Five Favourite Snaps From The Trip That Was : People

When we travel, sometimes we pretend we do it for history or art or culture, or simply relaxation. But really - if we're honest - we travel for food. And my goodness we had some good food on our European adventure. The greatest bolognaise of my life in Bologna; the best fluffy yet chewy pizza in the dodgiest of Italian port cities; the herby pot of sausages and lentils in Nice; the baguettes in every tiny French town we drove through; the roquefort in - yep - Roquefort; the olives and cured pig in Cadiz; the gelato everywhere... 

But, strangely, I rarely take photos of my food when I'm travelling (or when I'm not travelling, for that matter). This is for three main reasons: 

1) Everything looks so damn tasty and I'm pretty much permanently hungry so half the dish is normally inhaled before I even think about taking a snap.

2) I'm normally travelling with my anti-social media, anti-camera, pro-living in the moment husband who would mock me mercilessly if I pulled out my camera at the start of every meal. 

3) I'd mock myself mercilessly too if I pulled out my camera at the start of every meal. Basically - I'm too self-conscious and too afraid of being a cliche. Sad and somewhat shallow but true.

All of which is a long winded way of explaining why this is five favourite snaps of people, not food. And I'm quite happy that it is about people. Holiday snaps without people - without action and movement and life - can get a bit soulless after awhile, I think.

Lecce, Italy. This one fits with my 'the prettiest places don't always make for the best travel photos' theory. We spent three nights in Lecce, in a grand old hotel, and it was nice. It was a typical Italian city with a lovely centro storico, lots of alleyways and piazzas. And it had it's fair share of grime and graffiti too. Pretty and gritty in equal measure. But, packed with families and holiday makers, it was full of life. (And gelato - oh man! The gelato in Lecce was both plentiful and delicious!). 

I love this shot. I love how the strong afternoon sun brings out the colours and frames the family, the tweety bird balloon providing a focal point. I love the contrast between the extended family out for a stroll and the graffiti covered wall. I love the guy on the bike, so Italian in his polo shirt and sunglasses, about to disappear into the shadow. 

Lecce, Italy. There's the graffiti and the bin and the dirt of the street. But there's also family good times, gelato in the shade, relaxed holiday vibes. And now I want gelato. Damn.

Lisbon, Portugal. There is a lot of snobbery about cruising. Unwarranted, I think. One day I'll write a post about all the reasons we love to cruise, and I swear it'll make you go out and book one right away. But for now I'll just tell you that leaving port on a giant boat is a wonderful thing. The views you get as you slowly pull away- such a different perspective on a city. 

I love all the traditions around leaving port too. It's normally perfectly timed for aperitivo hour, so everyone gathers on deck, drink in one hand, camera in the other. They play Con te Partiró over the loud speakers, followed by Somewhere Over the Rainbow (the ukele version, of course). It may just be because I'm getting old and sentimental but it always, always brings a little tear to my eye. Which is a bit ridiculous, but also kind of great.

Leaving Lisbon was fantastic, you really got a sense of how impressive the city was, how it stretched down the harbour. You could picture all those explorers sailing out to discover the world, way back when. 

Civitavecchia, Italy. Now this was cool! When we were leaving Civitavecchia there was a maritime pilot who stayed on board the cruise ship, guiding the boat safely out of port. All good, right? But how does he then get off the cruise ship? Apparently, he does it James Bond style! 

Directly beneath our cabin I watched as the pilot inched down a dangling rope ladder, dwarfed by the enormous cruise ship. He clung there, waiting for the right moment, and then leapt on to the speed boat below. Impressive! This shot captures him in mid jump. 

It's one of those times when you think - how lucky that this just happened to take place right here, and how lucky that I just happened to be faffing about on our cabin balcony at the time.

Conques, France. I could tell you all the things that could be better in this shot. I could lament the fact that I rushed it, out of fear and that feeling of intruding (we were in a church!). I could mourn the image that could have been, that should have been.

But I won't. 

