Ben Grunow: Blog

ICELAND WITH THE LUMIX GH5

Mon, 17 Apr 2017 12:16:38 GMT

I was traveling around Iceland last month with the new Lumix GH5 capturing long exposures and landscapes and I want to share my experience with you. I have used many of the Lumix camera systems over the years and have always loved the lightweight portability while backpacking and traveling, without having to sacrifice anything in performance. Compared to the GH4 and other previous models this camera is a powerhouse full of technology. There are tons of new features added to the GH5. The interface is incredibly easy and Panasonic has made this camera completely user friendly and fully customizable depending on how you want to set the camera up.

As a traveling professional photographer and videographer, I’m always looking to pack less. I love to backpack and camp atop the mountains and every ounce counts. Every piece of gear I carry in my bag must be important. A lot of photographers usually bring along a few pelican cases and multiple bags of gear. I could never have packed all the same DSLR gear as I did mirrorless gear, the weight and size are not comparable. I would not be able to travel so light, out of 1 backpack, camping gear and food/water included. The GH5 is the best all around camera I have ever used.

With a goal in mind to put the GH5 to the test on night sky and landscapes, I booked a flight to Iceland. Iceland is a magical place unlike anywhere I have ever been in the world. The weather can change from sunny and mild to complete blizzard with white out conditions in less then 20 minutes. The wind is also a huge factor. The doors can blow off your car if you’re not being cautious with 50-80 mph gusts. I decided to drive the golden circle and then ring road all the way around Iceland counter clockwise in a small 2 person camper van (more like a very small mini van) that had a small heater, stove and cutlery. Choosing to go in March I was hoping to avoid some crowds, but it was quite busy on the golden circle compared to the rest of Iceland. This time of the year in Iceland the sun comes up around 7 am and sets around 8 pm, giving ample time for night photography and daytime similar to my home in Vermont this time of year. Iceland’s summer months are primarily sunny for most of the day and night and winters are almost total darkness.

Arriving at 5 am in Keflavik, I set off into the sunrise on ice-covered roads to capture long exposures of waterfalls along The Golden Circle. This route has a lot of traffic being so close to Reykjavík, but is well worth it. The weather being 50 mph winds with bits of sun to grey, then turning to full blizzard conditions with a white outs made it a lot trickier to take long exposures then I had envisioned. I ended the first night in Vik at a closed campground with wind howling and snow swirling all through the night.

The GH5 and I had just been through rain, snow, wind and ice without issue, I wanted to put it to the test on the night sky. Checking weather and solar winds on the Internet, I made a plan. I aimed to be at Diamond Beach for sunset then Jökulsárlón, the Glacier Lagoon for night photography. The weather looked mostly clear and the aurora looking promising as that night was forecasted to have some good solar activity if the weather actually held out. I used the 12mm 1.4 Lumix lens shooting 6-12 second exposures f1.4 to f/2 and ISO 1600-6400 depending on how fast the lights were moving. I couldn’t have been more impressed with how the camera performed. I found there was no noise whatsoever and could not have been more impressed with the final image results. I went to bed at 3 or 4 in the morning as the clouds and snow crept back in, having captured the craziest solar storm I had ever seen.

Waking up to crazy winds and another blizzard with no signs of letting up, it was time to make drive to Stokksnes where the weather was forecasted to be sunny and clear. Stokksnes is a very photographic, razor-peaked mountain range with a beautiful black sand beach. Little did I know this windy afternoon was the last day of good weather for days to come.

Taking 2 days to drive through some tiny fishing villages, mountain passes, in and out of beautiful fjords, past herds of reindeer and more Icelandic horses then people, I continued to be impressed by my GH5. Coming down from the highlands to Lake Myvatn were bubbling sulfurous pits and the most majestic hidden waterfall I’d ever seen in my life, Godafoss. Leaning into the wind and getting soaked to the bone camera and all, I still was so impressed with the results coming from the GH5 in such conditions.

The rest of the trip was spent winding through the Snæfellsnes peninsula bracketing exposures of several waterfalls and landscapes +/ – , 1/3-1 stops with up to 7 EV spaces. These options are built into the GH5 camera’s interface. I bracket to hand blend together in Photoshop during post. The final two evenings were spent back in Þingvellir National Park for free camping in a gorgeous setting. On the last night the stars aligned to give me clear skies accompanied by aurora activity. Capturing time-lapse of the lights dancing through sunset into the night was a dream come true. With the GH5 I was able to create the 4K mov (or mp4) files right from the camera while saving RAW files to a separate card.

After spending the final hours hiking through the cracks of the earth’s crust in Reykjanesfolkvangur National Park, it was time to head home. The trip had been an amazing experience, topped off with the craziest colors of aurora I have ever seen, and a beautiful landscape of Fjords, Waterfalls, Glaciers and Volcano’s around every bend.

Action Sports Photography with the Lumix GH5

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 14:58:36 GMT

As you change from simple photography skills to more advanced skills, learning how to stop the action has always been one of the biggest challenges. Shooting sharp sport photos and action photos is an important part of bringing your skills as a photographer to the next level. There has always been a huge learning curve for this skill and capturing sharp images require a certain understanding of camera settings and plenty of practice.

A 6K grab at high speed, making sure to never miss the exact moment.

After shooting with the new GH5 in 4K and 6K photo modes, I believe anyone can get tack sharp amazing results with out all the practice. So now what is 4K and 6K photo you might you be asking yourself? Well let me explain, 4K photo mode is 60 fps (frames per second) video recording that lets you pull 8MP stills images from and save back onto the your camera’s SD card or can be done in post. 6K Photo mode if just about the same but a larger file and will let you pull 18MP stills out of a short burst of 6K footage at 30fps.

