It’s likely that most of us think of family vacation photos when we think of a snapshot. This image certainly isn’t that – I don’t know who the woman or the dog are – but it’s not necessarily artistic either. Could context have anything to do with our perception of an image like this? For example, if it was viewed with a slide show of photos of a family on vacation, most would probably think it was some family member, or maybe even a mistake – just an extra, unintended shutter click or a badly composed image of a shop window. But view it in a collection of artistic photos in a gallery exhibit by a famous photographer and most would see it in a completely different way. Same photo – different perception. Is one interpretation more right than the other? Is art, then, simply in the eye of the beholder?

I’m reminded of an interview of Annie Leibovitz that appeared in the March/April 2009 issue of American Photo.  In the article she says, “In the beginning, I traveled alone. I carried my equipment, and if I used a light, I would set it up myself. Some people took the results as a style. A writer for American Photographer once said the the umbrella stand and strobe reflected in the mirror in my portrait of Jimmy Carter was a “skillfully implemented device.” As I recall, I walked into the room holding the light and set it down and plugged it in and started taking pictures. I didn’t think about it.” Do art/photography critics determine what is artistic for us?

I for one, just don’t get a lot of  Ansel Adam’s work. Sure – I appreciate the technical difficulties he overcame to take and print his photos. I can see his skill in much of his work, but I’m just not a big fan of black-and-white landscapes. And some of his photos I just don’t understand at all. He did a photo of a firehouse in San Francisco, for example that doesn’t speak to me whatsoever. Just a shot of a building.  Another of a Robert Lewis Stevenson Memorial that looks to me like an ordinary vacation photo (except Mom and the kids aren’t in it.)  What makes that artistic? His name attached to it? As my skills improve, will I go back and look at these photos in a different way with a different understanding?

I’m not convinced that I can begin to take artistic photos until I understand what makes a photo artistic to me, even if those photos aren’t considered artistic by others. I’ve taken hundreds of photos of pretty flowers and some look very nice, but I don’t think any of them are artistic. I look at them and think, there’s got to be a way to take these to the next level.  Something that will make them stand apart from a skillfully accurate  representation of a flower.  To that end, I’ve enrolled in an online course called “Fine Art Flower Photography” that starts in July. Will it enable me to elevate my work? That remains to be seen. If nothing else, I look forward to the experience.

Panasonic DMC-G1

This is my latest camera purchase. In addition to the standard 14-45mm lens, I also got the 45-200mm lens with it. All purchased from Samy’s Camera online. I already own two Nikon bodies – a D40x and a D300 plus 8 lenses, so why would I want yet another camera?  The simple answer is weight.

I like to go hiking and since the D300 is my main camera, I usually carry it plus at least my 16-85mm lens, a flash, maybe a macro lens, and various accessories. That’s a surprisingly heavy combination of gear. I had a small camera backpack but it was not comfortable. So I bought a larger general purpose pack with a waist belt. That was more comfortable but not designed for camera gear, so it was inconvenient (no internal compartments or padding). I could have used the D40x body, but it’s still bulky and I knew I’d be tempted to take the same set of lenses, so I wasn’t really going to save much weight that way.

Hence, the DMC-G1. I had one I’d ordered from Adorama for a couple days and tried it out both hiking and on a city walk. Turned out to be nearly ideal! I like, when I’m hiking, to take photos of mushrooms and fungi. That requires being down at ground level. With the D300, I have to use a right-angle finder, which is not that easy to see through. With the DMC-G1, I can use the rotating LCD display and it is ever so much easier! Just wonderful for low-level stuff. Plus, it’s got a feature that magnifies the display for manual focusing and that is terrific for this kind of close-up work. For general walking around in a city, the D300 with 16-85 is a pretty heavy combination. The DMC-G1 is like a feather. After hours of walking, I didn’t feel the weight at all. It’s a joy to use and makes me feel much more spontaneous. It gives you the feeling of a point-and-shoot, but with all the sophisticated control I enjoy with my D300. The D40x requires you to access the menu system for almost all settings, but the DMC-G1 has more controls and much-easier-to-access menus.

