Tag Archives: photography

*Voigtländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 review… dayum.

by in Photography gear and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 50 Comments

Voigtlander Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 lens review

Would it sound ironic if I were to mention the speed, and slowed hinderance of manual focus as the two best qualities that this lens can provide a photographer?  Let’s be honest, there are not many lenses in existence that offer this large a maximum aperture for any system, anywhere.  Certainly not very many that come in at under a thousand bucks, but this is the case for the micro 4/3 mount, Voigtländer Nokton series.  Yes, this 42.5mm (85mm equivalent field of view) lens is joined by a soon to be 10.5mm f/0.95 (21mm e-fov), a killer 17.5mm f/0.95 (35mm e-fov) and a 25mm f/0.95 (50mm e-fov) to create a set of super fast, Nokton wonder lenses.

I have been using the also stellar Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens of late, and before I took off on a recent trip, knowing I’d be doing a vast majority of my shooting in the darker hours, I felt the one thing I was really lacking, was a really fast lens.  A remarkably solid and well built hunk of metal and glass, this 85mm equivalent lens has been calling me ever since it was announced.  Well, I decided that I’d benefit more fully from a really fast portrait focal length over the long run, and would gain a good amount of latitude while handholding it combined with the IBIS in the GX7, so I bit.

C’mon in to see a few shots, and read my thoughts on this optical marvel.

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*Brand New Topaz Glow! Fractalize your vision.

by in Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

P1160064

Topaz has just released a brand new plugin which aims to put another major artistic tool in your quiver.  On sale through December as an introductory promotion, Click HERE to download a free trial or to purchase, and follow along.

Want to see more?  C’mon in and let me introduce you to this cool, new plugin…

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*Monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge #10; “Gadgets” with @Mirrorlessons

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sweet Memories by AnggaPJ

“Sweet Memories” by AnggaPJ (see more from Angga on Flickr HERE)

Thank you to our November winner Angga for the new theme: “Gadgets”

As is fun with our monthly themes, they are open for interpretation.  There are no rules, other than to be considered for our selections, you must submit your image to one of (good) or both (better) our themed flickr group threads below.  Over the last 10 months, Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons, and myself here have collaborated to create a fun way to both motivate our selves as well as help provide a platform for a bit more exposure by way of showcasing our favorites on both of our websites.  At the end of the month, Heather, Mat and I each choose our favorite image from the flickr threads that we feel best represents the theme and post them on both of our sites along with a vote.

The vote is open for 5 days after which we tally the two sites polls and declare the winner.  The winner of the month gets to choose the next theme and the process begins again.  Each month’s winner is also entered into our semi-annual champions vote where we get to vote on the 6 monthly winners to determine our favorite.  That winner is showcased on both my site as well as Mirrorlessons while also winning software, handmade wrist straps and who knows what else.

So, submit your image to our Flickr group theme threads below and let the challenge begin!

TRP Flickr Group Thread

Mirrorlessons Flickr Group Thread

 

Happy holidays everyone and we look forward to seeing what this month brings!

Cheers,

Tyson

*Congratulations to AnggaPJ for winning our November Flickr Photo Blog Challenge, Minimalism! with @Mirrorlessons

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Screen Shot 2014-11-30 at 1.34.27 PM
“Edge [minimalism]” by AnggaPJ (visit and see more from Angga HERE)

Another great challenge has been decided. Congratulations to Angga for winning this month, and stay tuned for this months theme!

These monthly themes are a fun way to motivate ourselves as well as challenge and hone our photographic intuition. Each month, I, along with Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons, host these challenges and choose the three images from the reader submitted pools on our Flickr group pages that we feel are the best examples of the chosen theme. We then showcase these three on both of our sites with an open vote. The winner chooses our next theme and is entered into our semi-annual giveaway vote where the 6 monthly winners vie for your vote to be crowned our overall champion, and receive free stuff.

