Three Swans

Lumix G5, Lumix 100-300mm

View of SF from North Vista Point

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7

We stopped at the north end of the GG Bridge to see the last of the parade of ships for Fleet Week. I haven't taken out the Lumix 20mm lens for a while, and I'm still amazed by the great IQ from this lens.

--Warren

The Perfect Line

Lumix G5, Lumix 100-300mm

The annual Giro Di San Francisco bike race was held yesterday (Labor Day) down near Levi's Plaza.

I had a chance to practice my action photography. It was a really hot day, and I took a few hundred pictures. I'll probably put an online album together, but I couldn't resist picking one from the bunch to show first.

--Warren

Pacific Street

Lumix G5, Lumix 14-45mm

I missed this shot with your typical little old lady walking across the doorway, but a few moments later, this young lady walked across... :)

Familiar Places

Lumix G5, Lumix 14-45mm

Relic

Lumix G5, Lumix 14-45mm

Getting back into the swing of things. What's everyone up to?


--Warren

Don't Fence Me In

Lumix G5, Lumix 100-300mm

I shot this last April near the Golden Gate Bridge.


--Warren

American Kestrel in Yellowstone

Lumix G5, Lumix 100-300mm

Gail and I were on the lookout for wildlife in Yellowstone, and we soon learned that the quickest clue to seeing where the wildlife was is to spot where the wildlife photographers are clustered. I'm referring to the really SERIOUS photographers who are using huge tripods, dslrs, and gigantic lenses. 

We spotted the above group, and we thought that they were waiting for a bear, but when we walked up and asked them, they said that they were shooting an American Kestrel nest. They were waiting for the female to fly into the nest, and apparently, they had been patiently waiting there for an hour or more. They were extemely touchy bordering on rudeness about people walking in front of their cameras for fear of their prize winning shot being ruined by someone's head in the frame. 

Well, I am a big fan of raptors of all kinds, so I was excited about the possibility of getting a shot of the bird at its nest too! While everybody had their big lenses aimed squarely at the nest, I with my handheld rig saw the birds flying around the nest. The birds are very careful about protecting their nest site, so they are very cautious about flying there, hence the long wait to catch the "perfect" shot.

I was able to grab some shots of the bird perched at nearby branches before the final series of it landing at the nest.

We were lucky, Gail and I only had to wait 10 minutes or so before the bird decided to land next to the nest, and fly into it.

After that, all the big lens people packed up and left to find the next photo opportunity. And I was very happy to be part of the gang who were there to capture that moment.

--Warren

You Looking at Me?

Lumix G5, Lumix 100-300mm

I shot this robin at Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park. The wildlife viewing and scenery were fantastic at Yellowstone NP, and the scenery was great in all three parks (Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and Glacier) that we visited.

What has everyone else been up to lately?

--Warren

Stow Lake Moment

Lumix G5, Nikkor-H 50mm f2.0

I love the image "signature" of this lens, especially for B&W images.

Has anyone else paid attention to your lens signature? :)

Dan, for some reason, when you create a post on Blogger, I don't get a notification email. So I didn't know about your last few posts until I came onto the blog to upload my post.

Sorry for the delay, but I will comment on your excellent images very soon.

--Warren

Dynamic Ocean Beach and Land's End

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7

It was one of those amazing winter days a couple of weeks ago, in between the rain, when there was an almost perfect combination of sun, clouds, sand, surf, and reflections.

I must say that since I came back from our 2 month trip, I had an urge to do black and white pictures. I shot these two with the intention of making black and white images.

My previous session was with the D200, this time, I decided to take shoot the G5 with the spectacular 20mm f1.7 lens.

Which one do you like (and why)? I would love to know.

--Warren

Fun Selfie

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7

Part of the fun of playing on Facebook is to update profile pictures on a regular basis. The other day, I picked up my Lumix G5 w/20mm f1.7 combo for the first time in a couple of months, getting ready to take it out for a photo shoot.

I got this idea to take a picture in a picture using the swivel LCD screen on the G5, and my bathroom mirror.

I flipped the image horizontally so that what you see is not reversed in the mirror, and then converted it to black and white in Lightroom.

I'm going to post this as my latest profile picture on FB, and I thought I'd post it here as well.

In fact, I often cross-post my pictures to here, and elsewhere, but the difference is here, we can discuss our pictures in a photography related context.

--Warren

Feral Kittens

Lumix G5, Lumix 100-300mm

Our friend, Bob, affectionately refers to them as his "Grand Kids". These two were hiding in the bushes in his backyard. They are very timid, and get scared easily, so I had to be extremely stealthy with my shooting. The G5's optional electronic shutter really helped because the E-shutter makes absolutely no noise at all.

--Warren

BMW 3.5 CSL at Laguna Seca

Lumix G5, Lumix 100-300mm

And now for a change of pace... :)

Any BMW fans out there?

I shot this on Sat. 8/16 at the annual Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca Raceway. I practice my motorsports photography once a year at this event :). The BMW had just exited Turn 3 and was accelerating down the short straight to Turn 4.

This is a 1975 BMW 3.5 CSL that raced in the IMSA GTO Series of that era. It was one of four made for the IMSA GTO racing series. The engine is a naturally aspirated 6 cylinder, producing 440bhp at 8600rpm. (wow!) I really like the wild paint and outrageous spoilers, flares and generally bold appearance.

I have many more photos from Race Week that I may decide to post in the days to come.

--Warren

Alex

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7

This is Alex. I met him at the new San Francisco Leica Store. Alex is the gallery manager of the store, and his job is to line the brick walls that you see behind him in this picture, with selected works from Leica photographers. Alex is a photographer himself, but he has been too busy to shoot lately. He gets to use his choice of Leica gear from the store, lucky guy!  :)

--Warren

Chinatown Shoppers

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7

--Warren

Deep Thought

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7


--Warren

The "No Posting Signs" Sign

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7

This fence was full of these "No Posting Signs" signs, LOL :)

--Warren

Stranger Becomes Friend

Here's is Keshav, a very nice guy who I met the other day because he bought one of my lenses, the Voigtlander 35mm f2.5 Color Skopar Classic. We arranged to meet at a local coffee shop (picture #1) to do the deal. I really took a liking to him, so I invited him to lunch where we ordered one of his favorite dishes, Szechuan Shrimp (picture #2). After lunch, I invited him over to our house where I gave him my Fed 3b w/ 50mm Industar 61 (picture #3). I was planning to give away the Fed anyway, and I couldn't think of a more deserving photographer. Keshav is currently in the Bay Area for a summer internship, and he will be returning to Duke University in the Fall to finish his Business Degree. I also asked Keshav to join our blog. You'll be seeing more from Keshav soon. This series is interesting because each picture was taken with a different camera (Lumix G5 w/Lumix 20mm f1.7, HTC One X cell phone, and finally, Nikon D200 w/24mm f2.8 AF)

Keshav  is relatively new to photography, but very enthusiastic. He primarily shoots the street genre. 

--Warren 

Ghent, Belgium at Night

Lumix G5, Lumix 20mm f1.7
Taken: June 2013

I thought I'd kick off this month's project with one from the archives. This is a night scene taken in Ghent, Belgium one year ago.

There's nothing fancy here in terms of technique, I handheld the camera while bracing the camera on a railing on the bridge that we were standing on.

--Warren