Sigma DP2, f/8 1/40 sec.

With Halloween coming up, I thought it might be neat to share this possessed aspen tree. It stands sentinel on the east slope of the Tetons at the shore of Jackson Lake. With so many photographers in the Tetons, and so many postcards, I’ve been trying to find more unique subjects to photograph on my recent trips there, that still capture the flavor of the mountains, which in this photo, are set in the background.

One thing I am dismayed about with digital photography is the lack of dimensionality to photographs. You can almost tell, nowadays, whether a photo was taken with a digital camera or not. They’re flat, electronic-looking (define that! but you know what I mean, right?), and they lack the plasticity of a good film photograph.

Camera sensor and lens combinations that shoot like film are rare. Of the compacts, few combinations seem to be able to deliver film like images anymore. Notable in my own experience, are the Sigma DP1/DP2 and the Olympus E-P1 or Panasonic GF1 with a Leica M-mount or Voigtlander lens. This shot was captured with the Sigma DP2, with the aperture closed down pretty good (f/8) so Mt. Moran in the distance would not lose its most recognizable outline and glacial features.

I hope to bring this rather subjective quality into my upcoming reviews of the Olympus E-P1 and the Panasonic GF1, to be published at BPL this fall, and focus a little less on the pixel peeping so regarded as authoritarian by other camera review sites.