Congrats to Angga who will be added to our list of monthly winners, and thanks again to Heather and Mat, as well as everyone who has and continues to participate. Each month is a new chance to submit, so stay tuned to the blog as well as Mirrorlessons for new themes as they’re announced.

Find me on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr and happy shooting!
Tyson

*Wandering through a slice of time. Amsterdam and Bruges in the Fall.

by in Travel and tagged , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

amsterdamorama2

 GM1 + PL15mm – stitched panorama

As is the case for me every Fall, life found me traversing the blue marble for work.  This year was a little different in that Mrs Squeeze was able to accompany me.  Our two not so little any more offspring spent the time being doted on by their grandparents, which enabled momma and dada to do some partying.

Full disclosure, by “partying” what I really mean to say is sleeping, maybe eating a meal in one sitting and generally being able to drink a glass of wine or beer before 8pm, and let me tell you dear friends, we partied.

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*Time to vote! Vote for the winner of our ninth monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge; Minimalism. With @MirrorLessons

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Time to vote!  Our theme this month is “minimalism” and we had a ton of wonderful submissions on flickr this month.  Peruse and vote for your favorite below, and don’t forget to also vote on Mirrorlessons HERE.

These monthly themes are a fun way to engage and interact with the large community through this site, my friends Heather and Mat’s site and the ever growing family on flickr.  Stay tuned for next month’s theme with winners each month entered in to a semi annual vote to win free software and gear!

Screen Shot 2014-11-30 at 1.20.55 PM

“Morning Dew on Grass” by Reba Baskett (visit and see more from Reba HERE)

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“Ilha Grande, Brasil” by Omek77 (visit and see more from Omek77 HERE)

Screen Shot 2014-11-30 at 1.34.27 PM

“Edge [minimalism]” by AnggaPJ (visit and see more from Angga HERE)

Please vote for your favorite!

Thanks to everyone who submitted this month and I look forward to seeing what comes this next month!  Thanks to Mat and Heather for the continued networking and effort.  I love seeing how this has continued to grow each month and always enjoy seeing the differences in the great many talented eyes providing inspirational imagery.  Keep on keepin’ on everyone, and happy holidays.

Happy shooting,

Tyson

*The Entire Topaz Collection on crazy sale! $249.99 for all 15 Topaz Plugins

by in Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

 

topaz complete photography collection sale black friday cyber monday discount code

Topaz Labs is cutting the price of their complete collection, normally $430 to $250 for the next four days HERE!

Let it rain, let it pour.  Black Friday has become synonymous with hoards of shoppers jostling to get that $20 dvd player while normally ignoring that there may be another (or many) human beings between them and said dvd player.  Then came Cyber Monday (this next monday) where on line retailers and web based deals come out in force.  As those of us stateside crawl out of our food based comas, the inevitable deals begin to materialize.  For those outside of the states, you might be able to see this as a good opportunity to capitalize on our bizarre seasonal shopping traditions.

Personally, I’m kind of an opportunist shopper.  I store products away in my brain, a mental wish list as it were, and if I see those products go on sale at a deep enough gouge, I tend to jump.  If you’ve hung out on the fence regarding the Topaz plugins, this my friends, might just be one of those times.

Topaz is offering all 15 of their plugins for $249.99 HERE – Use code “BLACKFRIDAY2014 ” at checkout

Great news for those of us that already own one or more of the Topaz plugins.  Click the link above, and if you sign in before checking out (using the email that you’ve had your activation codes sent to for previous purchases, and would have any new ones sent to) you get further discounts as you won’t obviously need to purchase them again, unless you want to.  This sale runs through this Monday, December 1st, so the window is short, but oh so potentially sweet.

All plugins, if purchased individually would total $869.85!  The complete Topaz Collection normally discounts this down to $429.99, so cutting this down to $250 is pretty substantial.  Taking into consideration that Impression alone is $99.99, DeNoise is $79.99, ReMask is $69.99 and Clarity is $49.99 (which are all amazing plugins) the deal is killer.  Add to that, Black and White Effects, Adjust, Clean, Detail, and then 7 more products…  Well, you get the gist.

