Witches & Olives

Today, on the second day of our Ligurian vacation, we did a trip up the Argentina Valley from Arma di Taggia to Triora. We toured the medieval mountain town of Montalto Ligure and went on to Triora, another historic town in the Appenin mountains and the site of the last witch trials held in Italy, during the Renaissance. We finished the day at the coast in Taggia, where we visited the artisan Olive oil mill, where The Significant Other, since 2003, annually orders more than 50 gallons of the finest extra virgine olive oil.

I took too many photographs today for a comprehensive post tonight, but I thought I share a street photograph from Triora that I took with my Olympus OM-D E-M1X and the mZuiko 12-100 F/4. There are some people claiming repeatedly that micro 4/3 lenses aren’t capable of taking images with a shallow depth of field or a decent bokeh. Look at this photograph. There you got my answer.

You can see from the image specs that the ISO are rather high at 1250. The thing is, I was shooting some young swallows sitting in their nest in a dark corner of a medieval building. In order to get decent shutter speeds I cranked up the ISO and shot wide open at f/4.5. When this street photo opportunity came up I had to react quickly, failing to notice the high ISO setting. But then, it doesn’t really matter. Get your picture and then worry about your settings. This matters especially in street photography where situations change fast. But here a little noise also doesn’t hurt (not that the E-M1X is noisy at ISO 1250). When it matters more, like shooting landscapes, you typically have much more time as your motive is stationary. And then you should check your settings before each shot. But in the streets you just shoot and check your settings later.

Wish you a great Monday!

Marcus

Related Posts:

New Memories and Remembrance

You see me

Street Photography Quick Tip (14)

StoNur on the Road – Fotografiska