Mom and Child

On our way back home from the trailer the other day, my wife and I stopped to check out the sand sculpting exhibition at Parksville, B.C. beach. Of course, I took the X100s with me in the hopes of getting some people shots as well as some of the sandsculpting displays. I noticed a mother and her child walking, although the little girl liked to spend more time lying down it seems. Here are three pictures of the sequence I grabbed. I think it makes a nice, quick little story. In the second one, she had looked up and then said "sorry" because she thought she was in the way of the picture. I've been reading quite a bit about street photography techniques and one is this very thing, act like a tourist and make like you focusing on something further away.

Those of you who may think this is "creeping", be aware that there is a long history of this type of photography and I hope to do more of it as time goes by. Looking forward to walking around Victoria or Vernon or even my streets when I get the chance.

X100s RAW Converter

I have discovered something that I think I'm going to love with the Fuji X100s. I bought 32GB cards so that I could shoot in RAW + JPEG in order to have the best of both worlds. Most reviews of the camera have indicated a far above average in camera JPEG conversion and I have so far found this to be true. Almost enough to convince me to shoot in JPEG only. Especially since Camera Raw in my CS5 version of Photoshop doesn't read the RAF files from this camera. I have pretty much decided to finally make the jump to Lightroom and learn that program but haven't got there yet.

But, the other day, I grabbed this quick shot of my granddaughter Ryann while she was sitting on the couch in our trailer. 

 

The camera was in my C1 custom mode which is set for B&W with a yellow filter. It was an ok shot, but she a gorgeous little redhead and I thought the shot would have been better in color. I took a couple of other shots (in color) but none were as good as that first one. So, let's change it in the RAW converter. It's easy, while viewing the picture you hit the Q button and all the options come up. You can change exposure compensation, film mode, color saturation, highlight and shadow compensation, plus or minus. Basically, anything you can change your custom settings to. Now, the only real problem is the tiny picture doesn't really allow you to see what affect your changes are making, but here's the thing. When you hit okay, it takes you to the full size frame before you actually commit to saving the resulting JPEG conversion so if you don't like it you just go back and make the adjustments you want.  Then, when you are ready to save you hit okay and it saves the picture. Now I have the color picture that I wanted.
 

So, shooting in RAW + JPEG is the best of both worlds. Most of the time I hope to not make that mistake and shoot in the mode I want, but, if I make a mistake, or don't have time to change because the picture is there now, or decide that something would look better in a different film mode, then the option is there with the RAW capture. All without having to download to a computer first and then do everything you want. That's still an option if you want, but not necessary. Do I still need Lightroom? At this point I don't know, although the database side of it is the bigger part of Lightroom. But for RAW conversion. This little gem of a camera may just do a better job of it.

Having a Little Fun with Toy Camera Mode

I just wanted to take a couple of pictures tonight. Thought I would try the Toy Camera filter on the Fuji X100s. A shaft of sunlight, Batman and macro mode gave me this. Just for fun.

Replacement X100s

The replacement Fuji X100s showed up yesterday. Fantastic service from The Camera Store in Calgary. I've seldom had to return anything I've ordered online and they made the experience far more bearable than I expected. Nothing more disappointing than waiting for a product for almost and month and then have it fail after six day. Here's hoping the new one is problem free.

Had it out this morning with the two grandchildren who live in town and had some decent results with it. I had to tweak a couple in ACR because I'm still learning how the camera works with exposure compensation and underexposed a couple of shots by a bit. I also cropped them to 8x10 format. I love the Velvia mode for color shots. I like vivid, saturated colors and this does a nice job. Funny, I never used Fuji film much back in the film days and now I'm kind of wondering why not. I don't think I like the softer negative mode much and will probably make a change to that custom setting. But I love, love, love the black and white with yellow filter mode. Just very nice so far.

Still lots of experimenting to do. Looking forward to the camera lasting more than six days.

Here are a couple of black and whites I especially liked. And, in case you don't know the specs on this camera, it is a fixed 23mm lens which, with the crop factor, renders an equivalent field of view of 35mm.

Ryann: ISO 200, f 2.0, 1/1000 sec.

Seth: ISO 400, f 8. 1/420 sec.

X100s Pics

Here are a few pictures I took with the Fujifilm X100s before it broke.

X100s Woes and More Waiting

I was thrilled to get my Fuji X100s a couple of weeks ago. Charged the battery, formatted the SD cards and started learning how to use the camera. It's a fantastic camera and I played around with it for awhile. Took some pictures of the grandkids a few days after I got it and it did a couple of funny things just before I came home. Then it wouldn't turn on. Thought the battery was dead and put a different one into it. Eventually it started up again. The next day when I turned it on, it had reset. I had to enter the language, date, time, etc. although my custom settings were still there. Used it a couple of days later for awhile and then it shut down and that was it. So it has been returned and now I'm on the wait list for a replacement. I think I'm at the top of the list, but I'm back to patiently waiting for this gem. Hopefully, the next one will be completely problem free.

Waiting for the Fuji X100s

This is a beginning effort to get back to blogging and relate it to my passion for photography that unfortunately has lagged a bit lately.

What has got me excited again is this gorgeous little Fujifilm X100s. I track the blogs of both David Hobby and Zack Arias but had just clicked past their reviews of this camera. I finally did read the review on Luminous Landscape by Nick Devlin and he linked to David's and Zack's reviews and I was hooked, hooked, hooked. I had been quite interested in the X100 when it came out a couple of years ago but the subsequent negative aspects kept me from biting at that time. I have been looking for awhile for a camera that was small enough to take with me everywhere, but that also produced the high quality images that I have grown accustomed to with my (now ancient but still great) Canon 30D and the L70-200IS zoom lens that I use and love. I had considered the G series in Canon but didn't really want to drop to the smaller sensor. I did buy a Lumix waterproof, shockproof point and shoot for my trips to Mexico the last couple of years and it was great for what I wanted it for. I thought I would be excited by the new Canon mirrorless camera but, meh, not really.

So why the Fuji? APS-C sensor, same size as on my Canon; great reviews; cool looking, an awesome viewfinder, optical and electronic, etc. Even a fixed 35mm equivalent lens has me excited about new possibilities, new ideas and all relate to some of the type of photography I have taken and want to take. Kind of street photography type pics, definitely candids. In short, it has reinvigorated my desire to shoot.

The only problem? Nobody has one. I ordered one on May 28 at The Camera Store in Calgary but no idea when they will get a new supply. It's been over three weeks since I ordered it. No other online stores have any, so I guess it's just a matter of being patient. Every time I open my email I'm hoping to see a message that my order has shipped but now we have floods in Calgary so who knows. I've got my extra batteries, lens hood and Lexar 32gb memory cards from Amazon already, they just need a camera to attach to.

Patience, patience, patience. In the meantime, I'll get this blog going again, figure out Google +, think about finally jumping into Lightroom and just wait and dream and wait and wait, hopefully for not too much longer. C'mon Fuji, get those cameras made! Hopefully it won't be as endless and as in vain as in Waiting For Godot.