Instead I'll just enjoy the gorgeous tones of the old cathedral, the light streaming in from above. The beautiful french woman, the joyous flowers, the pink and the purple and that perfect red jug. Oh! And those glorious gold moccasins! It may not be the perfect image and yet - there is still so much to be happy about here.

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Over to you - do you think the prettiest places make for the best pictures? Or do you prefer a bit of grit? Do you go for pristine, people-less shots when you travel? Have you got an 'almost but not quite perfect' image that you just wish you'd got right? Do you take photos of your food? Do you like to cruise? Do you want some gelato?

Five Favourite Snaps From The Trip That Was : Water

We've had quite a busy period since returning from our luxuriously long holiday - getting back to some semblance of reality, working on the house, planning our next trip...* But this week I've been able to carve out some Lightroom time, for sorting and editing all of those many, many holiday snaps. 

It's been quite fun going through them all, especially revisiting the first few places we saw. I'd somehow completely forgotten that we'd spent a night in Matera, and that it was a pretty amazing city! It's like reliving the holiday again. Well, without the cheese and wine and warm ocean breeze. And without having nothing to do but stroll and eat and drink. And without the restaurants and hotels and someone else doing all the cooking and clean. Okay, actually it's nothing like reliving the holiday is it? But still, it is fun. 

I have quite a few favourite shots, here are five featuring water.

Tangier, Morocco. I know loads of people who adore Morocco, so I had high hopes that our first visit to the country - via two stops on a cruise boat - would whet our appetite and leave us hungry for more. It absolutely didn't. 

Our first port of call was Casablanca (one of my husband's favourite movies, but sadly the city itself had nothing to do with the actually movie). It was dirty and disorganised. There was chaos and poverty everywhere. We were harassed, constantly. I tried and tried to find something to like, something good. I'm definitely a glass half full traveller, but I just couldn't find any positives. It's one of the few places where I've said to the husband: "I'll stick it out if you want to but quite frankly I'd happily make a retreat back to the boat..." Actually, it's the only place where I've said that. 

Next was Tangier, which was better than Casablanca, but there'd be a lot of places in the world I'd put on my must visit list before I returned. I'm sure there are parts of Morocco filled with immense natural beauty, wonderful food and amazing handcrafts...but it wasn't in Casablanca or Tangier. The one saving grace was this shot I took as we were leaving the port of Tangier. I love how the mass of concrete and the enormous light dwarfs the lone security guy. And that endless blue horizon!

San Cataldo, Italy. This trip we explored some new turf, a region of Italy we hadn't been to before - the heel of the boot, Puglia. San Cataldo is a short drive from Lecce, the main town of the region. It wasn't an overly inspiring beach, especially compared to the breathtaking wonders of Amalfi or Liguria. Much of the region was like that. But whilst it wasn't necessarily amazing, it was never disappointing. It's still Italy after all. And the place was jam packed with local holiday makers - cars crammed with suitcases and kids and beach towels and dogs - which made for some pretty great people watching. 

Savelletri, Italy. Also in Puglia, Savelletri was a cute little coastal town. Again, not breathtaking, but really lovely in it's own way and yes - packed with local holiday makers. It had the perfect holiday vibe - kids running around town in board shorts, dogs wet and shaggy from the sea, little bars serving the perfect spritz, the roads given over to barbecues and deck chairs. 

And even though it was a small town, with small food shops, every single one of those food shops was mouthwateringly delicious. Picture your local milk bar, with all the baked beans and white bread removed and replaced with perfectly ripe tomatoes, different types of pasta piled up to the roof, fresh mozzarella, bags of olives and all kinds of cured meats. We found the best sandwich makers on the planet here. Yum.

Savelletri, Italy. Aside from that blue, blue water there's a few other things I adore about this scene. Firstly, the stripy umbrella. This trip made me realise we need more giant stripy umbrellas in our life. I hope I see these dotted all over Bondi Beach this summer. Secondly, the bikes. The way they're just kind of dumped there, like their riders couldn't wait to leap in to the ocean. They scream summer holidays, don't they?

