Last Bits of Autumn...

I continue to be impressed with my little stash-in-the-car-so-I-can-always-have-a-camera-with-me Panasonic FZ-10. I went on a retreat recently, and since I was there as a musician, I didn't really have the lugging power to take my sizable (and heavy) camera bag with lenses along with my keyboard, hand truck, amplifier, and other stuff. Knowing I had my Panasonic in the car was good enough, as I didn't really expect to have much time to escape in the woods and take pictures anyway.

I did, however, have enough time to grab these shots. Yeah, I reduced the noise and adjusted both colors and exposure in Photoshop -- but nothing unusual. Having a background in film photography, it's something you always do in the darkroom anyway, so I don't feel guilty. I set the color setting on my camera to "warm" though on purpose, and my PS adjustments are there just to enhance my interpretation of the light quality and experience in this scene.

Click on the photos for larger versions (on my Flickr Account) and EXIF info...





My current desktop wallpaper:

First Concert Photos, Pretty Much Ever...

I just started sifting through and processing some of the first concert photos I've taken since becoming serious about photography. I snapped some photos back in high school or junior high at a Beach Boys' concert once, but I had both a crappy camera and a lack of knowledge about photography.

Tonight, however, I grabbed my Panasonic FZ-10 point-and-shoot camera (okay, so it's probably closer to a hybrid dSLR/Point-and-shoot) and played with it during the Steven Curtis Chapman/Michael W. Smith concert. I switched to manual mode, initially started at ISO 400, but remembered how noisy the camera was at 400, so I cranked it down to 200. I set the shutter speed to 1/80th for most of the photos, slowing it down to 1/50th when I wanted more of the lighting (keeping the aperture set at f/2.8). They wouldn't let me bring my dSLR in, and I didn't want to risk having my dSLR confiscated, so I stuck with this camera.

I'm honestly blown away by how these photos turned out. Granted, having front-row seats (thanks to my totally awesome brother-in-law, Dave, who bought those tickets for my birthday present) helped, but I was amazed at how clear the photos were. A skosh of Noise Reduction and a bit of both level adjustment and warming filter (depending on photo), and that's pretty much all the processing. Granted, had I had my dSLR they probably would've been better, but these are pretty decent.