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Fuji in Europe Part 10 – Street Photography in Würzburg

by Mac Sokulski | Jun 12, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, People, Urban

Würzburg The Streets

With any European city there is always ample time to devote to street photography. There is so many people, and so many interesting things happening, that it’s not hard to catch interesting images. Most people don’t really care about being photographed, as there are so many tourists with cameras, that it’s a normal occurrence. Having a small kit comprised of only Fuji cameras this makes it easier, as I didn’t stand out from the crowd with a little camera.

Gear

This was a perfect time to try out the Fuji XT1 and 56mm f1.2. I had a variable ND filter on the lens, so I could shoot wide open in the bright sunlight. Focusing was fast, but not always accurate. Don’t know why, but the lens sometimes completely missed it’s mark. It wasn’t very frequent, but enough that it got a little annoying. Of course the X100s wasn’t neglected. It’s stealth proved to be quite helpful in capturing some interesting images. Enjoy!

Fuji in Europe Part 7 – Around Nuremberg

by Mac Sokulski | Jun 8, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, Landscape, People, Urban

Nuremberg

After a little excursion to France, we spent the next day resting, and taking in the sites of this beautiful city. Parks parks everywhere. It’s quite amazing to see so many green spaces, where people can walk, relax, and actually enjoy a little bit of silence from the busy streets, and busy life. The buildings of the old town are quite something as well. In the parks there are always people, walking, biking or just enjoying nature. It’s beautiful, really beautiful.

Gear

Two cameras, two lenses. I knew that the main reason I brought so much gear with me, was that I did not want to switch lenses. I had the wide angle 10-24mm f4 mounted on the Fuji X-Pro1 and the 56mm f1.2 on the X-T1. I find shooting this way best, because I don’t have to worry about switching lenses, if a scene lends itself more to a wide angle, than a medium telephoto, and vice versa. This also eliminates the possibility of dust getting on the sensor. Yes it’ more cumbersome and the bag is a lot heavier, but I have choices 🙂 Even though the bag filled with cameras was about 10 kg in weight, when walking around the city and taking pictures, I hardly even noticed it. Here are some shots from walking this day… enjoy!

Fuji in Europe Part 6 – Street photography in France

by Mac Sokulski | Jun 7, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, People, Urban

Streets

Both villages that we visited in France were absolutely teeming with people. A perfect place to try out street photography. It wasn’t easy at first as there was literally too much to take in. Once the jaw dropping first impression passed I could think and concentrate. It wasn’t easy at first, since being quite introverted, I never liked focusing attention on myself. I tried telling myself that I will probably not see these people ever again, so who cares what they think. I had to do this quite a bit, to get myself in the proper frame of mind. It worked 🙂 … and the silent Fuji X100s helped.

Gear

For this the most often used camera? Yep, you got it, the Fuji X100s. Although I did try the X-T1 and the 56mm f1.2. I brought a special graduated ND filter with me, just so I could shoot at f1.2 in the the day time. I wasn’t disappointed. The combo of either X Fuji, and the 56mm lens is just wonderful.. really wonderful. That lens is sharp, even wide open, but I did experience a bit of strange behavior when auto focusing at f1.2 with the Fuji X-T1. I found the AF hunting a bit, and not lock on the proper subject. It only happened a few times, so I think it was probably a user error, but will test it more. So here are some street photography from France… Enjoy!

Fuji in Europe Part 1 – Nuremberg Street Photography

by Mac Sokulski | Jun 2, 2014 | Art, Fuji X, People, Urban

Fuji on a Trip

This is going to be a series of posts of my little excursion to Europe. History repeats itself, as 3 years ago, I manage to get the first Fuji camera, the X-Pro1, a few days before the family European vacation, and the whole trip was shot with that. This time I manage to get the new Fuji X-T1, a day before I left. Mind you the venerable Fuji X-Pro1 still came with me. It’s a bit more beat up, from the 3 years of constant usage, and works better now, with Fujifilm constant upgrades to the camera. One thing I did wrong on this trip though, is I took too much gear. Having switched to Fuji X cameras from Canons, I found that I can take more gear, and have it weigh less than before. This time I over did it. 3 cameras, 4 lenses, batteries, and the bag suddenly became about 20lbs. Stupid.

The Cameras

So what did I take…. practically the whole Fuji arsenal. The images in these series were shot with the Fuji X-T1, Fuji X-Pro1, Fuji X100s, and lenses were 55-200mm, 10-24mm, 56mm, and Rokinon 8mm fisheye. Most days, I carried all that gear with me, you know, just in case. Surprisingly the lens I used the least was the biggest of the bunch, namely the 55-200. I just didn’t find the need for it that much. Next time, it’s going to stay behind. I didn’t do a lot of planning ahead, thus I packed everything. So there is a tip, plan ahead, and anticipate what you will be shooting, so you don’t over pack. My answer to this tip is of course, “what if!”… 🙂

The Images

I was trying to decide how to present the images I took on this trip. I mean they are a mixture of street, architecture, landscape, urban, and fine art photography, and putting them together in separate posts may be a little chaotic. So I figured that maybe documenting the trip day by day, might be best. At least it will be best for my memories, as I saw a lot, and photographed a lot.

Thanks

So all that aside, the biggest thank you, goes to the Wala family with out whom I would be at home, photographing Alberta prairies, and not gallivanting around Europe. Great, wonderful people who have their own blog about being Hooked on Europe, with a lot more facts, history, and images then this series will provide. That blog is a definite resource, for heading to Europe. So thank you, thank you for everything!

Mac

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