Of things owned and lost

Are we defined by the things we own and owned? Is it better to have had and to have lost or never to have had?

The Osteopath

We saw seniors on these red scooters whizzing around the block at Maribnyong Road / Union Road. They seemed very much at home and confident even though some shops would spill out their wares across the pavement.

The hectic swirl to a wedding

We were working at ToEmbellish and at the end of the day, walked across the road to where the car was. Coming back, we spotted Cakes of Distinction just a few doors away. It was evening by then, long shadows, high dynamic range, high contrast scenes. Marg had her favourite 12-60mm Zuiko Digital, I had the old Kodak P-880. I laughed that we had the "same" lens - equivalent 24mm to 120mm (the Kodak goes to 140mm and the Zuiko has shallower DOF).

Anyway, I'm tired and just happened to want one photo to end the day on a nice note, so I was happy to see this one in my collection.

Although the P-880 is a small sensor camera (and "old"), with all the handicaps, this photo is in-camera rendered JPG, with very sweet colours.

Little Car and Dog

Little Car and Dog, a photo by Ananda Sim 88 on Flickr.

You see interesting things when you look up

In Conversation

In Conversation, a photo by Ananda Sim 88 on Flickr.

A juxtaposition of diverse images

Thanks Gerhard....

A dear friend just pulled up roots and left for Chile. I've known Gerhard for a long time, and when I visited him, I drove up Glenfern Road. Being a city boy, driving up Glenfern Road is like a mini tour through the Victorian countryside. I started shooting here with the Kodak P880, as a test of the camera and my comfort with it. I've seen the bushfire season in summer and the (now) wet winter.

Today was a sunny, windy winter's day - the unreal pastel blue sky, the bright golden sun playing hide and seek with the fleecy clouds. By the time I arrived here, the sun had almost given up the play - I was deleting old images from the memory card, waiting to walk back to the car and then the sun came out for the last time.

Re-invigoration

I've been shooting a bit, sharing photos on Facebook (most of them publicly visible), bought an annual Flickr Pro account and written a few articles on my main photo blog. But I've let this one pic per post idea lapse. Originally I set it up so that I could share a photo without fuss, share a few thoughts and remarks. Looking back over my previous entries, I am happy with what I've displayed, so here's to more.

This is an impromptu portrait of the stall holder at the Grand Ridge Beer Brewery. It seems to be a Rotary Club organised Saturday Market at the Monash University Clayton Campus. Looks like a cosy place, only a few stalls orgranised in a U, entry by gold coin donation.

For once, I was using the PEN in more difficult circumstances - I was with family and friends plus, I haven't yet got to know the people (and vice versa). In fact I was disconcerted by the frank and direct visual and facial communication with the "locals" - in the city, there is a sideways look of anonymity we practise on both ends of the camera.

I was using my Olympus PEN E-PL1 with Tamron 28mm f/2.5 manual focus Adaptall 2 on a Four Thirds adapter on a Micro Four Thirds Adapter. I think there's some frosting on the little front element (fungus?) but  shots shaded from side glare work fine and are indeed quite sharp. The moment some sun or light comes sideways onto the front element, there is a veil of flare.

Still, it is a very enjoyable lens, focus is smooth, capable of producing shots with atmosphere - if there is bokeh, the bokeh is circular and not aggressive and the softness gives to me a naturalness.

This shot was quite difficult - I was fumbling, he was kindly posing but I didn't want to tire out my welcome - his face was in shadow, there was direct light on white things on the table. Tighter framing and cropping has helped and I let go of Picasa and instead used Olympus Viewer 2, worked on the RAW file, slowly bringing up some colour and vibrance to the face, darkening the fabric.

Hope you like it, I do.