chilitofu

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OLYMPUS E-P5

settings

Aperture f/1.8 ISO 200 Shutter 1/8000 Focal Length 45/1

upload_date

Feb, 2016

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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo is taken at a neighborhood park near me. The kids wanted to play snow sledding so I figured I tried some fast action capturing. I had it on continuous focus and set it to burst mode. This gave me rapid capturing of the action like this image of my older son hitting a bump on the slope.

Time

It was around 11am in the late morning. The day was partial cloudy and the temperature was around 60 degree fahrenheit. The snow was melting but it made the slop more slippery. Because the day was partially cloudy, it helped diffused the outside light. Also because the weather was a bit warm, the kids and I had more time being outside to continue getting the best action and expression image.

Lighting

It was just good lighting on this day. There were hardly any harsh light. The sun did manage to peak through moving clouds which gave it a moving spot light effect on the ground. This added contrast to the whole scenery and made it less flat looking.

Equipment

When it comes to taking pictures of the kids, I like to use my Olympus EP5 with the 45mm 1.8 lens. This combo provides me with little bulk and allows me to take great portrait of the kids. I am not concern with the 45mm being limited in portrait only because I use it outside and I can always backup to capture more of the environment.

Inspiration

I am always looking to capture beautiful and fun memories of my kids. It is very challenging with the kids because they are still very small and have very little patience. When I get beautiful images of the kids, my lust for even better images grow. This image of my older son will now be forever remember and the joy of him seeing it during his older years will bring a lot of emotions to us.

Editing

Yes, I always like to do some dodge and burn on my images. Beside doing dodge and burn, I also enhanced the sun flares a bit more to add more of the warm color tone to the overall image.

In my camera bag

When it comes to capturing images of the kids, I like to pack light. Therefore I use my micro 4/3 system. For bodies, I have the Olympus EP5 and the Panasonic GF3. For the EP5, I have the 45mm f1.8 lens for portrait and the 14mm f2.5 lens on the GF3 for scenery. By having this combo, I don't need to deal with switching lens because my kids have no patience. As for lighting, I try to always do natural lighting for the kids so my bag has no flash. However, if I am indoor, I would use my Paul C Puff White Lightening or my Sony flashes.

Feedback

For capturing action of kids, you need a lot of patience. Don't worry about the gears because I don't use pro level gears. It is more important to get the right timing and lighting. It also helps if you know a bit about compositing in your post processing work. When I don't get all the elements that I like in one image, I will do some composting with several images to create the final image in my vision. Also you need to give breaks in between capturing images so that the kids don't feel like it is work for them. You need to enjoy playing with them as well.

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chilitofu

chilitofu

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Behind The Lens

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