Happy Christmas !

Happy Christmas everyone - hope yours was a good as mine!

The X-Pro1 was my present and I already had that, so at least I could capture some family moments on Christmas morning. I may put a few of those up soon.

In the meantime, here's an attempt to use the Christmas tree and a cracker to show off the bokeh of the 35/1.4

The end of Autumn

I took these a few weeks ago on The Stray in Harrogate, but have only just got round to looking at them.

I realise that these posts are not in any particular order, but I'm new to this and didn't think it through properly before I started! I should start to sort it out soon ...

I wanted to try and show the autumn colours on The Stray in Harrogate, and I just love the way the X Pro1 captures colours. This camera is such fun to use, but I didn't realise quite how lazy I had got using my old Sony DSLR. I used to set it up in Aperture Priority, ISO100 and pretty much forget about everything else. That is NOT the way to use this camera (although you could, but whats the point of that!). Its making me think more about the exposure, depth of field and shutter speed - which is great. All these things are part of the creative process and should be thought about.

Remembrance Sunday - 11th November 2012

Every year my daughters school are asked to be involved with the service at the Commonwealth War Graves in Harrogate. Together with Army recruits from the local college they put roses on every grave.

Its always very moving, and hard to think that most of the graves are for servicemen in their late teens or early twenties, and they were the same age as the recruits who were on parade.

The sun was bright and low, but it was very cold. The X Pro1 didn't miss a thing. The image of the officer inspecting the graves was shot directly into the sun - I couldn't really see through the viewfinder but the X Pro1 could!

Back to the start ...

After a lot of saving and selling my beloved Bianchi bike I still didn't have enough money to buy an X Pro1, but then the boffins at Fuji came out with the XE1. I really wanted the optical viewfinder, but couldn't justify the extra money. While waiting for the launch and reading every review I could, the sneaky guys at Fuji offered a free lens with the X Pro1 ... an offer I convinced my wife was too good to miss!

A trip to Bass and Bligh in Harrogate and the order was placed - X Pro1 with 18-55 lens, and I would get the 35/1.4 free! A week later I had the camera but no lens, so Bass and Bligh kindly lent me the 18/2.

The weather wasn't great but that weekend I had try it out and just loved how it worked and the images. The windfarm was my first trial run.

Late Afternoon

Latest image with this fantastic camera.

I went out last Sunday with low expectations as the weather wasn't great, and the spectacular sunsets of the past few days seemed very unlikely.

I ended up going to one of my favourite places along Penny Pot Lane, on the outskirts of Harrogate. I love the windfarm there (although its not popular with the locals!) and the view across to Menwith Hill. This location is better in the mornings, and I was determined to try and get a different image from what I have in the past.

I saw this tree silhouetted against the horizon, and as I wandered down the bridlepath, the tree suddenly lined up with the gate opening, and I could see my image. I only have the 35mm lens at the moment (18-55 is on order), so it was necessary to crop this image as I couldn't get any closer. I haven't changed any colours, the sun is just cropped out on the left hand side, and gave off the golden glow.