Was at Lake Cayuga (Finger Lake Near Ithaca) last week. There was very little color; mostly brown and green leaves. On the other hand Taughannock Falls (215 ft falls) was the fullest I have ever seen it. This past week I was in Mendon Ponds south of Rochester which usually has excellent color this time of year and again brown and green leaves.

I was in the Galapagos in February 2017. I shot the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II with the 40-150 mm F2.8 lens attached about 90% of the time. The other 10% (except for underwater) I shot the 12-40mm F2.8. While I had the 1.4 teleconverter I never used it as you will come amazing close to the wildlife. Since the Olympus gear is weather sealed, I never protected it from the elements. I never used a tripod as it is hard to set up with group walks on narrowly defined trails. I never felt the need for a tripod given the lighting and the amazing Mark II IS. I also had an Olympus PEN with underwater housing for the three snorkeling dives. Someone had suggested the Olympus Tough TG-5 for the dives. I wish I had that instead of the bulky PEN housing. Bring plenty of sunscreen. Be prepared to be amazed.

I have taken 6+ trips to Europe, Israel and Africa with a RAVPower FileHub (Model RP-WD01). It has an SD card reader and a USB port. I pop in the SD card and connect a WD MyPassport 4TB drive to the USB port and transfer my photos (RAW) from the SD card to the WD drive. The operation is controlled via WiFi from a smart phone or tablet. I keep the FileHub powered during the operation though it can be powered after charging (it can be used to power a smart phone on its own). The app controlling the transfer lets me choose a file on the WD drive or make a new file. Files can also be transferred to the smart phone or to the tablet.

Olympus has a drop off center in Hackensack , NJ about 14mi outside of Manhattan. The following is from their web site.

Quick Repair Drop-off Program
OLYMPUS AMERICA INC. is committed to ensuring that our Consumer Products perform superbly. We are also committed to our customers’ total satisfaction.

In the unlikely event that any OLYMPUS CONSUMER PRODUCT fails to operate properly your unit may be repairable under our OLYMPUS Quick Repair Drop-off Program.



The In-Warranty Quick Repair Program works as follows:

Create a repair submission form at the following link and print out:
https://www.olympusedesk.com/cpgrepairs/cpg_rmaform.asp
Select “Warranty” or “Extended Warranty” in the Warranty Status box.

Proof of purchase is necessary to ensure you are within the warranty period. If you purchased an extended warranty, please bring this card with you in addition. For full details on warranty coverage and terms click here.

Bring your product along with paperwork and a copy of your proof of purchase to our Drop-off Center located at:

Olympus America Inc.
South Hackensack, NJ 07606
After entering your equipment via the portal link above, you will be given the full address upon completion on the service order paperwork.
800-622-6372 (M-F 9:00am - 5:00pm ET)

Once you arrive at the drop-off center the product will be immediately taken to a repair technician for evaluation.
If the product only requires a minor repair, and any parts needed are available your product will be repaired within 1 hour.
If the product requires parts that are not in stock or if the repair is complex, you will be informed after the technician has evaluated the product and we will ship the product directly to you at no cost. This type of repair will not be able to be completed within 1 hour.

The Out of Warranty Quick Repair Program works as follows:

Create a repair submission form at the following link and print out:
https://www.olympusedesk.com/cpgrepairs/cpg_rmaform.asp

We use a flat rate of repair for all of our consumer products. The cost of repair needs to be pre-approved. Final payment or capture of funds is only made if the repair is approved at the evaluation.

Please select level of repair needed: Cleaning Only, Minimum, Normal or Overhaul. You must select the correct level and enter your credit card information for authorization. The service center does NOT have the ability to take payment.
Bring your product along with paperwork to our Drop-off Center located at:

Olympus America Inc.
South Hackensack, NJ 07606
After entering your equipment via the portal link above, you will be given the full address upon completion on the service order paperwork.
800-622-6372 (M-F 9:00am - 5:00pm ET)

Once you arrive at the Drop-off Center the product will be immediately taken to a repair technician for evaluation
If the product only requires a minor repair, and any parts needed are available, your product will be repaired within 1 hour.
If the product requires parts that are not in stock or if the repair is complex, you will be informed after the technician has evaluated the product. We can then ship the product directly to you, at a cost, or we can contact you for pick-up once the repair has been completed. This type of repair will not be able to be completed within 1 hour.

