It's been suggested that I would have done better shooting color,
multiple cameras, and a zoom or two on my eastern Washington trip. The
problem is that I don't have multiple mirrorless cameras and zoom lenses
from 8 - 500mm. I've always been a fast primes kind of guy. That's
mostly what I have, for both my Oly E-M5 and my Leica RFs. I like to
travel light, especially with the shoulder and knee problems I've had in
recent years.
I had been toying with the idea of "taking a vow" of B&W for some time.
I happen to like B&W. It is my "roots." I decided to try it out on
this trip because the original excuse for the trip was to see Grand
Coulee Dam and photograph it from the inside and outside. I also wanted
to see what I could do in B&W and a yellow filter with the landscapes
and clouds. Eastern Washington is not that colorful. The rocks are
mostly black basalt. The hillsides are pale green (they will burn out to
brown in the next month). I figured that I could emphasize line, form,
and texture rather than color.
What we didn't know until we got to Chelan was that Grand Coulee's
spillways were not open, and the tour was severely restricted by
security concerns and construction. They don't take you into the
powerhouse nor on top of the dam. Cameras were allowed, but not camera
bags. We heard this from people who had already gone there. So we
decided not to go to Grand Coulee, but to Chief Joseph Dam instead.
There, I got to see everything I wanted to see inside and outside the
dam, but no pictures were allowed within the secure zone around the dam
or inside the dam itself. So I had to be satisfied with what I could get
in the public areas near the outside end of spillway, and above it.
Frankly, I'm happy with what I got there, as I am with most of the Lake
Chelan pictures I posted.
Obviously, the bear picture would have been better with a long lens. But
since the Leica Monochrom camera I used has no anti-alias filter and no
color interpolation effects, results are often good even at 100%. I
posted it not because it was a masterpiece, but because I thought you
all would enjoy seeing a bear swimming in the wild.
Should I upgrade my micro 4/3 kit at some point? Maybe. I've thought
about upgrading the E-M5 to a Mark II or even an E-M1 Mark II. I've
thought about getting the 14-40/2.8 Pro and 40-150/4-5.6 zooms. I had a
40-150 with my E-30, and I liked it, when I could bring myself to carry
it. As I get older and equipment breaks or ages out, who knows...
--Peter
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