Savelletri, Italy. One of the things I realised on this trip was that often it's not the prettiest places that make for the best photos. We visited some really beautiful, historic cities on this trip; places like Paestum in Campania, and Bologna and Modena in Emilia-Romagna. But most of my favourite shots come from our few days in Savelletri, a rather nondescript little holiday town, and from another few days spent in Lecce - a nice place, but not one of staggering beauty. 

Do you ever find that sometimes what seems more mundane on the surface actually makes for a better image? 

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FYI all of these were taken on the OM-D E-M10 loaned to me by Olympus as part of the Kidspot Voices of 2014 competition. I've recently handed it back, and I'm surprised by how much I miss it and how clunky and old my DSLR feels! 

*Do you do this too - plan your next trip as soon as you land back home? We actually started planning our big 2015 trips while we were away. There's just something about having some travel on the horizon that keeps us happy...

Bella Italia : A Favourite

Right now I'm travelling with my favourite person (my husband) through one of our favourite countries (Italy). My husband fell in love with the place many years ago, when he lived and worked here for a few years with his first wife. He learnt the language, the customs, the history, the food...the driving. And he adored it all. 

So now when we plan our holidays Italy always seems to come up. Occasionally we'll spend a week or two in Spain, or we'll go on an Asian adventure, but every year or two we always seem to end up soaking in the Italian sun. And with each trip Italy has become one of my favourite countries too. Here's some of the reasons why: 

Passeggiata. When work is finished and dinner is yet to come, when the heat of the day is just starting to fade, Italians go for a stroll. You can find my husband and me there too, not strolling but sitting - by the main square with a Campari soda (him) or Aperol spritz (me) - and watching the passing parade. Elderly gents and ladies, dressed with thought and care; teen girls with deep tans and tiny shorts; families juggling prams and perfectly dressed toddlers; and dogs, lots of dogs. 

There are no suburbs in Italy; it's all about apartments, medium density living. Communal spaces are vital, they are used, and the street life is vibrant and beautiful. Passeggiata is people watching at its finest. Next time you're in an Italian town, pull up a seat around 6 or 7 in the evening and enjoy! 

Stylish Women. A cliche, I know. But whenever we travel in Italy I'm reminded of what I aspire to when it comes to presenting myself to the world. Italian women, especially of the older variety, seem to have a knack for dressing. They never look overdone, or too casual, just perfectly put together. Stylish, and with personality. 

Old Things. All over Italy (and Europe for that matter) there are reminders of a grand history. We love visiting the archaeological sites, the museums and the galleries; pondering how society used to be and how it still is - the tensions, the weakness and the beauty. 

But in Italy old things are more than artefacts to be admired and strolled around, they are woven into the fabric of everyday life. They are in every city, in the centro storico - the old part of town which is often beautifully preserved (and even better, often pedestrianised). This is where you find the many, many churches; the grand government buildings, the palaces, the old houses turned into hotels, the flash new bars sitting inside buildings that are centuries old. This is where the marble paving the alleyways and promenades is smooth and shiny from millions of footsteps over thousands of years...

Dogs. I was walking through Zara the other day and there was a dog - not a fluffy-stick-it-in-your-hand-bag kind of dog, a giant hound of a dog. At the bar for aperitivi, there was a dog. There were dogs at the airport and in the supermarket and in every restaurant. At the hotel we're currently staying in there's a dog by the pool, on holiday with it's owners. And we've patted them all (the other day we made friends with two handsome wire haired dachshunds!). Italy is such a dog friendly country. They are a part of life, a part of the community, and it just seems to be accepted that they go everywhere you go. It is wonderful. 

Food. I know, another cliché, right? But it's a cliche for a reason. Italian food is spectacularly good. And it's not because it's overly fancy or tricksy - it's greatness comes from respect for produce, climate and tradition. Every place we've been on this trip, no matter how small, has at least one shop that's guaranteed to make your mouth water - overflowing with cured meats, fresh cheese, pasta (the shape from that particular region) and whatever vegetables are in season. And every city, no matter how big, still has it's regional speciality featured on almost every menu across town. 

