Learning to drive my Olympus OM-D - Horses, Birds and a Bishop

I have bought an Olympus OM-D E-M1 as a replacement for my ageing Lumix G1, which for the uninitiated is a much smaller camera than that which I habitually use and is also much much lighter which makes it a good choice as a travel camera, For the slightly initiated, this is a Micro Four Thirds camera which means that lenses and the dedicated flash gun which I have for  the Lumix are compatible; at the moment I have the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 lens an have also been trying out my Panasonic 45 - 200 mm lens from the Lumix.

On the first morning after I got this, I got up early and went to Warren Hill in Newmarket, only to find that they were using the gallops furthest from my vantage point! They were just too far away, even with to Panasonic lens which is equivalent to  full frame 90 - 400.  Walking across the training grounds early in the morning is severely frowned upon! However I got a few shots of them walking back, steaming after their exertions.

Next I tried out the wild flowers and the bird feeders in our garden; on the bird-feeders I used the Olympus app on my phone which allows me to fire the camera remotely whilst watching what the camera can see on the iPhone screen. I liked this way of working - good for lazy photographer, but bad for camera and phone battery life!

Then yesterday afternoon, the wonderful ex-Bishop of St Albans, John Taylor, was conducting a confirmation service in Little Wilbraham and I was along to take some record shots for the parish.  These were taken at ISO 4000 without flash which lead to some noise in the raw file, but nothing which was beyond the wit of Lightroom

Finally, it was time to prepare some pictures of the new camera's predecessor in order to advertise it on eBay.  I was pleased with some nice crisp shots under studio-like conditions.  Anyone for a Lumix?!!