Watercolor Sunset. The sun was setting and the alpenglow on the mountain peak was visible through the falling snow. The softening effect is due to the atmospheric conditions. Chugach Mountains, Eagle River, Alaska. Sony A7 Mk2 with OM Zuiko 300/4.5 lens. Minimally processed in Adobe Lightroom (cropping, white-balance).

A Sunset Fata Morgana (mirage) over the Cook Inlet. Photographed from Mt. Baldy, Eagle River, AK. Sony A7 Mk2 with OM Zuiko 300/4.5 lens.

Whoever at Olympus that made the decision to sell the camera division obviously never had one of these. Olympus OM-3Ti with Zuiko 35-80/2.8 Zoom. (Photographed with a non-Olympus branded full-frame digital camera and the OM Zuiko 300/4.5 lens with Zuiko 1.4X teleconverter - cropped).

The Antonov AN-225 departing Anchorage. Photographed from Arctic Valley Road. Sony A7 II with OM Zuiko 300/4.5 and 1.4x Teleconverter. It had just started to downpour at my location when the jet was taking off. The shooting distance to the airplane is nearly 15 miles when this photograph was taken.

Converted and edited in Lightroom for artistic intent.

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly and Dandelions. Spring has arrived in Alaska! I suppose I should mow pretty soon, but wanted to make sure the bees and butterflies had something to work with first. Photo taken with the Panasonic DMC-GX85 with OM Zuiko 300/4.5 (Silvernosed) and OMZ 1.4x Teleconverter. Handheld. No extension tubes were used, but this was right near the minimum focus distance. Additional cropping and rotation done in Lightroom.

Antonov An-225 Mriya taxiing for takeoff at Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport (PANC), departing to Toronto. This is at 11:30 PM. Photographed with the Sony A7 II and Olympus OM Zuiko 300/4.5 lens. Additional cropping performed to correct photographer's framing error. ISO 160, F8, 1/60.

Converting fuel into smoke and sound

The Olympus E-1 has an absolutely wonderful Kodak CCD sensor that has three major flaws: Not enough pixels, noisy pixels, and supposed lack of dynamic range. However, in fairness, the noisy pixels are generally not an issue if you can shoot at base-ISO. The lack of dynamic range is sometimes a challenge, but usually not a problem because the images require less bending in the computer to achieve desired output. But the lack of pixels is definitely a weakness and forces a restriction on maximum print sizes and cropping.

But the colors, oh, the colors! And the mid-tone contrasts. The typical digital camera has a much flatter response curve and requires more gain adjustment to form the desired output curve. The E-1 raw images have a much steeper response cure and a significant "toe" in the shadows. Not really any shoulder, but the toe is major. Because of this, as well as a more intense color profile, it requires less bit-bending and saturation to be added later in the process. The E-1's Kodak CCD sensor is effectively closer to the final output and requires less computational adjustment later on.

When it comes to color saturation, most cameras allow for the images to be "saturated" through the edit process, but rarely are those saturated colors "rich colors". It's similar to cooking where butter can provide a richness in flavor that a vegetable oil cannot.

The following images are from 2005 and were taken in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I've revisited these images and processed them with the latest/greatest version of Adobe CC in Lightroom Classic. While an argument can be made that I've turned the volume up to 11 on most of these, the results satisfied my current aesthetic and just shows what is possible. These are quick edits. No detail work performed, no spotting or edge-definition work.

The actual settings in Lightroom Classic are mostly about half to a third of what I have to do with Canon 6D and Panasonic DMC-GX85 images. The natural color intensity and mid-tone curve requires little adjustment and in some cases (although, not shown here) require significant subtraction rather than addition.

Lake Superior Sunrise - Porcupine Mountains State Park. Olympus E-1 with 14-54 lens.

Flowing Water - Bond Falls. Olympus E-1 with OM Zuiko 300/4.5 lens.

Red Water - Bond Falls at Sunset. Olympus E-1 with 14-54 lens.

There are innumerable ways these images can be processed. I've personally processed these images many different ways over the past 15 years and next time will be sure to handle them differently again. But these are how I wanted to process them this time. And the raw files support it. Absolutely no heroics were applied, nor gradients or local adjustments. All adjustments were global. Other than minor cropping and rotation, these are as-is. No spot editing, nor corrections. Just color and contrast adjustments. Final print versions have different edits and adjustments made for display.

Ken

Solid Sky. Chugach Mountains. Eagle River Nature Center. Canon 6D with OM Zuiko 300/4.5 lens. Processed in Lightroom CC.

Rock and Light. Eagle River, Alaska. Canon 6D with OM Zuiko 300/4.5 lens. Processed in Lightroom.