Lessons from the Road

Today’s Post by Mark Toal

As part of my job for Panasonic I’ve been traveling all over the country talking about and showing the new Panasonic GH5. My job is to be the technical expert and demonstrate every feature of the camera. To do this I spend a lot of time with the camera shooting and trying out every feature with various lenses. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I love cameras and photography, but I lose sight of what photography is about; taking pictures.

The end goal of all these great features is that when you push the button you capture what you saw in front of you. The features are not the goal. Every camera will take a great photo, but you must see it in front of you and it’s harder when you’re thinking about the gear.

I had a few days between trips so I decided to just get out with a camera. It’s spring in Oregon and everything is green so I grabbed my Lumix GX7 converted to infrared by LifePixel and favorite lens, the Lumix G Vario 7-14mm f/4.0 ASPH. I didn’t want to think about anything but composition so I put the camera in Program with Auto ISO and just got out and had fun.

Joe’s book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography is currently out-of-print but used copies are available from Amazon for under $6. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon with new copies under $6 and used copies less than five bucks. You can buy’em both for less than $12.