Hardness of photography

Spotted, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today was one of the worst days in terms of photography I have had recently. There was a few moments during the day when the rain and sun gave interesting combinations in the fall foliage of the forests, but I was inside an office then, so no go.

The cloud cover increased during the evening, and it started to rain in earnest. So, not much to do with photography. Here is one shot I took when going for a moment outside, converted to b&w in iPhoto.

There was yet another review of the Panasonic LX3, by Digital Camera Review. The camera got both praise and criticism, which mainly applied to the noise present in a small-sensor compact (however good). They also noted a few other issues, and pondered about the price which is close to entry-level SLRs. I feel that this was a well balanced and informative review, perhaps a bit more negative than most of the previous ones.

I have so far taken 3381 photos with the LX3, and despite some problematic areas (such as the autofocus which causes insufferable lags once in a while), I greatly like the control it gives to the user. I'm more and more often using more manual controls, especially manual focusing and aperture priority mode. When used like this, the LX3 makes a photographer happy.