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A Techno Day

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A few years ago I would have never thought this was possible. Make a photograph with your camera in raw format. Process said photograph in camera and convert to jpg then send to your phone or tablet with the camera app, then tweak it a bit in Lightroom mobile, and finally post it here or on Instagram or Facebook.

A rake waits to be used at a neighbors house.

Both of these images were made with the Fuji X-T3 and the new Fuji XF 16-80 f4.

Earlier in the day I was shooting with the smaller X-T30 and a newly purchased 23 f2 and did the same thing with my phone and posted the photo below to Instagram. Wow! But since I needed it here on my iPad I had to transfer it from the phone to the iPad. No problem Apple Airdrop sent it right over. Pretty incredible.

Fuji X-T30 with Fuji XF 23 f2

Technology certainly has come a long way since we waited for the prints or slides to come back. For me it was a bit more instantaneous as I only had to wait about 45 minutes before I could make a print.

Porch Rocker

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porch rocker
Wicker rocking chairs wait to be used at the Sandy Bay Yacht Club. (Leica M-P 240 w/Leica 35mm Summicron ISO 200 1/250s @ f8)

One of my favorite things to do in the spring and fall is to take early morning walks with just my Leica and the 35mm Summicron. The “35” is such a versatile lens and can do everything except take telephoto type shots. For me it has such a comfortable feel to it and when I want to just grab a camera and go, this is the setup I go for.

In the image above the light was just incredible early in the morning and the sky was a lovely blue color and with the yellow of the rocking chairs it just pulled me right in. I knew this was going to be a beautiful B&W right away. When I converted it I used the Adobe 7 B&W profile and changed some of the colors in the mixer to give it the 3D feeling I wanted. I darkened the blue channel and lightened the yellow channel which enhanced the image.

I encourage you all to go out and use one lens not a zoom lens. Move your feet to zoom, you will find you start to understand how your subject needs to be photographed. Something that the zoom can sometimes miss.

In story telling terms what does this image say. To me it says summer is beginning and the summer rockers are out and waiting to be used. But questions come to mind as well. Who uses these rockers? How many folks have used these rockers over the years and are no longer with us?  The best thing about this image is that it gives us pause to ask these questions.

An Oregon Coast Travel Tale (Part 1)

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Ok, so what do you do when you travel six hours on a flight pull into the hotel exhausted and wake up the next morning to gray skies and fog? You pray it gets better! That being said praying kind of worked. 

Let me explain. We left our hotel with gray skies and headed for the fog enshrouded coast not knowing if the fog would hold all day – it did. What a disappointment. Our trip down route 101 along the coast was another six hours of not seeing much. The beautiful scenery along 101 was invisible to us as we sped by listening to pod casts our sons’ had downloaded on their phones.

We stopped every once in a while to make a shot or two of the fog covered shore or islands peering through the mist. We did not bother to stop at Cannon Beach as it was covered in fog. When we arrived at our destination on Bandon Beach on the south shore just below Coos Bay we were met with an overlook of incredible beauty but covered by fog. 

We decided to put long pants and hiking shoes on to climb down the massive set of stairs to the beach. We were met with incredible amounts of huge driftwood – wow, a B&W photographers dream.  The driftwood and fog made for some great images.


Plus there was no one on the beach, yay! I had a great time poking around the giant stumps. The fog started to clear a little as sunset approached but we only got a sliver of color. The next morning I was up early hoping for some nice light and I was not disappointed. 


The shot above is not my best one. I have three frames with the flock of geese in it but the thumb nails on my iPad are so small on import I could not tell which one I wanted. 


Walking around in the early morning light on the beach and on the bluff was great, the scenery was outstanding.


As the light rose and made it over the cliff face it was almost like alpen glow the way it just lit the top portions of these giant edifices. I met some nice photogs along the way who were participating in workshops. This the end of part one. More to come on a day of travel to shoot lighthouses in horrible light and another morning among the giant rocks!