In which I enjoy photographing running dogs

Sadly, we don't have a dog at the moment.  Our beloved long haired Jack Russell terrier and ex racing greyhound lived long - 16 and 14 respectively - but have now left us.  But my daughter has two, a bull lurcher cross and a deerhound x greyhound, and I often join her on one of the local dog fields to enjoy their free running.  

Both rapid sighthounds, Sweet Pea (the fawn) and Sampson (the black) represent an enjoyable challenge to photograph, one I couldn't really manage with my previous Canon gear, but can with the Olympus kit.

The key is speed.  The combination of the Olympus EM1 MkII and the 40-150mm f2.8 Pro allows me to set an ISO 800 and f2.8 combination to generate a fast shutter speed - 1/4000 sec in the shot above.  The lightning fast and accurate autofocus of the combination then allows me to pick up the dogs extremely rapidly.  Finally the high speed sequential shooting mode generates a good sequence of shots per burst, giving a variety to choose from.

Sighthounds have a unique high speed running gait called a double suspension rotary gallop, where the feet are barely supported or even off the ground in both the tuck and extension phases. The shot above shows 7 unsupported legs in synchrony. Only Sweet Pea has one foot on the floor. This generates high speed running of up to and even over 40 mph. Sampson is demonstrating his high speed capacity with three phases of the gait in the image below.

These side on shots are relatively easy to capture, requiring only focus lock at the start of the sequence and panning during the rub.  1/2000 sec kept the images sharp and detailed.  Rather harder are head on shots. Even with continuous autofocus and tracking set on it's still a bit hit and miss to keep the eyes in sharp focus with a dog moving at 40mph.  The additional depth of field bonus from the M43 sensor helps - but expect a lot of failures.  But when it does work...

..it yields some lovely images.  Though it's rare for me to get the pair of them head on, together, and both heads in focus.

Why?  Because they usually spend their time coursing each other in frantic activity bursts followed by rest periods.  40mph is energy intensive.

Time for a lie down.  And a roll.

Pro Capture on the Olympus EM1 MkII

I've owned the EM1 MkII for about 18 months and I'm still exploring all the features of this camera. One feature that I've only briefly played with and really need to explore further is Pro Capture.

Essentially, the camera can be set up to buffer a series of shots on a continuous loop when the shutter button is half pressed.  Firing the shutter then writes the shots both prior to and after firing.  The number of shots pre and post press, maximum frames per second (60max), and the frame count limiter (25 max) are set up in the C1 | H settings | Pro cap options in the Custom (*) menu.  There are plenty of 'how to set it up' videos on YouTube so I won't look at it in more detail.  It's the results that count.

Effectively it overcomes some of the limitions of human reaction time.  It's so easy to miss a shot that requires split second reactions to capture.  The sparrow coming in to land on our back garden feeder is an excellent example,  Using Pro Capture I was able to sit in comfort with the 40-150mm Pro set at f2.8 and camera at ISO 1000.  As soon as I saw the bird coming in to land I started the Pro Capture loop and pressed the shutter as it landed, capturing enough buffered shots to give me a few reasonable in flight images.

It works for take off shots as well.  This is an Azure damselfly, Coenagrion puella, taking off from a waterside leaf.

All I had to do was focus on the resting damselfly, start the Pro Capture buffer loop and, as soon as I saw movement, fully press the shutter.

It all sounds easy, and, judging by the number of superb in flight and fast action shots using Pro Capture with this and later cameras in the EM1/OM1 line, it's definitely simplifying the generation of impressive results.  

Of course there are downsides.  It's battery hungry. I'll need to get another one or even two batteries if I'm going to use it more extensively next year.  It also generates a lot of files.  Even with the restricted buffer storage of 25 images per Pro Capture run it's very easy to generate hundreds of files in a short space of time.  Add in the ability to capture in RAW and card space can become an issue.  It also takes goodly amounts of time to go through the resulting files to pick out the best and delete the rest (trust me, you don't want hundreds of almost identical shots sitting on your hard disks).

But it's fun - and that's what really matters.

