Intro by Skip Cohen

This is a very different Luminary Corner post, but it's too much fun not to share and it's also helping me make a very special point.

Brent Watkins has been a great friend for a lot of years. We met when I first moved back to Ohio in 2009 and since then we've shared a whole lot of experiences, not to mention meals together when we catch up on the convention circuit.He's a terrific photographer in Barberton, Ohio, with a strong focus on seniors, portraits and weddings, although there's nothing he can't shoot. During the days of the Akron Photo Series he helped me host two different hands-on workshops with Bambi Cantrell and later Jerry Ghionis at Sylvart Studios.

Last week I watched this outrageous and fun video that Brent proudly shared in one of the Facebook forums. It was created by his son, Reese and friends at Smithville High School. Brent gave Reese his FZ1000 for the project and besides being an incredible camera and so easy to use, the video makes a point I want to share.

Most of you are working professional photographers or, you're aspiring to be. In addition, many of you have families. Whether your kids come into the business with you later on or not, is irrelevant - use your skill set and inspire their creativity. No matter how young they are - if they're able to walk put a camera in their hands. Help stimulate creativity in imaging and then sit back and check out how they see the world!  

You can check out more about Panasonic's LUMIX line and meet the Luminary team with a visit to the LUMIX Lounge.  And...a big thanks to Brent for sending me the link to the video and congrats to Reese who just graduated this past weekend. What a great senior project! When I was a senior the best idea we came up with was to graffiti the school...for which we spent days having to clean up the mess afterwards!

 
​CAMERA Lumix GH4 - LENS Lumix 12-35 2.8 - ISO 200 1/50 sec f/5.0

• Main Light is a Profoto B1 with a Soft White Beauty Dish and 25˚ Honeycomb Grid
• Rim Light is a Profoto B1 with a Honeycomb Grid Spot
• Fill light in the room is coming from a Profoto 7ft Giant Reflector and a Pro Air Tungsten continuous light source.

I created this photograph during a fashion shoot for the launch of www.shopcharlee.com a clothing line I produced from my fine art expressionist paintings. My clothing line includes leggings and capris with the perfect amount of compression for athletics such as yoga, dance, running, or the gym.

So, we are focusing some of our photo-shoots for the brand around these niche lifestyles. I wanted to capture a dancer in motion both in photographs and in video so naturally we utilized the Profoto system for the project because all of our light shaping tools fit both their strobe and continuous light heads. This makes it easy to switch from high impact still images and go right into video capture using the GH4 as well. This image was one of my favorites from the shoot as it really showcases the motion of dance, and the clothing at the same time.

You can follow our journey of turning art into fashion on our blog www.togetherinstyle.com where we have a web series called Our Reel Life that takes you behind the scenes of our personal and professional journey as artists, photographers, and entrepreneurs. 

Intro by Skip Cohen 

I fell in love with scuba diving in 1991 and over the next five years, logged in hundreds of dives. In fact, at one point we had a dozen diehards, mostly from the photography industry, who would head out on a trip just about anywhere at any time. As a result, we hit the water throughout the Caribbean, Bonaire, Truk Lagoon off Guam, Cocos Island (36 hours by boat from the Dominican Republic) and when it wasn't an exotic trip we were regularly in the Keys, diving off of Islamorada.
 
On every trip, I had a camera in my hands and soon learned "the only camera housing that doesn't flood, is the one that never goes in the water!" I also learned the degree of difficulty in getting great underwater images. I typically would come back with hundreds of images and less than a half dozen I liked. These were all captured in the film days, and I'd wait for a week after getting home just to know whether I captured anything to make me proud.
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Meet my buddy Daniel Cox, who's not only shooting digital underwater with this image buta LUMIX GH4. Working with a smaller camera and still maintaining outstanding quality makes Panasonic's mirrorless technology the perfect creative partner underwater!

