Category : Pilgrim’s Chronicles

 

 

Have I got your attention???!!!  More about this great event in a moment!!!  FIRST, I am still alive, sorry I’ve been missing action!!!!  My wife made me promise to give our family all my time for the last ten days, (I did slip in one blog entry), but we had all our kids and grandkids!  We had a great time, but I’m slowly getting back into business!!!

 

O.K. I’m breaking  great news for my readers, and there will be much more soon!  A dear buddy of mine, Wilson Reynolds, world famous for his extreme fishing and hunting show on the National Geographic Channel, and a great photographer in his own right, has invested in a beautiful Lodge in Townsend, Tennessee, The Tremont Lodge and Resort,  and his goal from the beginning is to establish a base camp for photographers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The lodge is first class with great meeting facilities and will be a wonderful home of a new event he is starting. The last week of October, (prime color time for the Smokies) the 28th through November 1st, 2015 (YES this year!!!)  We will debut The First Annual Great Smokey Mountains Photography Summit.  This is destined to become one of the great annual events in photography!!!

 

This Seminar will feature some of the top photographers, teachers, speakers in the field today!  The list is still being finalized, but we expect to have; Scott Kelby, Rob Sheppard, Tony Sweet, Matt Kloskowski, Jack Graham,  Len Rue Jr., Bill Lea,  Ken Jenkins and Jim Begley, Wilson and I will be speakers too!  The event will have lost of break out sessions, the chance to shoot early mornings in the Smokies during great fall color, vendors displays, and lots of great times around the fire pit!  Every attendee will also get a great Comfort Colors t-shirt, these will be collectors items as each year a new volume of this event will be enjoyed!  The fee for all of this will be $450. but if you register early, you can save $75. and attend for just $350.  Much, much more details to come, but mark those dates now and joins for a fantastic new photography event in the best place, at the perfect time of year!

 

Stay ruined for more info!!!!

 

Now,  tomorrow I will announce the 2016 Events Jim and I will do with His Light for 2016 plus details on some of my workshops with Jack Graham Photography as well!!!

 

So I’m back!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

P.S.  Please keep Jim and Sue Haverstock in your payers, they are rushing back form a Hawaii vacation as Jim’s mother past away yesterday.  Please lift them up!

 

 

FIRST – A SIDE BAR:   It is very, very important to me that you know that when I express an opinion about gear or anything, for that matter,  that is comes from the heart, and is not influenced by my business relationship with any company or individual!  Please believe that!!!  If you don’t, nothing I share would be worth a dime!  Now let’s settle this for once and for all, I have winced as I’ve seen an occasional harsh comment about Zack Arias being in the tank for Fuji, because I imagine the same is being said of me!  I know Zack well and he is a man of real integrity and I believe he would never promote a product,  even from a company he does some work for, unless he really believed it!  I believe that Zack shares exactly what he thinks!  When Jack and I were named X-Photographers, which we both really appreciatied, we asked the official that informed us of the nomination and selection to that group, if accepting the honor would, in any way, affect our being able to express our real feelings about Fuji’s products and we were assured that was exactly what they wanted us to do, positive or negative!!!  I say this because I am beginning to do some events for Fuji and being paid to do so.  If I thought my doing work for them compromised my ability to be honest with you, I would have not accepted the X-Photogrpaher offer and would refuse to work for hire for Fuji.  I’m very proud that I can have the kind of relationship I enjoy with them.  Why such a long diatribe????

Because the praise I’m about to heap on the new 90mm f 2 would otherwise test your confidence in my being, unbiased!!!

 

 

So the new 90mm f 2 in a word is;  the sharpest telephoto lens made by Fuji.  Yes I said that, sharper than the 56mm f 1.2, which is extraordinarily sharp? Yep, and the 16-55 Zoom?  Yep, sharper, how about the very, very sharp 50-140 f 2.8 zoom?  Sorry, but the 90mm is even sharper at 90mm!!!!  So should you buy one?  That depends.  If you need a 135mm focal length equiv. portrait lens or telephoto with a fast f 2 aperture, and want very beautiful bokeh, you bet!  If you like to do close-up with some nice working distance?  This is the lens.  This muddies the water as I wait for the 120mm f 2.8 Macro from Fuji, but then I will love the added focal length and working distance, but make no mistake about it, this 90mm could almost be called a macro lens!!!!  Below I’ve shown the closest the lens will focus on a target, my faithful miniature Route 66 license plate with a penny for size perspective

 

This shot is made at the minimum focus distance, which is 2 feet.

 

 

Next I added a Fuji  MCEX 11mm Auto Extension tube.

 

 

 

Now I shot the 90mm with the Fuji  MCEX 16mm Auto Extension tube.

 

 

Finally I added the 11mm and 16mm together an shot one last image at a distance of about 8 inches for the subject.