Using the Olympus STF-8 macro flash

A lot of field macro work is only possible using flash to light small, often moving, subjects.  In the past I've used external flashguns and small softboxes, either singly or as a pair, mounted on a attached bracket and fired either with a connector cord or wirelessly. They worked - but cumbersome is an apt description of using them for photographing insects in leafy areas.

So I was delighted to find a used Olympus STF-8 twin flash for sale at Wex Photo and Video earlier this year.  The price was very reasonable compared to new so I raided the piggy bank and took the plunge.  After all, I'd easily recoup the investment, wouldn't I.  Gear aquisition syndrome strikes again.

The macro flash comes in it's own elegant carrying case.  I think I've used it twice since the first opening.  Assembly and fitting of the flash unit to the camera and 60mm macro lens is pretty simple and results in the following compact unit.

Small, compact, lightweight and weather sealed it's ideal for field use in terms of easy manouverability. The individual small flash units and diffusers can be rotated round the filter ring to provide optimum lighting directions and the control unit sits and locks neatly to the flash shoe.  Four AA batteries - I use rechargeables - power the whole thing.

Flash exposure is set from the back control panel.  I use manual exposure on the camera to set up aperture and shutter speed (max 1/250 sec on the EM1 Mkii) and, for most uses the left hand dial is on the camera/RC setting to allow TTL flash exposure.  It's possible to set the flash power manually but field working often doesn't provide enough time to play with the settings.  The right dial allows the user to balance the light between right and left flashes to enhance modelling.

So, does it work in practice?  And have I recouped any of my investment?  Short answer, yes.  Long answer, read on.

It's certainly easy to use in the field.  I can hand hold it for hours and even use it one handed, allowing me to hold a leaf or card for background colour to avoid the classic bright subject / black background unnatural flash 'look'.  In this case the background is a dock leaf.

The diffusion is not quite as good as I would like, the flashes generating small hot spots on shiny insects such as this greenbottle fly.

Having said that, even fairly sparkly subjects such as this iridescent eyed Dolichopus griseipennis fly come out well.

Duller subjects such as this tortoise shield bug, Eurygaster testudinaria, are no problem.

Overall, I'm very happy with the STF-8.  I'll do some experiments next year to increase the amount of diffusion to see if that generates superior results.  I'll also look at more focus bracketing / stacking to give a greater depth of field.  I've had a couple of goes.  It's not as easy as it sounds!

Finally, have I begun to recoup my investment?  Yes. $70 (to me) sales thus far. Hopefully there will be more next year.

A bit of fun

Maria collects teapots.  Specifically Cardew teapots from the now, sadly, defunct Cardew Pottery at Bovey Tracey, Devon.  She recently acquired one of their endangered species range, featuring a gorilla adult and baby.  Just for fun I thought it would be a good idea to photograph it in a natural jungle setting.

Out came some of the houseplants, arranged to balance the teapot.  Lighting was my rather primitive twin Godox T350 flashes fired through softboxes in my very restricted studio space.  I tinted the background using Lightroom but I really need prepare some poster sized out of focus type backgrounds that I can shoot in front of or use as layers in Photoshop to fill the background.

They're far from perfect, needing work on both the setting and the lighting.  However, it's just a for fun experiment - but it does give me some ideas for the bleaker days of winter.  Her dodo teapot next, perhaps.

No mow and other insects

As mentioned in the previous post the experiment by Plymouth City Council to create meadow areas from previously mown grass areas has certainly attracted a number of meadow butterflies.  Needless to say it's also attracted a fair few other insects that require the same type of habitat.  I've illustrated a few of the more colourful or interesting that I photographed this summer.  I've no doubt I missed many more - but there is always next year!

Potato capsid bug, Closterotomus norwegicus

Male tawny mining bee, Andrena fulva

Male hoverfly, Sphaerophoria scripta

Tachinid parasite fly, Ectophasia crassipennis.  This has only recently been added to the UK tachinid list but seems to be spreading quite rapidly along the South coast.

