Quick Portrait Sessions

In the last couple of months, I’ve been very busy in my personal life and business.  It resulted in me traveling around the work non-stop with only one week spent at home.  It was very difficult for me to organise any meaningful photo shoots.  One thing that is lacking in my portfolio are natural looking portraits.  To kill two birds with one stone I placed a casting call on Model Mayhem for models who wants portraits images.  The idea is to bring the minimum gear and only post process in Lightroom and no Photoshop.

The first shoot was with Joana from Lisbon Portugual.  She is an actress who happens to be in London for an acting workshop.  She replied to my casting call and we met up in a park in Holborn London.

I was also able to arrange another portrait sessions with Angela, a dancer who wants more up to date images for her dance portfolio.  We met up at Greenwich Park to take these photos.

At one point we did get some questions asked from security around Greenwich, but we did enough to convince them it was not a commercial shoot and he left us alone.

I really like the results I got from these two quick shoots and would like to do it more.  It just shows you do not need a lot of equipment to get great results.  All the photos were taken with my Canon 50mm F1.8 lens with a single bare flash.  Only Lightroom was used on raw files.

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London Fashion Weekend - Canon DSLR Vs Olympus MFT

I shot at The London Fashion Weekend today.  After the positive result I got from The Redbull Soapbox Race, I was keen to test out the continues focus performance of my Olympus E-PM2 again.  This time I borrowed a Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8 lens for the fashion show.  As a comparison, I wanted to compare it to my Canon EOS 650D with the 24-105mm F4 IS.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

By shooting with both camera setup.  I can say the continues performance of the 650D with optical viewfinder is just superior to the Olympus E-PM2 with VF3 view finder.  It is not all bad, but the the C-AF+TR (continuous + Tracking) gets it wrong about 30% of the time while the Canon 650D hardly got the focus wrong.  Also the frame rate for the E-PM2 to continue to AF is very slow.  It is suppose to 5FPS, it was significantly slower, more like 3FPS.  If this was a paid job, I will shoot with a DSLR, no question.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Light level was very consistent but not very bright, I had to shoot at 1/400s, F4 at ISO 800.  Colour temperature was about 4400K, very close to florescent.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Overall, if I was to shoot another fashion show or anything that involve moving objects, Micro Four Third cameras will not be my first choice.  It is simply not consistently enough and unpredictable.  Especially if it is a paid job.  Unless Olympus and Panasonic sort out the continuous AF it will never never compete with DSLR.  I use M43 cameras because I like the small size and weight.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Comparing the two cameras, photo quality are very similar, and it is hard to separate them.  Canon have not produced a new sensor for the last 4 years.  Even the new 70D 20MP sensor is not much improvement to the 4 year old sensor.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

After this event, there is no doubt the better system for continuous AF is a DSLR.  I will not use my Olympus M43 camera for any moving object.  For static objects, image quality is right there with my Canon 650D.  Shooting with two system was difficult and does not really help with such a fast pace event.  For vacations and events that do not require continuous AF I will still use my Olympus M43 camera.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

I would like to thank WEX Photographic and Canon UK for the chance to shoot at London Fashion Weekend.  All images copyright Yat Tang.


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Travel Time Lapse Videos

I’ve been very busy traveling for my family holiday and business.  There is no time to fit in any photo shoot.  I am hoping to rectify this very soon.  While I travel, I do try to document the places I’ve been.  In the past, I would take a lot of photos and post them online.  Now I try to shoot time lapse as it is more dynamic and with social media it is easy to share.

Three places I traveled to recently are: Hong Kong for family holiday, Porto Cesareo in Southern Italy and Granada in Spain for business.  These places are just so different in terms of people, culture and environment.  Hong Kong is hot and humid and very built up and crowded.

Hong Kong 2013 from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

Porto Cesareo is hot, dusty, dry and only crowded on the beach during the day.  It is a very popular destination for Italians to go on holiday.  In the town centre, it can be difficult to get a table for the evening meal during peak times.  The Italians just love to walk around, look at people, have an ice cream or coffee after the meal.

Porto Cesareo August 2013 from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

Granada in Spain is next to the Sierra Navada mountain which has a popular ski resort in the winter.  In the summer, car companies takes over the mountain road for high altitude testing.  The city is beautiful and it is full of history.


My Two Weeks in Granada from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy watching these time lapse videos.  Any feedback are welcome.


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