All images - Fuji X-E2 23mm and 60mm lenses
I'm sure it's just coincidence, but when I use one of my Fuji X cameras some magic light or composition presents itself, like the apocalyptic cloud formation above. But then I don't believe in coincidence, so what's that all about?
Yesterday saw the return of jet stream light. Rain, wind and cold. It wasn't actually that bad however. The end of the world / wrath of God clouds in the top picture passed over quickly and I was outside throughout their passing. It didn't even rain that much and gave way to a clear blue sky.
Don't know why things seem to happen with my Fuji X cameras, but they do.
I am incredibly busy currently and am having one of my most successful periods ever in terms of picture sales. I still have 1000's of images to edit, caption, keyword and upload, some dating back to last summer, I'm writing and producing lots of music, scanning transparencies and finishing one book and proof reading another three to send to publishers. I mentioned a while ago that I'm planning to work on some videos about Stock Photography and possibly put together an e-book on that, but I really don't have the time to even consider that at the moment. I would definitely like a few more hours in the day to get this all done, or be able to afford a team of assistants.
It's also getting close to the end of my tax year and I should really be looking seriously at what cameras to keep and what to sell, but I'm probably not going to get round to that either and will in all likelihood keep everything I've got for a while yet. Which isn't really a hardship, but it will complicate my tax return for next year.
So it's pretty much a case of recession, what recession? Which is of course good news for me personally. It's a strange thing but the more images the picture libraries I sell through accumulate and make available for sale, the better I do, so I guess I'm doing something right. Which for what I shoot involves being in the right place at the right time mostly. And I have to admit one of the most useful skills a landscape / location photographer can have is the ability to 'sniff out' good light. And after years of practice I do seem to be able to do that, even if like yesterday it took a lot of cloud watching and driving to find the 'right' location.
Finally, the more cameras and lenses I go through and use, the less they seem to matter. These days I pretty much pick up whatever I fancy using to shoot with rather than make any considered choice. My last two excursions have been with my Panasonic GX7 + 7-14mm zoom and Nikon Series E 100mm plus yesterday was with my Fuji X-E2 + 35mm and 60mm lenses. And I'm finding I'm using that 60mm a lot. These days it hardly gets a mention, but it's a very useful lens for what I do and much lighter than my 55-200mm zoom. Various firmware updates have made the AF much quicker and so long as I've got the macro turned off it does focus pretty quickly and doesn't hunt around all the time.
Today is supposed to be sun and showers again, so once more there is the possibility of some dramatic light. So I'll be keeping an eye on the weather out my window and seeing if it's worth going out. If I do, I have no idea what camera / lens combination I'll use. Maybe it will be a good day to see if the Sony firmware updates really have improved the AF on my A7 or A7r. I've certainly not seen any significant (or even any to be honest) improvements in image quality that Sony promised. Now they may well be there, but if so they seem to be so small as to fall within the definition of we see what we want to see. However, the IQ from these two cameras is so good that in terms of how I use them, it's difficult for me to see what would needed to improve that. Plus since I'm going to post-process them to within an inch of their lives in Photoshop and I don't even shoot .jpg images anymore, it's not something I'm going to loose sleep over.
Don't know why things seem to happen with my Fuji X cameras, but they do.
I am incredibly busy currently and am having one of my most successful periods ever in terms of picture sales. I still have 1000's of images to edit, caption, keyword and upload, some dating back to last summer, I'm writing and producing lots of music, scanning transparencies and finishing one book and proof reading another three to send to publishers. I mentioned a while ago that I'm planning to work on some videos about Stock Photography and possibly put together an e-book on that, but I really don't have the time to even consider that at the moment. I would definitely like a few more hours in the day to get this all done, or be able to afford a team of assistants.
It's also getting close to the end of my tax year and I should really be looking seriously at what cameras to keep and what to sell, but I'm probably not going to get round to that either and will in all likelihood keep everything I've got for a while yet. Which isn't really a hardship, but it will complicate my tax return for next year.
So it's pretty much a case of recession, what recession? Which is of course good news for me personally. It's a strange thing but the more images the picture libraries I sell through accumulate and make available for sale, the better I do, so I guess I'm doing something right. Which for what I shoot involves being in the right place at the right time mostly. And I have to admit one of the most useful skills a landscape / location photographer can have is the ability to 'sniff out' good light. And after years of practice I do seem to be able to do that, even if like yesterday it took a lot of cloud watching and driving to find the 'right' location.
Finally, the more cameras and lenses I go through and use, the less they seem to matter. These days I pretty much pick up whatever I fancy using to shoot with rather than make any considered choice. My last two excursions have been with my Panasonic GX7 + 7-14mm zoom and Nikon Series E 100mm plus yesterday was with my Fuji X-E2 + 35mm and 60mm lenses. And I'm finding I'm using that 60mm a lot. These days it hardly gets a mention, but it's a very useful lens for what I do and much lighter than my 55-200mm zoom. Various firmware updates have made the AF much quicker and so long as I've got the macro turned off it does focus pretty quickly and doesn't hunt around all the time.
Today is supposed to be sun and showers again, so once more there is the possibility of some dramatic light. So I'll be keeping an eye on the weather out my window and seeing if it's worth going out. If I do, I have no idea what camera / lens combination I'll use. Maybe it will be a good day to see if the Sony firmware updates really have improved the AF on my A7 or A7r. I've certainly not seen any significant (or even any to be honest) improvements in image quality that Sony promised. Now they may well be there, but if so they seem to be so small as to fall within the definition of we see what we want to see. However, the IQ from these two cameras is so good that in terms of how I use them, it's difficult for me to see what would needed to improve that. Plus since I'm going to post-process them to within an inch of their lives in Photoshop and I don't even shoot .jpg images anymore, it's not something I'm going to loose sleep over.
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N.B. to see more on the cameras and lenses featured in this post click on the relevant labels (tags and keywords) at the bottom of this post.
N.B. to see more on the cameras and lenses featured in this post click on the relevant labels (tags and keywords) at the bottom of this post.
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