Mama Mia! National Arts Center, Ottawa

I saw this musical last night (2 January 2010) with my friend Sue. We met again at the Koreana Korean BBQ restaurant and this time we got right into the spirit and cooked our own food. The tables have barbecues built in, under glass. But for meat (we ordered shrimp and beef) they bring out a heavy duty gas barbecue with a rounded surface ont which you lay the butterfly jumbo shrimp and the thinly sliced beef. Needless to say ... awesome.

So off we went to the NAC. This was a familiar drive since we just did it a couple of weeks ago for Rita MacNeil and the Men of the Deeps. Once there, we walked about for a few minutes on the second floor, and then wandered to our seats.


As you can see, we had great seats. First row of box 5 on the left. This box hangs over something like the 8th to 10th rows I think ... and being about 10 feet above the stage, we got a wonderful view of the whole thing.

Note: Please remember to click on the images to see the 800 pixel versions, which show the detail much better than these embedded thumbnails.

At wide angle, we look further than we are. Note the pit at the front for the 10 piece band. The pit was so deep that we never saw a single player. But we did see the band leader all evening, as he was elevated, presumably so he could see the goings on on stage.

Although they announce at the beginning that all recording devices and photography were strictly banned, I felt that a few images for my blog wouldn't hurt anyone. I had brought the F70EXR for stills and the ZS3 for video. I decided that the stern warning would be heeded for video, since you have to sit still for a long time to get a decent video, and that might make it a bit tough to hide the cam.

I tested the reach of the F70 from the box and was able to isolate a few people in the front row, which looked pretty promising to me.


This was right behind the band leader, and you can see the requisite Apple Macbook Pro sitting there on his left. So predictable :-)

The play started with a very nice overture, and there were three sections to the play. The prologue is a short tidbit that occurs 3 months before a young girl's wedding. She discusses the crazy act of inviting three men to her weddings who were possible fathers of hers, each having had an affair with her mother the year she was conceived. Of course, she did not tell her mother about this, and this sets up an alternating roller coaster of poignant moments and high comedy. I love the way they yank you back and forth ...

The two acts that follow are set the day before the wedding and the day of the wedding. The second act naturally follows the intermission, and this is when I finally grew a pair and began shooting. I managed ot miss the funniest scene in the play, five boys dancing in full diving gear with flippers. But I did catch some lovely movements throughout the rest of the play.

I loved the colors and the lighting when some divers danced. I only got one image worth posting, as I managed to forget that I was at a concert and started off in P mode with the F70. This is a terrible idea since the camera will always choose a very low shutter speed. And that shows up as a lot of blurred images.

When I finally got my sh*t together and set the camera up properly (hiding it from the view of the security guard who had taken up a position across the theater and looked up at me fairly often), I was able to capture this rather nice image.


And here the bride gets into the middle of this group and sings.


A while later, mom (Donna Sheridan played by Michelle Dawson) and daughter (Sophie Sheridan played by Liana Hunt) share some time together.


We see one of the dads (Sam Carmichael played by John Hemphill) singing. Note the clarity with which the Fuji renders everything. The stage is beautifully lit.


At this point, I glance over at the band leader (Bill Congdon who also plays keyboards.) It's pretty dark in there and this image is much brighter than what came out of the camera.


This part of the day of the wedding includes several interactions between Donna and the prospective fathers. Here we see her chatting with and then sharing a laugh with Harry Bright, played by Michael Aaron Lindner. He is a head-banger, which gave him plenty of opportunities to make funny gestures. These always got the audience laughing.



The next scene sees Sophie in her bedroom with the wedding dress.


Mother and daughter end up sharing a poignant moment.


Once the wedding is set up, we see a very funny scene with the third prospective father (Bill Austin played by Martin Kildare -- and note that, if you recognize that name it is probably because he has quite a few TV credits to his name.) Bill gets hot for the rather robust sister (Rosie, played by Kittra Wynn Coomer) and many hi-jinks ensue.


And then it is time for the wedding.


Of course, the wedding does not proceed, as Sophie realizes that she does not need Sky (played by understudy David Reiser for this performance) to marry her just to be happy. They end up getting off the island and seeking whatever it is young people seek :-)

Meanwhile, a wedding has been planned and paid for and Sam proclaims his 21 year love for Donna, and asks her to marry him. After playful indignation, Donna of course agrees. Very sweet.


The final scene before the finale sees Sophie and Sky at night, presumably leaving the island.



And of course this sets up the final dance numbers, which are simply amazing to watch. Karen had warned me not to leave early ... that the finale is the best part. And she was right ... it was breathtaking ...

The cast takes their first bows. These are the boys, part of the ensemble.


Here, the fathers take a bow.


And the sisters.


Here's a good chunk of the cast.


Harry with Tanya (the other sister played by Rachel Tyler.) Note that Tanya plays a woman who goes after rich men and then divorces them. There are some very funny scenes as one of the young men goes after her and she acknowledges her potential cougar role. Great stuff.


Two of the couples and Sophie.


The cast acknowledges the band. Very nice.


And here I believe we have entered the finale. This goes on for quite some time.




The men seem to be posing here ...


And then the ladies ... I assume these two images are the ensemble cast.


And I think we have mother and daughter with Sky and one other dude. I hadn't noticed how Sophie jumped up on Sky here, and I think that is Sam peeking out from behind them.


The sisters do a long, fabulous number during the finale. It was something to see and the costumes are stunningly bright.











And then the men make a great entrance, dressed in matching outfits by couple ... the audience burst into laughter at this.



This terrific number with the sisters keeps the action going for a while.






And finally ... Donna and Sam ...


I plan on seeing this again. It's just such great entertainment.

Panasonic ZS3 versus Fuji F70EXR -- round 7 -- Wide Angle Comparison

Much speculation has been made about the F70EXR and ZS3 wide angle ... some say that the F70EXR's 27mm wide angle is actually wider than the ZS3's 25mm wide angle.

This test had to be shot twice to get things really accurate. I ended up placing an X on the screen to focus on dead center, then placing markers where the Panny was sitting and centering in the Fuji on those markers and tilting the cam to get the center spot to line up. The result is a near perfect match on the images.

The crops contain the top portion of each shot to exactly the same point. This gives a clear indication that the Panasonic uses more of the sensor as it gets wider, thus giving a true widening, whereas the Fuji merely crops top and bottom.

The Panny starts wider at 4:3 and gets much wider at 3:2 and 16:9. No question that it is a 25mm lens ... maybe even wider than that.

Sherlock Holmes -- Movie Review

It's only been out a short while, so no plot points or spoilers. Suffice it to say that the characters are totally believable, the plot is complex (and superb), and the casting is amazing. Downey's accent is believable, which really helps. The special effects are top quality, and the music is wonderful.

A totally immersive experience. Go see it, you will not regret it ...

Panasonic ZS3 versus Fuji F70EXR -- round 6 -- A Walk in the Snowy Woods

I enjoyed a half hour at the bank yesterday (way back in 2009) and when I got out, the snow was gently falling in huge flakes. I had left the house with both cams with the intent of driving out to the river to see what I could shoot, and so I did.

Before I left the house, I shot an image through my front door of the Lilac bush in the front yard, just to test the settings I was using. Today, I was shooting the Panny in a very automatic mode with its smart exposure features enabled. The Fuji used my usual settings, since there is no better way to shoot the F70EXR in my opinion.

F70EXR


ZS3


Crops


The ZS3 actually looks a little better here, as it has smoother tones and is less sharpened straight from the camera. Fuji are obviously striking a balance where binning is concerned ... the weird shape of the matrix after binning seems to make for blunter or thicker edges so Fuji sharpens harder than they do in other modes. This looks a little harsh at 100%, but is fine at typical web and print sizes.

So after I left the bank, I drove to the point where Folk Fest is held and where I shot round 1 of these comparisons with the wind surfers. I first walked towards a massive willow (I think it is a Willow) next to the parking lot. I shot both at wide and tele, and both cams look great in my opinion. Exposures were very close, with the Fuji slightly underexposing. I equalized both for exposure and white balance in ACR of course, as I am comparing final results with these cameras, not out of camera results.

F70 EXR then ZS3






The Fuji tends to be very good in the show at DR400 ... this because it reduces the contrast which gives the images a brighter look overall. I do try to equalize, but it is actually quite difficult to do that ... the Panny simply looks more contrasty. If you like that, you might prefer working with ZS3 files. Remember, though, that this is really easy light to shoot in ...

And finally, I shot a couple of shore line images ... F70EXR first, then ZS3 in these sequences:



Note here that the Panny has a weird vignetting with warmer colors in the middle ... I am rather perplexed about its response here. Just one more strange color thing that this camera can do ...



Both cams render the snow very nicely here. And despite my attempt to render them with similar colors, the Fuji continues to come out cooler.

That was it for the point. So off I went to Dick Bell Park. I realized as I got there that the place was rather desolate ... the boats were all in dry dock and there was little to shoot. In this sort of snow fall, you need trees ... lots of them. So I continued along and turned up Moodie Drive to hit the Beaver Trail again.

I walked in counter clockwise this time, as I wanted to see the Chickadee feeder again. In fact, it was covered in snow so I didn't bother with it. Turns out that I did not need to work too hard to find Chickadees, as you will see at the end.

Meanwhile, the snow looked stunning on the many branches and fallen trees. A beautiful coat of snow on top of the remaining ice from the ice storm of a few days ago. Pretty magical to walk here.

As always, F70EXR then ZS3 in these sequences.





Again, the difference in contrast remains, despite my attempts to equalize. The Fuji looks more open and soft (and by this I mean contrast, not sharpness) and the Panny is harder and warmer. But both do this beautifully in my opinion.

I saw an interesting formation of trunks and thought I'd shoot to get nice gradations in smooth snow, as well as a close up for details. I used a custom tone curve for the snow in all my images, and it was very necessary for these to pull out the snow detail (which is more like light to dark undulations.)

F70EXR first, then ZS3





The Panny often has strange color casts in shadows, and here I fought with that but ultimately gave up. Both look nice, but for different reasons.

Some animal tracks gave me the chance to try to capture snow detail again ...

F70EXR then ZS3



Again, ZS3 is warmer. Shouldn't be that way when I equalize in ACR, but it's because the bright to shadow color balance is very different ... Panny shadows are cooler, and that's where I try to equalize to gray.

My final tree shot is .... you guessed it (assuming you read my D700 posts) ... a stump. Again, F70EXR then ZS3.



Both retain plenty of snow detail and both protect the highlights just fine.

Now ... at this point I wandered back out, I came across a huge bush that had a bunch of Chickadees in it. I tried both cams and found the Panny AF was hopelessly slow for this task. I never even got close to a decent image of a Chickadee. Whereas with the Fuji, I got several. So from here on it is all Fuji F70EXR, which is far better for quick response.


Note the detail on this bird ... I was really impressed with this shot. 5mp does not hamper this cam much at all.


As ISO rises, detail falls ... but it is still pretty good here.


While I shot these, I had the immense pleasure of having Chickadees perch on me several times. That was so cute. I must admit, though, that it takes a bit of time to get used to the flapping of wings near your ears :-)

After a while, I wandered back towards the parking lot and encountered a young family with two cute little girls in tow. All four were holding seeds out and the Chickadees were going ape-shit ... it was so cute to see. I decided to stand there for a while and creep ever closer to the girls to shoot images of their hands and the birds ... obviously I would not shoot the girls themselves unless I got permission.

The birds move very quickly, so I got an unusual number of shots of birds arriving or leaving. It was really fun to try to time it ...

Leaving with a seed in its mouth.


Arriving ... looks like an airplane.


Landing, I believe.


One perched and one doing a fly by, which they love to do.


Leaving.


I then switched girls, as the first one ran out of seeds.

One looking around for a moment.


She had really poor luck though, so I shot the mother over her shoulder.


And then the two girls stood together, with the first one having a fresh batch of seeds. The little birds unwaveringly went to her.




I must admit that this Fuji is capable in ways that you really cannot imagine. Its response is surprisingly fast. There was no contest today once the action picked up. But for static shots, the Panny does a nice job. Lots of detail, a nice contrasty look.

And Here We Are in 2010

First day and I slept past noon. Wow ...

So nothing seems all that different ... yet.