I have had Olympus cameras starting in 2007 with the E-510, then an E-3, E-5 two OMD EM 1s and fianlly an OMD EM1 Mark 2. I had a problem several years ago with one of my EM1s when a non OEM battery died in the camera and the camera would no longer turn on. I sent it to Olympus and at a week's turnaround it was repaired and has worked ever since. My second EM1 refused to turn on while I was in the Amazon. Perhaps changing lenses in the high humidity caused the problem. It too was repaired and survived a subsequent humid trip to China. The Mark 2 has experienced no problems even surviving a fall from a tripod.

I own two OMD EM1s and one OMD EM1 Mark II. The Mark II improved on the excellent original OMD EM1. The IS coupled with either the 12-100mm Pro lens or the 300mm Pro lens allows me to shoot hand held to 1/5 sec. The ability to customize my settings and assign them to three separate functions (C1, C2 and C3) on the mode dial I find indispensable for quickly dialing in my most common shooting settings. This has saved me many times from myself when for various lighting or shooting conditions I change from normal. In addition virtually any button can be programmed to quickly access menu settings. I shoot RAW and find that the camera presents excellent photos. I have the 8 mm PRO fisheye lens and the defishing setting turns it into a quite usable extreme wide angle lens (three different wide angle settings can be selected; Ihace the C3 set up for this purpose). The EVF yields the actual exposure. Back Button focus is easy to set up and implement. I like how light weight the camera is even with the 300 mm lens attached. Ergonomics are excellent. I have a Think Tank URBAN APPROACH™ 15 mirroless pack and can carry the following: 2 EM1s (one with 40-150mm PRO lens attached) one EM1 Mark II all with battery grips; 12-100mm PRO lens; 300mm PRO lens; 8mm PRO fisheye lens; as well as a table; several extra batteries and battery charges and various other gear. All at around 25 lbs and well within the carry on limits of the airlines.

I went the less expensive, DIY route with a Behringer X-Touch mini MIDI ($45.00)and the freeware LR mapping software MIDI2LR (I did make a donation). It has made my edits easier and faster.

Why? They are all busy blocking the windows with their iPhones and iPads anyway. Not to mention flashes going off.

Since retiring my wife and I take four or five trips a year. My wife wanted me to make photo books of our trips. I use the Book module to make the books (downloading to Blurb when they have 40% off). The easiest way to do that is to use collections. I flag the photos in the Library and select those via attribute. I then make a collection and from the collection go to the Book module to assemble my book.

Any further edits I do from the collection (such as in PS) are imported back to LR. The changes show up wherever the photo appears: Library module or in Collections.

I had my camera and tripod set up on 72nd street and Broadway in NYC taking a photo of the full moon over the 72nd street station. A woman came by and looked at my camera and then up at the moon and said, "Oh wow is that an installation?" I said it was the moon. She replied, "Oh. I though it was an installation," and walked on.

I returned from an African safari (Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe) three weeks ago. The gear that I took: 2 OMD EM1 bodies, 1 OMD EM1 Mark II body, (lenses are 35mm equivalent) 24-200mm f4, 80-300mm f4 and 600mm f4, 1.4 TC. Did not use a tripod on animal drives or anywhere else. This was the best trip we have ever taken (including the Galapagos and Mach Pichu).

I have it for several years and it is my walk around lens. On a recent trip to the Galapagos I shot with it almost exclusively. Lens is sharp and at 2.8 full range is good in low light light. Also the OMD EM1 and lens fits in the top compartment of my LowePro sling allowing me to carry a second OMD EM1 with long zoom in the main compartment.

We were in the Galapagos this past February on the Celebrity Xpedition. I took an OM-D EM-1 with a 12-40 mm Pro f2.8 lens and an OM-D EM-1 Mark II with a 40-150mm Pro f2.8 lens. I also brought along a 1.4 TC (MC-14) and the 300mm Pro f4 lens. I was amazed at how close we got to the wildlife. I used the 12-40mm lens most of the time and the 40-150mm lens for birds in flight (with and without the TC) and for some wildlife that was a little further off. I never used the 300mm lens. I also have a PEN with underwater housing for the snorkeling outings. Extra batteries and SD cards are a must - I took 3216 photos in 7 days (plus 3 days in Quito). You may see advice about waterproof bags for your cameras on days when you have "wet" landings. These are no more that ankle deep the the Olympus cameras are waterproof. Enjoy your trip. The Galapagos are amazing islands.

You may want to check out the platypod pro. You do need to use your ball head with it. It is very solid and compact.

https://www.platypodpro.com/max/

I read about waterproof bags before we left for the Galapagos. I did not bring one as my cameras and lenses are waterproof. But that being said we were on the Celebrity Xpedition cruise and wet landings were only in ankle deep water. My camera bag was never in danger of getting wet. Can't speak to other cruise ships and their wet landings.