I began taking photographs about six years ago. That time it helped me get my mind off a broken leg. My first camera was a FED-3.
And the portrait became my main genre. I happen to be interested in charismatic faces, and there are a lot of them, as it turns out! And, as practice shows, a person’s activity shapes his or her appearance. Talking to and taking portraits of people from different fields, I get to delve into their profession it’s very educational and broadens my view of the world. My style took shape after a couple of years of taking pictures. It was film that disciplined and refined him. I’m still trying to try new things, but I don’t always reveal them to the public. The most important thing in a good portrait is composition and trust between the photographer and the model. You can always bring up the composition yourself, but the emotional component of working with a model is not always so easy.
Stanislav Liepa
If you are constantly engaged in photography, it certainly becomes a significant part of life. In my case it is work, hobby and just a pleasant pastime. I can’t imagine how you can walk through a beautiful place in the street and not take a picture. In general, be careful with photography: it can become addictive.
Now in the work I use medium-format film Mamiya RZ67, OLYMPUS OM-D E-M1 and lately OLYMPUS OM-D E-M5 Mark II. Comparing a medium-format Mamiya film camera and an OLYMPUS system camera would be as strange as comparing a military naval vessel to a good sports car.
But I want to add that unlike Mamiya, you can always put OLYMPUS in a backpack, especially with the universal M lens.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8, which gives you the opportunity to shoot not only in pro. but also in real-life situations, such as portraits of friends or my lovely wife and daughter.
Before Olympus I had Nikon D800, but when I got OM-D E-M1 I lost my desire and necessity to shoot with Nikon, so I sold it without any regrets.
The Olympus E-M1 is a very cool flagship camera and if a professional photographer rationally understands what kind of pictures he wants in the output, he will definitely get them. And even amateur photographers this camera will surprise you with its capabilities, and most importantly nice colors and great built-in stabilizer without competitors among other photo companies.
Just recently I got a new camera from Olympus – the OM-D E-M5 Mark II. Of course it’s a “camera cosmos”. All technologies E-M1 transferred to even more compact body and added a lot of nice innovations, such as – rotating screen, many times improved video capabilities, and of course the new mode with ultra-high resolution of 40 megapixels.
I found the swivel screen very handy, you can take video portraits very convenient, holding the camera in your outstretched hands, you get dual stabilization. A very cool feature that really came in handy when shooting “subject matter” and static portraits in low light is the camera’s remote control from a mobile device. I put tripod, fixed device, synchronized with smartphone and just sit in armchair and comfortably control the camera without shaking or physical impact on it. Of course if you’re really bored, you can misuse this feature and peep at models, for example.
Also in everyday life, taking some “action shots” in the street, it’s very comfortable that people around you don’t focus on the camera, and for someone it looks like a film camera, because it’s not as bulky and doesn’t look like a professional camera, but you know what the point is and therefore you work comfortably.
The optics play an important role in the image. It’s really a great thing with Olympus. I use these specimens:
M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8
M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 macro
M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8
M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 pro
Of course, you can write a whole review about each lens, but in short these are very sharp lenses with high resolution and individual pattern. 12-40mm f/2.The 8 is very versatile and very practical, especially if you travel a lot, but personally I shoot a lot of video with it. I hope my work does a good job of telling you how these lenses behave on set.
And perhaps the biggest plus for me is the very nice Jpeg files that require minimal or no work in a photo editor. For people who shoot a lot of commercials it’s a definite plus. And for safety and insurance, you can always shoot RAW+JPEG. If you suddenly want to switch from the E-M1 to the E-M5 Mark II, but are confused by the form factor, all you can do is put a gripe handle to make you feel “at home”.
