Category Archives: Urban

Animals, Architecture, Travel, Urban

San Diego as Seen by my Fuji

Having just returned from San Diego, I’m realizing just how much my new 23mm lens is my sweet spot.  My travel bag contained the 23mm, 35mm and the 55-200mm.  The Fuji XF 23mm f/1.4 R lens performed amazingly well.  At first, I was a bit worried about the single focal length and if I would miss any opportunities because of it.  After shooting with it primarily for a few days, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  It felt great to be focused on a single focal length and walk around without a bag full of glass.  Here are some of shots while walking around.

The 55-200mm only came into play when I ventured over to the San Diego Zoo.  As much as I’m loving the 23mm, it really isn’t suited to the job.

On my last day in San Diego, I explored the USS Midway.  This is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that is now a floating museum and educates the public about life on a carrier.  For this, the 23mm was back on the X-T1 and never came off.

The interesting part of this trip was that the 35mm only was on the camera for a few shots inside of the reptile house.  The 55-200mm wasn’t bright enough, so the f/1.4 35mm lens came out of the bag for a few shots.  I love the lens, but the focal length may not be my favorite anymore.

Nature, Travel, Urban

Mission Trip in Jamaica

My wife and I just returned from a week long Mission Trip in Jamaica.  Together with other members from our Church, we all went down to visit, help out and worship with a Church in Jamaica.  Most days were filled with building a swing set, doing maintenance work on the building, harvesting moringa tree’s or spending time with the local children.  Being that I was designated the ‘photo guy’ by our team members, I had my camera on me the whole time to document the trip for our Church.  With what little free time I had, along with a free day at the end of the week, I managed to sneak in some creative photography for myself.  It was an eye opening trip and my wife and I can’t wait to go back.

On a side note, I packed very light and only took my X-E1 and 18-55mm lens with me.  All shots were processed in Lightroom on my Windows 8 tablet.  The combination was perfect for shooting and processing on the go.  The bag I used was the Thinktank Turnstyle 10 and even when fully loaded, it never weighed me down.  See my other post for more details on my travel kit.