And do not even get me started on the tomatoes - treated with respect (vine ripened, never refrigerated) they are sweet, juicy and bursting with sunshiny flavour. Why oh why can't we get that in Australia?  

Balconies. And doors. Italians know how to work a balcony. And a door, for that matter. Perhaps it's related to the small living space, and the way life so often tumbles on to the street? I'm not sure, but there are so many perfectly placed pot plants and glorious colour schemes on show here. Even the washing looks artfully positioned... 

The Language. It may just be because I'm lucky enough to be travelling with someone who speaks the language, but I find Italian a lot of fun. Even in the face of my spectacular inability to learn a second language (three years of Korean and I can barely count to ten), I love trying on my Italian voice. Whilst in other countries I'm often shy and awkward, in Italy you can find me at the bar ordering "un caffe normale, per favore" or "due spritz aperol anche un aqua con gas". 

When I'm feeling especially ambitious I get the husband to teach me hilarious phrases like "ho molto fame, potrei mangiare un cavello!" (for when one is hungry) or "non sono polpo" (for when one is being asked to carry everything) or "tu sei il rei di pommodori" (for when someone has gone and got themselves sunburnt). 

And I haven't even mentioned the coffee, the bicycles, the fonts and signage, the road network and the driving (seriously!), the dramatic rocky coastline, the volcanoes, the stripy beach umbrellas... 

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Disclosure: As part of Kidspot's Voices of 2014 competition I've been lent a super awesome Olympus OM-D E-M10 for a few months. I'll be writing three challenge posts during that time and I'll have a chance to win some really awesome stuff. I'll be telling you a bit about the camera in each post too. 

I've had the OM-D E-M10 for about six weeks now and I am truly loving it (I've barely picked up my poor neglected DSLR...). 

I've already told you about how lightweight the camera is, and about the magical built-in wifi. And I've told you about how it captures images with amazing clarity. Well on this trip I've been testing out another nifty feature - remote control via my iPhone. 

If, like me, you're the photographer of the family you probably get home from holidays with hundreds of gorgeous images of your kids or your partner or your pets...but none of you. And when you do convince someone else in the family to take your photo it's normally blurry, poorly cropped or just plain terrible (yep). Well this little Olympus camera has a great feature which means you get to capture all those memories with your family, not just of your family - the phone app allows you to control the camera remotely. 

Once connected, on your phone you can see exactly what your view finder sees. You can adjust all the settings and then just tap the screen to take a shot. I have had a bit of fun playing with this. The other evening I set up a stealth cam at aperitivo time in Modena and captured some ridiculous photos of the husband and I (posted here under great danger*). I also took a few selfies (rare!) in my bathing suit (unheard of!) on our pool day in Savelletri and...I don't hate the results! There is so much potential here, I'm looking forward to exploring it a bit more.

The camera also has a ton of filters built in - black and white, retro, arty - as well as the usual auto modes designed for different settings - sport, landscape, night. But - I haven't played which any of these. Photography for me is about capturing what the eye sees, it's about the natural beauty of the world around us. Heck, I don't even use filters on Instagram. For me, trialling the Olympus O-MD E-M10 has really been about whether it's good enough to replace my DSLR. And yep, I reckon it definitely is. 

The only frustration I've had is that I can't get the f-stop low enough to create the gorgeous shallow focus that I love so much. But this is all about the lens, not the camera. And the O-MD E-M10 has a massive range of lenses available (including low f-stop fixed lenses). They're not cheap, but when you compare them to the price of premium DSLR lenses they are far from expensive. 

One other thing to consider if you're looking at the O-MD E-M10 as a DSLR replacement - if you shoot in RAW you can't use the built in wifi function to send images to your phone. So I haven't been shooting in RAW but, to be honest, I haven't really noticed the difference when I've been editing in Lightroom. Most of the images haven't needed much editing, so having slightly less information to play with hasn't been a big deal. (And, if you really want to use the wifi function and really can't bare not to edit in RAW, you could always choose the RAW + JPEG option). 

