Intro by Skip Cohen

I've repeatedly talked about the talent of Panasonic's LUMIX Luminaries and their diversity. It's time to meet Joseph Linaschke, one of the newest members of the team. He actually ran this post on his blog, PhotoJoseph a few weeks ago, but it's so remarkable, I wanted to share it with all of you.

Shooting with the GH4 he's pulling still images at 8 MP from the 4K video. Check out the detail.  What you can do with images like this is amazing.  It should just send you off into a "what if" moment or two, because truthfully, technology and Panasonic has made sky the limit.

Joseph is a remarkable artist and you'll find a lot of great images and content on his blog. It's just a click away.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of shooting at the Sonoma Raceway during the GoPro Grand Prix. I was actually there to shoot another race happening the same weekend, the Pirelli World Challenge. These are essentially street cars (Ferrari, Chevy, Kia) that are, um, slightly modified. The team I was there with is The Racers Group (TRG) with Aston Martin Racing, and I was specifically shooting for the driver of car 09, Derek DeBoer, who's a native from my home of Ashland, Oregon.

I was also shooting an assignment for Panasonic, as a Lumix Luminary, specifically to shoot 4K video to extract still frames from. On the Lumix GH4, 4K can be either 3840×2160 (16:9 ratio) at 29.97 or 23.98fps, or if you switch the camera to Cinema mode, you can shoot 4096×2160 at 24p. That's 8.29 and 8.85 megapixels, respectively. Think about that from a stills perspective… you can shoot 30 frames per second at eight megapixels. That's… a lot. And it's easy to extract a single frame from the video and export as a still. In fact, you can do it in camera, which I did on the track, then sent the frame to my iPhone over WiFi, and shared it from there.

Here's a video sample. The video clips are unedited, and not color graded at all. The video will pause on a few still frames, two of which you will see the original, then a graded shot. The latitude of the GH4 file is impressive. Notice in shot at the top of this post, I was able to pull up some detail in the grill on the front of the car. Pretty impressive.

The first clip is on YouTube, which supports 4K. The second is on Vimeo, which doesn't support 4K, but will look better if you're viewing this on an iPad.

by Bob Coates

It's not a stutter when I say "Macro Macro". It is the term I use for stacking macro extension tubes on a macro lens. I thought I'd take the macro photography to another place and see what happens.

I used the Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f2.8 Aspherical mounted on the Lumix GH4 with a set of Vello Extension tubes (10mm + 16mm stacked) to see what would happen. Since I was trying to keep weight down on the trail I used a MeFoto Backpaker Travel Tripod to support the camera.

Here are some examples.

Headed off to Dragon Con in Atlanta before Labor Day I packed up my GH3 and just two lenses, the 12-35 mm and the 45-150mm.  As so many professionals have already discovered, Panasonic's mirrorless technology has given us outstanding quality with compact, easy to travel with gear. Plus, the system's ease of use together with so many features is remarkable, especially in low light level situations. Plus, during the Dragon Con parade, I was also able to easily switch back and forth from still images to video.

But let's talk about Dragon Con, just a little. I explained it briefly in my first post, but every year at Labor Day thousands of sci-fi fans invade Atlanta. Out of a rumored 60,000 in attendance this year, my guess is 3000 - 4000 came in full costume and these were some of my favorites.  Because the show is held in a 3-4 block radius at five different hotels, you're constantly bumping into people everywhere you go. What's hysterical is watching the Atlanta residents just walk right by, as if this was just a normal every day experience.

These are all grab shots, pretty much right out of the can, shot as jpegs.

Besides me just wanting to share the fun of Dragon Con, Panasonic's Luminaries have repeatedly written about the features they love the most. From commercial to wedding to portraiture to fine art and video, in both the LUMIX Lounge and here in Luminary Corner, feature after feature has been talked about and shared by some of the most talented artists in the industry.

I know this sounds like a commercial, but you owe it to yourself to check out what mirrorless technology is bringing to the party - especially Panasonic!

Intro by Skip Cohen

I've talked a lot about the diversity of Panasonic's LUMIX Luminaries in every guest post here in Luminary Corner. It's an amazing group of talented artists.

Well, meet Michael Grecco, who's work many of you already know. As an award-winning commercial photographer and film director, Michael's work has been featured just about everywhere and that's not an exaggeration. His client list is a virtual who's who with Esquire, Time, Pfizer, GE, HBO, ABC, NBC/Universal and ESPN, just to name a few.

What I love about today's post, which is very different from what's normally shared, is a quick look at the personal side of Michael's life as he spends a little time with his daughter, LUMIX camera and his cell phone in hand.  Seriously, how many of you did something special this summer? Yet, without that old assignment from when you were a kid, "What I did last summer..."  to write, the memories are close to being forgotten.

You're going to be hearing a lot more with Michael and we'll be sharing more of his images, but best of all is his philosophy...

What better way to demonstrate that philosophy than with Panasonic's LUMIX line of cameras! To see more of Michael's work visit his website and also his blog!

by Michael Grecco

One of my favorite things to do in the world is to take my daughter, Sophia, on vacation with me. It's our ‘father-daughter’ thing to do and every year we go to Europe on a food excursion. You see, I taught Sophia to cook, as our ‘father-daughter’ activity when she was 9.

I showed her how to use a knife properly, explained about spices and how they change at different points in the cooking process, reductions, etc. I taught her everything I know about food types, which was Chinese, Thai, Japanese, French and much Italian cooking. She is now 17 and a fabulous chef. She has well surpassed my skills as a cook; the basics taught to me by my Italian mother and grandmother.

So when Sophia asked me a few years ago to come with her to France, to explore the food of the country, I was thrilled. We have made this our annual excursion - usually adding a week to my trip to the Arles Photo festival - eating with my big girl around France.

This year she wanted to go somewhere different. Being half Italian and enjoying cooking in her family heritage (and boy, is she good), she naturally wanted to try Italy. So we ate and shopped our way around Italy and France, with the help of my friend Gill. We had a particularly good time. The Arles festival was not the best this year, but the time we all had could not be beat!