Life is about opportunities, but they are bounded by changing realities and still take some effort if you are going to take advantage of them. Living here at Homewood at Plum Creek I have plenty of opportunities, even though I don’t always take advantage of them. Lately I have gone to some of the musical events and have enjoyed them, for several reasons. First they are enjoyable, very close by (I don’t have to drive), and they are included benefits of living here. Second, they provide me opportunities to hone and test different skills with my cameras.

The above picture was taken with my Olympus E-P3 with a 20 mm lens … no flash, no zoom … while listening to the Irish Road band.  The lighting is never ideal for photography and thus is a challenge in the Omni Auditorium.  The following picture was taken through the window of the Homewood bus when I took it to the Winters Mill High School to hear the Carroll Concert Band.  You can see some of the window reflections in the sky.

The following picture is a shot of the band.

As I first mentioned, opportunities still have imposed restrictions. In my case it is one of not being able to carry a heavy camera around with me everywhere I go. In addition, I like to not impose on others around me as I take pictures. In my view, this means having a camera that is small enough to fit into a pocket, not having a big long lens thrust out in someone’s face, and never using a flash. I suppose that I could carry a little point & shoot camera, but it will not suffice.

I choose to use a camera with a larger sensor and one that I can shoot in raw format rather than jpegs. So far, I have found the micro 4/3 compact system cameras to be the best affordable choice for me. All of the above pictures were taken with the Olympus E-P3 and the fast Panasonic prime 20 mm f/1.7 lens, and I never used the flash. It isn’t the lightest or smallest camera but it still can fit into a coat or vest pocket and the handling ergonomics are pretty good. I only shoot in the raw format and then use Adobe Lightroom to develop the picture. In the above circumstances it is almost a necessity to utilize software to extract views of this quality with such a camera. In addition, it gives me as much, or more, enjoyment developing the pictures as it does taking them.