Come on in for links to my reviews on many of these amazing plugins, and more clarification on how much you save if you already own some of the Topaz programs.

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*MacPhun Black Friday has come early! 40% off the whole enchilada plus a $25 gift card.

by in Photography Apps, Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

IMG_1272 I’ve just recently come across the MacPhun software plugins, and have reviewed Tonality, their black and white conversion plugin.  It’s my go to for black and white image conversion now and I’ve been loving it.  Since my review, I’ve been in contact with the fine folks at MacPhun to do my user reviews on their other plugins here in the near future. If you’re a Mac user, I’d really suggest checking them out. MacPhun is offering their entire collection of plugins which include Tonality Pro, Snapheal Pro, Intensify Pro and Focus Pro for a whoppingly low $129 HERE. The collection at 40% off also includes a $25 gift card to either iTunes or Amazon as well!!! This promotion runs through December 25th, so I’ll do my best to write up some in depth reviews on the other plugins included in this deal, but if you’d like to see why I think Tonality Pro is the best black and white conversion plugin I’ve used, you can read more on that HERE. This also gives you plenty of time to download free trial versions HERE to test drive before buying. Stay tuned for more killer Black Friday software deals… Happy holidays and happy shooting, Tyson

*Olympus 45mm f/1.8 vs the Contax G Zeiss 45mm f/2

by in Photography gear and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

olympus m.zuiko 45mm f/1.8 vs contax zeiss 45mm f/2 planar

I held off for a long time on buying a portrait focal length for the Micro 4/3 system and despite the stellar reputation and modest pricing of the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens, I’d found myself more or less happy with my adapted Contax 45mm.

The Contax G Zeiss 45mm f/2 lens has a pretty amazing reputation of its own.  In its day, it was touted as being one of the sharpest standard lenses available, even garnering praise over some more illustrious Leica lenses in the same focal length neighborhood.  While I wish I had some Leica glass with which to test and back up that claim, let’s just say that the little Zeiss lens has done okay for itself and still goes for a decent amount of money now that the weird proprietary focusing mechanism has been worked around and this lens can be adapted to most any mirrorless camera nowadays.

So, how do these two compare?  Let’s see…

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*Monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge #9; “Minimalism” with @Mirrorlessons

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Road to Nowhere by Sami Paju

“Road to Nowhere” by Sami Paju

Visual Mimimalism: Simplistic use of shape and form to convey an idea, emotion or concept often employing negative space or incomplete context.

Thank you to our October winner Sami for the new theme: “Minimalism”

As is fun with our monthly themes, they are open for interpretation.  There are no rules, other than to be considered for our selections, you must submit your image to one of (good) or both (better) our themed flickr group threads below.  Over the last 9 months, Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons, and myself here have collaborated to create a fun way to both motivate our selves as well as help provide a platform for a bit more exposure by way of showcasing our favorites on both of our websites.  At the end of the month, Heather, Mat and I each choose our favorite image from the flickr threads and post them on both of our sites along with a vote.

All of our readers get the final say in the overall winner for the month, with that winner being showcased and getting to choose the theme for the next month, as well as being entered into our semi-annual giveaway where we take the 6 monthly winners and open up a vote for the supreme champion.  Our last winner billyburg took home a Topaz plugin of his choice and a custom built camera wrist strap.  I’m working on some fun stuff, so I’m hoping we’re able to offer even more this time around.  It’s free, it’s fun and it’s a great way to interact with some awesome folks and great photographers while getting your images out there.

Submit your Minimalistic images to these Flickr threads:

Tyson Robichaud Photoblography Flickr Group Thread

Mirrorlessons Flickr Group Thread

Good luck and happy shooting,

Tyson