Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Well! That sure takes the berry off the bush”—from the 1959 movie The Gazebo
Weather Report: The earliest first snowfall in the Denver area is usually around the beginning of September. The average first “real: snowfall is typically at mid-October and last year on October 18, Denver got its first snowfall of the season. Daisy Hill is located about 30 miles or so Southeast of Denver. My home sits at an elevation of 6,100-feet, above Denver’s famed 5,280-feet, and it’s not uncommon that we get snow here while it’s just raining in nearby Parker (at 5,869-feet.) This Fall we’ve had little snow, at least not until this week. As I write this , seven to fourteen inches of snow were forecast accompanied by frigid temperatures but we blew by that yesterday and after three snow days in a row, it’s still snowing as I type this.
Gazebo In the Snow
Located on Mainstreet on the edge of downtown Parker, Colorado, O’Brien Park encompasses a softball field, multipurpose field, basketball court, two playgrounds, an outdoor pool and a gazebo that serves as the backdrop for different kinds of events, including concerts and an annual holiday lighting ceremony.
As I’ve mentioned here before, perhaps ad nauseam, whenever I get a new camera or lens or maybe just want to just shoot some photographs during a PhotoWalk, I like to go to O’Brien Park and start with a few shots of the gazebo. The above image was made with an Olympus EM-10 Mark I that Mary gave me as a Valentine’s Day gift right just the company introduced its replacement, the Mark II, which is my typical luck when it come to getting a new camera.
OM Systems is the successor to Olympus Corporation, which still retains a five percent share of the company. Right now, OM Systems is selling the Mark IV version of the E-M10 The Mark I, like mine, and the Mark II that followed it, had metal bodies while the Mark III’s uses plastic. You can click this link to learn what the late, respected YouTuber David Thorpe had to say about the Mark III. You can pick up a used Mark I body for a little more than 200 bucks, which seems like a good deal for a new photographer and a wonderful introduction into the Micro Four-thirds system.
Here’s the Good Stuff: The buzz around the EM-10 Mark IV is that it’s better than the Mark III that proceeded it. The Mark IV retains the Mark IIII’s plastic body but has a larger grip. More importantly, it has a 20.3-megapixel sensor that should deliver higher quality images and has a flip-down screen instead of the side articulated screen found in the previous three iterations. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea but if you like making selfies, it might fit your needs.
How I made this shot: I photographed the O’Brien Park gazebo last year after a snow storm with my Olympus EM-10 Mark I and Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens with an exposure of 1/800 sec at f/9 and ISO 200. DxO rates the lens somewhere between Good and Excellent but my experience with is has been that it’s a sharp, well-made optic. Because I’ve photographed this gazebo many times in different months of the year and at different times of the day, I’m always looking for new ways of looking at it. Here I applied the (digital) Gum Bichromate technique that’s described in my book Creative Digital Monochrome Effects.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
My book Creative Digital Monochrome Effects is available from Amazon and (I think, anyway) is a fun read. There’s even a chapter on infrared photography. It’s available for $16.16 but bargain shoppers can pick up used copies starting at around seven bucks. No Kindle version is available at this time.