Intentional Fuji Movement

Although it is almost winter, it still looks like fall here in Prescott. Leaves are falling, but it’s just sweater weather during the day. The above photo is of our willow tree, which is still yellow and losing it’s leaves.

I am FINALLY, after a slow start, getting used to my new Fujifilm X100VI. It has taken awhile to learn which function buttons to set to which functions and then to REMEMBER where they are, to understand the film simulations and “recipes”, and to adjust to “zooming with my feet”. At this point I have customized buttons set to back button focus, turning face detection off and on (there is also bird detection, but I can’t see photographing birds with this camera), toggling the ND filter on and off (yes! it works great), and lastly choosing a film simulation.

I had given up on film simulations, because I shoot RAW and didn’t like jpegs cluttering things up in Lightroom- I ALWAYS edit my photos. But, I recently discovered that I can still use film simulations when I shoot shoot RAW, and I can have the film simulation that I set in camera come in as a Lightroom profile (by adjusting a Lightroom preference). The photo then looks exactly like it does in camera, but I can turn the film look profile off in Lightroom or keep it and edit it- still making all my own choices. I see doing this mostly with my creative photography like today’s ICM. I used Velvia, a very vivid look and only tweaked it by adjusting texture, clarity, and dehaze. Time will tell how often I use this feature.

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Sailing

We had such a wonderful time seeing friends in California- and it was especially nice to be staying in Benicia- our home for over 25 years. I made sure to go walk down to the water each morning to enjoy the fog and sunshine. Today’s photo was taken with a slow shutter and a tiny bit of motion to create this impressionistice view.

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Shoreline

An early morning ICM view of houses and reflections along the shore in Benicia created an interesting abstract. I played with colors and created the version below- and I have not decided which version I prefer. What do you think?

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London Bridge Impressions

We took a trip with my photo club along the western part of Route 66 in Arizona, and made a side trip to Lake Havasu, home of the iconic London Bridge. Lonnie and I visited there several years ago and enjoyed walking along the bridge and and remembering how my parents had visited there in the seventies, not long after it was constructed (and faced with the original masonry from the 1830’s original bridge). This time I used intentional camera movement techniques to produce an impressionistic view of the bridge.

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Carquinez

We have just returned from Benicia- our home for so many years (26!). We love where we live now, but miss our little town on the Carquinez Strait and all the friends we left behind in the Bay Area! We were there for a dear friend’s son’s wedding and managed to see many of our friends during the few days spent in Benicia. The water was less than a block from the Air BnB, so we took many walks along the shoreline and downtown. I’ve photographed the Carquinez Bridge many times over the years- here’s a muted impressionistic view- created just by moving my camera.

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Leaf Peeping

We drove up to Flagstaff Sunday and joined the masses of leaf peepers driving the road to Snow Bowl to enjoy the fall color. We stopped at Aspen Corner and walked around admiring the aspens that have turned to gold. They are a week or two from their peak color, but this was likely the only time we would be able to drive up there. We continued on to Snow Bowl (the ski resort), where there was even more fall color. It was a great day to be out in nature!

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Lakeside

Ahhh the lazy days of summer, just hanging out by a lake- in this case, at our daughter’s cabin at Crooked Lake in Alaska. The sunlight shimmering on the water behind the fireweed caught my eye, and I tried to capture the dreamy feeling using multiple exposures and a slow shutter.

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