Our Picture Gallery features Lytro living pictures taken by professional photographers in our Pro Shooter Program, our Director of Photography, Eric Cheng, and our founder, Ren Ng. In recent weeks, we’ve also added pictures taken by Lytro employees. Many of them proudly claim photography as a hobby or creative outlet, while others on the team aren’t afraid to admit that they only take pictures for fun.

Member of Technical Staff Mugur Marculescu loves photography and rarely leaves home without a camera, favoring his Canon 20D paired with an L-series 16-35mm F/2.8 lens (although practicalities sometimes cause him to rely on his cell phone’s camera.) Mugur explains how he took this picture of a squirrel with the Lytro while walking through Union Square during a recent trip to New York:

“This shot is all about timing and the ability to refocus after the picture is taken. Since I didn’t need to worry about adjusting focus, I could focus just on the timing. I knew that if I approached, the squirrel would walk up to me in anticipation of food. The only thing left was to click the shutter button at the correct time. The entire event lasted about 5 seconds and I was able to capture 3 great shots. This is one of those shot opportunities meant for a Lytro.”

Mugur shared this, about his first time shooting with the Lytro:

“You can take a snapshot of anything just like with a regular camera, but to really take advantage of this new medium and create beautiful re-focusable images, you have to start thinking in three dimensions. It took me back to the time I first picked up a camera; it’s as if I was discovering photography for the first time—again.”

… and this, about how using a light field camera is impacting his style and technique:

“I now think about depth in a whole new way. I am constantly looking for layers of objects in a scene, complex three-dimensional shapes, lines and textures leading off into the distance and things like shiny surfaces and water droplets.

The extremely-quick power-up time and unique shape has changed how I shoot street scenes. When walking in a city, moments happen so fast—you have to act very quickly. I am able to take the camera out of my coat pocket, orient it and power it on in one continuous motion that takes about 1 second. The next moment, the shutter will snap without delay. These types of candid shots are nearly impossible with my DSLR—the focus and timing would just fail.”

In addition to the squirrel, Mugur’s other featured pictures include Continue reading →