First shots and whatnots
hive-114105·@tarazkp·
0.000 HBDFirst shots and whatnots
<div class="text-justify"> My new (totally unwanted purchase) Olympus EM-1 MK III arrived yesterday, but with so many things going on, I didn't have a chance to even take a peak inside the box until today. I *still* don't have time to really play with it, but since I am expected to take birthday photos of Smallsteps ASAP and capture a little of the guests tomorrow, I have had to set it up in a rush. The shots of the camera itself are taken with my phone.  There are plenty of things I need yet to customize in order to get it working the way I want it to work, but it will have to wait and I will mostly use the default positions for settings that I use. This is awkward at the moment, but I will manage for what I need to do - I hope.  I was going to do a more formal unboxing, but with limited time I thought instead I would get out and take some test shots instead. However, it is a very nice to hold unit and one thing I love about the Olympus cameras is their build quality. They feel solid and robust and all the little dials and levers are built to last. I was very happy with my last Olympus (the MK 1 version) and this one feels a little more refined, and the shutter movement is more satisfying.  The other "big" change is that the LCD screen swivels instead of just angles out, meaning I can more easily take all of those selfies I don't take. What it does do however is give me more options to preview my weird position shots, which many of them are. I tend to get twisted into positions and having the screen swivel makes it far more comfortable. ## First shots Next, I ran across to the neighbor who needed a bit of a hand with something and they have a lovely garden that is actually going to be photographed professionally for a magazine in the upcoming week. The first shot is of a dahlia, a flower I really like as it has such a satisfying form and structure. I like flowers that are firm, more than those that fall apart in a light rain, like peonies. Peonies are beautiful though.  The other thing the camera has is a decent face and eye recognition, which I haven't really tested yet, but it did pick up this Buddha statue and adjust the focus onto the eye of it - which surprised me a bit since it isn't so lifelike.  After helping with the pergola a little and mostly drinking a coffee there, it was back into our garden to organize a few things for tomorrow as since the weather will be good, we will have a garden birthday party. The painting of the plinth was finished yesterday, so now the outside of the house is done - kind of. There is still plenty more to do, but all that was meant to be painted by the pros is now painted. We haven't decided what to do with the stairs and entrance yet, but we will do that a bit later. Weirdly (imo), the strawberries are still getting new flowers on them. It is mid August and I am not sure if this is normal, but the weather has also been unusually warm for Finland at this time of year. It could very well be 10 Celsius and pouring down. We have been lucky with her birthday in general though, so can't complain.  These shots were taken with a 60mm Macro lens and are straight out of the camera with most not even being cropped. Obviously, a big factor in staying with the same brand of camera comes down to lenses and I have a few decent ones, so I don't have to get much more. I would like a better long lens as one I bought from a friend is slightly off focus, but that is not a necessity by any means.  Our rose bushes weren't overly great this year, so if they don't perform next year, I might have to remove them. They are doing better than these leaves indicate though, I just liked the color.  With all of the digging that went on for the drainage and removal of sopping wet soil (due to lack of drainage), our grass looks like it has gone through a light carpet bombing with tanks following the destruction. I wanted to get some grass in fast in the hope it would root before it gets cold, but it is growing a little slower than I expected, with it only sprouting yesterday. This means that it took over about a week. The time depends on the type of grass, but at the garden store, they only had *one type* and the type wasn't actually written on the box. Weird.  And a little fly sitting on a lovage leaf, an edible plant that I have no idea what to do with - I think it is for soups. I didn't play around with the settings before the fly took off, but the detail isn't too bad considering.  One of the things I was really looking forward to doing this year was making mojitos with fresh mint from the garden, but it hasn't happened even once. The mint is instead flowering from disuse, but it still smells good. We got it from the neighbor, but there appears to be two types of mint mixed together, as some have purple flowers, some white. There is also a *chocolate mint* variety that has a great flavor, but we don't have any here and I will put it in for next year. Mint is a perennial as far as I know, so it should come back strongly next year.   Finally, my wife wanted something to put on the table that is outside as it was looking a little bare for the party. She likes potted flowers, but can't seem to keep even the hardiest of them alive for long. It concerns me in regards to the entire garden we now have :D  Well, *so far, so good* in regards to the camera and now I have to charge the batteries for the flash and see if I can set that up for taking some birthday photos. I am hoping to get something of Smallsteps sitting on our stairs or in the construction mess that is the inside of our house at the moment, but I am a little unsure what it will frame like. However, it would be nice to have a memory of not only the birthday, but also what is going on in our lives at the moment. *Which is a lot.* Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ] </div>
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