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The Fuji X-E1 Goes Hardcore
I got the unique opportunity to take the X-E1 to a hardcore/heavy metal concert last night in Baltimore… This was my first show like this in nearly a decade, what a blast! Suffice to say, things got a little weird. That said, I must commend the X-E1, it held up SUPER well in the low light. Autofocusing was definitely an issue, but I eventually took up the recommendation of a good buddy and fellow X-Series photographer-I switched over to manual focus and then used a combo of back-button focusing and zone focusing with a relatively safe f2.8 aperture and ISO3200. The lighting was insane and super dynamic (a perfect fit for the music), but I feel like the X-E1 did a tremendous job of naturally portraying the colors of the scenes. Further, having such a tiny, low-profile camera was awesome in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the pit. I love this camera more and more every time I use it!
Many thanks to the Baltimore Rock Opera Society and friends for a face meltingly good show!
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Night Scene
Another experiment with the X-E1 and long exposure! This one taken by night on the Eastern Shore shortly after sunset. I’ve always been fascinated by stars, and have been super happy thus far with my really primitive attempts at night photography. I hope that as the weather gets warmer to be able to experiment much more!
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Nº 4/100 Strangers - Allison
I spotted Allison and a companion waiting in line at Peregrine Espresso during a recent trip to Union Market. Immediately upon seeing the awesome sense of style that they both exuded, I knew that I needed to try and get a photo of them. I waited a respectful distance away for them to get their beverages and then approached and gave my spiel. Super graciously, they agreed to step outside into the chilly afternoon to let me take their photos!
Allison (I hope I’m spelling it right), is a vegan and from the DC area.
You can see a higher res version of this photo at Flickr.
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"Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music, and never forget you came from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors."— Hunter S. Thompson in a note to his grandson. -
Nº 1/100 Strangers - Ulysses
In an effort to work on my on-the-fly portrait skills, I have begun participating in the 100 Strangers project. To get started, I took the new camera out for a walk this weekend and asked as many strangers as possible to let me take a super quick portrait of them. Fortunately, my very first subject, Ulysses, saw me coming into ask him for his portrait and actually beat me to it: He asked me to take his picture! Definitely helped settle the nerves as I set off on this project, great fun.
Ulysses is from the DC-area originally, but has moved around a lot in his life. He is homeless and currently engaged in a battle over an inheritance.
Higher resolution version can be found over on the Flickr
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Star Shade
Driving back from the Eastern Shore, we stopped and got out my tripod and the X-E1 for some experimentation with long night time exposures! Here we have a shot of the trees providing some shade from the brilliant moon, with Orion overlooking the situation in the lower left-hand corner. This little Fuji continues to impress me!
Higher resolution version available over on my Flickr. Thanks!
(Source: Flickr / hiroic)
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Field Stop
A shot taken from the archive of a fun shoot that I did with Reva a few years back in a field on the outskirts of Austin.
Click through for high-res on Flickr.
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Very cool to see one of my pictures making its way around Tumblr, completely uninitiated by me! The Tumblr community often takes flack for people using images without giving credit, but my hat is off to mayurasana for sharing one of my yoga shots from Flickr and including full credit and links back to my Flickr account.
This shot is from a super fun photo-shoot that I did with Saren before she moved off to the West Coast. It was chilly and rainy out and we were in a unheated and unlit garage for the entirety of the shoot. Really helped make the grit and sweat of the shoot all the more intense…
Back Light by primenerd on Flickr.
(via the-blondeyogini-blog)
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An Icy Coast
Continuing on our drive past St. Michael’s, we found ourselves at the Southern-most-tip of Tilghman Island in the Chesapeake Bay. While we found the view spectacular at first sight, we grew even more impressed when La Femme pointed out that the rocks were covered with a thick layer of ice!
The slippery rocks made it hard to get as close to the water as I would have liked for the photos, but in hindsight they made for an interesting subject in their own right…
High-res versions viewable on my Flickr stream.
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Dissimulation
On a whim yesterday we headed up the Eastern Coast a bit to Tilghman Island… We originally set out for St. Michael’s but decided to just keep driving until we couldn’t drive any further. This lead us through some beautiful open fields, across a few bridges (to include a pretty neat drawbridge) and wound up at the very end of a tiny island in the Chesapeake.
Apart from the beautiful scenery, great company and fun music, I got to play with the X-E1 a bit more. This time, I brought out both the Fujinon 35/1.4 lens and an old Canon FD 24/2 lens with a converter. Both worked tremendously, though I’m definitely still fumbling quite a bit with managing both the manual focus and aperture while keeping an eye on the arbitrarily slow automatic shutter speeds that the Fuji system is at times notorious for selecting.
Nonetheless, I managed to get some fun shots along the way. Here are some Black and White capture of a dissimulation of birds in a field right around sunset. Taken on a completely empty side road from the driver seat of the car, with my foot on the accelerator (very low speed just enough to startle the birds), with La Femme managing the steering wheel.
A higher resolution shot can be found here.
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A Late Afternoon Saviour
Cold cold weather calls for warm warm insides. Click through for Flickr in higher detail.
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The Escape Scene
Snapshot from the drive out to Middleburg, Va, referenced here. Shot with the X-E1 and run through one of the new VSCO 3 Instant Packs (PX-70 Warm –) in Lightroom 4.
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First Field Test of the X-E1
Getting the travel itch this weekend (as one does), La Femme and I took a day trip to delightful Middleburg, VA yesterday. It’s a very cute little town with a historic Main Street and a beautiful old Mill, surrounded by wineries and horse farms amidst rolling green hills.
This was the perfect opportunity to put my new mirrorless camera and lens through their paces. It was a dark and chilly day, which made for some interesting limitations in color and depth of field, but made for a suuuper sweet day to be on the road, listening to good music, ducking into wineries and local shops for tastings and “artisanal” overload.
Despite a steep learning curve (of which, I still have much to climb), the XE-1 did terrific in the different conditions I put it through, to include some super high ISO (5000) shooting and some very odd White Balance arrangements. I’ll avoid going into full “review mode” as many folks much smarter and more capable than I have thoroughly covered the subject, but suffice to say this camera has me very, very excited.
More test shots to come shortly.
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Market finds from a recent trip to a new farmer’s market opened near the house- Great organic produce, a shop with a killer bitters and tonics selections, and lots of great ambience and food.
US of A. 2012.
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Beautiful Fall weather lately has given us some amazing opportunities to go play outside… And sometimes the light is just right.
Manassas Battlefield National Park. 2012.