Is 5 the answer?

There’s the perennial question about Photography that floats around – “Why are you interested in Photography” or more relevantly “Why did you take that shot?”

This one? Maybe it’s some Jungian urge to fondle the EM-5.

OMG, the OM-D/EM-5 is out

It's no secret that the OM-D / EM-5 has finally been released.

And there are those to praise it, those who knock it, those who lust over it and those who ask why. This is for those who ask why.

Reasons why the OM-D / EM-5 exists
(In no particular order)

1. Olympus needed to move on past the financial debacle.
2. The Micro Four Thirds catalogue needed a higher end camera model.
3. OM film SLR owners needed something new to hold on to.
4. PEN lovers needed something a model when asking/asked - "where's the EVF?"
5. The Micro Four Thirds catalogue needed a body to fit the FL-600 flash onto.
6. Micro Four Thirds fans wanted a body with two adjustment dials
7. Olympus needed a body to stick the 12-50mm kit lens to.
8. The Micro Four Thirds catalogue needed a body that would allow lens designers to design bigger, brighter, tele lenses (which would dwarf PEN like bodies).
9. Micro Four Thirds fans needed a weatherproof body.
10. Micro Four Thirds fans wanted a magnesium body.
11. Olympus needed to sell a new battery.
12. Olympus needed a body to stick the battery grip and the landscape grip to.
13. Olympus needed a body to fit the 5 axis IBIS mechanism to.
14. You needed to plead with your spouse to feed your Gear Acquisition Syndrome.
15. Four Thirds DSLR owners needed a reason to yearn for an E-5 / E-30 / E-620 replacement and another reason to ask "but will my Four Thirds lenses autofocus fast on this body?"
16. Hump lovers just needed another body to love / vice versa for Hump Haters.

Any more?

The importance of being Earnest

Street Photography isn’t new. It’s as old as the redoubtable Henri Cartier Bresson or even Jacques Henri Lartigue. With Vivien Maier as a standout (who probably never made a cent from her passion) through to the current New Yorkers Joe Wigfall, Jamel Shabazz, Major Deegan. These guys have the magic of establishing relationship pretty fast, almost Yeow-like and Robin-esque. They engage pleasantly and comfortably with their human subjects, producing street portraits that are both impromptu and attractive. Quite the opposite style to in-your-face Bruce Gilden and the young exponent Eric Kim.

Sifu Yeow at work

The most approachable security guard I’ve met

Call me “Porkman”, he said.

How do you maintain a deadpan look of enquiry?

Shots of behinds don’t often work. I rather like this one

For human subjects, it’s particularly important to apply the golfer’s analogy instead of the tennis analogy – one has oneself to beat, not the competition. You’ve got to be comfortable in your skin and with your gear.

Endless debates cover:

• the size of your camera
• the size of your lens
• the focal length to shoot at
• the distance to shoot at
• the risk of equipment loss through theft and mugging
• whether you’re sucking the soul of the sitter through your lens can then selling it to the devil.

Only you can rationalise and emotivise your feelings. Only you can decide what style of human interaction works for you.

While you’re pondering that, take a look at David William’s work