trust the JPEG engine on the Canon SX40 a bit more, the P510 has many terrific features that the SX40 does not.  The P510 comes with a 16.1 MP sensor, and, somewhat disappointingly, only an Expeed C2 processor, instead of Nikon's new Expeed 3 processor (or a variation thereof).  (The Canon SX40 has a Digic 5 processor, the first camera along with the S100 released with this processor.)

The first feature I noticed was the intervelometer setting.  This is actually the one feature I'm most excited about, though most people don't seem too keen to embrace.  The ability to do time-lapse photography in-camera is relatively rare, especially on non-pro cameras.  If I owned the P510, this is pretty much the only feature I'd use on it.  Other than that, the SX40 also lacks GPS capability, which the P510 has.  Again, for a nice travel camera, this inclusion is thoughtful.  The camera also has the standard array of filters and effects, such as black and white, fisheye and miniature effect.  However, the colour accent mode in the Canon cameras is a bit better thought out.  In the P510, you have to choose from specific colours (ie. light blue, blue, light red, red, etc...), whereas in the Canon cameras, you have the freedom to choose any colour you can see through your screen.  Having said that, the panorama mode in the P510 is a motion-type panorama, where you drag the camera across the scene and all the stitching is done in-camera.  The Canon panorama mode is a lot more involved and pretty archaic.

A few cons on the P510 to finish off.  The screen on the SX40 flips to the side, and rotates 270 degrees.  This is a nice feature if you want to turn the camera on yourself, as you can see what you're shooting.  The P510 screen tilts up and down and that's it.  It adds a nice level of flexibility to shoot over and under things, but it's not as useful as the one on the Canon camera.  The last thing I'll mention (and the first thing I noticed when turning on the camera) is that the menu system is a bit clunky.  This isn't usually a problem, as Nikon menus are not too complex to begin with, but because the P510 has so many features, it may take a little while to figure out how all the buttons work with the menus and dials.  This is a small gripe, but for most consumers that want an easy camera to use, it may be slightly irritating.

This is a nice bridge camera.  It's not my favorite type of camera.  I don't like too much zoom, but the features are nice.  It's a solidly-built body, and it's not a bad choice.


I might add more small reviews like these ones if I get the chance to do it.  I might attempt to get sample shots and videos next time, but I don't know possible that is for various reasons that aren't really important to expand upon.  In any case, I'll have new posts up soon!

Didn't make the cut.

Because I found them on my computer, here are six random pictures that didn't make the project.  There are definitely more of this type of photos, but this is what I easily found.  They were nice, but better ones were simply taken during that day.

Here's the first one.

I would've liked having a wider-angle camera, but the S100 wasn't out then.  It's a nice shot, but I think the reason I didn't post this one is because it looked too much like others I'd taken before.

Next two.

I passed on these two in favour a blurry shot of my cat looking inside a cereal box.  I don't know if I would have made the same decision now, but at least now you can all see these shots, as well.

Next up is from Winterlude.

I believe the reason I didn't pick this shot is because it's not as crisp as I wanted it to be.  It does, however, look pretty nice in a smaller size.

Next up is a shot from Valentin's Day, but doesn't really have any romantic appeal, really.  Just a frozen river.

I took a shot of the Peace Tower in Ottawa for the project, but that's only because I've taken too many of this river.

The last one of my favorite of the bunch.

I found it strange there was a baseball cap in the middle of the street and wanted to focus on it.  The sensor in the X10 also allows for a blurrier background than normal compacts, so it gives the shot a, well, blurry feel, except the baseball cap.

In nay case, here are a few shots that may or may show my choosing process.  I'll have new shots as soon as it's not too cold to walk around without gloves on.

First post, post February. High ISO Comparison.

Most people think I'm crazy for owning more than one camera.  I generally have either 2 or 3.  This hobby gets kind of pricey, so I don't usually get too many cameras.  I usually buy cameras only if I can get something out of it (big surprise, I know).

