Environmental Portrait

I chose to post a series for two reasons today. First I have been at an 'Environmental Portrait' workshop and took these pictures for the assignment there although I did not submitt any of these for critique afterwards but chose a different one. The second reason is because it is a series from the London Bridge festival.
All pictures have been taken with the Panasonic LC1 and have only been converted to b&w or sepia.

The Reader

GX200, f4.4, 1/10, ISO 200, RAW, 72mm

For low light work the GX200 is really not good unless you can get away with using a low ISO and can rely on steady hands and the image stabilizer.
Took a few pictures while having some drinks in a pub this evening and this I liked best. I did have to underexpose the picture to get a good result out of the GX200, unlike the GRD I where you have to slightly overexpose. Also you need to desaturate the blue channel quite a lot so as not to get blotchy noise after using Noise Ninja or other noise reduction methods.
I do hope the next GX camera will have at least a faster lens and better high ISO to make these shots easier.

Woman in the Painting

GRD, f5, 1/35, ISO 400, JPG

On my way home I decided to take a longer way and stop over in Greenwich. This was a good idea since I came upon a gallery opening and a Q&A session with the artists. I snapped a few pictures and this is my favorite picture for today.
It really pays off to always have a camera with you at all times. There was a thread in the DP Review forum what the best camera is. THe best camera is the one you have with you today. No other camera is or will every be better than the one you have with you.

Saatchi Portraits

There won't be any update on my blog tomorrow, this is the only day I will take off from posting anything so I decided to have a slightly longer than usual series. Following Yesbuts' recommendation I went to see the new Saatchi Gallery in London today and see the exhibitions. It was very interesting and well worth the visit. I tok quite a few pictures but realized that most are portraits so I decided to post a full series based on this.
This month's Ricohforum contest theme is also Portraits. While I don't think I will use any of these pictures for the contest it makes a change from my usual pictures. All are taken with the GX200 in RAW mode at various ISOs but it's mainly between 64 and 400.

On a side note, there is also a new firmware available for the Ricoh GRD II you can download it from here. I already installed it and the new "shutter priority" mode is very nice and should come in handy.
Finally, it also has a moving AF target but no AE target? This is something Ricoh implemented since the R8 in cameras except in the GR series. I still don't understand why it hasn't been implemented fuly like in the other cameras, afterall the GRD II is the flagship camera. Still, good to see another firmware update for the GRD II.