Camera Test A

Panasonic GH1 "Stress Test" A from Ted Fisher on Vimeo.

My first session with the Panasonic GH1. The goal of the shoot was to find the camera's limits. Everything was shot handheld, seeking out conditions which might prove difficult on this type of hybrid system.

So I shot quite differently than one normally would. Rather than panning smoothly, avoiding shots with extreme or complex detail or aiming for the often-recommended shallow-depth-of-field look, I aimed to make the camera struggle.

I think it performed very well. The next test will include quite varied conditions and a different style of shooting. I'm hoping to do a low-light test as well.

Welcome to the Bigs

Above: A broken wheel results in a lost lead during the Big Wheel Race, October 18, 2008.

Eternal Return

Last year I walked past this statue near 59th Street and realized a second too late that the person hailing a cab in front of me was a great echo for the statue's pose. I missed that shot, but now whenever I go by I look for people in some relationship to the statue. Have not caught a cab hailing yet, but I will eventually.

And So Fashion Week Begins

Every so often I run around the reservoir in Central Park. It's a pleasant loop. There was good weather today, so after I finished two short editing projects and put one of them in the hands of a bicycle messenger and the other in my stack of materials for tomorrow, I went for the run.

On the back stretch, by the West side of the park, I looked up to admire the trees and the usual collection of people. And then I noticed a large umbrella, black outside and silver inside, and a man holding a medium-format camera at waist level. Flash. As I ran on, I saw a model holding one of those poses photographers get out of posing books. Flash.

"No," I thought, "you've got to move her hip forward. You're doing it wrong."

And then I remembered why I hate that sort of thing: even if you're doing it right, you're doing it wrong.