Parasitic wasp, Ichneumon suspiciosus

Largest of the UK hoverflies, the hornet mimic Volucella zonaria

Rhopalid bug, Corizus hyoscyami

The smaller size of these specimens required the use of the Olympus EM1 MkII, 60mm macro and STF-8 twin flash combination.  They work well together, providing a compact, lightweight system that can generate excellen quality.  I usually work between f8 and f10, 1/250 sec, ISO 200 and use the Manual setting on the selector dial to let the flash do the work, setting any flash exposure compensation as required.

As with the butterflies, it was fun capturing these shots.  The primeval thrill of the hunt underlies most wildlife photography and even macro work with free ranging insects is no exception.  Even if my now ancient knees do tend to object!

No mow and butterflies

During the Covid lockdown times Plymouth City Council decided to designate certain areas of previously regularly mown grass as no mow meadowland.  One such area starts less than 50 yards from my house in the Whitleigh area of Plymouth.  The cynic might say that this was just a cost cutting exercise - but the ecologist and photographer in me was delighted to see what would turn up now the grass wasn't being razed on a regular basis.

I had time on my hands this summer.  Unable to get further afield as often as before, a regular couple of hours among the new meadow area seemed like an ideal photo opportunity.  And so it proved.

The gear of choice was my Olympus EM1 MkII, 60mm macro with STF-8 twin flash, and 40-150mm f2.8 and 1.4x teleconverter.  I took a monopod to support the gear. Even with the effective IBIS and light weight of the camera and lenses it helps to have a little extra stabilisation.

The results delighted me:

Common blue, Polyommatus icarus

Gatekeeper butterfly, Pyronia tithonus

Large skipper butterfly, Ochlodes sylvanus

Marbled white butterfly, Melanargia galathea

Meadow brown butterfly, Maniola jurtina

Small copper butterfly, Lycaena phlaeas

Because the grass had been previously mown on a regular schedule only the hardiest nectar plants had survived. Principally Achillea millefolium, yarrow and Centaurea nigra, knapweed, they have provided a nectar source for these meadow butterflies, allowing them to colonise and flourish in what was previously rather sterile ground.  There are many who would consider the no mow results as being rather untidy - but for the colonising butterflies it's a new and previously unavailable space.

Of course it wasn't just butterflies that came in.  Many other insects alos arrived. But that's a story for another post.

 Focus stacking and bracketing

One reason I chose an Olympus EM1 MkI for my first foray into the M43 world was it's ability to do both focus bracketing and stacking in camera.  I was familiar with bracketing from my Canon days, using either a focusing rail or manual selection of different focusing points to generate a series of images where the plane of sharp focus was progressively moved forward within the same framing.  Those images could then be stacked using external software - I currently use photoshop - to generate a composite image with far greater depth of field than any single image in the stack.

It worked, but it was clumsy.  It took too long to set up and generate the necessary images and, because the camera and lens had to be handled during the exposure, risked introducing movement between the frames and consequent misalignment during the stacking process.

The EM-1 Mk I was a revelation.  For the first time I had a camera that would handle the bracketing automatically and, as an added bonus, perform the necessary stacking in camera.  Stick the camera on a stable tripod, frame the shot selecting a focus point for the beginning of the bracket, switch focus bracketing on in the menu and fire the shutter.  The camera then uses the autofocus motor of the lens to move the focal plane progressively forward to generate a set of bracketed images that could either be stacked on the computer or, if set up for stacking, in camera.  I was getting some excellent results.

With the EM5 MkII and now the EM1 MkII this capability has been enhanced and I find I use focus stacking more and more. Take this shot of Salvia 'Amethyst Lips':

Taken in my garden, it's a composite of 8 shots, using the 60mm macro lens at f3.5, stacked in camera to generate a final JPG, with good front to back sharpness of the subject.  It's not perfect - I have better shots available for licensing on Alamy - but it illustrates the ability of bracketing / stacking to vastly improve the depth of field within the subject while also retaining the diffuse background generated by the wide f3.5 aperture of the lens.

Or consider this shot of a forest of meadow cranesbill, Geranium pratense.  Another 8 shot in camera stack with the 12-40mm Pro at f3.5, 35mm focal length.

