This is a SELF. PORTRAIT.
(It is NOT a..."the S-word.")
Finally! A day opened up when I could take the E-M1 to the Boston Public Library for some playtime. I don't really start learning about a camera until I spend a couple of hours with it there, I'm sure that longtime followers of my Flickr feed can recite a half a dozen test scenes by heart: Bates Hall Long, Bates Hall Oblique, Bust Of Adam Engst, Galahad At The Round Table, Lions Fore And Aft, Moses. I'm so familiar with taking those photos (and two or three in the Public Garden) that by the time I get through all of them, I've developed a good understanding of what the camera puts you through as a user and how well it can deal with a variety of scenes.
But despite my familiarity with the BPL's spaces and fixtures, I never get bored in there. I almost always discover a new photo I had never seen before. It's what keeps me coming back, and it's why I keep recommending the BPL to tourists.
Here I am in the Wiggin Gallery. It often holds special exhibits but it happened to be empty today.
I set the EM-1 up on the mantel to take some long-exposure photos of the room, using my phone as a viewfinder and trigger and keeping out of the shot. After a couple of photos, I got an idea for a self-portrait and started experimenting. I liked this composition enough that I decided to try to arrange my facial features into something approximating a pleasing expression. (It's a lot of work and I'm always in desperate need of a hot, soothing bath afterwards.)
This is the first camera I've owned that has a phone controller app. I love it! I can choose a focus point, choose exposure settings, set and trigger a countdown timer, and see what the lens sees. When some people shop for a camera, they get obsessed with charts and rankings of image sensors and ISO noise and the like. That's not valuable research. What you hope to get in a new camera is the ability to take kinds of shots that aren't possible with your current one. This phone app opens up all sorts of creative possibilities...and self-portraits is only the start.
I confess that I'm pleased to have a halfway-decent self-portrait. Is that narcissism? Maybe...but I see it more as an postcard to my future self. I sometimes wonder if, in my old age, I might wish I'd taken more photos of myself during my travels. It's not narcissism if the person you're looking at in the photo is no longer yourself.
Side note: I am wearing my Photographer's Toque. I mostly stopped wearing this kind of hat a couple of years ago when I switched from the Bigass SLR™ to a camera without any kind of eye-level viewfinder. Now that I'm using a camera with an EVF, I once again need a hat that won't get knocked off when I hold a camera up to my face.
(Actually? The problem isn't not so much the annoyance of pushing my usual hat off of my forehead slightly to make room for the camera. The problem is comes six seconds later, when a light breeze knocks it off of my head and I need to chase after it.)
This is a SELF. PORTRAIT.
(It is NOT a..."the S-word.")
Finally! A day opened up when I could take the E-M1 to the Boston Public Library for some playtime. I don't really start learning about a camera until I spend a couple of hours with it there, I'm sure that longtime followers of my Flickr feed can recite a half a dozen test scenes by heart: Bates Hall Long, Bates Hall Oblique, Bust Of Adam Engst, Galahad At The Round Table, Lions Fore And Aft, Moses. I'm so familiar with taking those photos (and two or three in the Public Garden) that by the time I get through all of them, I've developed a good understanding of what the camera puts you through as a user and how well it can deal with a variety of scenes.
But despite my familiarity with the BPL's spaces and fixtures, I never get bored in there. I almost always discover a new photo I had never seen before. It's what keeps me coming back, and it's why I keep recommending the BPL to tourists.
Here I am in the Wiggin Gallery. It often holds special exhibits but it happened to be empty today.
I set the EM-1 up on the mantel to take some long-exposure photos of the room, using my phone as a viewfinder and trigger and keeping out of the shot. After a couple of photos, I got an idea for a self-portrait and started experimenting. I liked this composition enough that I decided to try to arrange my facial features into something approximating a pleasing expression. (It's a lot of work and I'm always in desperate need of a hot, soothing bath afterwards.)
This is the first camera I've owned that has a phone controller app. I love it! I can choose a focus point, choose exposure settings, set and trigger a countdown timer, and see what the lens sees. When some people shop for a camera, they get obsessed with charts and rankings of image sensors and ISO noise and the like. That's not valuable research. What you hope to get in a new camera is the ability to take kinds of shots that aren't possible with your current one. This phone app opens up all sorts of creative possibilities...and self-portraits is only the start.
I confess that I'm pleased to have a halfway-decent self-portrait. Is that narcissism? Maybe...but I see it more as an postcard to my future self. I sometimes wonder if, in my old age, I might wish I'd taken more photos of myself during my travels. It's not narcissism if the person you're looking at in the photo is no longer yourself.
Side note: I am wearing my Photographer's Toque. I mostly stopped wearing this kind of hat a couple of years ago when I switched from the Bigass SLR™ to a camera without any kind of eye-level viewfinder. Now that I'm using a camera with an EVF, I once again need a hat that won't get knocked off when I hold a camera up to my face.
(Actually? The problem isn't not so much the annoyance of pushing my usual hat off of my forehead slightly to make room for the camera. The problem is comes six seconds later, when a light breeze knocks it off of my head and I need to chase after it.)