Art | MiKS Media Photography

The Fuji Park Walk – Part 2

by Mac Sokulski | May 5, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, Landscape, People

Walking the Fuji

It seems to me like the Fuji walk was a pretty good success 🙂 . I did cheat a bit, and brought my Rokinon 8mm fisheye to the party, but I wasn’t the only cheater :). There was a Leica, couple of old Canon FD lenses, and even a couple of …gasp… Nikons. All in good fun, (no one through the Nikonians down the cliff), and everyone had fun, getting wet and shooting up a storm. I have to admire Fuji, for trying to connect to it’s user base, even though the cameras are a very small percentage of Fuji business. Through the last 3 years, they have been constantly updating firmware on their cameras, to improve them. They could have easily gone the other guys path, and just release new models of camera bodies, with slightly updated specifications. Yet they keep improving the old cameras, keeping the users happy, and turning them into loyal fans. Fuji has done something right.

More Images

This is the last batch of images from that day. I was quite surprised how many keepers I have collected during the few hours of getting wet. I guess the company, was very inspiring 🙂 Here are more from The Fuji Guys Walk in the Park, enjoy!

Mac

fujiguys fujifilm landscape people street photography

The Fuji Park Walk – Part 1

by Mac Sokulski | May 4, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, Landscape, People

Fuji in the Park

When I heard that there was a walkabout being organized in Calgary, I quickly jumped on the occasion. Not everyday you get to meet The Fuji Guys in person. I arrived in Calgary the day before, and it was a little rainy, but no one expected the 25cm of snow that accumulated overnight. This was actually a little blessing, because the world turned from brown featureless landscape, into a wonderland.

The Fuji Guys

Greg and Billy are really great guys. I managed to grab some one on one time, and tried to find out all the little secrets of what is coming soon from Fuji. I’ll keep those to myself, dear reader… and you’ll find out soon enough. There are exciting times coming for Fuji… exciting times. They brought with them all kinds of equipment to try out. Everything from the latest Fuji XT1 to the lenses, including the new X100s 35mm adapter. I was really excited to try it out, but alas I have forgotten my Fuji X100s at home, charging it’s batteries. I did managed to used it on Billy’s camera, and I have to admit that I was really impressed. The whole idea of turning a fixed lens camera into an capable system with 28mm, 35mm, and now 50mm (full frame equivalent) focal lengths, is absolutely brilliant. Fuji has accomplished that with outstanding quality. This setup is definitely on my list.

The Pictures

After 20 years of marriage, I still haven’t learned to trust my wife’s sixth sense. She told me to bring a spare change of clothes, just in case. I, in a typical male fashion, did not acknowledge the warning. I paid for it. The snow was heavy and wet. What beauty it brought to the landscape, it took away in soaked shoes, socks and pants. By the end of the walk, I was freezing. Ah those wives! I was quite pleased with the images I got during the walk. It was a very black & white type of day, although to my surprise I managed to squeeze some color into the images. I had to break this post into two parts, as there is way too many images to show. So here we go, enjoy!

Mac

Hip shooting Fuji and 23mm Fuji lens in Las Vegas – Street Photography

by Mac Sokulski | Apr 14, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, People, Urban

Fuji to the rescue?

Street photography was never easy for me. I’m too big of a chicken, when it comes to pointing a camera, even a little Fuji X-E1 at strangers. It seems to me that every time I point a camera at someone on the the street, they will come over and beat me up, to a pulp. I like the work of people like Bruce Gilden, but I don’t have the guts to confront strangers like that. My way is discreet. I do a lot of hip shooting, or using long telephoto lens from a safe location 🙂 . Hip shooting is a gamble, specially when using a new focal length, which I’m not used to. This was the case when I mounted the Fujinon 23mm on the Fuji X-E1, and tried hip shooting the Freemont Street in Las Vegas.

Missed Opportunities

I’m used to hip shooting street photography, with a wider lens, so a lot of shots with the 23mm Fujinon lens were misses. Horrible misses. I knew starting this experiment I would need some practice, and it showed. Still, I was able to catch a few interesting frames, and didn’t get beat up… I think I can count that as a success 🙂 . Fuji X cameras are perfect for this type of shooting. They are small discreet and quiet. People do not notice you as much. It’s not like having a big white Canon lens. Maybe this summer I will be able to go out practice more hip shooting, and aiming my camera properly. Here are some of the shots I captured in Las Vegas. Enjoy!

