Ricoh GR III Two-Year Review, Part One: The Hardware

I got my hands on a GR III as soon as they were available in the US, which was March of 2019. Since then it has become a constant companion through thick and thin, economic boom and pandemic turmoil alike. Though I use other cameras, the GR III is small enough to ride along with…

Lumix GX9 Review Wrap-Up: The Image Quality

I promised a while back to give a third and final part of my review of the Panasonic GX9, focused on image quality.  Truth be told, I hesitated so long because I don’t own the camera anymore. Years of Micro Four Thirds use are behind me, for the time being, as the GX9 was my…

Turn Something In

I've started shooting and posting a photo a day, on an online community. It's a pretty common project, the photo-a-day. You can find all sorts of permutations all over the photographic web. I've done several of these in monthly installments, but this time it's open-ended. Like always, the importance of daily photo challenges is to…

Art Versus Heart

Photography should be let go from its association with art. Not because art cannot encompass photography, but because it is hard to separate the complex web which "art" references. If we no longer worried about measuring up or impressing anyone with our photos, if they were no longer required to reference any artistic conventions, then…

Lumix GX9 Review, Part II: In Use

Perhaps an article dedicated to using the Lumix GX9 is not really necessary, as I’ve already written about using its predecessor, the GX85. They’re very similar cameras! But I have realized that the way I use a camera has changed since 2016, and my thoughts and feelings are a bit different now. I think that…

Lumix GX9 Review: Introduction

In 2016, I wrote a series of review articles about the Lumix GX85, Panasonic’s long-awaited update to the GX7 from 2013. The GX7 was a major upgrade from 2011’s GX1, which did not have a viewfinder. The GX-series have always been favorites for photographers like me, who value smaller camera bodies with well-thought-out features. Note…

Value of a Back Catalogue

When do we come to the end of wanting to produce "competent" photographs? I have been pondering this question as I go through my catalogue of photographs taken - many of them remembered, some forgotten, and some re-seen as I encounter them again after sitting in cold storage on a hard drive. Few are the…

Street Notes, July 2020

Things have been upended, we all know this and deal with it on a daily basis. Even in my neck of the global woods (shout-out to the podcast Stuff They Don't Want You to Know for that line, which I shamelessly stole), daily life has not been the same for quite some time now. Most…

Getting the Analogue Film Look from Micro Four Thirds In-Camera

  Micro Four Thirds cameras are frequently criticized due to their sensors being smaller than full frame, which makes it harder for photographers to get the "look" that's become emblematic of large sensors: shallow depth-of-field, smooth highlight transitions and lots of dynamic range. These characteristics were usually present (with the exception of the last, which…

Bessa T, Skopar and Superia Xtra 400 Make a Nice Combination

My wife and I recently took a short trip up the Pacific coast, and since my Ricoh GR III was in the shop, I only brought along one camera, the Voigtlander Bessa T, and one lens, the Color Skopar 35mm f2.5. While not the smallest combination, it did fit into a couple of jacket pockets…