Scattered Thoughts . . .

E very now and then, I have prints made of some of my photos.  I've been wanting to see how images shot with my little classic Fuji camera look in print so I had a few of those images printed as you can see in the photo, below.    Since my health has been exceptionally lousy this year and it was a consistently rainy and smoky summer, I haven't had much of a chance to shoot with this camera as often as I would like.  Actually, I haven't been able to do much beyond things I absolutely had to do, rain or not.  That being said, I have captured a few photos with this camera that I really like so I had these images printed professionally. The prints are looking nice!  I feel that the paper the printer used could be heavier but the prints do look nice.  This particular printer recently made some changes to how they print their high end prints so maybe I'll need to find a new printer. Having prints made of photos I view on a backlit monitor is tough.  The...

I 've written a few times about a long-discontinued classic Fuji compact camera that I finally found a few months ago after a years-long search but I thought I'd write about it again.  This little camera is a really outstanding compact camera but I'm always looking for ways to improve whatever gear I use.  In this case, getting a slightly wider view would be nice for those occasional times when you need a slightly wider view.   I've had a few different wide angle converter lenses on hand for many years...  perhaps decades, actually!  I dug them out to give each of them a try.  I think the smallest one I own has worked best.  Below, you can see this converter lens sitting next to the Fuji X30 camera. In this photo below, the wide angle converter lens is mounted on the front of the Fuji X30...   Below, you can see the difference between the views when using the camera without the converter lens (inside the red box) and when using the came...

I am still working on learning all I can about my new-to-me classic digital camera, the Fujifilm X30.  Each day I'm learning a bit more...  mostly good but I'm also finding its limitations.  No matter the tool, you must always know that tool's limitations and cameras are no exception.  Finding this camera's limitations is a good thing.  I want to know its limitations. I've saved seven custom profiles that I might prefer in various situations and environments.  I still need to get out to test these custom profiles but I now have a starting point for each.  One of the things that makes Fujifilm cameras so desirable to many photographers is the amount of customization you can do to each shot.  There is an uncharacteristically wide choice in choosing the perfect dynamic range, color, sharpness, shadows, highlights, noise reduction and white balance.  This camera provides more control for shifting the white balance than any other camera I have ev...

I had written in a previous blog entry that Kenzie and I did a mini photo session this afternoon in our living room with one studio light.  The primary purpose was to do some shooting with film using her Fuji Evo Hybrid Instax camera and my Mint TL70 Instax camera so today was mostly about film cameras.    We also shot some photos with my new-to-me Fuji X30 digital camera since I'm still learning about that classic old digital camera.  I just picked up this little Fuji compact camera a few days ago but this was the first opportunity I had to shoot a few portraits.  I shot only these two photos below with the Fuji X30 and I think they turned out great.    For a compact camera with a relatively small sensor, this camera handles very well and produces some nice images.  I'm still learning how to best use this camera and its wide variety of features but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.  I think I can get even better images with this camera wit...