Photographing family

I’m still having a blast with family, and that’s why I missed blogging yesterday, I bet you will forgive me!  Last night we all went over to Wesley’s home for dinner, and Rhonda and Wes did a great job on a wonderful meal, the fellowship was even better.  We played Trivial Pursuit well into the late evening, the laughter of family is one of the sweetest sounds in the world to me!  Before dinner my grandchildren, all except for Abigail, (who was at a church camp), surrounded me for a picture!  I will treasure this one shot made by Wes for years to come!

I’ve started to pick up some cameras for my post semi-retirement life.  I will go through the whole story on a future post, but I have added two very important components.  Since I own over 25 Nikkor lenses, both old manual focus classics, and modern current autofocus glass, I needed to decide on a series of bodies to support my Nikon system.  I have two now, and will add another later.  The Nikon D4 is the monster, do everything, DSLR in my stable, my desert island DSLR, and I just picked up a D800.  There are a lot of things about the D8o0 that make it difficult to use, and they are the same things that make it indispensable; super high resolution, big juicy files, and a robust build!  If used carefully, (and I do mean very, very carefully), it simply produces the best looking files I’ve ever seen!  I also picked up another Fuji X camera, the X100s.  I already own a X-E1 and a number of Fuji lenses.  I needed a lighter system for everyday carry, more on that in another post too!  My doctor ordered me to stop carrying a heavy bag full of gear, the Fuji was the perfect answer. when weight mattered.  The X100s is my in the car, all the time, to all family functions, and my side kick camera.  For a modest investment it is spectacular as a personal camera.  The two images below are of my granddaughter Hannah, Scott and Diane’s daughter.  The first is about 60% of an APS-C frame, cropped,  the next shot is a 100% crop of the first image.  The lens and imaging system in the X100s is simply wonderful! I’ve always loved classic rangefinder cameras, but simply couldn’t afford to own a couple of M’s and three or four lenses, probably a $30,000. investment, but his little Fuji really does the job in a spectacular fashion!  * Point of order!  Does this mean Nikon has fallen out of grace with me???!!!  Absolutely not, I still love my Nikons and they are my go to DSLRs, but when weight matters, and I’m not willing to give up killer image quality, the Fuji’s step up to the plate, and hits it out of the park!

100% crop from image above:

As Phil says on Duck Dynasty,  “I’m Happy, happy, happy!”

Blessings,

the pilgrim

By-the-way, a big shout out to Nick Coury who is celebrating his 5th Anniversary of being clean from cancer!  Brother we are thrilled to have you with us!  I’m a two times cancer survivor myself, and I know how great those reports feel!  I shot a fun image standing next to Nick in Nashville last week, below, he is a great guy, a wonderful shooter, and has a fantastic family, (I had the pleasure once again of spending time with Aaron, his son, and meeting Marlene for the first time,!) Congrats my friend!

Check out www.nickcoury.com!