Category : Uncategorized

 

One of the first duties of winter has been to organize, straigten up and clear out my Darkroom (now gun room and storage), projection room, (now storage and music room) and my office!!!  Mostly it means getting rid of everthing I don’t use, need or want, and turst me, it has been many, many leaf bags of junk!

 

In the process I’ve organized and stored all my shooting gear for the winter. I started to shoot Fujifilm in 2012 so this winter is 6 years of shooting this system and I am starting to settle on my most used and still owned stuff!

 

BODIES:  I currently am shooting a Fujifilm X-H1, X-T2, X-PRO 2 nad still have a treasured Graphite X-T1.  An X-T3 is on order.  My light travel camera is a Fujifilm X30  * (used to shoot this photo)  I still have my first Fujifilm camera the X10!

 

LENSES:  8mm Rokinon Fisheye, Fujifilm; 14mm f 2.8, 10-24 f 4, 16mm f 1.4, 23mm f 1.4 7 23mm f 2, 27mm, 35mm f 2, 50mm f 2, 18-55 f 2.8-4, 18-135 f 3.5-5.6,  56mm f 1.2, 60mm Macro f 2.4, 55-200 f 3.5-4.5, 90mm f 2, 100-400 f 4.5-5.6, 1.4 Teleconverter, 2X Teleconverter, and a old classic Nikkor 200mm f 4, manual focus, micro lens.

 

* You may notice that the 16-55 and 50-140 are missing.  I had both and sold them because of their size and weight, I use the 100-400 as my long lens and found that even though the 50-140 is an incredible lens I wouldn’t carry both of them, one always stayed home and that one was the 50-140.  I love the little 18-55 and prefer it for it’s size and it has IS,  (Image Stabilization).

 

BATTERIES:  I currently have over 30 various batteries for my Fujifilm cameras.

 

FILTERS:  Polarizers to fit every lens, close up diopters and some additional ND filters.

 

5 Tripods:  Yhough the only one I use on a regular basis is a        TVC-3 X,  Really Right Stuff with the BH55-LR ballhead.

 

DJI MAVIC PRO DRONE.

 

CAMERA BAGS & BACKPACKS:  This is embarrassing especially considering I’ve reduced the number by 75% !!!  26  That’s wretched excess!!!

 

Things I’m considering buying in 2019.:   An X-T3 for sure, the new 16mm f 2.8. the new 16-80 f 4.  Maybe the 80mm macro f 2.8.  I loved the 200 f 2 but it’s out of my comfort range on price and probably too big for me to tavel with.   Still thinking about the 8-14??????  Pretty big and it will be a bear to filter.

 

So don’t know if that helps with any of your decisions, but that’s how it is for now!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, we all have a lot to be thankful for.  You may have heard that Wes has had a re-accurance of his lymphoma, but we caught it early and he is going back into chemo treatments tomorrow, your prayers pulled him through last time, I would covet them again for him and Rhonda and the family.  God has it and we are confident it will be another victory!!!  Thanks for your love and support!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

P.S.   I was asked recently how we were holding up with this news on Wesley’s lymphoma. It’s simple,  faith is believeing we serve a God that loves us more than we can understand, that He sacrificed His only Son for us.  He has promised He will never allow anything to happen that is not for our ULTIMATE good, and He will be with us step by step through every trial.  I’ve experienced that in my own life and seen it in others I love, and I refuse to not beleive it now!  This life is only a boot camp for eternity!  The best we can hope for is that we graduate having learned what we need to learn, and be prepared to spend eternity with Him.  I rest everyday in that knowledge!!!

 

 

 

I love this time of year because I’m finished for a few months!!!!!!  I just did 5 workshops and drove 6,346 miles in 7 weeks!  I’m ready for a break!  But what a great 7 weeks it was!  Jim Haverstock and I did the Badlands with a great group of 7 folks, then Jack Graham and I did our fall Road Show; The UP of Michigan, Acadia National Park, and then topped off the year with a Fuji Summit in the Great Smokies and then a second Smokies workshop!  They all went great with a ton of very nice folks, a great way to end the 2018 workshop year!

