Plaza Blanca, thoughts on ultralight

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, so I can do the kind of landscape photography I want to do without having to break out the big guns every time. These lenses have admirable resolving capability considering I got the lenses for $130 and $160 respectively (grey market from a Japanese ebay seller). The other factor is their IS—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 cairns and other 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!

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).

I like the B&W rendering, never tried it with red rocks. At what time of the day did you shoot there?  I would assume sunset till near darkness since the shadows are unusual and you get some stars in the sky. Interesting!!!

I had an E-PL3 for a time -- enjoyed it muchly and did good work with it. It had the advantage over the E-PM1 I had previously owned in having the tilting screen; a great advantage for low down stuff and little weight penalty.

But the IBIS? Nah, forget it. I switched it off and steadied myself.

darg wrote:

I like the B&W rendering, never tried it with red rocks. At what time of the day did you shoot there? I would assume sunset till near darkness since the shadows are unusual and you get some stars in the sky. Interesting!!!

Yeah, I got there about an hour before sunset at about 7:30 and stayed there until about 9:30. Photography in the evening seems to work work pretty well for my family's schedules, and dusk seems to be my most successful time to shoot.

Thanks for looking!

Skeeterbytes wrote:

"Takes a licking and keeps on ticking."

That's it!

as uttered by John Cameron Swayze (who?). Why I recall this is anybody's guess.

Yup, always nice to avoid disaster by sheer luck. What a grand location!

Cheers,

Rick

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SpinOne wrote:

Klarno wrote:

I'm currently in the process of revamping my kit to be a little friendlier for ultralight landscape photography....

Yeah, I go fairly light, but I prefer EVF and weather sealing, and ditch the tripod. At the moment that means an E-M1, 12-40, a few filters, and a backup body (Pen-F or LX100). I plan to test the 12-100 one of these days. I suspect that, aside from adding the 2nd body, it isn't much heavier than your setup.

I'm not blown away by the 12-32, though it is ridiculously light and small.

IMO going truly ultralight would require something like a single Sony RX100. At low ISOs, I don't think you'd lose a lot of image quality.

Overall though, the stuff you posted looks pretty good. Keep it up

For myself, I need the tripod because a lot of my photography ends up being at dusk and at night. Lots of long exposures. I did consider one of those 1"-format travel zoom cameras, but I like having a true backup body available that can take all my lenses. (Also, has Olympus' Live Time feature been duplicated by any other manufacturers? That's the best feature in the entire system for landscape photography, IMO.) Really, I didn't just want ultralight, but also frugality and to repurpose gear I already own, to get more efficient use out of it. I find the E-PM2 with the VF-4 to be a great balance of smallness and versatility, and I can even put in in a jacket pocket with the 12-32 attached.

The 35-100 helps my kit in other ways as well. My first purpose for the E-PM2 was just as a secondary camera, to keep my telephoto lens on usually while a weather sealed wide zoom was attached to the E-M1 (The E-PM2 was also being sold on a fire sale and I actually came out ahead selling my GH2, and later picked up the VF-4 and I was still ahead). But it was never really able to fulfill that goal because of the 40-150 f/4.0-5.6 sensitivity to shutter shock, and the E-PM2's poor IS performance. The 35-100 solves this problem through its competent IS. It handles really nicely with the E-PM2 as well.

The 12-100 would be perfect for me, though it is out of my price range. I've had my eye on the 12-40 for a long time, or possibly the smaller and less expensive 12-35, but no matter which way I go I'll have to spend money, and frankly what I have is working for me. Maybe they just have inertia, but the Four Thirds lenses are doing their job more than adequately. What I really need is a weather sealed telephoto option before I consider changing anything in the wides.

Thanks for looking!