In my last #myfamilylens post I talked about how the camera's stability makes it more suitable for video than I'd realised. So of course I was challenged to make a video. And of course I said yes. Why let a complete lack of ability as a cinematographer or video editor get in the way of trying something? Anyway, I shot some video and edited it in iMovie. Here's the end result - it's hardly ground breaking but I think it captures the mood of the day nicely. 

Italy : Pool Day at Bucadue from ejorpin on Vimeo.

*When I set up my blog I promised the husband I would never post photos of him (or my step-sons) here. In a desperate attempt to win the judges favour and get the chance to keep the camera I have now posted both photos and video of him. I may be in big trouble. Desperate times call for desperate measures...

Photography + Memory (Part 3) : Making A Great Photo Book

As mentioned in my last post I've made a Blurb photo book for the husband every xmas since 2007. I was so proud of my early attempts but now when I look back at them I do cringe a little - I made some pretty poor choices when it came to design, layout and photo quality. I've learnt a lot since then and I think each book is better than the last. 

(Although I do kinda think I may have peaked in 2012, a year in which we travelled a lot. The book was titled 'Home and Away', and I used a retro departure / arrivals board type of font called Flipboard throughout. The captions were made to look like flight information displays - a page of photos of Ferdi refusing to get out of bed was captioned 'ZZ101  Ferdi sleeps in  20:12  Delayed'; our trip to the US which kicked off in San Fran was captioned 'OZ214  San Francisco  12:01  Go To Gate' (OZ214 was our actual flight number and 12:01 represent January 2012). And so on. Clever, yes?)

Anyway. Here's what I've figured out:

Less is more. This is true in so many ways. Firstly, edit your photo selection and then edit it again (kind of like packing a suitcase). You want the best images, the ones that are most fit for purpose - just a few duds in the mix can bring your whole book down. Next, keep your page layouts clean and simple. And only use a few different page layouts across your entire book. Three at the most, I think. And the same goes for fonts too.

Negative is Positive. Don't be afraid of negative space. Don't feel the need to cram eight photos on every page, or use a heap of full page bleeds. Embrace that blank space, that emptiness will help each of your beautiful images tell the story they're meant to. 

The page from my 2007 book below is, frankly, terrible. The photos are too tiny and too dark, and the layout is far too busy. The story, the images, get lost in the messiness of it all. The 2009 page is a little better - at least the photos take centre stage here. But mainly I included this page because LOOK! There's Elfi in a life jacket! 

Tell a story. Before I sit down to make each book, I run through the year and jot down the big events for each month. Then I try to find a common thread across those events or pick out one really important / life-changing thing and use that as the theme for the book. 

Last year we moved from Seoul to Sydney (kind of a big deal...) so the book was called 'Hello Sydney'. I continued the theme through some of the captions - images taken during our Europe trip were introduced with 'Hello Venice', 'Hello Istanbul', and so on. The 2012 'Home and Away' book I've described above is another example of how a theme helps tie a book together. 

The same idea could apply to any kind of photo book - it might be about a specific trip or special birthday - whatever it is, try and find that hook, that thread running through things. Trying to find the theme and having fun with it is definitely one of my favourite things about putting the book together each year. 

Set the scene. Not every photo has to have someone's smiling face in it. This is about memory, right? So include some shots that trigger the memory of whatever it is you're trying to capture. Was it the smell of espresso at a coffee bar in Napoli? Then include that shot of the espresso machine. Was it the non-stop rain during your Hong Kong stopover? Then include that shot of all the umbrellas, dripping wet. It might be a shot of your feet, the landscape, the furniture, some balloons, a meal, a posy, a random goat (Italy, July 2013) - whatever it is that reminds you of that place, that time. 

Vary your shots. Include a mix of gorgeous close ups, zoomed right in, and big picture, scene setting shots. Mixing things up will help you set the scene. (Also, see this great post from Fat Mum Slim over on Kidspot about how to tell a story in photos.) 

