Plaza Blanca, thoughts on ultralight

Klarno wrote:

I'm currently in the process of revamping my kit to be a little friendlier for ultralight landscape photography. To this end I'm selling my Sigma 19 and 30mm f/2.8 lenses, which I hardly use, and have instead picked up the Panasonic 12-32 f/3.5-5.6 and 35-100 f/4.0-5.6. These actually prove to be somewhat of an improvement for general purposes—the Mega OIS in these lenses reliably lets me shoot a good 3 stops slower handheld, unlike the IBIS in the E-PM2 (which seems to encourage shutter shock and I'm lucky if I can get 1 stop out of it).

I recently received my E-PM2 back from being repaired at Precision Camera after a premature shutter failure. On this trip, the first trip since getting it back, I managed to slip on some loose rock and my camera went straight for the ground, scuffing the camera's housing and cracking the plastic over one of the strap lugs. Joy of joys...everything's still working fine though.

The subject is an area called the Plaza Blanca, just outside of Abiquiu, NM. Once a favorite painting location for artist Georgia O'Keefe, this sandstone landscape is on private land owned by the Dar-al-Islam Islamic Education Center, and they welcome visitors as long as they follow some very general rules—pack it in, pack it out, no overnight camping, be careful not to damage delicate rock formations or cryptobiotic soil. This region is also often used for location shooting in Hollywood productions (the blockbuster Cowboys vs. Aliens was filmed here, and a pilot for a TV series called Scalped shot here just a few weeks ago).

Visitors to the Plaza Blanca, many of whom are also visitors to the mosque. build many cairns and examples of rock art.

E-PM2 with Panasonic 12-32 f/3.5-5.6 and VF-4, on modified Manfrotto 725b DIGI tripod. This setup weighs just 4 lbs 1.35 oz (1.85 kg for those who use science units). This tripod doesn't go low-angle easily, but given the 12-32's lack of close focus ability, this tripod seems to do pretty well for ,

The greatest weakness of the Panasonic collapsing kit zooms is a lack of close focus ability. I intended initially to supplement my PEN with just my cell phone for closeup photography. The iPhone SE does quite well in its own right, able to shoot RAW with the same camera module as the 6S. However its handling and control scheme makes the smartphone perform better, IMO, as an analogue to a Lomo or similar camera. I've ordered extension tubes to improve my macro shooting situation.

Same image as above without the B&W treatment. I liked the pastel tonality that happened here.

Thanks for looking!

Outstanding images!  I really like the switching back and forth between B&W and color, very effective as I scroll through your photos.

Your story reminds me of the Timex watch commercials when I was a kid - they'd strap a watch to the prop on an outboard motor and go over sand bars and ski jumps with the boat, then pull the watch off, show it to the camera, and say "Timex - the watch that just keeps on ticking!" (Or something like that).