6K 18 mega pixel grabs from a pre burst.

For traditional photo burst modes the GH5 will shoot 12 fps on focus locked and 9 fps with continuous AF. It does have a 100 shot raw buffer and never ending jpeg buffer. With all this the GH5 gets Panasonic’s Axis Dual IS II anti-shake system.

Continuous AF in RAW on a powder day in Smuggler Notch.

This in-body image stabilization system works in tandem with Panasonic’s wide range of optically stabilized lenses and 5 axis stabilization – great news whether you’re planning to shoot stills or looking for a stable video rig, if you’re planning to shoot handheld quite a bit. On another note in Ski/Snowboard photography the snow and cold temperatures are something I am constantly battling. Thankfully the GH5 if fully weather sealed, I have already buried this camera in snow and thawed the body and lens back out with no issues. Cold temperatures are another variable I have to work with on a daily basis and haven’t had any issues in sub zero temps. All in all the GH5 makes my job easy, almost too easy. I am confident anyone can get amazing professional results without the learning curve.

The image above is taken from a 6K photo, each image is 18 mega pixels and I used about every 3rd image for this sequence.

Continuous AF shot in RAW along with a lot of snow on the camera.

Another 6K Still on the Stowe Parks wall ride.

4K photo in the Terrain Park.

MeFoto GlobeTrotter Tripod review

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 14:39:36 GMT

I have been looking for a packable professional tripod for a long time, the Globetrotter weighting in a 3.7 lbs and packing up small enough to put in my Tenba backpack really fits my needs perfectly. I recently spent 3 weeks Hiking in the Swiss Alps and I have nothing but good things to say about this light weight sturdy tripod. I use the Lumix GH3 with a battery grip and with a 26.4 lb load max this tripod can also support my mini crane. Everything about this feels like its made very well! The tripod also breaks down into a convenient mono pod that unscrews off one of the legs, very nice large threads and easy to screw off and more importantly, extremely well made and sturdy. I do a lot of hiking so I went with the Carbon for weight, the tripod collapses down into 16.1" and fully extended up to 64.2". This tripod is for and photographer or videographer (Hybrid even better) thats looking for a light weight, sturdy, portable and professional tripod. I would recommend this to any beginner or professional looking to cover all there basis, it has taken me over 15 different tripods to find this DO IT ALL product.

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MeFoto GlobeTrotter TRAVEL Tripod/Monopod

-Ben Grunow

Wisconsin Waterski State Championship July 2013

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 15:16:47 GMT

On July 19th, I had the chance to travel to Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin to learn from and profile a truly amazing hybrid photographer shooting her Lumix GH3 by the name of Carol Schlintz. Carol is the Wisconsin State Waterski event photographer. Arriving in Milwaukee I had a 4 hour drive up to Wisconsin Rapids filled with lots of farm land, cattle and wind towers. I have never been to Wisconsin before this trip or even a water ski show and was not sure what to be expected besides the famous cheese curds of Wisconsin. The state surprisingly is very much like Vermont in many ways like farm to plate food and too many different micro beers.

Arriving into the hotel in the evening I unpacked my gear quickly and met up with Carol as she was transferring the days media cards and backing them up, as I watched and we talked I noticed she had transferred over 9 cards and I thought to my self that is a lot of cards. Little did I know how MANY people were involved in this event. The Waterski event takes place over 5 days with over 25 teams and up to 70+ people per team, broken down into jumpers, ballet, swivel, sit skiing, wake boarding, bare footers, synchronized, doubles, pyramids and so much more. Each team gets 1 hour to display everything they have from skits, announcing, to dancing, getting on and off the water, boat driving and of course most importantly water skiing. The entire hour is judged and everything is taken into consideration, if the skit is not finished within the hour then they are disqualified. Start time for the first team was usually 6:30 or 7 AM and went every day until about 7-9 PM depending one number of teams for the day and injury delay.

Taking all that into consideration Carol really has her work cut out for her, she has to capture everyone and everything. This is no easy task when you have 6 boats on the water simultaneously while the announcer's are putting on a skit. It is not hard to shoot way over a 1,000 images per team because their is just that much going on at once. On top of that you multiply that by 8 team's per day, and well you have got to be on it 100% of the time to capture almost every moment and not miss anyone on a team. With all the being said you barley have enough time to change your camera setting, that is when the custom settings on the Lumix GH3 come in very handy. It was great to work alongside another action sports photographer and see there style of shooting. Carol has a method of shooting that gets the best results, she has a full proof method of light changing and getting a professional image every time. We got to chat about the mirrorless Lumix GH3, the camera that we both are proud to shoot, we traded knowledge on all our short cuts and favorite features. It was truly a eye opening experience to shoot alongside and learn from such and accomplished photographer as Carol Schlintz. The Wisconsin Water Ski Show was truly a unforgettable eye opening event. Check out Carol's work at http://www.mindworksdreams.com/

A pyramid of 28 water skiers.

Carol Schlintz using her GH3

Please check out the following short edits.

Waterski vol.1 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.

Waterski vol.2 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.

Waterski vol.3 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.

Waterski vol.4 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.

Waterski vol.5 from Benjamin Grunow on Vimeo.

The Calm after the storm

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 20:44:45 GMT

We have had a lot of rain here in Vermont. This was on of the few sunsets we had in the month of June. This is a 7 step HDR shot with the Lumix GH3 and the 45-175 lens.