Street Photography in Madrid with the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 Lens

Álvaro Serrano:

Madrid is an amazing city, full of life and color all year round, but it gets even better when the cold temperatures of winter subside and the glorious spring sunshine takes their place. As the days become longer, the heartbeat of this unique city begins to pick up the pace and when the first heat wave of the year hits the streets, its effects are immediately felt all the way across town, like a shockwave. [...]

With that scenario in mind, I definitely felt this was as good a time as any to take out my new Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens for the first time and have some fun documenting the arrival of spring to the Spanish capital.

Madrid is one of those cities that I've heard about in my life but never really had much exposure to, in photos or otherwise. I had no real sense of the place at all.

After reading Álvaro's article and seeing his beautiful photos of it, now it's a place I think I'd like to see in person someday.

Jeff Sheldon's Iceland Trip [Video]

Jeff Sheldon—of Ugmonk fame—recorded this footage while recently vacationing in Iceland. It was shot on an Olympus E-M10, the same awesome micro four-thirds camera Shawn Blanc extensively reviewed on Tools & Toys.

The trip was beautifully captured, despite Jeff's claim not to know much about videography. Clearly the man has an eye for composition. Now I want to visit Iceland.

Josh Gintner's Review of the Olympus E-M10

Though I consider Shawn's review of the Olympus E-M10 to be the canonical one—sure, I'm biased—I also enjoyed Josh Gintner's take on the camera.

“I was utterly amazed at the difficulty in finding an online review that documented the real aspects of buying and owning a camera. Every review talked about f-stops, ISO settings and RAW capabilities. All I wanted was a camera that could take pretty great photos on the spot without having to fiddle with four dials in the process.”

Josh's review clocks in at over 4,000 words and includes plenty of eye cand- er, sample photos. He really did his homework on this one.