 

 

 

If you happen to own the Nikon 5T and 6T diopters they work great with this lens as well!!!

 

What about general performance?  Here are few more of my alley images and then my final comments!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the 90mm f 2 is solid, maybe the most solidly built Fuji XF lens so far.  The aperture ring has nice firm 1/3 stop detents and the focusing ring is butter smooth for manual focusing!  The size and weight have just the right amount of heft for me, and it work wonderfully on the X-T1 with, our without, the battery compartment.  It works very well on the X-T10 too, maybe just hair large, but very manageable.  Focus acquisition is very fast and no hint of hunting.  (tested on a X-T1 with firmware 4.0).  One thing I’ve noticed,  now that I’ve had time to shoot all the Fuji XF lenses,  is that they seem to be optimized to be as sharp wide open in the center as stopped down.  I could see no real difference, other than added depth, when I stopped the 90mm f 2 down from f 2 to f 8, but then the more I use the XF glass, I see the same performance with all their lenses.

 

Color when shot in the Provia film simulation setting (standard) was spot on.  The lens seems to be in  that wonderful sweet spot of just enough contrast for sharpness, but not so much as to look harsh, especially with skin tones.  While I will keep my 56mm f 1.2, this 90mm will be my new go to fast, portrait lens.

 

So I will make it official, this is my new favorite Fuji lens in the XF line.  I expect it to be a constant companion, even when I’m carrying zooms that cover it’s focal length.  Swell done Fuji, keep em’ comin’!!!!!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many photographers that came into the craft in the last dozen years are not “as” acquainted with monochrome as us “old timers”!  Of course many DSLR cameras have offered a monochrome setting to shoot just black and white and it’s many tones, but a lot of people have avoided it.  Shooting monochrome is actually pretty taxing if you are delving into it for the first time.  A successful monochrome image requires a different set of conditions than a color image.  A color image can be carried by the color in the scene alone!!  The illustration below amply demonstrates that!

 

 

 

 

A succesful monochrome image is more about light, form, line, shapes and designs.  The pair of images below illustrate that while subtle color can work, the same scene with the color absent can be even stronger as it emphasizes the design and  line.

 

 

 

 

In this example the red floats on the boat scream out that they re the subject and while it works, the subtle design of the monochrome image works too!!

 

 

 

 

One of the difficulties of shooting monochrome is that it requires a different vision from color photography. With monochrome you need to see the the lines and design and play flight and shadow to see that it will be a successful monochrome image.

 

 

 

 

When “color” is the image, as in this early morning fog on the coast of Oregon, the color shot trumps monochrome.

 

 

 

 

I started my career as a monochrome shooter working for newspapers, we couldn’t use color so I shot black  & white film and became pretty adept at seeing in monochrome.  Over the years I’ve principly become a color shooter.  When I started to have a renewed interest in monochrome I found it hard to think both ways, both as a color shooter and monochrome shooter at the same time.

 

Fuji’s X System to the rescue!!!  In the Fuji X-T1, X-E2 and the new X-T10 you can shoot film simulations and choose the three you want made (processed) every time you push the shutter release.  In other words every time you make an image it is processed as there different film pallates!!!  I set my cameras for Velvia, (punched color), Provia, (more natural color), and Monochrome with a red filter (higher contrast monochrome images), The advantage is that with every shot I get a monochrome!  Sometimes I love the monochrome, sometimes it doesn’t work, but I don’t have to think in both styles, and I have a monochrome of every shot!  This is a big advantage and I’m often shocked at how much I like the monochrome version…

 

Here are  few below;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From time to time I like the subtle color in a subject and I’m surprised to see the monochrome is equally lovely, giving me a choice of images for different applications!  As in the illustration below;

 

 

 

Then again sometimes color is obviously the ticket!!!!

 

 

 

 

Getting into monochrome will also help you to develop your visual acuity, and for me deepens the enjoyment of this craft!  If you shoot exclusively in color, consider picking up Googles’s NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.0 as a way to do conversion of your color images to monochrome.  I think it will be enjoyable and eye opening for you, that is, unless you already knew all of this and are way ahead of me!!!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

Here is wishing  you and yours a wonderful 4th of July weekend!  I hope you are surrounding by family and friends,  (I am!!!),  and that  you will enjoy the remembrance of the wonderful country our forefathers left to us! I pray that we will all re-committ to maintaining the great country we are privileged to live in today.  A special thank you to all those that have served and protected us!  As I am surrounded by my entire family, I feel especially blessed!

 

May God continue to Bless our nation and may those that are called by His name seek His blessings!  Have a great weekend!

 

In Him,

 

the pilgrim

 

The bear was photographed at Katmai National Park & Preserve in Alaska, many years ago with film!