Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/550
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 400
Another cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) seen on my morning walk to work while they migrate through Salt Lake City.
This image from behind the cedar waxwing is not as good as the front, but you can just make out the small red wax-like feather tips on the ends of the secondary flight feathers that gives these birds their popular name.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/110
Aperture: f/7
Focal Length: 392mm (589mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 1600
A little house sparrow (Passer domesticus) sheltering in a bush just before a storm front rolled through the Salt Lake valley.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/110
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
The light yesterday was flat and absolutely awful. So bad that I almost did not take my camera with me on the way to work. However, I’m glad I did as this little house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) was waiting to have its picture taken in the tree outside our home.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/420
Aperture: f/7.5
Focal Length: 469mm (703mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
This Northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) was seen on an Easter walk through the neighborhood today. These birds (male and female) are some of the most beautiful birds in the intermountain West.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/2000
Aperture: f/7.5
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 2000
This male American wigeon (Anas americana) was seen outside of Portland, Oregon on an insanely fast trip last week. I was walking through dark trees and had the ISO cranked up to 2000 when we emerged into bright daylight. I had forgotten to adjust the ISO, but even at 2000, the soft nuance of color really came through nicely with the Fuji camera. Note the very light blue on the bill and the detail in the water droplets on the body feathers.
I’ve pretty much decided that the days of digiscoping are over with this new Fuji 100-400 lens with teleconverter. It is far more convenient, has better optics with autofocus and is more portable than any stopgap digiscoping solution is. You also get brighter/faster lenses than you do when digiscoping as well.
Eastern blue necked tanager (Tangara cyanicollis)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/240
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 1600
I was in San Diego for a quick meeting and figured an open morning would make for a good trip to the San Diego Zoo. It would also be a good workout for the Fuji 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR lens. I have said that this lens was my new favorite birding lens, as there is not another equivalent camera/lens combination that could give you the performance, sharpness, zoom, and color fidelity in such a compact package than a Fuji X-mount camera connected to this lens.
The plan for this trip however, was not to use this lens for birds…
Plains zebra (Equus quagga)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/180
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/320
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 1600
The plan was to go for a certain degree of intimacy in the imagery, so I paired the Fuji 100-400 with the 1.4x teleconverter. Up close, abstract and black and white was what I was pre-visualizing, like the Zebra or the tiger image above… but the birds! The birds were amazing like the blue necked tanager in the intro image at top. So, the initial plan was thrown out and I spent a couple hours just photographing birds. I figure that I cannot really put any of them in my birds category as they were observed in a zoo, and not in the wild, but look at that blue necked tanager! The colors, patterns and diversity of these birds will blow your mind. So, the plan went out the window and I ended up shooting color and lots of birds that morning.
Paradise tanager (Tangara mexicana)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/80
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 1600
Spotted tanager (Tangara punctata)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/160
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 1250
White crowned robin-chat (Cossypha albicapilla)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/140
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 2500
Black spotted barbet (Capito niger)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/180
Aperture: f/7
Focal Length: 393mm (589mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 1600
Golden-collared manakin (Manacus vitellinus)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/240
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 421mm (632mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 3200
Smew (Mergellus albellus)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/550
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 379mm (568mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/750
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
West African green mamba (Dendroaspis viridis)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/80
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 3200
The other place where the Fuji 100-400 lens stands out is the image stability. It is absolutely silent when operating unlike my Canon zooms which is important for birding in quiet places, but it is also reported to be worth 5-stops. I had no way of quantifying how many stops I was getting, but the exhibits where many of these reptiles were in had wildly varying light levels from bright spots to very dark corners. All of these images were handheld and many/most of them were made at 840mm equivalency in fairly dark places. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed. Also, the minimum focus distance on the Fuji 100-400 lens is 1.75 meters or 68.9 inches. Presuming you can get that standoff distance, you can optically get in pretty close with this lens too, particularly given the 1.4 teleconverter that magnifies the image a little bit.
Rowley’s palm pit viper (Bothriechis rowleyi)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/80
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 3200
These animated gifs of gharial (Gavials gangeticus) also give you an idea for how beneficial the image stabilization is. These were made again, at full zoom and handheld with the camera on high burst mode. I’ve done some minor image registration of each frame, but the whole scene effectively was kept nicely stable with the image stabilization of the lens.
