False Spring
This early in March? We Michiganders know better.
Shot on the Canon EOS M and EF-M 22mm f/2.
spring
Spring Break in Chicago
Chilly, but always worth it.
Shot with my new Canon M200 and a few different lenses.
Step Outside
“Go touch grass” is such a meme these days. And for good reason – after almost three years of pandemic isolation, we could all use some fresh air. We probably spend too much time online, especially on social media, and it can affect our wellbeing.
This year, I’m trying my best to get outside more. During the pandemic, I made taking a walk at lunchtime a new habit to help my mental and physical health. But “outside” can also mean away from the internet, or away from your everyday. Now is always the best time to see or do something new.
And while you’re at it, grab your camera and capture what you experience.
Waking Up in Spring
April is our time to wake up and get outside. The birds are chirping, the leaves are sprouting, and the sun comes out to visit again.
Home New Home
Out of the blue, we bought a new house.
As always, I use my camera to explore new places: see how the light changes, assess the space, and catch the little details you miss on your first pass-through. I picked a day before we moved much in and caught the empty house on a quiet weekend afternoon.
A bit of peace and silence before the packing and shuttling begin.
A Walk Outside With the Canon R
I had a chance to walk around with a new Canon R – one of the mirrorless, full-frame cameras set to take over from the SLR series – on a mid-March evening with the family.
There are little pockets of snow still hanging around, but you can feel spring in the air: the birds are chirping, the crocuses are poking out of the damp ground, and it’s no longer freezing cold outside. This happens every year, when we take our first tentative steps outside and stroll around the neighborhood.
The camera is slick. It’s so light, it reminds me of my much older, much more creaky Canon M. This one was paired with the 50mm f/1.8, a typical walk-around lens. With the two together, I had a lightweight, easy-to-handle bundle. Snappy and crisp, the lens was perfect for capturing the family and the scenery at golden hour.
A few things I noticed while shooting with the R:
- I missed the optical viewfinder – the digital viewfinder was decent, but not like looking through a mirror
- I also missed the instant “on” of an optical viewfinder – the digital version took a second to detect my eye and switch on
- The grip was perfect for my hands, and the smaller size and weight was a welcome break from my hefty 5D
- Image quality and classic Canon colors were all there – no need to switch from my Canon-trained eye
This was the camera system of my future. Unfortunately for Canon, I have no plans on upgrading anytime soon. My 5D, 6D, and Canon M aren’t broken, and while I feel a bit of gear lust, it’s not a strong enough pull to make me spend anything on a new camera, let alone new lenses. Someday, sure, but my investments in the EOS system keep me grounded in what I have.
Still, it was nice to get outside and try something new – a rite of spring.
Tennessee
Much like our vacation last summer, for spring break earlier this month, we went all natural and took a quick trip to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
Sticking mainly to the national park, we enjoyed the fresh spring air of the Appalachians. And what scenery: lovely mountain streams following us along the roadways, vistas not yet obscured by tree foliage, and the winter melt trickling down from the mountainsides, creating little waterfalls everywhere we went.
After a mild winter, it was good to get outside and tire ourselves out.
I took along my handy little Canon EOS M with the EF-M 22mm f/2 – or as I call it, the Family Camera. It goes with us on every road trip. Over the years, it’s definitely earned its share of bumps and bruises, but it’s small and light, and the picture quality still can’t be beaten – almost 10 years later.
The 35mm equivalent focal length is wide enough to get these lovely landscape shots, and I can bring it in closer for shots of the kids or super close-up shots of flowers or details. While the autofocus is lousy, I don’t need it to catch quick-moving subjects too often. It’s a clumsy, deliberate camera, and I still love it.
I’ll probably drop it down a cliff or forget it at some roadside diner on one of our family vacations someday. If it ever needs replacing, I’d be satisfied with a white M2 “upgrade.”
For now, the M is in the “good enough” category. It captured those scenic Tennessee landscapes perfectly and came home to tell the tale.
Early Spring Landscapes
This year? It’s 60+ and sunny in late March and early April. I feel like even the robins made it back early.
Out for an evening walk, enjoying it while it’s here.
Spring Flower Macro
Shot with my Canon EOS EF 100mm f/2.8.
Edge of Spring
That’s a shame. Spring is my favorite season, but seeing the lack of apple blossoms on the neighborhood trees, plus the pandemic, and some historic rainstorms, it’s feeling like spring never happened.
Except for those few days in April.
Flower Girls
Here’s another quick project: Grab the kids, find a trail, and start shooting.
I used to do more of this type of work, coming up with a simple idea and grabbing the family to execute it. Now, with a busy life, it’s harder to think this way.
Thank goodness for my wife, who saw a sunny evening and a trail full of spring flowers and got us out of the house.
Small, lovely steps.
Capturing Feelings
“I find photography a way of capturing what I’m feeling and sharing it with others.” – Om Malik
Season of Change
All the fun stuff happens in the spring.
Not only is spring my favorite season, but it’s when my life seems to change the most. Things that have happened to me in spring in the recent past:
- Left my job of eight years to go into higher ed
- Purchased my first home
- Got married
- Purchased another home
- Started another new job at the Museum of Art
- Had another baby
My first daughter was born in late summer. Otherwise, all the big stuff in my life takes place from March to April. A season of change.
And so it goes this year as well: I just accepted a new position as the internal communications manager at Dawn Foods, here in Jackson. It’s another career pivot. My previous roles have all involved external communications: social media, public relations, website work, advertising. Now, it’s all in house – a skill set I’ve developed over my entire career. I’ve always, since the very beginning, been the go-to person for internal communications. This month, I’ll make it a career.
Just as March is a messy, transitional month from season to season, life has been messy and in transition for about a year now. A few ups, quite a few downs, and lots of struggling with productivity, passion, and maybe even depression. My hope is that this new position will clear up, and clean up, a few of those messes.
One Afternoon, One Roll of Film
Time to break out the Canonet.
After thinking about my favorite type of camera – small, single lens, 35-45mm range – I loaded a roll of Agfa Vista 400 and hit the streets for a just-starting-to-feel-like-spring afternoon in Ann Arbor.
From loading to dropping film off at the camera store took less than an hour. I had 24-ish chances to capture something walking around an unfamiliar neighborhood. And I had 40mm to express what I saw, with a rangefinder focusing mechanism to express it.
I also had a serious limitation: the bright, sunny afternoon was killer when the Canonet’s highest shutter speed was 1/500. That, combined with a 400 ISO film speed, meant having to pull the ISO down a bit, or else the camera refused to take a photo. Chalk it up to one big learning experience.
The point is, I took the Canonet for a spin, and blew through a 24 exposure roll of film. That old saying about potato chips, that you can’t eat just one? Same rule applied to that roll of Agfa Vista. It was easy to just keep visually snacking.
My Favorite Season
Spring is, far and away, my favorite season. Waking up out of winter, flowers and trees blossoming, trips to the greenhouse, yard work and walks around the neighborhood – plus those perfect May days in Michigan, where the temperature reaches a perfect mid 70s.
Bring it on.