Freemont street in Las Vegas to scantily dressed police women are crossing the street

freemont street in Las Vegas women exiting a store having a drink

freemont street las vegas a homeless disabled man sitting under a marquee

las vegas three women in striped dresses crossing the street carrying m&m candy bags

las vegas mother and daughter enjoying a rest on a busy street

las vegas a boy looking up in wonder on a busy street

Craigdarroch Castle – Fuji X-Pro1 in low light

by Mac Sokulski | Apr 8, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, Urban

Craigdarroch Castle

Coming back from the other side of the Vancouver Island, we decided for a short trip to Victoria. Unfortunately with highway construction that trip was long, and gave us a limited time in this beautiful city. So we decided to forgo most of it, and concentrate on the Craigdarroch Castle. As my wife described in her post, it’s a beautiful house built in the 19th century. Since Canada is a fairly young country, compared to the world standards, I would call this house a landmark of our history, yet it is not being looked after by any of the government agencies. It’s all done through volunteers. The passion of these people to preserve this place is amazing. We talked to one of the guides for more than 30 min about how the house was built, the attention to detail that went into design and construction of the house. It was quite an eye opener. You could feel the pride in the craft. I will echo my wife’s words… if you are ever in Victoria, you have to visit this gem.

Fuji X-Pro1 and low light

Photographing the Craigdarroch Castle on the inside proved to be a bit challenging. The Fuji X-Pro1 does not have an on board flash, so I had to bump up the ISO on most of the inside images because of the dark interior. Most of the following images were done an ISO 1000 and higher, and I think the camera performed very well. Also the contrasts of very bright windows combined with darker interiors, created very high contrasts. I could have used HDR, but I did not have a tripod handy, and the shutter speeds were already dangerously low for hand held photography. Plus there were a lot of humans milling around. So I opted for single image, and no bracketing. I was very impressed how the X-Pro1 performed in such challenging situation. So enough of the ramblings from me… here are the photos of the inside of the beautiful Craigdarroch Castle. Enjoy!

Craigdarroch Castle,victoria,bc,architechture photography 01

Looking up in wonder – Cathedral Grove

by Mac Sokulski | Apr 7, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, Nature

Cathedral Grove

Coming back from Long Beach we had to stop at the famous Cathedral Grove. It’s a very old forest located in MacMillan Provincial Park. The trees there are hundreds of years old, and so tall one could say they touch the sky. It’s one of the most beautiful and humbling places we have visited. To think that these trees have been standing there since the middle ages, is uncanny. Even though there are a lot of people visiting, the place is strangely quiet. One could say it’s a spiritual experience. I guess that’s why it’s called the Cathedral Grove.

Capturing the Grove

Trying to capture the Grove is not an easy task. You have to have a very wide lens and lots of space to be able to catch one of these tree giants in entirety. It’s almost impossible, because there is almost no room along the paths to back away far enough. Even at 15mm it wasn’t enough. Still, the experience is well worth the trip. Highly recommend you stopping by, and enjoy the quiet of time. It’s amazing.

Cathedral,grove,bc,trees,history,nature 01

Morning at the Beach – Landscape Photography

by Mac Sokulski | Apr 1, 2014 | Art, Fuji Landscapes, Fuji X, Landscape

When is a wide angle too wide

There are times when in landscape photography, a wide angle lens is just simply too wide. When the sky has nothing to offer, but it’s color, and when the ground has nothing to offer either. It’s not easy sometimes to photograph the mood of a landscape, when the sky is blue, and the ground is flat and feature less. Yet there is a certain mood in the air, like that morning on the beach. There was a mist coming from the ocean, and hanging low on the beach, but the sky was featureless and I had to work hard to find something interesting on the ground.

Big Zoom

This is a perfect time, when the big zooms come out to play in landscape photography. This is a perfect time to focus on something far away, instead of up close, and that’s what I did. The mist coming out of the ocean, created this incredible mood. The people walking along the beach became ghosts, appearing and disappearing. With a long zoom, you can capture a beautiful mood, and add a completely genuine human element to the landscape. Here are some shots from that beautiful morning. Enjoy!

Mac