African spurred tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/950
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
Black mangabey (Lophocebus aterrimus)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/240
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 1600
I would have like to have spent some more time at the zoo, but schedules forced me to make a run for it so I could make the next meeting. There is so much to see at the San Diego Zoo, that I suspect it would be a full day’s outing. There were a number of exhibits I did not get to see including some new cheetah cubs, polar bears, primates other than the mangabey above and more.
Next time…
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/150
Aperture: f/12
Focal Length: 1000mm (digiscope)
ISO: 200
Filter: Orion ID Full Aperture Glass Solar Filter
Our star the sun with Mercury transiting across its surface, visualized through a Zeiss spotting scope and Fuji X-T1 configured as a digiscoping approach. You can see Mercury as a small dot in the South East part of the sun’s globe with a sunspot in the North West portion.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/150
Aperture: f/12
Focal Length: 16000mm (digiscope)
ISO: 200
Filter: Orion ID Full Aperture Glass Solar Filter
Camera: Sony RX100 III
Exposure: 1/200
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: ~ 2000mm equivalent with 70mm zoom + 700mm spotting scope (cropped)
ISO: 250
Orion ID Full Aperture Glass Solar Filter
Note: Looking at or imaging the sun can be inherently dangerous, particularly if you are doing it with optics. Any solar filter must be in good repair with no holes in it to allow raw sunlight to get through and the filter MUST go on in front of any optical lenses, else you are risking either a retinal burn or a CCD toasting event. This is of course another advantage of using mirrorless cameras like the Fuji cameras with no optical path from the lens to your eyeball and retina. So, if some catastrophic failure of filtering did happen, your retina would not suddenly find itself in the optical path.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/600
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
This shot was made handheld with the Fuji 100-400 zoom lens with the 1.4x teleconverter and another example of why walking to work pays off. I can’t wait for the new Fuji 2.0x teleconverter that should be released soon to make long range shots even easier.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/350
Aperture: f/7.2
Focal Length: 421mm (632mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/350
Aperture: ~f/8
Focal Length: ~200mm (~300mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with Fuji 2.0x extender.
ISO: 1000
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/350
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: ~400mm (~600mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with Fuji 2.0x extender (~1200mm equivalent).
ISO: 800
Things have been insanely busy at work lately and the only time I’ve had for photography is walking back and forth to the lab. So, for now, this little (Passer domesticus) seen in a juniper tree on the way to work will have to do, while I experiment with Fuji’s new 2.0 Teleconverter.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/110
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: ~400mm (~600mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with Fuji 2.0x extender (~1200mm equivalent).
ISO: 1,250
This Northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) seen just off the University of Utah campus, is why I love walking back and forth to work. This bird and another one were calling back and forth to one another with a call that is absolutely unique in the avian world.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/750
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: ~400mm (~600mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with Fuji 2.0x extender (~1200mm equivalent).
ISO: 800
I’ve been shooting with the Fuji 100-400mm lens and the 2.0 teleconverter for the last couple of weeks, mostly for birds. The Fuji 100-400mm lens and the 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters are a birders dream combination that has completely supplanted my digiscoping setups. The optics are phenomenal and you get autofocus, and Fuji color all in a handheld package that is far easier to transport than any other optical or camera solution. Look for some more bird images in the next little while with this combination, but in the meantime, this barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) was seen East of Salt Lake City in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/800
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: ~400mm (~600mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with Fuji 2.0x extender (~1200mm equivalent).
ISO: 800
I was able to get in a little closer here without disturbing the swallow while he hunted and then did something that totally makes sense, but I had never before seen…
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/450
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: ~400mm (~600mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with Fuji 2.0x extender (~1200mm equivalent).
ISO: 800
…it flew down next to the stream and started collecting mud and nest building materials. I’d known that their nests were built from mud, but I’d never witnessed the behavior of actually collecting the mud to make the nest with. We see birds and bird photographs, but the ability to have standoff distance with good optics allows you to watch and document bird behavior as well with easily portable and affordable camera solutions. Note: using a single focus point is quite handy for birding as it allows you to pinpoint the focus you want on subjects that are often behind grass, branches or other complex scenes like this one.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/1250
Aperture: f/7
Focal Length: 15mm (23mm equivalent)
ISO: 200
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/320
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: ~400mm (~600mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with Fuji 2.0x extender (~1200mm equivalent).
