Kay Martinez - the Prairie Photographer

I'm from a big city, but ended up in the middle of the Flint Hills in Kansas to live longest in my adult life so far. I consider myself a nature/field photographer most, who also does occasional portrait photography that incorporates nature. Most of my images are taken while walking with my two large dogs and my younger son, and are from beautiful Flint Hills in KS, where the largest continuous area of tallgrass prairie left in the world. I carry either my 5DMKII with 40mm pancake lens, or recently bought mirrorless, Lumix G5 with 20mm (equivalent of 40mm) pancake lens. My gear had to be compact as possible, and tough as possible as I run with my dogs and camera.

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This song always remind me of my commuting days to work in Tokyo.

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Backyard Photography - fog on Flickr.

I love taking pics on foggy night, it gives eerie feeling to the atmosphere...

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Storm is Near #Flickr12Days on Flickr.

I often takes storm photography and you know why, we are in Kansas! Storms are scary but at the same time beautiful and fascinating.

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My favorite tree in sunset on Flickr.

We have most beautiful sunset in Autumn/Winter months here in KS. I love to take silhouette photography during those months, which creates quite dramatic shot because of striking sky!

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Trees of Mt. Fuji on Flickr.

Trees on Mt. Fuji are very uniquely shaped due to its environment are very old. Pines have much shorter needles and cones compared to the trees at the lower above sea level locations. Mostly look like natural bonsais! These trees are something to look at in person at least once in your life :)

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Forest fairies? on Flickr.

I spotted these interesting plant (at the time I thought fungi) at Aokigahara Jukai at Mt. Fuji. I was informed by both G+ and Flickr member that these are called Ghost Plants or Indian Pipe. They lack chlorophyll thus no color, but they do benefit from sunshine. Their host are some fungi that has mycorrhizal relationship with trees. Such interesting plants!

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NRT, Narita airport in Chiba, that's right, it's not "Tokyo" airport! JAL aircraft in the view.

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Early morning flight at ICT.

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On the way to Japan, heading toward DFW.

Lumix G5

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A pink sunset reflection on the water, taken at Island Park in Winfield, KS.

After a LONG TIME considering pros and cons, I have decided to keep my Canon FF camera after all. I doesn't really matter if I downgrade to 5DMKII, or keep my 6D, both are fabulous cameras. If I find an used deal for a 5DMKII for less than $1000, I would use it instead and sell my 6D to keep $500 in difference. I'm trying to be frugal as possible. I would think about how I can reduce the number of the Canon lenses I have to minimise my possessions. I guess I'm turning to minimalist in a way. I've been working around the house to get rid of things out the house.

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Found an amazing deal at B&H for a copy of used Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm lens. This is equivalent of 200-600mm, which focal length I could only dream for using it with my FF. Not only the price, but the size of the telephoto lens that size would be ginormus! 

This is fairly a long and heavy lens for MFT, but considering the focal length it can reach, this is amazingly small. MEGA O.I.S. works fabulously to reduce the handshake, but focal length this long, it's definitely a good idea to use a tripod for sharper images. 

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It's SPRIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!

So nice to go out and take pics of wildflowers here in KS. Time for Macro lens to shine! 

I've been yo-yo about if I should keep my DSLR for good, or get rid of it entirely to go for MFT (micro four third). MFT is very tempting as lenses are SO MUCH LIGHTER, but yet, I just love FF (full frame) sensor. I definitely don't mind to use MFT ONLY for nature photography, it produces amazing quality photos. BUT when it comes to people portraits (not street photos of people), I really love the way the photos produced by FF + good Canon lenses. 

There are number of MFT lenses made by Panasonic and Olympus that seem to be excellent for portraits, but only way to find out is to actually buy it and use it to see how it works. 

If I find a good used lens that are acceptable price, I would go for it to see and make comparison shots by FF and MFT. I've seen some YouTube videos made by others for the same kind of comparison, but I'll have to do it on my own to do the same to decide.

We'll see!

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I must admit, I got spoiled by this handy little Panasonic Lumix G5. iA (intelligent auto) mode of this camera works like a charm, I've been using it this way too much to where I lost my instinct of adjusting ISO, aperture, and shutter speed according to the situation. 

So today, I went back to entirely manual mode to bring my instinct back using my Canon 6D. One thing that I'm not used to yet, is to use my Lumix in manual mode. Adjusting the setting of this camera is a bit of different story for many Canon DSLR users. Easier in a way, but harder on the other with touch screen. The knob to adjust the shutter speed, or aperture (you can switch back on forth by pressing the knob adjustment wheel) is very tricky, at least to me. 

I've been debating to see if I can be entirely a mirrorless camera photographer, but at the moment, I'll hold on to my Canon DSLR. The compactness of mirrorless is very, very attracting, considering how much you'll have to walk or run around with the kids for portrait session. For that matter, I can imagine easier for wedding or traveling photography as well. There are professional lens line up available from Panasonic, Leica, and Olympus (and Fuji, and so on), AND Sony came up with the very first full-frame mirrorless recently. I see a trend recently that some professional photographers did ditch DSLRs. I know mirrorless is capable, more than I expected, but I'm not entirely comfortable ditching regular DSLR just yet. I shall see as I use Lumix more in manual mode...

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This year, we are observing more sundog compared to the previous years. Usually it lasts about 5 minutes, but this time lasted quite long time. The trick is to NOT to hurt your eyes by seeing through VF (da~). Wish I could frame sundogs both side of the Sun, but I'll kill my eyes by doing it. So this was a guess shot, trying to frame it somehow without looking!!

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After posting the blue sky, here's a shot of my husband, who was forced me to come with me to walk the doggies in snow.

Taken by Panasonic Lumix G5, with the zoom X lens, 45mm-175mm. You want to know the difference between 45-150mm and this lens? 175mm has power zoom, which is great for videography.

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Blue Sky, Black Trees. 

Taken in Winfield, Kansas. We had absolutely beautiful blue sky in between snowy days. 

Taken by Panasonic Lumix G5, this camera's color rendering capability is amazing!!