The image is sharp, front to back, through the whole frame.  As with the top shot, which did make a magazine front cover, it's suitable for print uses which need that level of detail across the whole image.

Of course, there are disadvantages to the in camera stacking on the EM1 MkII.  For a start the stack depth is limited to eight shots.  That might not be enough, particularly for static macro shots. The final image is a JPG, with all the lack of post processing manipulation leeway.  Subject movement can cause the in camera stack to fail to process.  Finally, the camera is frozen while the stacking takes place.

None of these are deal breakers.  Apart from the generated stacked JPG, the individual frames are saved as both JPG and Olympus RAW formats so they can be post processed individually and then stacked on the computer.  Particularly with non macro shots even eight frames might be too many.  Easy then to discard the unwanted and then do the stacking,  Because that can take awhile - my current computer is way underpowered - I've got into the habit of using the in camera stacking and then examinng the final JPGs from a number of tries to determine which one(s) to select and post process the RAW files before putting those through the stacking procedure in Photoshop.  And, of course, if the stack fails due to movement between frames (wind is your mortal enemy) you still have the individual frames.  There might well be a good shot amongst them.

Thoughts on the Olympus EM1 mkII and 40-150mm f2.8 Pro

By the standards of too many YouTube photographers and critics this combination of an old M43 camera (December 2016) and even older Olympus Pro lens (2014) should long ago have been discarded on the scrap heap in favour of newer and better equipment.  Surely only the latest and best is good enough for professional quality work?

Well no.  For my stock and other photography I don't need super high resolution, incredible high ISO ability or the smaller depth of field of a full frame body and expensive, larger aperture lens.  The 16 and 20Mp sensors of my two Olympus bodies, together with the f2.8 constant aperture of the 12-40mm and 40-150mm Pro and 60mm macro lenses are more than enough for my needs, and, more importantly, the needs of Alamy's client base.

Of all the gear the EM1 mkII and 40-150mm f2.8 Pro has definitely become a favourite.  Consider the following image:

It's actually two shots from a sequence, merged as a panorama in Lightroom, and chosen to show both the tuck and extension phases of the double suspension gallop of my daughter's deerhound / greyhound cross.  Sampson (the dog) was at full speed, around 40mph, on a local field.  I was panning at 142mm, ISO 800, f3.2, 1/2000 sec and using the continuous autofocus of the sequential high shooting mode. There is a little motion blur around the limbs - I could have gone down to f2.8 - but it doesn't detract from the fact that the extremely fast and accurate autofocus, large aperture 40-150 lens, and high speed shooting ability of the EM1 MkII body enabled me to get a sequence of sharp shots of a very fast dog.

Consider another image:

This is a Silver washed fritillary butterfly, taken at 150mm, f6.3, ISO 800. 1/2500 sec, using the close focusing ability of the 40-150 to fill the frame with the butterfly and the Inula flower head it was nectaring on.  Plenty of separation from the background with this shot, something it's often claimed you can't get with m43 gear.

Of course it's possible to get even better separation and even closer focusing with the addition of the tiny 1.4x teleconverter.  Consider this marbled white butterfly shot:

f4 at 1/8000 sec and 210mm.  Wide open at maximum reach with a teleconverter, ideal conditions for a soft photo.  Here's a 100% crop:

The addition of the teleconverter even gets me into small bird territory.  Here's a nuthatch at Stover Park in Devon

Of course my primary need is for my plant and garden photography.  Shots that I would previously have taken with the 180mm macro now come into the province of the 40-150mm  Whether individual plant portraits....

...or wider ranging shots:

Even gardenscapes are not exempt.  Crop this down to portrait format and it's even good enough for a respected magazine front cover:

All from an antiquated lens and camera combination, which, even with the teleconverter, cost me less than £1500.  I rest my case.

Ps.  The last image is focus stacked - but that's a tale for another time.

