Wednesday thoughts……

I’ve become addicted to Youtube!  I admit it, it is one of my most often “go to spots” for photo education.  I love to see what other “so called experts” think of the products and software I use, or plan to use. Some are extremely useful, some not so much!  When I started to get into drones I found Tony and Chelesa Northup’s Youtube channel and I’ve found their stuff, for the most part, to be very good. I recently found a series they did on the state of the photo industry and the history of several major photo companies, I found them extremely interesting.  Here are a few of  their videos that I can highly recommend (Disclaimer: I do not agree with all their observations, but for the most part, they are excellent) :

DEATH OF THE CONSUMER CAMERA

CANON HISTORY

NIKON HISTORY 

FUJIFILM HISTORY

SONY HISTORY

….and on and on.

I recently needed to learn how to use iMovie again, and Youtube videos got me back up to speed!!!!!

Well as Brittany Spears sang, “Oooops I did it again!”  Now that I am doing a lot of drone photography I need a new bag to carry both a few still items and the drone and all it’s accessories.  I bought the Lowepo DroneGuard BP-250.

The bag has a large internal stiff container that is nicely padded and holds your drone (this bag is made specfically for the DJI Mavic Pro), up to four batteries, extra props, a rapid charger and the controller. Displayed below:

The reason I loved this bag is it leaves room for my travel still photography system, a Fujifilm X-PRO 2 and the three Fujicrons, plus my iPad Mini 4, which I use as my screen for viewing what the drone’s camera sees while flying.

This will allow me to travel and have both a still system and the drone and accessories.  Now I’m ready for spring and lots of video and still work while traveling.  This will be a car bag, when traveling by air, the drone will go in my rolling bag mentioned a few blogs back.

I expect some may question travel photography with only a spread of 35mm equivalent wide angle, 50mm (normal lens) and the 75mm equiv. all at a pretty fast f 2.  Actually when doing travel image I shoot these focal lengths about 90% of the time.  Why?  Super wide angle lenses and long telelphoto lenses really alter the way the scene looks, sometimes for the better, but often they just don’t look like what the human I sees and perceives.  For people photography, these are the most versatile lenses.  Another factor is these are some the latest lenses Fujifilm has produced which means they are among the very best in terms of construction quality and sharpness, and they are very compact, which is always appreciated when traveling.  The reason I switched to Fujifilm cameras and lenses, originally, was they were significantly smaller and lighter.

Why the X PRO 2 over the X-T2?   I own two X-T2 bodies and 2 X PRO 2 bodies. For nature, outdoor, landscape, action work, I prefer the X-T2 bodies, for travel, family and people I prefer the X PRO 2.  I also simply like the way the X PRO 2 feels in my hands, it is slightly larger and the controls fit my hands better.  I also really love the optical viewfinder is certain situations.  The quality of the final image between the two cameras is identical.  I hate to admit it, but I simply am in love with the Graphite color on the X PRO 2, sure wish they had used in on the X-T2 (silver or titanium) model.

Well that’s the thoughts for Wedneesday except for one final one:

“God loves you, so love others,  God sacrificed everything to be with you, so sacrifice everything!”  Quote from the movie, What If.

Blessings,

the pilgrim