A Photowalk can be a peculiar ritual - somewhere between a civic parade and a band of footpads skulking through town. It is innocent enough, though, when it starts...
Actually it generally begins with a greeting by the industry representative - in this case Burke Flynn from Olympus Imaging - and a setting out of the rules; you are welcome to try the new cameras and please do not drop them in the mud. Do not run away with them as young, fit shop assistants will chase you like greyhounds. We have counted the lenses...
Friday's Olympus Photo Walk from our new Murray Street Store was actually delightful, coinciding as it did with pleasant summer weather and the Friday night hawkers markets in the centre of Perth. If you can stand fire, smoke, and the smell of things frying you have a chance for some great pictures. As well, the falling light in Perth at this time of year can be surprisingly gentle and artistic - particularly if it is reflecting off signs and Christmas revelers.
It was not always thus. The city at the end of Friday in the 1960's was alternately grim and garish, though you were pretty safe wandering the streets at nearly any time of the night. I should not care to linger late in the area these days...but then I get nervous when they let the Bingo mob out of the local parish hall - full of tea, biscuits, and passion. You get hit with a Zimmer frame and it is all over...
Well, back to the centre of the city. Two examples of the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 MkII were to be had, but one of them was firmly in the grasp of Camera Electronic's Sam Perejuan. And I was able to observe one very smart design feature that Olympus have changed from the OM-D E-M1 original. Look at the picture of Sam's hand holding the camera.
Sam's hand is not a small one - call it an average man's span. He has a firm grip on the camera with forefinger on the shutter button and thumb ready to turn the back dial - but his hand is not having to fight its way over the camera support lug and strap holder. Olympus have moved it from the position they...and most other people...formerly put it on the side of the camera. It is now up in the cradle of the web formed in finger and thumb. It is ever so much easier to handle the camera than before.
The picture of Sam shooting the camera with a rather large strap attached shows that the strap naturally lays out of the way now and does not bunch under the hand. Bravo! Stand there fighting with a strap for an hour and see how your concentration suffers.
Now as to topics for a walk - apart from the doughnut stalls and fist fights - people can find some artistic treasures:
Or architectural flights of fancy:
Or just quietly evocative lanes.
I just enjoyed speculating about the late-night goings-on...I believe they call for players some time after 9:00. Tennish, anyone...?*
* Yes, that was intentional. The weblog pun filter is not turned on.
