Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

/ Mike / 2 Comments

Just a few short months after we met, my wife-to-be and I escaped for a week on the Isle of Skye. Skye is as beautiful as you might imagine, although if you are planning a trip around September, make sure you take plenty of spare clothes and waterproofs.

We took the ferry to Raasay, a small island between Skye and the mainland one Sunday. It seemed…quiet. Which was wonderful. We seemed to have the whole place to ourselves. What I hadn’t realised, was the religious traditionalism that is woven into everyday life on the west coast islands included shutting everything on a Sunday. We did eventually find a hotel to get some food at, but if we’d wanted a go on the swings…

No Playing on a Sunday

Mount Wilson

/ Mike / 9 Comments

I took a trip up into the mountains last Sunday, to check up a couple of places for some photography and to get some “shutter therapy”.

As I climbed the mountains, the temperature dropped several degrees, and I ended up at Mount Wilson, as I’d been told the trees were particularly good during Autumn.

Alas, I was a couple of weeks late, and most of the trees were bare, although there were some particularly beautiful Japanese maples that had retained their foliage.

Mount Wilson 1

Mount Wilson 2

Mount Wilson 3

Mount Wilson 4

Mount Wilson 5

Mount Wilson 6

Mount Wilson 7

Time Passes

/ Mike / 1 Comment

An early meeting took me into the city, with my new Fujinon XF14mm 2.8 R lens on my X-E1.

First impressions are really good. Actually, great. It feels precise and well made, and the manual mode is fantastic. You slip the focus ring back to go from auto focus to manual, which reveals distance markings allowing you to set the depth of focus. Although it is electronic focus, it feels mechanical, with end stops. If Fuji can produce their 35mm equivalent lens with this manual method, then zone focussing will be a doodle,and they will have a wonderful street photography option.

Distortion is incredibly well controlled (this is 21mm equivalent), and it produces really sharp results with good colour saturation.

This is up to my old Canon L glass standards.

I can’t wait to use this for some long exposure seascapes.

Time Passes