During Imaging USA last January, Panasonic had a series of special interviews going on live with "This Week In Photo" in their booth each day. There are twelve video interviews on YouTube  in the series with some of the most creative artists in our industry. Frederick Van Johnson does an outstanding job of putting Panasonic's LUMIX line in the spotlight and at the same time creating terrific content.

In this interview with LUMIX Luminary, Suzette Allen, the topic is 4K video for portraits. Remember, shooting in 4K gives you an opportunity to pull a single frame image with outstanding quality, Kristen Jensen, in her post in May wrote: 

..."But, have I told you lately about the absolutely perfect 300 DPI JPEGs I can grab from my 4K video footage? Well, it's true and it is a fact.  I no longer have to shoot stills along with shooting video for my clients, because I can catch a shot/print/JPEG file anywhere or time that I shoot 4K video."

Suzette shares a lot of great information in this interview. You'll also find more terrific content on her website and her YouTube channel.  Panasonic's tag line is "Changing Photography" and that's exactly the message Suzette and the other Luminaries are helping photographers appreciate.

I'm currently shooting with the FZ1000 and two of the features I love is the ability to shoot 4K and isolate a single frame as a jpeg easily. Now, put that together with the the ability to go back and forth from video to still images and it's a win-win all the way around. Today's technology has given artists the biggest selection of creative tools in the 180+ year history of photography.

Follow Suzette and the other Luminaries with a visit to the LUMIX Lounge. You'll never be disappointed. 

Intro by Skip Cohen

I've written a lot about the diversity of Panasonic's Luminaries many times.  Here's another great example. They're not only diverse photographers, but educators as well. In this short post my good buddy, Bob Coates, takes the FZ1000 out for a spin.

I've been shooting with it myself for the last few weeks and it's remarkable. And if I find it an amazing camera, think about its potential in your hands as a professional photographer!

Check out more from Bob Coates and all the Luminaries with a visit to the LUMIX Lounge. There's new material being posted every day! Plus, Bob should already be on your radar. Check out his blog, Successful-Photographer.com for a never-ending stream of content to help you better define success for your business and skill set.

My wife Holly calls it harrassing cause I used to have to get very close to the birds to fill the frame and they often would leave in a snit at being disturbed… I call it photography while I study and capture behavior images. I really enjoy photographing birds. At her parents place which looks over the marsh in Delaware I’ve plenty of subjects.

I was curious as to how the Lumix FZ1000 would perform and I gotta tell ya it ain’t bad at all. Having a 400mm f4.0 lens is quite good. I’m even more impressed with the ability of the digital zoom going to 1600mm. At that zoom range some detail it starts to soften but being able to fill the frame from a long distance is more than worth the trade-off. Here is a sequence to show the range of the camera…

If I’m going to have one camera for vacation, or just to have at hand daily – that does almost everything I need – the Lumix FZ1000 is the one.

Intro by Skip Cohen

Now and then there's a post that comes along I simply love to share with as many artists as possible.  Consider it a teaser to the original by my pal Giulio Scorio posted in the LUMIX Lounge. At the beginning of the post he puts the project in perspective.

"As a commercial photographer it’s my job to make engaging visuals for others. This means that although commissions are a collaborative experience, the over all vision of the shoot is a compromise. This is not a bad thing but after a busy season of shoots I like to realign my own vision by shooting a self-assignment."

Over and again in guest posts, webcasts and podcasts you've heard other artists talk about the importance of special projects, self-assignments meant to challenge creativity and explore your ever-changing parameters in imaging.  

"For this particular self-assignment I wanted to test my skills in a full out hybrid shoot. The overall goal of this project was to create a portrait of transformation in the form of a short video. I asked myself how would this look visually and how would I communicate this message through video?"

I'm sharing his behind the scenes video and the final piece here in Luminary Corner, but getting the full feel for Giulio's adventure into a unique self-assignment you'll need to see the complete post. Trust me, it's an excellent blueprint of the process for your self-assignment.

We were on vacation last week and I had a chance to play with a new LUMIX FZ1000. I'll be the first to admit this post is a little like one of those reports you had to do as a kid in grade school, "What I did on my summer vacation!"

Well, our son has been trying to get me into fly-fishing so we spent a week in the North Georgia Mountains. I actually took a little time off and didn't bother to post much, although I did link to a few things on Facebook and Twitter. However, overall, if you've noticed my absence from the keyboard, it's because I've had a camera or a fly rod in my hand all week.

A new FZ1000 was just the tool to have with me and here are some examples of what made this trip so much fun.

Let's start with a reminder that I'm NOT a full time photographer. I know more than I let on, but my core work is all about marketing and business. I'm not very adept at Photoshop or Lightroom or anything else in the world of manipulation, but playing with some of the in-camera presets was a kick.  Here are a few examples and some of the images I simply loved capturing.

If you don't know the camera check out the specs. It's got a Leica 25-400 zoom, is light and easy to travel with and just gets results.  Remember too, these are screen shots of the jpegs, not the original files. They're great for a blog post, but even better when you can see the originals. 

I know I'm sounding like an amateur, but I do like the in-camera artistic preset that tweaks the saturation in the image above on the right.

Out for a drive one afternoon we came across this little church, which couldn't be sweeter. 

Again, I was playing with the presets. Had I been transmitting from the camera to the Internet, I could have posted these without slowing down. 

It's all personal taste, but I love the black and white presets and one called "sunshine" which just seemed to work with a subject like this charming little church, the last image in the sequence at the bottom. 

I typically haven't been a big fan of filters and presets, but these are too much fun not to use now and then. Plus, the only way I'm going to get to know when they're appropriate is to get a feel for how they look in different situations.

The image on the right was captured using a preset called "Bleach Bypass".

I'm not sure how this tradition got started, but the images below are taken at Blood Mountain on the Appalachian Trail. The trail is over 2000 miles long, extending from Maine to Georgia. Hanging one's hiking boots in the tree at the end of the journey has obviously become a tradition!

Two last images from the trip, both from the top of the mountain looking out over the valley. A storm had rolled in and left just a small set of clouds. I had some fun with one of the black and white presets.

The tag line for Panasonic's LUMIX line is "Changing Photography" and as I've written before, that's exactly what they're doing. If you haven't checked out the world of mirrorless and the LUMIX line, it's well worth a trip. This camera not only has amazing versatility as a still camera but also shoots 4K video!

Check out more images from Panasonic's Luminary team, one of the most talented and diversified groups of artists in the industry. The LUMIX Lounge is just a click away.