Joiner's Musings

Well, the new lens arrived yesterday after a month delay. The Olympus Zuiko 45mm, 1.8 is small, light but seems to be well made. In an earlier post I mentioned that it took a long time for it to come, delayed by production or supply I suspect. It seems lenses are made in batches and there is a gap in availability when a production run is sold out. That has been the Olympus practice for years leading to inconsistent supply and I suspect other companies do the same thing to keep demand high and costs down.. Why risk everything when you make too many lenses that people might not want. In the case of this lens the demand is high because it is one of the best lenses that Olympus has produced for the Micro four-thirds standard. Here are some shots taken wide open to show some very nice bokeh effects, especially the last one where the flowers seem to stand out in a mesmerizing 3D way. I am going to have a lot of fun with this lens over the summer.

What do I take on vacation, camera equipment that is? Since I purchased my Olympus EPL-2 about a year and a half ago, I have changed the way I take photos. The EPL-2 is a very small camera and easy to take just about anywhere. So, a lighter kit is my preference. At the moment I am using a Panasonic 14-45mm zoom lens which has been serving me very well. Actually the lens is borrowed from my wife's Panasonic GF1 which now has the now infamous 20mm, f 1.7 more or less permanently mounted on it. The Micro 4/3s  format has been a good choice and now that the format is maturing I feel the need to expand my lens collection. Hence the recent purchase of the Zuiko 45mm, 1.8 fixed prime lens. I have not had a chance to use the lens but expect that it will quickly become a favorite. As for vacation shots the EPL-2 is fine for just about everything. But as I think back my trusty Olympus E-30, though a bit heavy with the 70-300 lens affixed to it, had been my reliable workhorse. Here is a

Halifax, Nova Scotia is an underrated city. Here is a shot of the stern section an old World War II Corvette with stuff on the back. Depth charges, perhaps; just a guess. This and many other sites along the Halifax waterfront boardwalk make the city an ideal vacation destination. There are a variety of restaurants to please any palate.  But there are plenty of other things to see and do. One of our favorite stops is Nova Scotia Crystal where I recently purchased a $100 beer glass, and yes, I really needed one. Even as a native of this province I always plan to spend a little time on the waterfront. And of course being from this province I always manage to bump into somebody I know which is always a good thing. Olympus E-500, f 7.1, 1/250s, ISO-400, 50mm, -0.3EV.

For the past couple of years we have noticed that the frog population on our lake in central Canada has been increasing slightly, not dramatically but there has been a noticeable difference. I remember commenting a half dozen years or so that that frogs seemed to have disappeared but now, a walk along the shoreline reveals that the frogs are back. Scientists say, perhaps the frog scientists, I don't know, but they say that one of the barometers of the the health of an ecosystem are the presence of frogs. Anyway this fellow did not mind my taking a photo of him (her?) Olympus E-510, f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO-400, 300mm.

We've been spring-cleaning the gardens around the house; weeding, cultivating, trimming and so on. We decided on a red bark mulch for the ground covering to accentuate the flowers in the beds and I must say it really makes the gardens stand out. The Bleeding Heart has always been one of the prettiest flowers in the garden and one of my favorites. It is such a shame that it only blooms in the late spring. Once the flowers complete their bloom phase the plant begins to die off though because it is a perennial we get to enjoy it every year. Olympus E-500, f/8, 1/10s, 45mm, ISO-100.