I really love the page below from our 2012 book. It's a reminder of one of the loveliest afternoons we've had in recent times - a really amazing family meal at Pilu at Freshwater on a gorgeous Sydney winter's day. Note the simple, clean layout and the mix of shots I've used to capture the mood.

Light and bright. I always, always find that my photos print out a little darker than how they appear on my computer screen. You don't want to overexpose your shots, but don't be too stingy with the brightening when you're editing and be very wary of including any that are on the dark side. Be aware that when you're viewing your photos on a screen against a black background they will look much lighter than when they're actually printed on a page with a white background. 

High resolution. I'm very bad with pixels per inch and dpis and all those technical terms, they make my head spin a bit. But I do know that low resolution images might look okay on your phone screen but they're probably not going to cut it on the printed page. A good quick check is to zoom in on your image a little, if things start looking blurry straightaway chances are you're dealing with a low res image that may not survive the printing process. Some book producing software will also give you a warning if your image is too small for what you're trying to do.

Basically you don't want to spend your time and money on a photo book full of vague, blurry images. So, use the best camera you can get your hands on and be mindful of image size when you're shooting, editing and exporting. A few years ago I would have said don't use camera phone shots, but the technology has come a long way very quickly - you can pretty much get away with it these days.

See how light and bright the page below is, from my most recent book? See how large the photos are? How there's a scene setting shot and a close up? How it captures the city (Istanbul) and the thoughtful repose of my (stylish) teenage stepson? Such a difference to that awful layout from 2007, yes?

And lastly? Have fun! I include all kinds of silly jokes in my books - captions about places we've been that only make sense to us, turns of phrase that have become part of the family lingo for the year - all the little stuff that glues us together. In the page above the caption says 'Hello Istanbul - We will eat all your things'. I poke a lot of fun at myself along the way too. It amuses me greatly and, occasionally, I'll even get a laugh out of the rest of the family. I have so much fun putting these books together, it's almost unhealthy...

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Have you made a photo book? Do you have any tips you'd like to share? Or do you have any questions for me about making photo books? Ask away!

Photography + Memory (Part 1) : Some Thoughts

I've just got back from five chilly but beautiful nights in Tasmania with my good friend Shannon and my loan Olympus OM-D E-M10*. Five nights and I have 413 photos. Yep, you read that right - Four Hundred And Thirteen. Yikes. You see, this little Olympus camera that I've been playing with is much lighter than my beloved DSLR, so I've been taking it everywhere with me. I've even worn it around my neck, obnoxious tourist style. End result? I have taken a lot of photos. 

It does have built in wifi, which means I've already sent some favourites to my iPhone to edit and share them on the go (so nifty!). But it's going to take weeks before I get stuck into the rest of them with editing and sorting and tagging and publishing. And when I say weeks you know I actually mean months, right? It's ace but it's also all a bit overwhelming. And it got me thinking about memory and photography, and the role photos play in our memory, especially in this age of digital cameras. 

But first, some more of those Tassie shots...

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At my Mum's house there's a shelf loaded with photo albums. I have fond memories of flipping through them at various ages. As kids, my sister and I would cringe at all those crazy hippy camping shots of our folks (so much nudity!), and later I'd cringe at the hair cuts of my youth (I had a mullet, sob.). 

We poured over our parents' slightly kooky wedding photos - loving our Dad in his velvet top hat and Mum with her long, long hair. There were photos of my Dad's gentle old border collie; of my Step-dad building our house brick by brick; of my Mum and Step-dad's Grand European Adventure. Of me feeding baby goats in Nimbin and playing the ukulele in Queensland and blowing bubbles in our backyard with my sister. 

Seeing our younger selves reflected back at us, seeing our family and what they'd done, kind of helped us tell a story, create a story, of who we were and where we'd come from. Memories help create that narrative of identity, of self. And photos can help us remember. 

But here's the thing - how many photos are sitting on your phone, your hard drive right now? And how often do you pull them out and look at them? How many have been printed or scrapbooked or archived in a real, tangible way? How often do you sit around flipping through a collection of photos and laugh and talk and tell stories and ask 'remember this?'? 