 

Another reason I love this time of year is the thoughtfulness of some of our workshop friends!  Gale Stoner, one of my favorite guys out there, was kind enough to send me his annual photo calendar, this one was a collection of stunning flower images, I will enjoy it for the entire coming year!  Thanks Gale!  His work is outstanding!

 

I will have several new announcements about workshops and one on one field opportunities with me in 2019, so please stay tuned.  You can see more on mine and Jack’s stuff coming up next year at:    jackgrahamphoto.com

 

Here’s ours together for 2019:

 

March 17   Route 66 Tour  (Oklahoma City to Las Vegas)

 

April 25th-28th   Great Smoky Mountains in Spring

 

May 9th-12th   Olympic National Park  TBD

 

May 17th  Spring in St George, Utah Symposium 

 

June 6th   The Palouse Region of Washington State

 

August 8th  Mount Rainier National Park – Wildflowers and Landscape  TBD

 

September 26th  Fall Color in the Grand Tetons National Park

 

October 1oth  Fall Colors in the UP of Michgan

 

October 17th  Fall in Acadia National Park, Maine

 

November 7th   Great Smoky Mountains in Fall

 

Much more info to come, until then have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

PS:  Chester is comng home mid December, below him on top, the top dog!

Image sent by the breeder!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do you feel about gardening?  No, not planting tomatoes or herbs in your garden, but arranging items in a composition.  We think nothing of asking people in a group shot to arrange themselves so everyone can be seen, or removing a soda can in a scenic. So why do we get the heebee jeebies when someone places a leaf somewhere, as in the image above?  I’ve spent the last ten days walking around with my eyes pointed down at the ground, it’s fall leaf season, and I love to photograph them where they land, and sometimes where I wish they had landed!!

 

I subscribe to the time tested axiom, “Do no harm to make a photograph.”  I would not pull up a living plant or remove a branch just make a better composition, but I would, and do, cleanup small distractions in a close-up image.  If a small twig or bright leaf is in a composition, and it will be distracting, I simply lift it out.  Some would argue that nature is special enough without our help, and this true, but I point out all the time, in image reviews, that a little content aware would clean up a shot, so why not just pick the stick up, or add a leaf?

 

I’m not sure there really is a good answer for this, maybe you would like to take a shot at it!  I just know it doesn’t bother me to do little gardening, if it bothers you maybe you should not do it, but is it fair to criticize someone that does, it’s a good healthy debate that, unlike politics, we can have and it won’t end in violence!  Sound off if you would like in the comments section below!!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

Now, about this shot above;  We had a attendee that was unable to walk very far to make an image.  They used walking canes and they expressed they loved the birch logs with colorful leaves, so we added a couple that had fallen close by, so she could get the shot.  If that was wrong I plead guilty, but it sure made her happy and allowed her a chance at the great image she had been dreaming of.  For me it was worth moving a leaf or two.  Your thoughts are welcome!

 

The point of my experiment was to see if I could still choose a single focal length lens that would work for a situation and find it was:  (1) the right lens, and (2) it did work for the intended purpose!?

 

For the first three days in the UP I used mostly the 23mm f 1.4 and f 2, the 50mm f 2 and at the 90mm f 2, and for close up work the 60mm f 2.4 Macro (All Fujinon lenses).  I found that these focal length worked great for everything but distance shots which required either a 18-135 or the 100-400.  I did not use any of those zoom lenses until the fourth day.  Below is what I produced with the single focal length lenses.

 

 

Most of these images were made handheld, except the falls above, but the one below with the X-H1 was made at 1/2 second!!!!!!!  Still am shocked myself.

 

 

On the fourth day it became very windy and cold, and I switched to the 18-135 even for close up work.  Here are some of those images;

 

 

Conclusion:  It is good to use single focal length lenses to keep your distance, framing muscle memory loosened up!  The single focal length are easier to carry and I think a  tad sharper, but then the images from the 18-135 and 100-400 were tack sharp so there was nothing to complain about there!  In the future and next week in Acadia National Park, I expect to continue to mix both single focal length lenses and zoom lenses as the conditions allow.

 

One thing is for sure, Fujifilm is making some astounding glass and none of it let me down!

 

More to come…….

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim