I’ve owned my Olympus OM-D E-M1 for well over 1.5 years now. As many have done before me and have since, I switched from a heavy DSLR because I wanted something lighter, newer and more compact. My biggest reason for this was that I had long term travel plans.
You see, I’m a professional photographer and back then I used to shoot mostly surf. This means I need a high fps, fast focusing and a durable, weather sealed camera. With it I need a housing and ports to fit my lenses into. A mirrorless camera offered all of that at a reasonable weight – well, actually half the weight and size of my DSLR gear.
It wasn’t exactly the easiest choice to make to ditch my old and trusted gear, but once I settled on the E-M1 and the PRO lenses (the 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO and the 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO) I really never looked back again. Additionally Olympus makes a dedicated underwater housing for the E-M1. Perfect for dive and surf photography!
I’ve now been on the road for 10 months and carried my camera equipment with me pretty much everywhere I’ve been during this time. 3 of those months I spent in Nicaragua, exploring and documenting a less travelled country in Central America with my E-M1.
Nicaragua is a prime example for my choice of gear. It ranges from incredibly hot and dry to humid and wet, from diving below sea level to climbing through slot canyons, from crawling up active volcanoes to boarding back down them, from long hikes in the mountains to countless hours on a boat going down a river in the jungle. You name it, Nicaragua has it!
You wouldn’t believe how many times during those 3 months the E-M1 was the absolute perfect tool for the job! It’s small and discreet in the streets, fast for the action sports and weather sealed for the tropical downpours. On top of that the PRO lenses really do a fine job at giving me the necessary sharpness at a reasonable weight.
This is why I’d like to share a selection of my favourite 25 images captured during my travels throughout Nicaragua. I think they really sum up the country and more so the versatility of the camera and lenses. ALL the images were captured with either the 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO or the 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO. And if it wasn’t for surf and other jobs along the way those would be the only 2 lenses in my bag for a trip like this. One could argue to add a prime or the 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO for the street/landscapes, but you can only ever have one lens on your camera and the rest is dead weight in your backpack.
Due to my investment and work achieved with this camera over the past 1.5 years I have been taken on as an Olympus Visionary with Olympus Imaging Australia. Now, I’m not writing this text because I was asked to, but because I wanted to. I wanted to share my experiences and the quality of work this camera is capable of performing. And show the professionals out there that m4/3 is very much capable of performing.
Obviously there’s drawbacks, we all know that a m4/3 sensor can’t compete with a 35mm full frame sensor an all levels. But when it comes to the photography I just shared with you I wouldn’t have asked for anything else.
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If you’d like to know more about travelling and how to go to the same places as I do without breaking the bank check out my travel blog.
