Haworth 1940s Weekend 2012 by martin stainsby

I visited the 'Haworth 1940s Weekend' on a Saturday afternoon in May for a few hours. Despite overcast weather there was a large crowd and a very friendly carnival atmosphere. There was a fantastic selection of clothing on show from the period , both civilian and armed forces uniforms of the UK and US. There was a large variety of hairstyles and lots of  hats. A selection  of photos below. (Click onto any photo for larger versions).

All photos were taken with a Lumix G3 camera. An Olympus 45mm f1.8 lens (90mm on full-frame eqv.)  was used on all photo's except the third - 'Home Guard' - which was taken using a Panasonic 20mm f.17 (40mm full-frame eqv.)

New Beech Leaves - Long Exposure using Lumix G3

I was walking in the local Beech woods and was quite taken with the fresh and bright greens of the new Beech leaves so I went back home to collect the camera.  It was a cloudy day with diffused light in the woods and a slight breeze moving the branches of the smaller trees. I decided to try a long exposure to get a blurry effect from the movement of the leaves and smaller branches and this shot was a 10 second exposure. I also used a large aperture (f 2.0) to blur the trees in the background. I was able to obtain this exposure by using something called a 10 stop Neutral Density filter attached to the lens with the camera on a tripod. Click on photo for larger view.

New Beech Leaves - Lumix G3 with Olympus 45mm f1.8 and 10 stop ND filter

Orange and Apricot Tea Loaf

My wife Anne tried a new recipe today from the April 2012  ’Good Housekeeping’ magazine. It looked good, tasted excellent and therefore didn’t last long. I thought it looked good enough to deserve a couple of photo’s. It contains mixed peel and finely chopped apricots, chopped walnuts  and the zest of one large orange. The cake is glazed with marmalade and runny honey. Camera - Lumix G3, Lens - Olympus MZD 45mm f1.8, lighting from external flash in soft-box.   (Click on pictures for larger versions).

Orange and Apricot Tea Loaf with Marmalade and Honey Glaze

A slice of Orange and Apricot Tea Loaf

Ten super slices from one loaf

Flower Photography with the Lumix G3

The Lumix G3 mirror-less micro four thirds camera is my most recent acquisition to replace my GF1.  On a visit to some gardens in North Yorkshire I had the opportunity to try it out and take some close-up's. All the photo's were taken hand-held and I used three prime lenses. Two were modern micro four-thirds lenses, a Panasonic 20mm f1.7, and recent Olympus 45mm f1.8 and the third was a legacy Olympus OM 50mm f3.5 macro on an adaptor (manual focusing). Click on a photo for large versions.

G3 with Panasonic 20mm f1.7

Lumix G3 with legacy Olympus OM 50mm f3.5 macro on adaptor

Lumix G3 with Olympus 45mm f1.8

Lumix G3 with legacy Olympus OM 50mm f3.5 Macro

Lumix G3 with legacy Olympus OM 50mm f3.5 Macro

See more of my work at my website

Wedding Photography at St Bartholomew's, Scammonden and The Holdsworth House Hotel, Halifax

A selection from photos taken by Matin Stainsby, wedding photographer, at wedding of Gemma and Steve  at St Bartholomew's Church, Scammonden and  Holdsworth House Hotel ,  Halifax. The church is located down a small road at Scammonden Reservoir and the previous day heavy snow had fallen with large drifts blocking access. On the morning of the wedding the small road to the church was cleared by a local farmer, enabling the service to go ahead. It turned out to be a beautiful spring day with blue skies, sunny and warm. Click on photo's for larger versions.  Find out more about my wedding photography by clicking this link martin stainsby wedding photography

see more about my wedding photography by clicking this link martin stainsby wedding photography

