Tag Archives: Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2

First of Fall Portraits

It is fitting that on October 1st, I did portraits for some good friends.  Every year, about this time, we get together to do Fall portraits.

This went very smoothly as I was using my new Godox wireless TTL flash setup.  I metered at about -2/3 of a stop in background light and then used a single speedlight off camera in a 24″ Octabox to illuminate the people.  Since the Godox can do wireless TTL and High Speed Sync with the Fuji setup, I was able to use my Fuji 56mm f/1.2 at about f/2 and shutter speeds above the 1/250 flash sync of the camera.  I dialed the TTL flash exposure down about 2/3 of a stop and everything just popped.  Having gear that just works makes the rest of the process that much easier.

Laurelville in Autumn

Laurelville is a place that my family enjoys spending time at.  My wife grew up going to camp there and now we are Association Members.  Twice a year, the members go and visit the grounds and spend time together and help out with volunteer projects.  It’s always a wonderful weekend of fellowship and slowing down.  I normally try to sneak in a quick hike to revel in the nature of it all.

Near the high point of the property is Split Rock, which can be reached by following a trail to the top.  Coming back down to Jacob’s Creek, a small waterfall rushes.  This trip was preceded by an abundance of rain, so the creek was quite high.

There is also a kiln on the property which was in use for the entire weekend.  There was a crew from a local class that were stoking the fires every hour of the day and night.  I stopped down Saturday night to check it out.

The temperature was roughly 1,600 degree’s at this point, and they still wanted to take it even higher to around 2,500.  The heat output was intense and getting close was quite hot.  It seemed like the kiln’s appetite for wood never let up, every few minutes, more logs would be tossed into the inferno within.

The weekend came to an end and my family and I are back at home.  Now we have to go back to the real world.