The problem with travel photography......and a solution from Olympus?

I bought my Olympus XZ1 primarily as a carry everywhere camera, one that is suitable for traveling, hiking, family snapshots and so on. I value its light weight, non-interchangeable but very fast aperture lens, its relatively quick focus and shutter release, superb image quality for what I use it for, and generally excellent handling characteristics (except for that darned lens cap that keeps falling off!). I've had it for over six months now and still feel happy with my choice. In short, it is an excellent camera and if your needs are similar to mine I recommend it highly.

But, no matter how good the camera is, or how good the photographer is, there is still a problem to overcome. Uninteresting light. Often when I am traveling around I see something interesting and deserving of a photograph except the light isn't very good. This often happens when you are not able to wait for the light to improve and you know there is no chance of returning when it improves. I am sure everyone experiences this. You can of course take the photograph anyway and later mess around with post-processing to try to make it more interesting but personally I like to see what I am doing sooner than that. Its not exactly pre-visualisation, more like simultaneous visualisation, seeing the intended outcome in the viewfinder at the time of taking the picture. And Olympus has provided some tools to help me do this in the form of the so-called Art Filters and the electronic viewfinder (VF2).

By the intended outcome I mean something that reflects the sensory and emotional response I have to the subject, the reason I noticed it in the first place and wanted to photograph it and make a record of it. This doesn't require that it is realistic in the sense that it must be a naturalistic image of the subject. Reality for me doesn't mean true to nature, there is no such thing in photography, and it is much more personal than that. All photographs distort the natural world in some way. You think Ansel Adams made pictures that are realistic? Only if you see the world with exaggerated black and white tonality. You could say he used a creative art filter called ‘black and white film’. So beyond these few words I don't think any apology is necessary for actually liking and wanting to use Olympus art filters. They are not a gimmick, they are legitimate creative tools.

I find I use two of them more than the others, namely 'dramatic tone' and 'pinhole'. I sometimes wish that could use them both at the same time! I am sure some people will prefer others but these two seem to suit many subjects. I personally don't like the effect of the 'grainy black and white' filter, it has too much contrast for me, and I prefer to use Aperture or Photoshop for b&w conversions, but I sometimes use this filter to preview what something will look like in b&w but then shoot it in colour.

I recently borrowed a friend’s beach house for a few days. Conditions were less than ideal for photography. I couldn't give it my full attention as I had other people (and two dogs!) to consider and the often the weather resulted in very flat lighting. The following pictures illustrate the difference between a 'straight' photograph and an 'art filter' one. I think you will agree that the filters at least result in more interesting pictures even if you don't like the effect. For me they are a lot of fun and sometimes I get something special from them.

The other potential lighting problem is when there is very little of it. I didn't expect full frame sensor SLR performance from the XZ1, but is it "good enough"? It has a fast f1.8 lens and stabilisation which compensates to some extent for its small sensor size, so how useable is it for nighttime pictures? The answer is very useable. Here is an example. I was walking around the Rocks area in Sydney one evening and came across this mysterious scene. I didn't have much time to respond so I just let the camera take over (ISO 1250, f2.5 1/80th sec). The blue patches are from coloured street lighting, not a camera defect.

Something that is easily overlooked with small sensor cameras is their sheer versatility. As well as their portability they enable photographs to be taken of a large variety of subjects in a very small package. I can shoot landscapes, low light scenes, close ups, portraits all with the one camera. The scenes below were taken on a recent walk. I carried a backpack with camping gear for fifty kilometers over very difficult terrain so a heavy camera was not an option!

To do the same with a system SLR would require as a minimum a standard zoom, a fast prime and a macro lens. Yes, I am very satisfied with the XZ1.

Iain