Day Two | In Celebration of Dr. King

January 23, 2012

In recognition of Martin Luther King Day last Monday, Aida and I joined the many people visiting the new MLK memorial just off Washington DC’s Tidal Basin. The sharp wind and cold temperatures didn’t seem to hold back the thousands of visitors who now have a place to celebrate his great life and keep his memory alive for countless years ahead.

Reflecting Dr. King’s extraordinary power and inspired by a famous line from his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech (“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope”), the memorial features a 30-foot statue, two pieces of granite that represent the struggles he endured, and a crescent-shaped marble wall inscribed with quotations from his sermons and addresses. Like the Tidal Basin, the memorial’s perimeter will be lined with cherry blossom trees, with their annual peak blooming period coinciding with the anniversary of King’s assassination, April 4th.

As we tried to keep warm walking past smiling faces bundled in hats and scarves, we were lucky to catch young members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity from the University of Maryland, performing their signature stepping dance. The MLK Memorial was made possible largely due to the great efforts of the fraternity that Martin Luther King Jr. once belonged to when attending Boston University.

And only the second outing with my new Panasonic GX1 micro four-thirds camera, I once more enjoyed not lugging around the much larger DSLR while still capturing excellent image quality. Like in NYC, I used the mix of Olympus and Panasonic lenses and once again, preferred the Olympus 12mm, notably for its manual focus used during video recording. As the sun peaked through the clouds and started to set, a beautiful warm light illuminated the memorial and created a dreamlike setting in which to shoot. The bouncing highlights and settling shadows on the marble wall were magnificent and the birds circling overhead brought an added sense of life to the towering statue of this larger than life man.

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Tags: cherry blossom, DC, four-thirds, GX1, Martin Luther King, memorial, micro, MLK, Panasonic, stone, Tidal Basin, Washington
Posted in Street, Travel |
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Day One | GX1 in NYC

January 20, 2012

It was Wednesday, December 28th and with great anticipation, after a month of anxiousness with estimated arrival dates shifting and holiday shipping schedule complications… the just released Panasonic DMC-GX1 micro four-thirds camera, was finally ~ in my hands! And with perfect timing to be in the inspiring city that never sleeps, New York City!

Aida and I spent the next two days (and almost all nights) walking through colorful Manhattan and the artsy Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, catching up with good friends, eating, drinking, a bit of shopping and lot of shooting!
The unusually mild winter weather allowed us to enjoy the outdoors, exploring and bonding with the sleek and discrete GX1.

And for you photographers out there, here are some initial thoughts…
- Excellent image quality, on par with entry level DSLRs.
- I found that while the touch-screen is very nice to quickly select your focus area and navigate through other functions, it’s meanwhile quite easy to accidentally hit it and set a less than ideal focus area. There were several times after walking around that I would quickly grab for the camera, shoot a series of images, and then realize the focus point was way off to one side or another. Good news is that Panasonic provides the option to shut off the touch-screen functionality and use it as a traditional screen.
- A great detail is the direct movie record button at the top of the camera, next to the shutter – very convenient and quick to ensure you don’t miss the moment.
- I found the rear upper right dial to control the aperture value (in Av mode) as well as exposure compensation to very convenient, but often difficult to use due to the push / rotate dual control. Often I would try to adjust either aperture or exposure compensation but end up adjusting the other.
- Regarding lenses, I picked up both the Olympus 12mm (24mm equiv) f/2 and the Panasonic 14mm (28mm equiv) f/2.5 lens to test out and eventually keep the preferred, returning the other. My going in position was aside from the aperture differences, the 14mm Pany would offer much greater stealth in its smaller black form. What I found is that while both fit the bill, I’m undoubtedly favoring the ‘faster’ Olympus 12mm for its extra light gathering capability and manual focus ability, useful especially for video. Yes, the Olympus is silver and considerably larger (and more expensive!), although it’s turned out to be nice to hold with my left hand like a traditional SLR, whereas the Panasonic is hardly big enough.

Overall, my first impression was great and left me very happy with the new addition and looking forward to shooting much more.

For another look and much more info on the GX1, read up on the always trusty DPReview.

And as for NYC… in addition to the powerful vibe of this inspiring city, the highlight was definitely catching up with great old friends, reminiscing over fond memories, and creating new ones. I hope everyone had a great holiday and wishing you a very happy and healthy 2012!

* Photo (above, right) by the lovely Aida . . . she’s a quick learner!