December 2019 Newsletter

If you didn’t receive my newsletter for December here it is:

How Do You Spell Peace Valley

The weather has been a bit challenging here in the northeast with rain being the dominating factor. With the holiday break (and a little time off) we decided to do a hike at Peace Valley Park where typically the bird watching is great and the views over the lake – amazing. This year the lake had been partially drained so I opted to trek the back trails and found a break in the clouds and some amazing reflections. This shot was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera and the M.Zuiko ED 7-14mm f2.8 PRO lens. The settings were ISO 200, 7 mm, f/7.1, 1/1250 sec.

Happy Holidays to You

It is a tradition in our family to create the family Christmas card each year. The dynamics have changed over the years with the grandkids and Bo. This year, Jaxon at 2 1/2 made the photo shoot more of a challenge – while on the other hand, Bo at 10 was OK with whatever. Here are the results.
The images were shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II using the M.Zuiko 25 mm f1.2 PRO lens. The settings for both were ISO 200, 25mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec.

INDIA Photo Trip

India is a favorite photography location for me. This past September I had the chance to visit a new region, Rajastan. The trip was organized by my friend Abhishek and I went with a few of my fellow photographer friends.

I am always intrigued by the colors, culture and ever changing geography. From street photography to shooting in small villages there is always a great image to be captured. The people are always friendly and I have learned how best to interact to capture great faces and scenes.

The 1st image was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II and the12-100mm f4.0 IS PRO lens with the settings at ISO 200, 34mm, f/4.0, 1/100 sec.

The second image was again taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. I used the 12-100mm f4.0 IS PRO with the ISO 200, 41mm,f/4.0 and 1/640 sec.

Photo Walks – University Campuses

Lately, I have had the privilege to lead photo walks on several university campuses with various camera clubs and camera stores in partnership with Get Olympus. I am naturally drawn to architecture and the opportunity on these photo shoots is amazing. The sites are rich with history and the campuses are so vibrant with the students. Here are a few shots from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Lehigh University (Bethlehem) and Yale University (Connecticut).

This 1st image at the University of Michigan was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II using the M.Zuiko ED 7-14mm f2.8 PRO lens.The settings were ISO 200, 8 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec.

The 2nd image is Lehigh University. This image was taken with the same camera with the following settings: M. Zuiko ED 8mm F1.8 Fisheye PRO with the following settings: ISO 320, 8mm, f/5.6, 4.0 sec.

The 3rd image is Yale University. This image was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M 5 Mark II with the M.Zuiko ED 7-14mm f2.8 PRO lens. The settings were ISO 800, 7mm, f/2.8, 1/80 sec.

It’s the Holiday Season

With the holiday season here, the opportunity for great shots increased! I had the chance to visit the amazing Model RR at the Lehigh & Keystone Valley Model Railroad Museum.

Everything here is so lifelike and with this lens I’m able to create beautiful feathered bokeh. This image was shot with the OM-D E-M 1 Mark II using the 17mm f1.2 PRO lens. The settings were ISO 320, 17mm, f/1.2, 1/60 sec.

We also took a Saturday to spend in downtown Bethlehem – always a beautiful city and at Christmas time even more. Here is one of the black and white street photos I took. I took this using the PEN-F camera and the M.Zuiko 17 mm f1.8 Premium lens with the following settings: ISO 800, 17mm, f/9.0, 1/60 sec.

Inside The Photographer’s Mind

This is an interview of me, Frank Smith, with Adorama sharing more about me and my photography journey. Check out this video.

Looking For Olympus Shooters

As an Olympus Visionary, I am encouraged to always be on the lookout for Olympus shooters. Olympus likes to feature Olympus users on their social media channels – especially Instagram.

If you are an Olympus user, especially a new user of Olympus equipment, please send me an email to frank@franksmithphotos.com that I can share with Olympus. You can also use these hashtags on your images when posting:
#getolympus or @getolympus

Upcoming Events

Bethlehem House Contemporary Art Gallery
Opening October 19th- January 16th
http://www.bethlehemhousegallery.com/category

Lehigh Valley Photography Club
February 21, 2019
Lehigh Valley Photography Club

CNPA Annual Meeting
March 7-10, 2019
Presentation, Workshops
Nature Presentation

DeSales University
March 25, 2019

York County Camera Club
March 26, 2019
Architecture Presentation

Westchester Photographic Society
March 29, 2019
Workshop & Photo Walk

Cape May Photo Walk -Architecture & Abstracts
May 6, 2019
Photo walk in town

NECCC Conference
Ju;y 12-14, 2019
Nature Presentation __________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Interested in booking a talk or workshop?
Visit my website by clicking here.

6 Responses to “December 2019 Newsletter”

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1 Walt Paholak
January 3, 2019 at 10:24 pm

Frank your work is truly amazing.
- 2 Frank T. Smith
  January 30, 2019 at 9:51 pm
  
  Thanks Walt!
3 David Herman
January 30, 2019 at 12:49 pm

Fabulous as always Frank.Great PP! Now that the cat is out of the bag I hope you have been given a EM1-X to play with and you thoughts on it ? I have all the big 4/3rds SHG’s and am hearing hear it will be even better at C-AF than the EM-1Mk11. I have always like the stability and handling the extra grips provide and don’t mind the extra size as it should be a better platform for them… Thanks,David
- 4 Frank T. Smith
  January 30, 2019 at 9:56 pm
  
  Thanks David! The E-M1x is absolutely amazing. I have been using it for about a month and a half. They have significant improvements with the C-AF, Image stabilization, Handheld High Resolution, etc. One of the features I really like is the internal ND filters. I have been posting some of the shots on FB & Instagram. Thanks again. Please keep in touch!
5 srkmish
February 14, 2019 at 8:23 pm

Hi Frank,

Thanks for all the amazing pics. Your pics always seem to be very sharp from edge to edge. I was wondering if you do any kind of focus stacking. Also, do you use any manual focus peaking to make sure all pics are at their sharpest?

Srikant
- 6 Frank T. Smith
  February 17, 2019 at 9:20 pm
  
  Thanks for your kind comments. Relative to your questions, most of the time I try to adjust the aperture to correspond to how much of the image I want in focus. However, there are times I can’t achieve enough control with this method. When this occurs (some landscapes with a close object or macro) I will use focus stacking. I typically use focus peaking for macro and low light situations. Hope this helps. Please stay in touch.

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