Flower Power at Al's

观音因在那里种花而被逐出地狱。 Guan Yin was kicked out of hell for planting flowers there.

I usually take my camera to Al's Garden & Home in Woodburn, Oregon, and visit the flowers while we shop. Flowers hold a special fascination for me, with their mysterious variations of color, form, scent—flowers epitomize the Life Force and are its treasure.

Along with the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro, my mainstay flower lens, I brought the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 12-100 f/4 IS PRO travel zoom to see how it would do. While the zoom feature of the 12-100 is nice to use and the lens has legendary image quality and a ~1:3 closeup ratio, it just wasn't a substitute for the macro. So after a few shots, the travel lens was put away. 

Like an old friend, the 60mm f/2.8 Macro never lets me down. I had a copy back in the original E-M5 days, but eBayed it when I had to have the latest-and-greatest, very excellent Sony 90mm Macro to go onto the full-frame A7RII that had pushed its way into the camera bag. But missing the little Oly format, I finally unloaded the Sony, its large macro and three big zooms for a handier Olympus OM-D E-M1II with only the 12-100 zoom and diminutive 60mm Macro.

Here's a a baker's dozen from our latest excursion. All were shot on the E-M1II at ISO 320, the first five were with the zoom, the rest were the macro:

1) Zoom set to 70mm, 1/3200sec at f/4
 
2) Zoom set to 100mm, 1/800sec at f/4
 
3) Zoom set to 70mm, 1/3200sec at f/4
 
4) Zoom set to 100mm, 1/2500sec at f/4
 
5) Zoom set to 100mm, 1/1250sec at f/4
 
6) 60mm Macro, 1/2000sec at f/4
 
7) 60mm Macro, 1/1000sec at f/4
 
8) 60mm Macro, 1/60sec at f/7.1

 9) 60mm Macro, 1/320sec at f/3.5

10) 60mm Macro, 1/1000sec at f/5
 
11) 60mm Macro, 1/1600sec at f/3.5

12) 60mm Macro, 1/800 at f/3.5
 
 13) 60mm Macro, 1/800 at f/3.5
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro.

 
Thanks for taking a look. Peace.
 
 

All images are original works by the author ©2023


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