ISO: 2,000
This Brewer’s blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) was photographed outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming on a beautiful morning. I’ve been shooting with Fuji’s 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR zoom lens lately, and for the past couple of months have added Fuji’s new 2.0x TC for a bit of extra reach. The 1.4x TC has been astounding in its performance, so when the 2.0x TC became available, I started shooting with it to compare the performance. Like any teleconverter, it increases apparent focal length of a lens by a magnification factor, in this case, doubling the focal length. Nothing is free, particularly with optics, so the drawback is a drop in the amount of light flux. With the 2.0x TC, you lose two stops of light. This is a reality of physics, but with the X-Trans II sensors capable of high performance while maintaining low sensor noise and good color fidelity, the workaround is simply pushing up the ISO to compensate. The X-Trans III sensor in the Fuji X-Pro2 and the soon to arrive X-T2 will have even better performance here.
The other classic drawback of teleconverters is some loss of overall sharpness in the optical solution. However, the Fuji lenses are so good that you have to look *hard* to see the performance drop. The above image for instance, is a 100% crop of the introductory image showing even the individual barbs on the birds feathers. This image was shot handheld, at 1/320 of a second to stop movement which is important in fast moving birds, at full zoom with a 2.0x teleconverter making for a ~1200mm equivalent image. Stunning performance, really.
I was pretty excited for this lens and the teleconverters to be released. If you are into bird photography or any other wildlife photography, there really is no reason to deal with the hassle of lugging around and having to set up a digiscoping apparatus anymore. This has become my go to bird photography solution as it is more portable than a digiscoping setup, gives me autofocus and metering, more rapid response, repositioning and followup than you can get with a digiscoping solution, all of which help you to photograph and observe birds and their behavior. This is also a more flexible, relatively compact and light weight imaging solution compared with other options, at 1/3 what the digiscoping solution with the necessary tripod weighed.
Look forward to more images to come with this combination in the Bird Category.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 30 sec.
Aperture: f/1.2
Focal Length: 56mm (84mm equivalent)
ISO: 3,200
This image is a single 30 second exposure, made with the Fuji X-T1 of M31, Andromeda on a very quiet and dark morning at 3am. You can see a full resolution jpg of the image here, made effectively right out of the camera.
We forget what the sky looks like until we venture out to one of the increasingly rare places with little light pollution, but it is an important journey to make. Looking at just this image, much less sitting under a complete sky reveals literally hundreds of millions of stars which makes me feel very small just thinking of the scope.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/550
Aperture: f/14
Focal Length: ~800mm Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with Fuji 2.0x extender (~1200mm equivalent).
ISO: 640
Life on planet Earth can completely surprise you from time to time. Out in the middle of a US Air Force bombing range, some of the most beautiful large mammals, the pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) live. Though called an “antelope”, this is a very old animal in North America more closely related to the giraffe and okapi than any true antelope, deer or cattle. They are amazing animals with markings that one would not be surprised to see on an African savannah and they are remarkably fast calling back to an earlier time with predators more akin to lions than hunters with rifles.
This location is the Utah Test and Training Range, located in Utah’s West Desert, about 80 miles West of Salt Lake City and is where the various services including US Air Force, US Army and US Marine Corps perform exercises with live ammunition and ordnance. It is dangerous country out here with aircraft flying overhead dropping bombs and firing cannons at ground targets on occasion. Consequently, there is plenty of unexploded munitions around which keeps explosive ordnance teams busy.
On this day though, it was very quiet… and hot.
I’ve been out here a few times over the years to see some of the exercises and had seen pronghorn antelope off in the distance. But this is the first time I’ve been able to get close enough to photograph them. It helped this time that I had Fuji’s 100-400mm lens with a 2.0x teleconverter which helped to get in a bit closer, but this also was the closest I’d ever been to wild pronghorns. I am surprised by how good the optics are for this lens combination as I was able to see the pulse from the heartbeat in the veins on the legs while the animal stood there looking at me.
