It’s winter, so that means days of getting gear re-packed for the coming Spring shooting season!  I like to keep a full system in a backpack that can sit in the car and be worked out of!  I no longer carry or wear a backpack, but I want to keep everything I might need close by.  A photo vest works great to carry a few lenses and spare batteries!  Comfort in the field is more and more important as more years get added each birthday, this system allows you to be ready for about anything, but not have to carry all of it, all the time!!

 

So what’s in this bag and why!  Let’s start with the bag;  The Guru Gear Kidoko 2.0 16 Liter size comfortably holds all my Fujifilm X System!  This bag is very well constructed of top notch materials and is very customizable, I’m a big fan of the Guru Gear bags, I’ve own a half dozen in different sizes over the years!  One thing they do, that is really appreciated,  is supply lots of extra dividers to make the needed adjustments for various size lenses and other gear in the bag!  Overall it is an excellent way to carry all this gear!!!

 

The Gear;  I carry two Fujifilm bodies, my main camera is the Fujifilm X-T5, the best X series camera yet!  My back up body is an Oldy but Goody, the original X-T1 in the great Titatniun finish!  I love it for two reasons, it was a gift from a dear friend at Fujifilm and the original 16 mega pixel sensor is one of the very best ever for having very low noise even at very high ISO!  While I really enjoy the 40 mega pixel X-T5 the X-T1 is still a great camera and wonderful back-up.  Over the years I’ve owned several, X-T1’s, X-T-2’s. X-T3’s and an X-T4!  X-H models too, but these two are working great for me!

 

I love single focal length lenses, especially the “Fujicrons”  (the un-official name many Fujifilm shooters have assigned to the small, fast single focal length prime lenses.)  In this bag I carry the 16mm f 2.8, 23mm f 2, 27mm f 2.8, 35mm f 2, 50mm f 2 and the 60mm Macro f 2.5.  They are all small and super sharp!  Because the Fujifilm X Series cameras use the APS-C sensors their equivalent focal length are; 24mm, 35mm, 42mm, 50mm, 75mm and 90mm. If I need something even wider I can slip in the 14mm f 2.8 (21mm equiv.)

 

My zoom lenses are the 10-24 f 4,  18-55 f 2.8-f4 (nice and compact and super sharp) and the wonderful 70-300 (105-450- equiv.). With the Fujifilm TC-14 teleconverter that stretches this lens out to 620mm!!!!  That makes my coverage from 15mm to 630mm, not much you can’t cover with that kind of range!  I had the incredible 100-400 but at my age it was getting too heavy to carry and the 70-300 is every bit as sharp and less than half the size and weight!  I do miss it, but my back does not!

 

Finally the usual important accessories:  a LED light panel and a small tripod to hold it, extra SD cards and spare batteries, plus a good flashlight and tools.  So that has me ready and excited about getting out more this spring to start shooting, more again!  Hope to see you out there!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

A practice in bars across America is called the tab.  Owners of bars, for trusted customers, will sometimes allow them to set up a tab and charge drinks and food to that tab throughout the evening to be settled at the end of business, that day!

 

In the book of Romans in the scripture it is written that “all have fallen short of the glory of God”,  in other words everyone has sinned against God by not obeying His laws and His instructions for living.  It also says that death is the wages of sin.  That’s the bad news, we all are condemned since all of us. have sinned against God.  There is good news though, God loved us so much that He gave His only son to die on the cross to pay our sin debt. To receive that forgiveness we need to confess our sins, repent, (be genuinely sorry for our actions), and accept Christ as our Savior and ask for His forgiveness!

 

So keeping with my illustration at the start;  We have a a tab we can pay and God is the Bar owner and, living in perilous times, we don’t know when the bar is closing, so it might be the right time to settle our tab.  After all we can’t settle things after the doors are closed.  Are you willing to take that risk!?

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

When in doubt, look up!  This morning I awoke to a very low blood pressure. Sherelene went on to Church as soon as the was sure I was ok and I sat on the couch feeling dizzy.  I leaned back and looked up through the skylight and saw this single Japanese maple leaf surrounded by rain drops!  My camera bag was close by so I grabbed it and with a 420mm lens and was able to capture close to what I wanted in the image!  Even at 300mm plus a 1.4 teleconverter (420mm equiv.) it still was not tight enough for my liking,  so I did a little cropping and this is the final result.  The image was processed with Topaz AI 3 and Photoshop.

 

Technical Notes:   Lumix G9, Olympus 40-150  f 2.8 Pro @ f 16, 1/5ooth of a second shutter speed, ISO 6400, hand held.  The Topaz sharpened the image and eliminated any noise present in the file, of which there was very little.

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

Winter meets fall!  We got our second snow this morning.  My wife buys and plants flowers each late summer, early fall.  I love having the vibrant colors of spring and summer on our back deck!  Sitting on the couch in our great room I was enjoying watching the snow fall and loved the brilliant yellow flowers peaking out from under their new blanket of snow!

 

There is something more important going on here, it’s thankfulness.  I was warm and sheltered from. the cold late fall winds, I was comfortable watching Chester sleep on his bed and warmed by a nice fire in the fireplace!  I am a happy man to still be able to enjoy all these things at almost 79!  I hope you are just as content and thankful today!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

Technical Note:   Lumix G9. ISO 800, f 4,  n1/200th of a second.   Zuiko 40-150 f 2.8 Pro Lens with the 1.4 converter ( 420mm equiv.). Hand held