Equipment, Fujifilm, Reader Questions, Reviews

Why Fujifilm Mirrorless?

June 30, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

(When I started this post I thought it would be short — but it grew and grew and grew! In addition, right now and for a couple of days after the publication date, there is a Fujifilm instant rebate promotion that takes hundreds of dollars off the prices of lenses and cameras and bundles. See a list of links at the end of the article.)

My friend “Pat” sent me an email recently with the following question:

I hope you have been well. I was hoping you could offer your thoughts on ‘why Fujifilm’ for your walk-around/street photography system. I have been reading (perhaps a little too obsessively) many rave reviews on their cameras and consistently love the look of images that are shared. (Kevin Mullins, Zack Arias and many others) have professed their love for the Fujifilm system.) While my G.A.S. has been in remission lately, I know I am susceptible to a relapse-I’m not sure if I’m looking for you to talk me off the ledge or give me a solid shove. Why do you choose Fujifilm instead of using a couple of the smaller (non-L) primes with your 5D series? I shoot the 6D as my primary body and have been saving for a 24-70 f2.8 (to replace my 24-105) but the current sale on the Fujifilm at Adorama has me thinking.

As I thought about my reply it occurred to me that others might be interested in the answer, too. With that in mind, I’m sharing my reply. The main context of your question seems to be focused on street and “walk around” photography, and Fujifilm is now my primary system for what I refer to as “street photography and travel photography.”

And, yes, G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) can afflict all of us. Let’s see if I turn out to offer an antidote… or become your enabler!

Settle back. This won’t be brief.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Beach, Fog, and Surf

June 30, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pacific ocean surf at a foggy beach near Point Sur

My part of California — generally the San Francisco Bay Area — is climatically complex, especially during the warm season. We sit between the hot interior climate of the Central Valley and points further east, and the coastal climate under the influence of the Pacific Ocean. The Bay Area is famous for its microclimate, and conditions can diverge wildly among areas that are not that far apart. A day or two ago the weather report told of temperatures well above 100 degrees along the eastern edge of the region where it spills out into the Central Valley and temperatures that never reached 60 degrees along the coast at Point Reyes — a difference of close to 50 degrees between areas separated by a few tens of miles.

The past week has been one of the periodic hot spells, so when I heard about the mid-fifty degree temperatures and fog along the coast I had to go! Today I drove down past Monterey and kept going down the Big Sur coast past Lucia. It was foggy well inland in the morning and it never did clear completely along the coast, where not only was it cold but the winds were howling and kicking up whitecaps on the ocean. I made this photograph near Point Sur, roughly along the line where the inland sun and the coastal fog were doing battle… and the fog was still winning at this point.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Winter Dawn, Sacramento Valley

June 29, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter clouds at dawn above the Sacramento Valley

Today it is close to the end of June, the start of the hot season in California, and it has been nearly 100 degrees where I live and hotter than that where I made this photograph. It is, at it is every year, hard to believe that it was only months ago that I was out in this spot on a freezing January morning, with snow-covered peaks to my east and west, watching the first dawn light on these spectacular clouds and listening to the sounds of early morning flights of migratory birds across the wetlands.

For this I will get up at 3:00 am and drive three hours in the pre-dawn darkness. I had not visited this location before, and as I turned off of Interstate 5, the main artery up this valley, and headed east on a two-lane road I wasn’t sure what I would find. The sky was beginning to glow and it seemed that sunrise was coming soon — perhaps too soon for my arrival. I turned off onto a gravel road and headed into this refuge, passing the entrance and heading out onto the perimeter road just in time for this astonishing morning light show.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Wildflowers

June 28, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A carpet of desert spring flowers, Death Valley National Park

My alternative title for this photograph might have been “What’s Underfoot.” We were a bit too later for this year’s (near?) superbloom in parts of southern Death Valley National Park, but we still found plenty of flowers during out late March visit. Many desert plants are opportunistic, holding off on their blooms in dry years and then going exuberantly wild in wetter years. This wasn’t one of the truly wet seasons, though it was wetter than the recent drought years might have suggested, and in many places the flowers responded.

I made this photograph in one of those Death Valley locations that might seem both very special and not at all special, depending on your orientation to the place. We drove out on a long road that traverses a high valley. By comparison to, say, the high peaks of the Sierra, the terrain seems unremarkable, with vast stretches of undifferentiated desert vegetation leading to dry and rocky ridges. But the vast space is special, in and of itself, and there turns out to be more to look at and experience than might first be apparent. I knew from previous visits that thick wildflowers were a possibility, and I knew that if we just pulled off the road and looked that we would find them. At one of these stops I simply took my camera and walked off a bit and found a dense carpet of plants and flowers, taking full advantage of this brief period of sunlight and a bit of moisture.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Why Fujifilm Mirrorless?

Beach, Fog, and Surf

Winter Dawn, Sacramento Valley

Desert Wildflowers

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.