Why I switched to micro 4/3

Modern, higher end camera gear has become increasingly a) expensive and b) heavy.  As a pensioner on a limited fixed income and not always in the best of physical health I realised something had to be done to lower the twin burdens of cost and weight.  So I decided to dip my toe into the micro 4/3 waters.

The first purchase, back in May 2018, was a discounted kit (I think it cost me less than £500) comprising the 16mp Olympus OMD EM-1 and the Olympus 12-50mm f3.5 - 6.3 lens.  Relatively compact and lightweight (compared to my Canon 80D and 15-85mm lens), weather proofed and very customisable, it proved ideal as a walkaround camera tucked into a tiny camera bag.  And the image quality was more than good enough to generate files suitable for Alamy QC requirements.  I found that more and more I was leaving the Canon gear at home in favour of taking the Olympus.  Adding the tiny Panasonic 35-100mm f4.0-5.6 doubled my reach without a significant increase in weight.

And then I made a mistake.  Although the 12-50mm offered a measure of macro ability I wasn't that impressed with the resulting images.  I also needed better telephoto abilties than the long end of 12-50 could provide.  So I looked at the Olympus 60mm f2.8 macro, compared the weight against my Tamron 90mm macro, and decided to take the plunge with a used example.  

The difference in image quality was a revelation.  Sharper, with better contrast and resolution of fine detail, at both macro ranges and when used as a short telephoto, it forced me to upgrade my equipment.  The obvious first choice was the Olympus 12-40 f2.8 pro lens to replace the 12-50mm.  Just as good as the 60mm macro for image quality, albeit slightly bigger and heavier, it introduced me to Olympus mZuiko pro glass.  There's no turning back after that.

So the Canon gear went.  An Olympus EM-5 mk II replaced the EM-1 (it broke) for a couple of years until I added an EM1 mkII.  I've also added the Olympus 30mm f3.5 macro, Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 Pro, 1.4x teleconverter and, just recently the Panasonic 9mm to enhance my wide angle capability.  By m43 standards this is heavy kit.  By APS-C and full frame standards it's lightweight.  The image quality may not be quite as good as the best modern full frame gear, particularly at higher ISO or where shallow depth of field is needed, but for my need for compact, weatherproofed, rugged gear that can still produce images of high enough quality to satisfy the requirements of Alamy's clients it's fine.  And affordable.  Particularly when bought used.

And then there's all the compuational features.  Focus stacking and bracketing, Pro capture, Hi res shooting etc.  But that's for future posts.

 

  

My Alamy experience – part the sixth

It seems ages since I updated this blog.  I’m now close to completing 10 years with Alamy, have gone through various personal health upheavals which has prevented me adding as many images as I’d have liked, and even switched camera systems to M43 (mostly Olympus) to carry a little less weight as I’ve grown ever older.

Nonetheless I’ve added a lot more sales.  Back in January 2018 (nearly 6 years ago!) I’d reached the dizzy heights of 339 licences with total gross sales of $8,985.  Times have certainly moved on.  The current lifetime statistics are:

·         9257 images now on sale
·         2713 licences, spread among 1598 unique images, 17.26% of my current portfolio
·         Gross earnings of $48,501 from sales plus $1762 nett from DACS and other additional payments
·         Average net return over the last 6 years has averaged $265 a month.  Not a vast amount – but a welcome addition to my pension income.
·         My annual CTR remains at a healthy 1.05, still nearly twice the Alamy average
·         Zooms – customer interest in my images – remains healthy.  Currently 2831 of my images have been zoomed at least once, 30.58% of my total portfolio

Overall, I’m happy with my time with Alamy.  I try to curate my portfolio to only include images that I think have a decent market rather than throwing everything in to see what sticks.  Yes I’m a bit niche, concentrating on plants, gardens and macro nature and wildlife, but it’s what I know and what I love.  To earn from it is a very useful bonus!

I still get magazine front covers.  Here’s the latest:

 

I mentioned above that I’ve switched to M43 cameras and lenses.  That’s a subject for forthcoming posts but suffice it to say that the images generated by the system (see above) are more than good enough to pass Alamy QC and find favour with buyers.  And that one was quite a heavy crop from landscape to portrait.