Bruce and his group at Remodelers have done it again with a very successful open house featuring their contract partners. Special guests included Theoren Fleury and Hayley Wickenheiser. Great food and photo opportunities combined with the great personalities of The Remodelers!!
Looking forward to the next instalment!
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Near Highwood pass at the trailhead parking lot.
Via Flickr:
Fuij X100, Kananaskis hiking 2011-11-12
I decided last weekend to head out to Bow summit to do a little snowshoeing and have a drive. I do a lot of travel and adventuring in the mountains, it’s one of my favourite places to be.
Audi had an article a month ago in their newsletter describing a must do drive along the Banff-Jasper Parkway in the winter and how a capable vehicle like the Quattro line of Audi’s would make the trip safe and enjoyable trip in winter. I love the way my car handles in the mountains and having some snow and ice around adds to the fun. As I pulled out of the parking area at Bow summit another Audi was pulling in and I gave them a friendly wave. A few minutes later they were behind me flashing their lights frantically. Turns out that it was a group of creatives from Northstar, an advertising company that works with Audi in the UK (www.thisisnorthstar.com) They wanted to interview me and take some pictures for the very article I was thinking about as I drove through the Parkway.
Here are some pics from that trip. Hope you enjoy. Oh yeah..if you own an audi treat yourself to one of the most beautiful drives you can take. Pack some food and some hot chocolate.
It was a great day of snowshoeing and creating pictures of great landscapes, listening to the avalanches ripping down the slopes. These are from the Canon 5DMk2 and the Fuji X100. I was staying safe by just following the road up to the campsite. Rating was a 4/5 for avalanche even in the treeline (challenging) sections with little exposure.
I finally made up my mind on the replacement compact camera after much debate I went with the Fuji X100. Large sensor and fixed lens is awesome. It will prevent me from buying “extra” lenses as well as forcing me to take more time to frame my shots. It looks so cool too all retro and stuff.
There was a lot said on the web about what a finicky camera this is but I have to say after shooting with it for a couple of days the rumors are not true. From the box it was updated with the 1.11ver firmware and runs without issue. I would say that you should spend an evening with the manual and just play with the settings and get used to the menu so you can have fun with it the rest of the time. Not that the menu is that difficult but that there is some really cool stuff in there you won’t use unless you know its there. Panoramas, Film modes and 3 stop Neutral Density filter to mention a few.
For just walking around the A settings are pretty good for snapshots and then endless manual settings for creative shooting. The leaf shutter is awesome for xsync up to 1/1000sec! You can force the built in flash and make the camera do pretty much manually whatever want including screwing up shots. I have to say this is the funnest camera ever. The auto focus could be faster but if you want that speed then shoot with your DSLR. It’s fast enough that you will grab all but the most demanding of subjects.
The X100 inspires you to take pictures of things and places you wouldn’t normally shoot if you were carrying a DSLR but allows to you to get much better shots than any point and shoot.
I really liked my Pana LX5 but I think the X100 has the perfect mix of Art and Science with an extra cool retro look. Any hesitation I had about this camera was immediately erased when I started shooting and replaced by a “kid with a new toy” feeling!
Silent mode is super cool!
Hybrid view finder is super cool!
Full manual is super cool!
Manual Focus…don’t even bother..use the AF lock button or risk carpal tunnel syndrome from the million turns of the dial. (only disappointment)
Here are some examples I cropped to look like medium format.
Had a great time mountain biking out at Bragg Creek today. Although I had planned to be out there a lot earlier and ride a lot longer but at least I got a ride in. At one point I had stopped to take a breather after climbing for about 15 minutes. The silence and only interrupted by my heavy breathing…and the growling of a cougar about 200M in bush.. Good thing my bike goes downhill so fast cuz that’s where I headed. When I reached the car there were several other Mtb’ers that showed up and said that it ran right across the trail in front of them. Sorta wished I could get picture of it but happy to be out of there with no drama.
Okay so there is this new camera from Fuji, the X10. Looks like a great little camera from all the previews. Does everything I want and has a bigger sensor than the LX5 (2/3″ vs 1.63). Now the thing is I have been bitten by the 4/3 bug and like and dislike the idea of changing lenses on my walk-around camera. I loved how the LX5 was a flip of the switch and away I could shoot. Now having said that I came to the realization that 90% of my shots were at the wide end of the lens. The X10 is 28-112 equiv but I feel that for most of the shots I would be just fine with a wide prime lens and the X10 zoom is manual and happens to contain the power switch. Not so good for one handed operation, soooo what do I do..
-Why can’t the E-PM1 come with the 14mm
-Why can’t the GF2 be as good as the GF1
-Why do all of the cameras have 95% of what I want but miss one thing on each.
I have a strong draw to the GF2 for some reason. It comes with the 14mm pancake lens and has the hot shoe. I think I’m on info overload. Most of the features on these cameras will never get used by me. I just want the best walk around for what I do.
Well I guess as far as street cameras go it’s not if it’s when the photo powers that be decide your little walk around buddy is time to be replaced.
As we walked merely down 34th in NYC clicking fun shots, my Panasonic LX5 went for a tumble out of my hand. Instead of just allowing it to fall and have the strap do its job, I tried to catch it shooting the strap off my wrist and careening toward the pavement. In an effort to save the little guy I stuck out my foot to cushion the fall. Fail. I ended up field-goal kicking it down the street. To my suprise it still worked and I shot several more days of photos…until I took the battery out which then allowed the body to distort and seize the shutter button and zoom. The video button still works so it is now “stunt-cam”.
Now the question becomes..”E-PM1 or GF2 or G3″ I had trouble with this when I bought the LX5 and had no regrets about that great little camera but now I feel the need to go to a bigger sensor. The 5DMK2 and 50D are too heavy for fun shooting but the compact’s low light abilities were limited. I need a hotshoe, wide angle, and size with lens, small enough to keep in hand and stuff into a bike jersey pocket. I don’t really care for the Olympus lenses, but I like the in body stabilization. Love Panasonic lenses but not the lack of stabilization.
I am leaning toward the E-PM1 and then buy a wide angle Pana lens for it or maybe the 14-42 X lens when it drops.
