Spring Leaves Are Budding

Some Trees At My School

Spring is here and spring leaves are budding. I’m loving it here in Hong Kong. The sun is shining and there is newness all around us. I’m an English teacher and I often walk past the above budding trees and think, wow, they are so pretty; I need to bring my camera and take pictures of them. Sure, I know leaves bud every year about this time, but it’s just one of those small miracles that we often take for granite. If you haven’t taken the time to notice or sit still and take in the beauty that’s all around you, why not make some time to do it today? We all need to take time out, to escape from our everyday routines. Last week I was talking to a friend in the states and he told me that everyone should take the time to just sit still under a tree and take in the beauty that is around them. Trees aren’t in a hurry. They move as the wind moves them. They are firmly planted. There are a lot of lessons we can learn from them.

S1 and Sigma 85mm 1.4

The colors and background blur are both captivating. I shot them on my Panasonic S1 with a Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens. It makes a really nice combination and is a pleasure to shoot with. At the time of production, 2019, The S1 had one of the best if not the best EVFs on the market. Yes, I could have used the auto focus and gotten decent results. The Sigma 85mm 1.4 prime lens has good reviews on its auto focus. The weakest link in the chain would be Panasonics DFD auto focus system. However, I would say you can still get good results with it. As you can see from many of the shots, we are talking razor thin focus margins at 1.4. For that matter anything 2 or below is a super narrow depth of field, it just makes good sense to use the focus peaking and go manually with the focus.

A Vine Like Huge Tree

Trees are so cool. They can be small or they can be huge. The pictures of the tree above were shot in front of Mary Knoll School. I went there for TSA training about a little over a week ago. It was a huge tree. I think as a boy I would have loved climbing it. Then again there probably weren’t enough climbing branches. Still I probably would have tried. It looks like a vine like tree. Again the Sigma 1.4 lens offers really great depth of field control. I have shots where everything is in focus and shots where the subject is in focus and the background is completely blurred.

What Camera Are You Using

What kind of camera are you using? It could be a smartphone, pocket camera, cropped sensor or a full frame camera. There is a place for each of these. On our trip to Egypt, I used a M43 (Micro Four Thirds) camera, with a vintage Nikon lens from film camera days. It was also a 1.4 lens. Even on a M43 Panasonic camera I was impressed with the results it gave me. And that lens didn’t break the bank either, it was only about 900 HKD. Egypt let’s say strongly discourages the use of professional cameras. Their immigration website says that camera systems with detachable lens are subject to be confiscated. Needless to say I didn’t want to risk taking my S1 and having it confiscated. Still I love the portability of the Panasonic gx85 and the image quality isn’t bad either.

What’s Your Escape

What’s your escape? I think everyone needs an escape. Check out – Find the Escape that is Right For You for more on this. But don’t think you have to be loaded with money to find an escape. Life in our modern day world is full of pressures. I think people gravitate towards hobbies that offer freedom of expression. For example picture taking and driving. For both of these examples there are rules but you can usually break the rules. You don’t have to dot every “i” or cross every “t” but you do have to pay attention and be responsible. You can express yourself. True money does offer you more options, but as I demonstrated in the pictures above, when it comes to cameras you can take nice pictures with a relatively inexpensive camera. Or for that matter your phone, hahaha. The motorcycle is a more expensive escape, but it doesn’t have to be extremely expensive. Nature might well be the best escape, as it doesn’t cost anything. All you have to do is make time, go out, and enjoy it.