I have been a prime lens shooter from the start and to this day I would rather carry two bodies and two primes than carry a zoom lens. Speaking only for myself, I find zooms make me lazy with my composition. Instead of walking back or moving closer to my subject, I tend to use my zoom ring to do the heavy lifting. I can go on and on about my thoughts about zooms vs. primes, but considering my last adventure with my groomsmen and groomsgals, I had no choice but to use my E-M1 and the Olympus Pro Zoom. Why, you ask? It is my only weather sealed combo and I heard from one of my bestmen (that's right I had 2) the possibility of getting wet was extremely high. He was right, I got wet but my camera did not =).
On so many occasions I have thought about selling this lens, but this trip made me realize that this piece of glass is a keeper. What particularly stood out was how sharp this lens is after processing my RAW files through Capture 1 Pro (I would export TIFF files from C1P and import to Lightroom, my preferred editor - more on this in another post). Additionally, I loved how close I could get with some of my shots. You will see below some of the close ups I took while on the Bridge to Nowhere hike - a 10 mile round trip hike out in the San Gabriel Mountains, which I highly recommend to all Southern California residents. At the end of the day, I found this lens/camera combo a pleasure to use. While it may be larger than other m43 gear, not once did I feel the weight even after 6+ hours of walking on stones, tightrope walking across creek logs and scaling mountain ledges.
I want to keep this post short on words, and heavy on images. I had no real processing style for this set. I merely wanted to test out some the cool VSCO presets I've neglected for the past year and a half. I was leaning towards the Fuji and Polaroid sets. Happy viewing
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| Meet Vince, our adventure guru and the cousin who is always down to go on an adventure. |
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| The organizer and co-best man |
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| I find this to be a great semi-macro lens for its close focusing abilities. Nothing will replace a dedicated macro lens, but that means limiting my photographic options. The 12-40mm is a fantastic all-around lens |
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| What I loved most about the hike is feeling like I was getting away from the city. I will most definitely come back to this place. It really is beautiful |
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| The landscape changed dramatically half way through the hike. Although I didn't have a long enough lens, we did see rams on the hillside. |
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| The grooms party minus a couple people |
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| At the end of the hike you can bungee jump off the bridge...I am too risk averse to jump off a perfectly functioning bridge, but the guy with the flag doing it looked pretty cool |
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| There were a lot of rocks to cushion the fall IF the bungee happens to fail. |
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| I made a new friend. |
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| Not perfectly in focus, but it definitely shows how flare resistant the Pro Zoom lens is. |
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| The Fuji VSCO presets have a really nice pop especially in the blue. |
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| I could have gotten closer but.... |
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| Some of the riskier parts of the hike. |
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