You can check out more of Daniel's work on his website. Then, wander over to the LumixLounge and meet the rest of the Luminary Team! They're one of the most talented and diverse groups in the photography industry, and you'll never be disappointed in their passion for education and helping you raise the bar on your images.

By Daniel J. Cox

Small, light and mobile is how I describe the Lumix system in my ongoing Lumix Diaries. But shooting underwater takes it to a whole different level, no pun intended.

On a recent exploratory trip to Tahiti for our NE Invitational Photo Tours, I was able to include my entire Lumix system which includes Two GH4’s, one GX8, and LX100, Olympus 12mm F/2.0, 7-14mm, 12-35mm, 35-100mm and the new Leica 100-400mm AND the Nauticam underwater housing and front lens port, all stuffed in to a Lowe Pro Roller 200. 

When I was shooting traditional DSLR’s I would have a 1610 Pelican case JUST for the underwater housing, lens port and other incidentals alone.  Working with such a small camera in an equally small housing is incredibly liberating which made my work more fun and immensely more productive than any underwater shoot I’ve ever done. Small, light and mobile is where it’s going and Lumix has beat them all to the punch.

Yes, I'm a Lumix shooter and yes, Panasonic is an SCU partner, but that's not why I'm posting this in Luminary Corner. In fact, Panasonic didn't send me the link or even ask me to promote the new member of the family.

I wanted to share this video because it does such an amazing job of hitting the features of the new GX85 scheduled to start shipping this month. Watch it and think about how much information they've packed into ninety seconds. It's clean, concise and does exactly what it was meant to do - get us pumped to check it out!

Now, I know it's a completely different subject, but think about how you'd tell your story, if you had just ninety seconds.

Intro by Skip Cohen

Along with the direct members of Panasonic's Luminary team, there are some incredibly talented staff members. One of them is my good buddy Mark Toal. In fact, while we haven't know each other that long, he's one of those guys you hang out with just once and you feel like you've known him for years!

This image was captured with a Lumix GX85. If you're interested in seeing more of Mark's work, check out his regular column on Mirrorless Photo Tips. Each Luminary is also regularly posting images in the Lumix Lounge.

​Just click the link below and be introduced to some of the most talented and diverse artists in the industry!

by Mark Toal

I took this photo while visiting Minneapolis for work. It was my birthday and I asked the people I was working with for suggestions on where to go for my birthday dinner. I was alone on a work trip and just wanted to treat myself to something special. Everybody agreed that the Guthrie Theater on the river in downtown Minneapolis was the place to go
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After eating at the Sea Change restaurant in the Guthrie, the waiter suggested that I go up to see the view from the 4th floor balcony. I had a pre-production Panasonic Lumix GX85 I was trying out and showing to customers. When I stepped out on the balcony a freezing cold wind was blowing at 35 miles per hour. I saw this amazing grain silo that is now part of a museum next door. As fast as I could I changed the ISO to 6400 and pointed the camera at the silo, and took three photos before I ducked back into the theater lobby to get warm.

I love this image because it will always remind me of that birthday. It also reminded me that a good image doesn’t need to be at a certain ISO or setting. I put the camera in Program with the 12-32mm kit lens and just hit the shutter. It’s a little noisy, but perfect as far as I’m concerned. 

With each post in Luminary Corner, I always like to mention the incredible diversity of the members of Panasonic's Luminary team. Each photographer, while there's virtually nothing they can't or haven't photographed, has a core specialty. My buddy, William Innes is known for his wedding work. I've shared a lot of his wedding guest posts and Photodex videos. 

Recently on a trip to Viet Nam, he was traveling with the new LUMIX ZS100. Compact, light and loaded with all the features LUMIX cameras are known for, it was the perfect creative tool to switch hats and capture images as a photojournalist. There's a new gallery just recently posted in the Lumix Lounge sharing more of William's images from the trip.

You'll fine more of William's work on his website and also with the Luminary team in the Lumix Lounge.