I was also surprised to see quite a bit of small bird life out here, particularly given how hot it was. The temperature gauge in the car reported 106 degrees F (41 C) which explains why this loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) was panting constantly as it flew from post to post. Right before leaving for the day, I poured out some cold water into some scrap metal beside one of these posts and walked away to watch from a distance while it flew down to drink and bathe in it. This of course got me thinking about where the pronghorn antelope get enough water to maintain themselves. My guess is that there is some very different physiology at play, but there also has to be some fresh water springs, somewhere out here… If you were on foot out here and without water, it could get dangerous, pretty quickly.
Bonneville Speed Week 2016 was the first time that racers had gathered out at the salt flats in Western Utah since the races were held in 2013. I’ve gone out in previous years, in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012, and it is safe to say that almost to a person, all the racers were grateful to be out here again. The reason for the hiatus was poor conditions of the salt, which is a controversy. Some blame the salt mining operations, others claim there are other issues at play. Regardless, scientists from the University of Utah are studying the condition of the salt flats for the next couple of years to have a better idea of why the salt is disappearing. All that said, the racers were glad to be back out racing again and the issue of the salt condition is on everyone’s mind.
Previous years, I’ve carried a mix of gear including Canon with big lenses and spotting scopes to capture the action. This year, I decided to simplify the photography kit and go much lighter and more agile by going with 2 Fuji cameras. All of the photos here were made with either the Fuji X-Pro2 or the Fuji X-T1 with the Fuji 16mm f/1.4 lens on the X-Pro2 and the Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens with 2.0x extender.
What follows is a small sampling of the hundreds of racers that appeared out on the salt flats to see how fast their equipment can take them. It is hard to express the scale of the racing out here without some form of arial photography, so I have focused on the desolation of racing out here.
Camera: Fuji X-Pro2
Exposure: 1/1000
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 23mm (35mm equivalent)
ISO: 800
I *finally* got around to going through the snapshots from the Japan trip for the RD and ISER meetings. Included are galleries of the meetings and of walking around Kyoto and Tokyo.
Travel images to and from Japan.
Images of the RD meeting in Kyoto.
Walking around Kyoto and Nara
Tokyo ISER meeting images
Walking around Tokyo, the Tsukiji Fish Market, and the French Embassy
In last years Top Photos post, I began with: “This was a brutal year”. Little did I know that 2016 would top 2015 in its difficulty. The process of work, writing manuscripts and grants became all consuming this year and the only small personal photo project I’ve been able to engage in was one where people came to visit me… in my office. One image from that project made it into my top images of the year post. The other images were made at various points in the year as opportunistic or discrete images, not part of any specific project or effort.
News from the science front is promising with a *very good* score on our remodeling renewal (1%). This sort of guarantees funding for that grant unless Trump’s administration really screws things up which has a non-zero chance of happening given his past management record, which leads us to the end of the year which has certainly been marred by the election. That event created a deep feeling of cognitive dissonance that has influenced my outlook. My goal for 2017 is to pick myself up along with the rest of the majority of Americans who did not vote for Trump and continue to work and be an influence for good, fighting the good fight. We have three other grants that we are waiting to hear on, a connectomics grant, a software development grant and a private grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, so wish us luck.
Photographically, the trend towards mirrorless cameras is certainly reflected by this selection of images. 7/12 were made with Fuji cameras, either an X-T1 or an X-Pro2. 4/12 were made with Leica cameras, either an M9-P or a Monochrom. 1/12 was made with an iPhone. I still have an use Canon cameras, but they are not in my hands as often due to the size and noise of the mirror flapping around. At the end of 2016, you have to wonder why we are still dealing with the noise pollution of flapping mirrors illustrated by this press conference. I don’t anticipate that a full-frame mirrorless camera with the prowess of the Canon 1DX series will be much smaller, simply due to the realities of lens optics and the need for electronics in lenses. But they might get a little smaller without a mirror box, and I would love to have a robust, professional build quality like the 1DX in a mirrorless solution that would allow me to use the existing Canon EF lens ecosystem and be quieter than a flapping mirror DSLR. The Leica SL feels fantastic and has a viewfinder that is class leading and feels like it was carved from a solid block of aluminum (it was). It is a camera that would meet lots of needs, but is not compatible with the Canon EF lenses, and then there is the matter of Leica service… All that said, Fuji is the camera company that “gets it” right now and has some interesting things of note coming in the medium format arena, so we’ll see what that looks like in 2017.
