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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Courthouse Christmas

It’s that time of year- Prescott’s Courthouse Square is lit up for Christmas. We walked around last night, so I could take photos with my new walk-around camera- a slick little Fujifilm X100 VI! It was cold and dark, and my fumbling frozen fingers struggled a bit with settings, but I did get a few photos I was happy with. This camera is soooo lightweight, which really helps my neck and shoulders- and it could fit in a purse or small camera bag. No, I am not abandoning my Nikons, but this camera is a little powerhouse! I just need to learn the settings better and develop some muscle memory. By the way, Fujifilm is famous for it’s straight out of camera film simulations- however as a Nikon shooter, I am not giving up RAW or spending time editing in Lightroom and Photoshop. Fortunately, I can have the best of both worlds as the film simulations come in as camera profiles in Lightroom, so you can use them if you wish.

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Egret Encounter

Like everyone else that enjoys watching birds at lakes, I have seen and photographed egrets many time. This time however, was more of a close encounter than I expected. I was turned away from the water shooting a tree, when Lonnie said “Egret!” as it flew seemingly right in front of us. Then it looped back and made a right turn heading right at us. It looped back and then made its way along the shoreline to the other end of the lake. I had my 300 zoom lens on my camera and was able to capture most of this encounter, but the ones where it headed straight at us are a bit blurry. Later, when I looked at my photo of the tree, the egret can be see between the branches as it headed our way.

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Bye-bye Blackbirds!

I love red-winged blackbirds! I have seen them often at Willow Lake, but this was the first time I had seen them at Watson. They flew in fast and disappeared into the grasses along the shore, and then flew away just as fast. In between, I could hear them inside the weeds. Sometimes other flocks would join them- and then off they’d go. It’s a successful shoot for me if the red shows on their wings. Getting a good closeup shot is on my bucket list!

Besides the blackbirds, we saw a bald eagle, a great blue heron, an egret, many ducks, and possibly two loons!

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Leaves in Black

I was struck by the shadows of leaves falling on the trunks of aspens in the sunshine. I had never noticed this effect before- and then I saw it everywhere! For this image, I chose to convert the photo to black and white for emphasis.

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Convergence

This was the scene after sunset for the annual Canal Convergence in Old Town Scottsdale. And looking from the bridge in the opposite direction, we could see the lights on and along the water.

It’s always fun to see the new lights and displays as we walk along the canal- and it’s a wonderful photo op for photographers!

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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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