In any case, my constant conflict between having many cameras and having useful cameras means a couple of things: I wish I had access to more cameras than I do, and also, I'm able to compare anything that comes across my apartment.  A few weeks ago before getting rid of my Canon 7D, I compared high ISO performance between the Canon 7D (with dual Dig!c 4 processors, released Q3 2009 (somewhat important)), the Canon S100 (with single Dig!c 5 processor, released Q3 2011) and the Fujifilm X10 (with single EXR processor, released Q4 2011).

Now, this is only an ISO test.  It's not supposed to determine the best camera, which is very easy to figure out just by looking at the price tags.  Given the sensor size differences, these are three very different cameras with very different purposes.  I just thought it might be interesting to see how these cameras handle noise.  It might be slightly unfair to test out these 3 cameras together, but I had them in my apartment, and I was actually curious to see how a tiny 1/1.7" sensor would hold up to a much bigger APS-C sensor.

All three photos were shot at 35-ish mm (given how tricky it was to pick an exact length, though I did my best to have equivalent focal lengths on all cameras), at ISO 3200 (the highest the X10 can shoot without compromising resolution), at F/4 (the aperture of the 7D's kit lens at the focal length) with a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second.  I took the RAW files out of each camera and synchronised the white balance on all three files (3100K in case you care about this stuff at all), and exported the files as is.  The white balance adjustment is the only editing I did, in order to get the most accurate colour and noise representation possible.

Before showing the pictures, a few interesting facts (well, interesting for me, anyway): all three cameras use CMOS sensors, and all three cameras were the first to use those particular sensors.  The 7D was the first Canon SLR to use the APS-C 18MP sensor later found in the T2i, T3i and 60D; the S100 is the first to use the 1/1.7" 12MP sensor (and the way things are going, it'll be the only camera to use that particular sensor given the new G1X uses something slightly on the more massive side); and the X10 uses a newly-designed 2/3" 12MP sensor later found on the Fujifilm X-S1.

So, finally, the 7D shot:

It looks pretty good.  To be as fair as possible, I used the EF-S 18-135mm kit lens.  Given you can't change the lenses on the compact cameras, I thought it only fair not to use my L lens here.

Next, the S100.

Also looks good.

Finally, the X10 shot.

Unsurprisingly, also looks nice.  What I find really strange is that the 7D and S100 files are 8MB and 7MB, respectively, while the X10's file size is only 4MB.  I'm not sure how this happens because it seem to  have pretty much the same colour and range as the, say, the S100.  

In any case, at this size, the files all look more or less the same.  So, let's crop.

The 7D.

Good.

The S100.

A bit grungy-looking.

The X10.

A bit grungy-looking, as well.

So, even at 2 1/2 years old, the 7D easily has the best ISO performance of the bunch.  I really wish I'd taken shots at ISO 6400 and 12,800 to compare, but I didn't have that foresight for some reason.  The 7D has much bigger sensor, with a pixel size of 4.3 micrometers (whereas the S100 has a 1.86 micrometer pixel size, and X10 has, I think, 2.09 micrometer pixel size).  Not only that, the dual Dig!c 4 processors are able to handle anything captured by the sensor very easily.  The 7D has the best dynamic range and clearest ISO performance.

The tougher decision is whether the X10 or the S100 has the better ISO performance.  The X10 seems to have a bigger noise pattern than the S100, which, in cleaner areas, like the white part of the Blu-ray cover, gives the pictures a neater look, though makes the busier areas, like the battery and coins, look a bit blurrier.  Looking at the speaker part, though, on the bottom right, the X10 definitely has better dynamic range, with deeper blacks and more detail in the shadow areas.

It's a tough call, and maybe my shot isn't the most representative.  In terms of practical use, though, the X10 can go to higher ISO 6400 and 12,800, though only at reduced resolutions (6 and 3MP, respectively), while the S100 can have full 12MP shots at ISO 6400 and be quite usable.  I think pushing these cameras more would be pointless, as nobody really pushes these cameras to their limit except idiots like me.  

It's a tough call.  What do you guys think?