30 Days with the Fuji X100s: Day 2

I went to my favorite park (Teddy Roosevelt Island) and it was closed due to the government shutdown. I knew it would be, but I didn't think the parking lot would be closed too. It was and I had to walk a mile to get to the park. I couldn't get in, but I could walk the trails on the side of the George Washington Parkway. As I was taking the picture a man came up to talk about the shutdown. He told me that the overlooks were closed too. The overlooks. You know, you drive in, look and drive out. Closed.

Now onto the camera. I'm not totally in love with it yet. It seems that I am under exposing when I choose the aperture and shutter myself. LCD's throw me off a bit, I should try using the optical viewfinder and see if my exposure is better.

I want to shoot everything in black and white. This camera makes it look so nice that way.

See.

Here's a different shot of the same thing in color (meaning, I let the camera do the conversion, not Photoshop). While I love the punchy color, I like the serenity in the B&W shot better.

And if you walk the trails by the GW, you have to get the Memorial Bridge in a picture. And you have to get the sunny side, so be prepared to walk!

I do absolutely love the weight of this camera. I did not miss having a backpack and back pain. And I don't feel limited by the fixed lens. I instead feel grateful that I'm not carrying a backpack full of lens choices that I never use on these walks! For some reason, I can't take the DSLR with one lens, I feel like I'll miss something. Which is ironic because I have stopped carrying anything and I miss everything.

30 Days with the Fuji x100s: Day 1

I promised myself that if I bought this camera, I would do a 30 days series. Which means I will take (at least) one picture a day, every day for 30 days. It will help me learn how to use this camera and hopefully make me fall in love with it.

I figured the first picture should be a selfie — of the camera, of course. I did a little mirror and self timer action to get this shot. For lighting, I have a black towel wrapped around a Smith Vector light to get the black background. I could do that easier in my studio, but at home I have to improvise quite a bit. (My Mom gave me an old Smith Victor light she found at my Uncle's house a while ago and now I use it for all my home lighting.)

I did very little processing, just some removal of light spots from the black background and a crop and flip. I first did a custom white balance in camera which I think works well. I hope I remember to turn it off.

I don't love it yet. Quite a lot to learn since I'm used to my Canon menus. And while I don't mind reading manuals, this one is a lot to read!

Mugshots

I started a new series. And it wasn't my idea at all. A model asked if I would shoot mugshots of her and her friends for her birthday. I said that I would since it sounded like great fun. I ordered the display board and tried to find a height chart (which are harder to find then I thought they would be). As it turns out, she never got back to me on doing the shoot, but I decided to start with my series anyway.

I started with myself as a test. I didn't have tape on the wall and I did the height chart in Photoshop. I played around with makeup and some fake blood. I had fun doing mine.

I didn't like doing the lines in Photoshop. It's a pain to do in between hair so I bought many rolls of tape (half of which wouldn't stick to the wall) and finally just cut matte black tape to the widths that I wanted. That's why the tape is all uneven. I don't have a good eye for level (I actually use grids in my camera to help with that!) I have numbers up there, but they aren't graphic enough, so I still do those in Photoshop.

I finally had a model photo shoot and I asked everybody if they would get their mug shots done. They did and I'm so grateful to Robin, Michelle, Greg and Stretch.

Everybody gets to choose their station and saying.  I think the photos are able to say a little a bit about me while saying quite a bit about the subject.

I think this will be a super fun series to do and it takes all of five minutes to get the shot. Plus it gave me something to do during makeup changes. I'm thinking of taping all the pictures on the wall next to the chart. Maybe Rodney (my studio mate) will add some pictures as well. It will make a cool collage of people who come through the studio.

Fuji x100s

I'm thinking about buying a new camera. I'm enamored with the Fuji x100s. What I really want is a super fantastic point and shoot. Which means I want to take high-resolution files in something that weighs as much as 5 tissues. I hate lugging around a DSLR. I love my DSLR, I just hate carrying it out in public. It's heavy and people get all self conscious when you pull it out. Even my cats run for the hills. And on the flip side, I hate my point and shoot. It takes all super sharpened unusable high resolution pictures. I carry it with me everywhere, but I never take it out because I know I'm going to hate the quality of the photos.

I really enjoyed shooting with my phone when I was on Instagram. I shot every single day and I loved it. I always had my phone with me and it was easy to take photos without drawing a lot of attention to myself. Granted the photos were technically bad, but they are some of the most narrative pictures that I have taken. I don't think they are amazingly creative, but they capture the moments really well. If I could capture the moment and have a fantastic, high-resolution photo, I think I would be in heaven.

The x100s isn't cheap. $1299. And it might weigh a little more than 5 tissues (not much more mind you). But I think it will bring back my love for photography and I am seriously missing that right now.

(Plus, look how cute it is. And it has my initial right there on the corner. How can I not get this camera?)

UPDATE: It didn't take me long after writing this to order the camera. I ordered from B&H which is closed until September 29 for a Jewish holiday. Plus the camera is on back order. Ugh. Waiting is making me nuts. I am really craving this camera. I already have pictures lined up to take with it. You'd think I didn't have a bag full of camera equipment right here.

UPDATE: I cancelled my B&H order and ordered from Unique Photo because they had it in stock. It arrives tomorrow, 8/3. I can't wait!

Color Run DC - The Happiest 5K

I went to the Color Run at National Harbor on Sunday. They call it the Happiest 5K and I believe them. Everybody was having a great time. I had fun and I didn't even run the thing.

Here are the pictures from the day. It was a great fall day for being outside. I'm always looking for a good photo opportunity to get me off the couch on the weekend — this one was perfect.

Field of Sunflowers: Kennedy at McKee Beshers

My only shoot in the last five months was in a field of sunflowers. It was a fun shoot even though it was hot and muggy and there was no sun in the sky. While everybody says that overcast is the way to shoot, I disagree. I like the sun and the blue sky and clouds. I can blow out the hard shadows with unnatural light. I'd rather do that, then have to add in sun and sky in post. But you make due with what mother nature gives you when you want to shoot outside.

Here is Kennedy at McKee Beshers in Poolesville, MD. Go there in July and shoot to your hearts content. They don't mind and you'll meet many other photographers there. Be advise to download the map of the fields first. The first year I went there, I completely missed them. I must have walk for an hour in the wrong direction. This field was not the popular field. I went an hour early to walk all the fields and see which one was the best. Since it was the second week of bloom, the flowers were starting to fade. This field was not fading as much; however, it had no parking and was trickier to get to. We trudged through mud, fought off bees, and sweat in very unladylike manners, but it was worth it.

Cherry Blossoms at Sunrise

As a photographer in DC, I can't NOT shoot the cherry blossoms. Every year, I trudge down to the Tidal Basin hoping for a great shot. Many years, I fail. Last year I went for sunrise and it was the cloudiest day in weeks. In my earlier attempts, I would drive down during normal hours (after 6 am) and find myself stuck in traffic with nowhere to park, getting more and more frustrated at all the cars that don't seem to be moving. What normally takes 5 minutes to drive, takes over 45 minutes. I would just leave without even getting out of the car.

This year was perfect. It was 65 degrees. I got down there early enough to find parking (although I did have to search 3 lots) and I found a great location to sit and watch the sunrise. I even remembered my tripod. I really enjoyed the morning.

Here are the shots I processed so far. I have a few more that I might do.

As I looked around, I thought that the images that I take show a Tidal Basins devoid of people. That is anything but true when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. The place is mobbed and I often feel like I could easily fall into the Tidal Basin when trying to maneuver around all the people. Here's my picture to represent that reality:

I thought about titling it "These are My People."