Heavenly peace

Little or no blog activity for some time, but that doesn’t mean my cameras have been idle… Most projects though were not for public sharing.

A week ago, I had to kill some time in the beautiful city of Lier. As always my Fujifilm X100 was on my side, and we paid a quick visit to the small but exquisite beguinage. While founded in the year 1258, most surviving buildings on this UNESCO World Heritage Site date from the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Amazing how this place still remains an oasis of peace in the middle of an otherwise thriving city.

Meanwhile, I am (im)patiently waiting for the X-Pro1 to arrive…

Gear notes: Fujifilm X100

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As time goes by…

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I dearly love my Fujifilm X100. Since its arrival last May, that camera has brought me more photographic pleasure and satisfaction than I ever could have expected. I have no doubt that the X100 will remain my tool of choice when I am looking for simplicity and for shooting pictures for the fun of it.

There is also no doubt in my mind that my trusted D700 goes into the bag whenever I need to shoot dynamic action, a fast-paced event, or simply cannot afford to miss the golden shot. Or need a long tele, or capture ‘true’ macros. The D700 should not worry about being left in the dark too much. For what I plan to shoot in the coming months, I see no need to make a move to a D800 (although a D4 would be great, even a good used copy of a D3S).

But for a while now a new potential contender lurks around the corner. One that most likely will steal a lot of street time from the X100 – without replacing it completely. One that almost certainly will be picked up where otherwise I would have taken the D700.

I am talking about the new Fujifilm FinePix X-Pro1.

As soon as that camera was announced, I put in my pre-order for a body and all three of the initial prime lenses. There’s so much of the great X100 stuff I learned to love in the X-Pro1, and then some more. And unless something else is totally screwed up (and not being properly addressed promptly), I know I will like it a lot!

I was able to handle a pre-production X-Pro1 for some 20 minutes earlier this week, and it felt great. Late next week I should have another brief go at it. And then it will be another long wait until the black boxes arrive, hopefully around the end of the month.

I will be happy to share with you my adventures with the new X-kid on the blog, just like I did for the X100. As the old song goes:

“On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by.”

Gear notes: “under construction”

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100X100 – epilog

At the end of May last year I received my Fujifilm FinePix X100, one of the first batch arriving in Belgium. The end of a long waiting period, as I first saw (and immediately fell for) that beautiful camera at the 2010 Photokina. It turned out to be a significant milestone, as the X100 has strongly influenced my photography ever since.

Within days I decided this camera is worth the effort of getting deeply acquainted with. It seemed and later proved to be a tool that will not simply adapt to whatever your shooting habits may be… The X100 opens up to a wealth of photographic pleasure and lots of creative stimuli, but only when you accept to explore and embrace its essence and particularities.

I decided to share my journey with the X100 on this blog. The result: twenty ‘100X100’ episodes that document my learning process, five images at a time. I also determined that I would not once put a 35mm prime on my D700 (my favorite street shooting combo at the time) before completing this X100 series.

And so I started growing into the X100 more and more. Light and compact to come along to any occasion. Clear and sharp from the hand and from the hip. Vibrant colors and smooth tones, whatever the lighting, dynamic range or ISO setting. Super quiet and unobtrusive, stealthy as needed. Simply said: a pure gem.

I relived the pleasure of letting the eye dominate the equipment. Somewhat forgotten, but never unlearned from the days that cameras were either simple and compact, or else  not affordable. Remembering to anticipate, reposition, preset and zone-focus.
To see before shooting, to capture without chimping. That joy!

The X100 also got me firmly back into ‘shooting’ black&white. Admitted, Nik’s wonderful Silver Efex Pro played a big role there too: that software allows me to dust off my tricks from the  darkroom past, as well as taking images past old frontiers.

That’s why, for this 100X100 epilog, I picked some of my favorite color shots from the series and spinned them through the B&W machine. Hope you enjoy!

Gear notes: Fujifilm X100, Silver Efex Pro

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