The one drawback, so far, is lack of off-camera flash. The D300 offers a commander mode that I can use with my SB-600. That’s very useful for photographing flowers, mushrooms, etc. No such thing on the DMC-G1. Only the small on-camera flash. And, of course, my SB-400 and SB-600 flashes aren’t compatible with it anyway. I have yet to figure out a solution, but maybe that’s just as well. Carrying a flash adds weight and increases set-up time, which I’m feeling like I want to avoid with this camera.

The few photos I took with the camera a couple weeks ago (see my Flickr set on Fredericksburg) lead me to believe that the quality is very good. The camera I ordered from Samy’s just arrived yesterday, so I have yet to get out and shoot with it. On my agenda for today though. (See my earlier post about why I returned the first camera to Adorama.)

One other drawback – I’m using Photoshop CS3, and Adobe Camera Raw in that version doesn’t support raw files from the DMC-G1. An upgrade to CS4 is expensive. The camera comes with  raw converter software though, which I have yet to try out. I’ve read that it’s pretty good. Just an extra step though, since I can’t go directly into PS from the converter. All that aside, I’m likely more inclined to just shoot JPG with this camera anyway since it’s more of a fun camera. I’ll continue to use my D300 for serious work.

Oh, and did I mention how cute that red color is?!  It’s cute to me anyway. And that little 14-45mm lens is just a little gem. The 45-200 is considerably larger and weightier. All in all, I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with my new toy.

I debated for a while whether or not I really wanted the 45-200. I doubted I’d use it much, especially since I intended this camera to serve as a light-weight, walk-around camera and adding a second lens didn’t really make sense. In the end though, I thought I might regret not getting the lens at that price because if I decided later that I wanted it, it would cost me about $300.

Since I’d already placed the order, I decided to send an email to sales@adorama.com requesting a price match. I sent them the link to the camera on Samy’s site so they could see it was a legitimate price. I said I wanted to keep the camera (due to arrive the following day) and have them sell me the 45-200 for $140. Otherwise, I said, I’d have to return the camera to them for a refund. A couple days passed with no response.

The camera arrived and I really liked it and definitely wanted to keep it. So I went to Adorama’s web site and sent a message (using their contact form) to Customer Service restating my request and saying that I hadn’t heard from Sales. I got an automated response saying a real person would get back to me within 24 hours. Well, 24 hours came and went with no repsonse. In the end, I had heard nothing after 4 days, so I decided to return the camera for a refund and place the order with Samy’s.

The next day, I got an automated email from Adorama asking me to rate my purchase experience on ReselleRatings.com. So I did and was not shy about telling how unhappy I was. I soon got an email from RellerRatings saying that Adorama claimed the invoice number I’d used was not legitimate (even though Adorama had sent it to me) and that I must not even be a customer or hadn’t paid for the equipment! So, I sent a copy of the invoice to ResellerRatings and they straightened Adorama out on that score. Adorama also posted a reply to my rating suggesting that they must have replied and maybe I should look in my spam box. Also, how concerned they were about providing great customer service, blah, blah, blah. Not, of course, that they ever bothered to look up my account in their own computer system. As well, their post was several days after they camera had been returned to them and they claimed they hadn’t gotten it back from me. Fortunately, I’d gotten a tracking number and knew it was there.

Eventually, I did get my refund from Adorama, about a week after the camera had been delivered back to them. And, I now have my new kit from Samy’s. I never got any kind of apology from Adorama for the screwup though and never any reply to my emails. As I say, I’ve always been happy with Adorama until now. I don’t think they handled this one too well though. If I ever buy from them again, I will be damn sure that I am going keep what I order.

I should mention how Samy’s compared. When I ordered the camera, their web site said it was on backorder. That was OK with me – I was in no great hurry for it. But a day after placing the order, I got a call from Samy’s letting me know in person that the camera was backodered and was I sure that was OK? Took a couple weeks for the camera to come in and when it did, I got another call from them to say it was in stock, did I still want it, and was it OK to ship it to me that day? That is my idea of real customer service! Unfortunately, Samy’s doesn’t have quite the extensive selection that Adorama has, but if they have something I want, I’ll definitely order from them again.