We spent last weekend in Key West and spent an hour in the Butterfly Conservatory. It's not a big exhibit, but butterfly conservatories have become a favorite since visiting my first one five years ago in Cleveland at the Botanical Gardens.  Having a LUMIX FZ1000 with me just made it that much more fun!

Just like a coin has two sides, so do butterflies. I loved the contrast in colors and design of the little guy above. The under side of the Blue Morpho is brown with eye shapes and serves the purpose of camouflage, while the top of the wings are bright blue. It's a stunning display of color on each one.

Rumor has it if a butterfly lands on you during your trip through the exhibit it's a sign of good luck. Fortunately I had on my "lucky" shirt, which was bright yellow and a color they're attracted to. Sheila tried to get a shot for me, but I'm a lot taller and didn't want to move too much. However, being able to turn the screen around 180 degrees and compose the shot myself gave me just what I wanted. It might not be the most flattering pose, but who cares - I got the little guy sitting on my shoulders.

​The only challenge I had was patience for the camera to adjust to room temperature. Your natural instinct is to start shooting immediately. However, coming from the air conditioned ticket area/store into the humidity of the butterfly sanctuary created instant fog on the lens.

All of my images were shot with the LUMIX FZ1000 usually in auto focus macro with the ISO at 200-400. I found myself experimenting with "IA", Intelligent Auto mode as well. In Intelligent Auto the camera continuously runs through a series of features including image stabilization, ISO sensitivity and continuous auto-focus, just to name a few. 

Key West is known for its natural beauty, the shops, galleries, restaurants and obviously being surrounded by the ocean on all sides. However, the Butterfly Conservatory created a stunning moment of beauty and peace we just didn't plan on. There's little that beats butterflies, soft music and the beauty of the conservatory. 

I recently returned from Kenya, a photographic trip I do every year, and this season was considerably different than years past. With the world wide occurrence of Elnino the Masai Mara and Samburu Game Reserves were greener, more lush, with higher and thicker grasses than I’ve ever seen in my nearly twenty years of visiting these wildlife Meccas for photography.

Virtually every night and some of the days we had pouring rains that saturated the Savannah to the point of making travel difficult. But what is a challenge for humans is a blessing for the animals that call these islands of life home

Typically these storms don’t come until February and in years past I’ve actually planned some of my trips to coincide with what are called the annual short rains. Late February is a great time for potential lightning storms, big cumulous thunderheads and the chance to see the animals living their lives while being deluged from the skies. This year the rains came early.

With so much vegetation I tried a seldom used feature on my Lumix cameras known as Pinpoint AF. The GX8 and the G7 have this feature on the back Cursor Pad. The Cursor Pad is the little circle with up/down left/right arrows that allow you to move through many of the cameras choices.

The GH4 has the same options under the Fn3 button on the right, back side of the camera. Whether the Cursor Pad or Fn3 button the idea is the same; to give you the ability to change the AF sensor pattern in the viewfinder.

​There are six possibilities with the one we want to discuss, Pinpoint AF, on the very far right side of the option window. This is the AF feature I want to share with those who might not know how handy this little tool actually is.

With Pinpoint AF selected you get the ability to precisely select a very small, minute, spot, for the camera to precisely focus on. How does this all relate to the my trip to Kenya you might ask?

Quite simply, with all that grass it was extremely difficult to focus on many of my subjects due to the thick vegetation getting in the way. Even with my GX8’s AF Single sensor dialed down to it’s smallest size, I was often unable to get critical focus on the animals eyes and face.

Switching over to the Pinpoint AF made all the difference, allowing me to shoot precisely between blades of grass to acquire the precision focus all good wildlife images require.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when trying to access Pinpoint AF. In several situations the Pinpoint AF option may be grayed out. To access Pinpoint AF you need to make sure you are not shooting in AF-C, the little switch to the right of the EVF.

Pinpoint AF only works when you are set to AFS/AFF. Furthermore, you have to go in to the Menu, select the REC tab and find the AFS/AFF setting and MAKE SURE it is set to AFS.

If it’s on AFF you will not be able to access the Pinpoint AF feature. One other thing to remember. Pinpoint AF is slow and precise so don’t try using it on subjects that move quickly. It’s best for stationary objects.That’s all there is to it.

Who knows how many uses we may all find for this unique and little known feature. For me it was very handy on the plains of the Serengeti but one doesn't’ have to think to far outside the box to imagine how it might work in all sorts of other situations.

You may have your family pet sneaking through the grasses of your backyard. How about a portrait photographer creating a beautiful, out of focus foreground of fall colored leaves during a senior graduation shoot. I can imagine my college days as a wedding photographer shooting through a warm and glowing candelabra, foreground soft and muted while the bride and groom are critically focused in the distance.

​It’s just one more amazing tool unheard of in traditional DSLR’s and one more reason why I’m a huge fan of the technology Panasonic is bringing to the world of capturing stills and moving images. 

Over many years of my career I've been involved in a lot of trade shows and conventions and especially booth design, going back to my Polaroid days, then Hasslelbad and WPPI/Rangefinder. When you're a big company people expect a big presence. There's a recipe for success and at IUSA I was reminded of the ingredients as I went by the Panasonic booth yesterday. 

• You need a show stopping display and this year's Panasonic booth set the bar pretty high. I love the header right down to the feel of the high tech softbox lighting. Plus the images around the header, as well as those on display within the booth, spoke to the quality of LUMIX.

• ​You need enthusiastic staff! The booth was busy and the crew from Panasonic never slowed down. From the members of the Luminary team to the field and corporate staff, this is a creative and talented group of artists who you need to have in your network.
• You need to be interactive. There are speakers in the booth all day long. Check out LumixLounge.com for the daily schedule of presentations by the Luminary team.
• You need great products and they need to be displayed in a way that people want to pick them up. I loved the way they did the back-lighting from under the products themselves.
• You need a track record that speaks to your commitment to the industry. Without question LUMIX technology is doing just what they promised - "Changing Photography".

So, if you're at IUSA swing by the Panasonic booth, and find out what everybody is talking about. The only thing more impressive than their camera line is the passion and skill set of the staff in the booth!

Note: All images captured with the LUMIX FZ1000.

by Mark Toal

When I’m traveling for work I love to walk around whatever city I’m in before and after work. The camera gives me a good excuse to head for parts of cities that I haven’t seen before.