Greetings from the wilds of Southern Oregon

[MiguelATF]

Just acquired a new Ricoh GR - actually it's technically not new but lightly used - but it's my first Ricoh ever. Previous to this my main cameras have recently been some superb Micro 4/3 bodies & lenses, including several fine Lumixes and Olympi (the plural of Olympus - or is it Olympuses?) - as well as a handful of fine digital compacts including the underrated LX7 and Canon's strange but also vastly underrated EOS M (admittedly not a compact but, with the tiny and razor-sharp 22mm pancake lens, is quite close to compact status). Before then I shot for several years with a fine older generation Pentax DSLR, the late (and still lamented) K200D. And before that....back in the heyday of Analog only film photography, I shot with assorted Pentaxes (a lot), tiny Rollei's (wonderful little gems), and, yes, even an ancient Leica & Contax which belonged to my father, many moons ago.

But all that is water under the bridge - except for my Lumixes & lenses (which continue to surprise me) - and now, a GR.

Here are a few of the first images taken with it - first a street in the small town where I live -



BUMP by La Chachalaca Fotografía, on Flickr

Then a worksite/construction site where a house has been demolished and only one item curiously seems to have survived -



Worksite Toilet by La Chachalaca Fotografía, on Flickr

Thirdly, a strange mutant growth on a tree in my neighborhood -



Mutant Tree by La Chachalaca Fotografía, on Flickr

And finally my neighbor's mailbox, in the form of a motorcycle -



Motorcycle Mailbox by La Chachalaca Fotografía, on Flickr

Something tells me the GR - which may be the most pocketable good camera I've ever owned - is going to be a keeper.

Cheers, everyone!

 

[Blow-in]

Nice start with your new camera and I'm looking forward to seeing more. I've never visited Oregon but have always wanted to.

Richard

 

[Orol]

The #2 scene really is "charming". A great catch, Miguel.

Peter

 

[MiguelATF]

Thank you, Richard. Oregon, like many other parts of the world, is full of hidden gems and treasures, just waiting for an enterprising photographer (yet another reason why the GR is nice - since it's small enough to pocket and bring with me most places).

And Orol, I agree with you - the #2 photo, of the abandoned toilet in the middle of a construction/building site - does have its particular charms. Thanks for the comment!

Miguel

 

[quester]

Hi Miguel and welcome here.

All the photos have a certain eeriness to them, looks like you have an eye for that. #1 does it for me, although I like the colors in #4 too.

Hope you enjoy the forum!

 

[33dollars]

Hi Miguel and welcome to the Ricoh forum.
I've had a few GR's and the current one is by far the best. I have no idea where Ricoh could go from here.
Enjoy your new camera and be sure to keep us posted.

 

[MiguelATF]

Thank you queseter, appreciate the comment, and you're right - I do have a fondness for things eerie, or just plain weird. Incidentally, the colors on #4 (the motorcycle/mailbox) were achieved by tweaking the RAW GR negative in Lightroom, with the aid of a nifty plug-in by Xel (X-Equals) which partially mimics some of the tonalities of Ektar negative film.

And thanks 33dollars - I can see that owning Ricoh's might get to be something of an addiction : - ) and it's hard to say what Ricoh may have up their collective sleeves for the future. My suspicion is that, now that Ricoh owns Pentax, some influences from Pentax designers and engineers are going to begin creeping into future Ricoh's. The most obvious example of that is the Tav mode selection, common to Pentax DSLR's and digital mirrorless cameras, but (relatively) new to Ricoh's. I wouldn't be surprised to see more Pentax influences show up, and btw that's not necessarily a bad thing, IMHO, as Pentax has been designing and building some pretty nifty cameras in their own right for decades and decades.

And, just for fun, my latest GR picture, taken on another walk through the small Oregon town where I live -



Dashboard Pig by La Chachalaca Fotografía, on Flickr