Photos are a great reminder of your adventures, the things you've shared as a family (whatever 'family' means to you). They document past lives; they can show you how far you've come (even if it's just in dress sense...). They remind you of how young your kids once were, how time flies past so quickly and why you really should cherish the moment, the now. 

They can be our touchstone, our collective memory bank, our shared history. Something we can gather around and laugh about, or contemplate quietly. But - they can only do all this if we get them off our phones and our hard drives and out in to the world. 

Consider this a call to action, a rally cry! Print, share, publish, document, archive. Revisit and reflect. Don't just capture moments - create beautiful, tangible memories you can share.

(ps. If you come back for part two and three I'll share some practical ways you can turn your digital images into real life ones, including some tips on putting photo books together...)

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*Disclosure: As part of Kidspot's Voices of 2014 competition I've been lent a super awesome Olympus OM-D E-M10 for a few months. I'll be writing three challenge posts during that time and have a chance to win some really awesome stuff. I'll be telling you a bit about the camera in each post. I promise I'll tell you both the good and the bad.

Here's my initial thoughts: 

Switching from DSLR. To be honest it's taken me a little while to adapt to this compact camera. I have grown quite attached to my trusty DSLR and it's lovely fixed lenses, so embracing a new camera was always going to be tricky. Although the OM-D E-M10 has all the settings to give you the same freedom and control as a DSLR, the fact that it's mirrorless means looking through the view finder is a slightly strange experience - the light looks very different in the view finder compared to the end image. Having said that, I've found using the LiveView screen works pretty well for me. I've also changed the settings so that the image is displayed for a few seconds longer after shooting, which means I can do a quick check of the end result and adjust things as needed. If you're upgrading from a compact you probably won't notice this, but if you're switching from a DSLR allow a little adjustment time! 

Loving the light (x2). As mentioned the Olympus OM-D E-M10 is super light (just under 400 grams apparently) which means I do take it everywhere with me. I can throw it in my backpack and not even notice it's there. Being compact means it is perfect for travel and street photography, and candid family shots. 

In Tassie I also put the camera through it's paces under all kinds of light conditions - sunrise, sunset, night, high contrast, indoor, outdoor - and it performed admirably under all of them. The clarity of the image is consistently blowing my mind (more about this later!). 

Wonderful wifi. Through some kind of magic (pretty sure that's what the product specs say) the camera can talk to my phone. Built in wifi plus a free app means you can download photos directly to your phone (or tablet) and edit and post them on the run. I've been doing this for July's Photo a Day challenge and I reckon my Instagram feed has never looked so good! I'm thinking this feature is a dream for bloggers, especially those of us who travel a lot. 

That darn lens cap. The one thing I'm not so keen on so far? There's a teeny tiny lens cap that's not attached to the camera body in anyway. I'm amazed I haven't lost it yet and am taking this opportunity to preemptively apologise to Olympus Australia and Kidspot for losing it in the next month. It will happen. 

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on photography and memory - how do you manage all those images? Do you think it's important to create an archive, to share and reflect on your photos? And is there anything you'd especially like to know about my new toy?

The Galápagos Islands : My Favourite Shots

An alternative title for this post might have been 'Twenty-Seven Photos of Sea Lions' but I've tried to show a bit of restraint and mix things up a bit...

Given my normal penchant for fixed lenses, using a zoom was kind of a new experience for me. (FYI I'll write more about the camera kit I took with me in the next Galápagos post.). However, I did come out of the trip with quite a few favourite shots, so it must have been a good new experience.

Bring on the sea lions...

Alternative title for this post number two might have been 'Eighteen Photos of Blue Footed Boobies'. I really love these guys. There is something faintly ridiculous about them and their glorious blue feet, and yet they carry themselves in such a regal, self-assured manner. They remind me a bit of Ferdi in that way (not that Ferdi has blue feet, clearly, but the rest of it...). They really are wonderful creatures.

And then we have the marine iguanas, and pelicans, and crabs...

If you want to read more about our amazing adventures in The Galápagos Islands head on over here.