Upgrade of Lumix GF1 to Lumix G3

I have just upgraded my much-loved Panasonic Lumix GF1 to the more recent Panasonic Lumix G3. It is the same micro 4/3 format so will take all my M43 lenses. The G3 has the electronic viewfinder built in, giving the slight hump to the top but the overall height is smaller than the  the GF1 with its LVF attached. The performance of the viewfinder is much improved and the body looks more like a modern DSLR. It is great to hold but is small and light. The G3 also has a very clever articulating LCD screen on the back with many functions. For much of my  shooting I like to use the viewfinder and have all the controls to hand without taking my eye from the viewfinder and digging into menus on the LCD. On the G3 I have been able to set it up to meet all my requirements using the programmable function buttons. My early tests indicate that there are major quality improvements  at  high ISO and I would be happy to use the camera up to ISO 1600 whereas I have always limited the GF1 to 400 or ISO 800 at a push. With some of the fast Lumix and Olympus lenses I have for this camera it should be ideal for natural light photography. I look forward to posting some photo's soon. There are a couple of my first shots taken with it below. (Click on any photo to see larger version)

The G3 is only designated 'G' and is generally about the same size as the GF1 but a bit more rounded. The sensor has been upgraded to 16Mp from the 12Mp of the GF1.

This shows that there is not a lot of difference in the camera size. The G3 is nicer to hold with a small grip on the front and does not stand as tall as the GF1.

Compared to the classic Canon EOS 5D the G3 is tiny and very light. This picture is taken with almost equivalent lenses fitted - a Panasonic 20mm f1.7 on the GF1 (which is 40mm is 35mm terms) and my favourite Canon 50mm f1.4 on the full frame 5D 

I was very interested in the Lumix GX1 as a replacement for the GF1 but the cost of adding a LVF, which for me is an essential, made it just too expensive. The processor and sensor are identical in the G3 and since image quality was the same for both cameras it was an easy decision. I read some very interesting web articles about the G3 and a particularly interesting one about upgrading from the GF1 that influenced my decision is on this link by Tyson Robichaud

Taken on my first outing with the G3 on a walk around Lake Gormire, near Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire. This was quite difficult light but the camera seems to have coped well with exposure compensation set to -2/3 EV. Panasonic 14-45mm lens, 1/250 sec at f11, ISO 160. 

A close-up shot with the G3 using a legacy Olympus OM 50mm f3.5 Macro lens attached to the G3 with a micro 4/3 adaptor. Using a legacy in manual focus is easy on the G3 and when the camera is on a tripod the articulated LCD is superb.

A snap shot of my daughter using the G3 at ISO 1600 with Auto WB under a tungsten room light. Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens, 1/60 sec at f1.8. 

My first impressions of the G3 are as follows:  

1. I like the shape and handling. It seems even more compact than the GF1 with its LVF fitted and is nicer in the hand, at least for me. I do miss the retro style of the GF1 but the black G3 is less conspicuous.
2. I can easily set it up to use it without the LCD although the LCD is very useful for some things. 
3. The built-in viewfinder is excellent compared to that of the GF1's LVF. 
4. I still need to optimise my processes for the G3 RAW files but first results are very promising and I can see an improvement on the GF1 files.  Higher ISO files are improved significantly. 
5. I have noticed that Light Room 3 (LR3) does not handle overexposed highlights in the G3 RAW files well, just as with the GF1,  but using the RAW engine in Aperture I can recover about 1 stop of overexposure in the highlights which is slightly better than I could achieve with the GF1 RAW files. To do this I strip away all import settings in Aperture, adjust the exposure to eliminate/reduce the blown highlight, then fully process the files in CS4, as I did with the picture of Lake Gormire above.

My dislikes so far are:  

1. The small battery will not handle a day's shooting. The batteries are small enough to stow a few in the camera bag so I have three at the moment but I might need more if I want to do a couple of days shooting without having to recharge. 
2. I would like to have the ISO 100 as on the GF1. For 'smooth' water shots etc. the minimum of ISO 160 on the G3 makes it just a bit more difficult to get a slow shutter speed without resorting to filters or very small apertures.
3. Not really an issue with the camera, more with Adobe. I use Photoshop CS4 with Camera RAW 5.7. There is no update available for the G3 RAW files, you need to upgrade to Photoshop CS5.  However, my usual process still works - I use Lightroom most of the time to process RAW files because it is reasonably fast on my machine and then I only export into CS4 if necessary. If there are any slight blown highlights I import the RAW files into Aperture then export to CS4 if necessary. I would use Aperture far more but it runs too slowly on my tired iMac with only  3 Gb RAM.