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Got this from Richard Small, laughed until I hurt, hooe you do to, just not the hurt part!!!  Great way to start the week…….. laughing!!!!

 

 

What is the perfect location to shoot color, graphics and Americana?  Old Car City in White, Ga (45 minutes North of Atlanta)!  36 acres with over 4,000 rustng cars and trucks, most from the 60’s back!   This is a perfect place to craft images of color and design in an easy to access location!  I and k5 students will explore this great location and make a trip down to Duluth, Ga to the Southeast Train Museum, another killer shooting location.

 

Each day we will do morning and afternoon shooting with image reviews and discussions in the mid-day classroom hours.  If you like rust, this is your place!  Her are some examples of the subject matter we will be working on!

 

 

From the Southeast Train  Museum:

 

 

So much to shoot and a perfect place to hone your skills!

 

Join us for this Master Class  –  March 27th – 31st. 2019

 Email me at:  billfortney@earthlink.net

or      billfortneyphoto@gmail.com

 for all the details!

 

Limited to 5 students  –  3 spots are still open!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

It’s a cold ugly day in Kentucky and that  means staying in doors.  It also means a great day to continue to get to know the GFX 50S!  I picked a few subjects to see how this camera renders them.  All these images were with the GFX 50S and the 120mm macro lens.  Above is a small decoration that hangs on one of our kitchen cabinet door’s knob, shot at f 5.6 to get shallow depth I thought it was very sharp with a clean background.

 

 

A set of wrenches from my tool bench allowed me to see what kind of depth you get at f 11, and it is pretty shallow!  The focus was placed on the 7/16 tab and it really isolated it. Once again the acutance was wonderful.

 

 

I like to buy used cigar boxes as the art is often pretty spectacular.  Edge to edge sharpness here at f 22 is just what you would expect and hope for.

 

 

Even at F22 the depth was not enough to cover the entire face of the watch, but the details are razor sharp in the in focus areas.

 

As soon as the weather improves I will get out and satrt shooting some more interesting subjects, until then stay warm!!!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

I didn’t want to do this, until I did!!!!!  Explanation:  When the Fujifilm GFX 50S was released I had the chance to shoot it on Route 66 with Cy Franks and Jackie Hillyer for a couple of days.  We shot it at the Seba Station Motorcycle Museum and the results were astounding.  I shot various subjects side by side once with the X-T2 and then with the GFX.  Same focal length lenses, same exposure and same f stop all from a solid tripod on a concrete floor.  My conclusion was; ( A ) the 50 mega-pixel GFX 50S was nothing short of amazing, and for most of what I do the X-T2 was plenty good enough. and  ( B ) I couldn’t afford it anyway!!!  I gave it no more thought after that, ok, I gave it a little thought and wished from time to time I had the money to own one, but as I said,  that was that.

 

Fast forward to 2019, Fujifilm has gotten more aggressive about letting X-Photographers test out gear to review and determine if we have a need for said gear.  I had noticed in all the advertising and videos about the GFX system that very little was of the nature, landscape, travel field, that I work in.  I proposed to the powers that be, that if they would make me a long term loan of a GFX and two lenses, the 32-64 and the 120mm Macro I would travel with it all this season and shoot those kinds of images for them to use anyway they would like.  If at the end of the project they were happy and I was happy, we would see what my images were worth to them toward the gear, or I would simply return it and go happily on my way!

 

I tell you all this because I am going ot being doing serious work from all my workshop locations in 2019 and will certainly share my findings with you guys as well!  What do I think I will learn, and of course this is a guess, but I’m sure that for making large prints I’m going to find the GFX to be a superior file.  I think for landscapes with a high degree of details, the GFX files will be stunning.  I’m espccially anxious ot see how the GFX performs inclsoe-up work.  They have provided the 120mm Macro so I will start with that right way and see where it takes us!!!

 

Two quick tests!  My Shure 555H II microphone my standard test target for acutance.  Acutance is the level of sharpness and how it reveals the change of tones.  the smoother it is the more acutance.  As you can see, you can actually feel the metal in this shot.

 

 

This is a Kansas State Trooper belt buckle given to me by a dear photo buddy that was once a tropper, I use it to test depth and sharpness, shot at an angle you can see the right side of the buckle is tack sharp even at f11 the left side is soft.  The 120 macro is supremely sharp but the depth of field is very shallow.

 

 

 

Internet resolution does not allow you to see just how incrdibly sharp these images are, I look forward to shooting a lot more and sharing them with you!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim