Green & Grey

GRD II, f7.1, 1/100, ISO 100, RAW

The weather has been again typical for the British summer we have here, grey and rainy for most of the day. I did not take many pictures and only took a handfull on my way home.
I wanted to give this picture a slight depressing and surreal feel to it. I have added vignetting, used fill light at 100%, added some noise and changes the contrast slightly. The result is what I had in mind although at first I wanted to have it in b&w.

Going Up

GRD II, f3.5, 1/540, ISO 100, JPG text

I think the Text mode in Ricoh cameras is pretty unique and very cool but not utilized enough. Maybe it is because people don't quite know what to do with it. It is not an easy mode to use for general photography so I will try to post some pictures taken with it and see what works and what doesn't. Then maybe have a whole Text mode week soon.

Talking Past Each Other

GRD II, f6.3, 1/500, ISO 80, RAW

Today, Ricoh has announced the GRD III. It has some pretty impressive specs and makes a great camera for street photography. The main standout features are the fast f1.9 lens, the user configurable Snap focus, the full-press Snap AF option, the improved 10MP 1/1.7" CCD sensor, the impressive 3" VGA LCD and a lot more. Head over here to read more about it and see some pictures.

I took this picture with the GRD II using the Snap mode and only slightly cropped it.

By the Pond

GRD II, f5, 1/320, ISO 200, RAW

The weather has been pretty bad today and it has been grey and raiing the whole day. Not great for walking around and taking pictures so I only took a handfull of pictures.

Mastermind

GRD II, f2.4, 1/750, ISO 80, RAW 2:3

Took this picture after work. I liked how the guy was strolling along with his hands behind her back. I added some vignetting and increased the contrast.

Ice Cream

GRD II, f2.4, 1/680, ISO 80, RAW

After the rain of the last days we had a bit of sunshine today. On my way home I took a few pictures around Greenwich park.

Bee

GRD II, f5, 1/320, ISO 80, RAW

After the people portraits yesterday, I went out to take some nature and macro shots today. I think I could call this shot an environmental portrait of a bee ;). The GRD II works well for macro but I do miss the CX1 for these kind of shots, it was so convenient to have the zoom and the quality was very good.

Smile!

GRD II, f2.4, 1/80, ISO 100, RAW

Another gray and rainy day in London without many pictures taken, I need to find a weekly project to work on.
I took this picture on my way home near the Greenwich Observatory, I find itreally cool that she is actually smiling in my direction instead of looking at the guy with the big dSLR taking a picture of her. I cropped the picture a bit tighter to get a closer composition on this.

Sandmountain

GRD II, f5, 1/500, ISO 80, RAW

The weather has been grey and rainy all day so I have not been taking many pictures and have been a bit uninspired. On my way home I saw this though and found it would make a nice picture due to the colors and contrast between the sand and sky. I added strong vignetting and used a very high contrast for this to give it an almost HDR look.

Somewhere Under the Rainbow

GRD II, f5, 1/320, ISO 80, RAW

After the heatwave we had in the last days we got the rain back today. The good thing about the rain today was that it created some dramatic clouds and shadows. On my way home I even saw two rainbows over Blackheath. It looked fantastic and while I was glad to have my GRD II with me, the CX1 would have been better due to the longer zoom for this since there were some nice detail shots I could have taken. I was split between two pictures for today, this one and one of both rainbows but somehow this just worked better.
I quite miss the CX1 and am thinking of buying one or the CX2 when it comes out to have in my bag just in case.

Mirror View

GRD II, f4, 1/250, ISO 80, RAW

Most photographers don't like shooting in the bright midday sun because of the harsh shadows. I take a big part of my pictures at that time though because this is when I usually get the chance to go out and take pictures. I do like the harsh shadows and have no problem with this but I also like high contrast pictures. The best thing about taking pictures at that time are the reflections you can get in Canary Wharf but also in other places.
I like this picture because it is washed out but the mirror image is well exposed and creates a contrast. The other reason is that the mirror image of the guy looks somewhat different, almost as it is another person.

On a side note, there will be a public hands-on event for the Olympus E-P1 at the Jessops near Tottenham Court Road tomorrow from 6pm. I will go there and will try to get some time with the camera and post my impressions. If you have any questions or want to know anything specific let me know and I will try to find out if possible.

Under a Grey Sky

GRD II, f7.1, 1/640, ISO 200, RAW

Took this picture after work today. The weather was again not very good and it was pretty grey for most of the day.
I wanted to give the picture a very surreal feel, the sharp and soft areas merge together with very bright colors and the grey sky with dark corners from the vignetting. Not sure if I went slightly over the top with this but I do like the result.

Gallery Visit

GRD II, f3.2, 1/160, ISO 400, RAW, 40mm

Took this during my lunch break while having a look at the MotoExpo and the new Getty Gallery at Canary Wharf. I liked how they were looking at the picture and wanted a very close composition and 1:1 crop that does not include the full heads, I think it works very well.

Moonshape

GRD II, f2.4, 1/2, ISO 100, RAW, 40mm

Took this while walking home after work today. I liked how the shape of the kite looked like the shape of the moon above and even the yellow color of the kite matched the moon.

Videographer

GRD II, f4.5, 1/320, ISO 100, RAW

I finished work early and as so often recently went for a walk in Greenwich park where I took a few pictures with the GRD II. Like yesterday, I knew after taking this picture that it will probably end up as my choice for today.

Today, I also recieved my CX1 review sample. There will be a few changes to my review system this time round so I will have something up by tomorrow.
The first impression of the CX1 however is great, the camera is extremely well built, the AF is very fast and that screen is just amazing.

Crossing

GRD II, f4, 1/320, ISO 100, RAW

After yesterday's post, I had a look through my recent pictures and noticed that I have hardly done any street photography in London. I have tried to look out for new things but at the end I do enjoy street photography more. I decided to do more street photography this week but also want to try and give it a different look.

I took this picture (as so many other) during lunch, at first I noticed the reflection on the street and it looked like a pedestrian crossing. Then I needed a subject but did not want to have the subject full in the frame. I have boosted the contrast a lot in this picture to get a picture without many grey tones, almost like using the text mode. I cropped it to 1:1 format because I feel it works beter like this and I started to really like the square format, although I prefer to always shoot in 4:3 and crop later to the intended format.

Four Friends

GRD II, f2.4, 1/30, ISO 283, RAW

I haven't been that inspired recently. Don't want to become stale and upload boring pictures so I think I need to set myself another project to work on. Maybe I have to start with a weekly theme again since this is always fun and more challenging than just taking random picturss of things I notice daily.

Took this while walking home through Greenwich park today. It was raining but the walk was still nice and quite sheltered by the trees. This however also reminded me why a weather proof camera would be great and make things a lot easier.

Kid's Fountain

GRD II, f2.4, 1/40, ISO 80, RAW

After the marathon (in taking pictures) yesterday, I took it easy today. The weather was the complete opposite as it was cold and raining so not great for walking outside and taking pictures.
Took this picture after lunch on my way back to the office and liked the colors and contrast that the grey weather gave to this fountain.

Shadow & Texture

GRD II, f3.5, 1/500, ISO 80, RAW

Took this picture while out for a walk today. I liked the light and texture of it.

Another Shadow

GRD II, f4, 1/500, ISO 80, RAW

Took this again in Greenwich park and liked the form of the shadow. I thought of changing it to b&w but found that the tones of green worked much better.