Ossian Lindholm - On the Road with LUMIX

I recently added a Panasonic Lumix LX100 to my gear. It means a lot to me that it looks like a Leica, because my first photography teacher, when I was 14 years old, had a Leica. So much of the gear we choose in our careers or hobbies are based on aspiring to do something the way we were first taught.

Although the Lumix looked tiny next to a DSLR, it's loaded with features that deserved my full respect. Right from the beginning I decided to treat it as a professional camera and put it to the same tests I'd do with any DSLR. So, I set it up for shooting raw files and doing everything in manual mode. I wanted the same control I'm used to with my other camera gear.
 
While the instruction manual is loaded with great content, nothing beats hands on experience. At first I started taking photos of simple situations. I wanted to get used to the controls, so when on a tour I'd have no hesitation in knowing how I wanted to get a particular shot. The more I got used to the camera, the more excited I got over the results.

I pride myself on images that are different. I am not a postcard photographer and love to show the drama in nature.
I especially like to challenge the light.  If a camera does not allow me to play that game, then it's of no use to me. Well this little camera has never disappointed me and the results have been one outstanding image after another. 

Here are three situations of what I call extreme light.  The first two were taken during our Vision and Vines tour in Northwest Argentina. The third one in Chile. 

The first one is in Salinas Grandes during sunset and while it looks like a grab shot, I wanted to test the camera in a difficult lighting situation. Notice the way it still picked up a little detail on the photographers themselves along with a rich sky and terrific contrast in the clouds.
 
The second one is in Cachi during sunrise, here you can see the excellent Dynamic Range of this camera. Its not an HDR photo and picked up a solid exposure from the foreground to the mountains farthest away.

The third one is a sunrise in Chiloe island. Notice the details in the less illuminated components of the image. The camera never disappoints me.

No one camera can do it all, but one of the things I enjoy the most is outstanding quality at a fraction of the weight and bulk of the rest of my gear. As a landscape, fine art and travel photographer I spend a lot of time hiking to a wide variety of points of interest. The FX100 is fast becoming one my most favorite and valuable tools to capture images that reflect my love for the landscape and tell my story as an environmentalist. 

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