If you have some free time this weekend, take a few minutes to check out The Atlantic's presentation of a few highlights from the California Academy of Sciences’ BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition. Some very beautiful and unusual nature photographs, state of the art circa 2019.
There's a book.
Mike
(Thanks to Jim Hayes)
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Featured Comments from:
David Evans: "Excellent pictures there. Interesting how they make an impression even at a measly 1.5 megapixels. 'Clouds of Salt' is the one I keep coming back to. I would like a large print of that on my wall."
Thanks. For some moving elephant pix, check this out: https://www.instagram.com/sheldricktrust/
Posted by: Stephen Gilbert | Friday, 10 May 2019 at 07:48 PM
It seems that lens perfection has now taken the place of pixel count as the feature to be pushed on us photographers, many of whom have little power to resist. Yes, I agree, it would be great to see manufacturers compete to provide the simplest really good lenses and cameras.
I recently decided to sell my Olympus EM1 mk2, and my set of Olympus 'Pro' lenses. The camera and lenses are perfect, except for size, and in the case of the camera, complexity. I realized that I had once again succumbed to buying a DSLR, but in this time cleverly disguised. It's the type of camera/lenses that I buy on spec lust, but then don't actually use much in practice. I had to do something drastic when I realized that I had only used the superb 17mm f/1.2 Pro for test shots in the entire time I owned it! (I hope this is the very last time I need to re-learn this lesson!)
Even with the custom selections on the EM1.2, I still found that getting fluent with the camera was impossible; so it has to go. Oddly perhaps, I decided to keep my 7 year old EM5, (and some non-pro but light lenses) which according to Lightroom is my most used camera of all time, closely followed by my 5 year old Leica M. I only use the EM5 now when I really need auto-focus or something else that the M cannot provide, so I expect the M will soon overtake it in usage.
I find my tolerance for 'big', 'heavy', 'complex', but 'excellent' is getting less and less each month, being replaced by 'small', 'light', 'intuitive', but still 'excellent'. Now I'm looking for an intuitive auto-focus camera, and unfortunately the best option for me seems to be the Leica Q2. It's going to need a lot of thought.
Posted by: Peter Wright | Friday, 10 May 2019 at 08:23 PM
I am in awe of the dedication and patience of some nature photographers. Entirely worth it though.
Posted by: Steve Jacob | Friday, 10 May 2019 at 08:54 PM