I am writing this post as the last minutes of 2016 tick down, but whenever you read this, I wish all of you a Happy New Year and the best in 2017. May you find what you seek. May you and your friends/family find solace and happiness in each others company and be sure to remember to photograph some of it. These moments of 2017 will never come again. Document some of them for posterity.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/35
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 2,500
This image of H’s eye was made in our front room. I had intended to do more macro photography this year, but this was one of very few macro images that were made. That said, I loved the detail and simplicity of this image. It may be cliché, but eyes are what I study.
Camera: Leica M9
Exposure: 1/45
Aperture: f/1.4
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO: 800
Steven Tsang sat for an in my office portrait on a visit to the Moran Eye Center. I chose this image as a representative of the In my Office series as out of all the exposures from my Leica M9-P, this image might have the nicest tones that I’ve ever seen. Also, there is something about that old CCD sensor when everything lines up just right that I just can’t put my finger on. There is a quality to the CCD images that the newer Leica CMOS based cameras don’t have.
Eastern blue necked tanager (Tangara cyanicollis)
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/240
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 1600
This is perhaps my most favorite bird photograph I’ve ever made, even though it does not qualify as a wild bird. This image was made at the San Diego Zoo and does not qualify for my personal bird photography rule of photographing every species I can, but it was thrilling nonetheless. I chose this image for its sense of vitality and the phenomenal color. I’d never seen an Eastern blue necked tanager and it blew my mind.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/150
Aperture: f/12
Focal Length: 1600mm (digiscope)
ISO: 200
Filter: Orion ID Full Aperture Glass Solar Filter
This image of Mercury’s transit across the sun was made with a solar filter, a Fuji camera and a spotting scope. I chose it for its relative rarity and significance and as a reminder to prepare for the total eclipse later in 2017. This image also reminds me of how big the universe is, and to keep perspective.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/600
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 560mm (840mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
This image was completely fortuitous, but also a reminder to carry a camera with you, always. That and a walking commute will net you more opportunities for photography than a driving commute.
Camera: iPhone 6
Exposure: 1/304
Aperture: f/2.2
Focal Length: 4.15mm
ISO: 32
This image of a rose is in my selection for best images of the year, simply because it was the most perfect rose I’d ever seen, again on a walking commute to work.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 1/350
Aperture: f/7.2
Focal Length: 421mm (632mm equivalent) Fuji 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR with 1.4x extender.
ISO: 800
This image of a passer domesticus was made with my new favorite birding lens in San Diego, California. This little bird was singing away close enough that I only used about half the zoom I might have to completely fill the frame. The bokeh, the colors behind it, the detail, everything worked on this one for me.
Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 30 sec.
Aperture: f/1.2
Focal Length: 56mm (84mm equivalent)
ISO: 3,200
This image was a single 30 second exposure, made with the Fuji X-T1 of M31, Andromeda on a very quiet and dark morning at 3am out in the West Desert at the edge of the Nevada Test and Training Range. This image was the first deep sky image I ever tried making and my hopes are that it will not be the last. It was made with a standard Fuji 56mm lens and captures Andromeda quite nicely. I had planned on doing this a couple of years ago, but this was the first opportunity to make it happen and it will most definitely not be the last.
Camera: Fuji X-Pro2
Exposure: 1 sec.
Aperture: f/1.6
Focal Length: 16mm (24mm equivalent)
ISO: 250
This sunrise image out at the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats is one of my favorites as it is one of the few landscape images made this year, but also one of the simplest, reminding me of some of the screen prints we made back in high school. Photographically, it is simple. On a screen print, it is also a simple two pass print. That said, there is a sense of quiet in this image that represents how it felt, like standing on another planet, waiting for something to happen.
Camera: Leica Monochrom 246
Exposure: 1/1500
Aperture: f/1.7
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 3,200
This image of Robert Marc was made in Salt Lake City at one of the better purveyors for fine coffee in the Salt Lake City area, Coffee Garden. This image represented the pleasure at sharing a cup of coffee with a good friend and colleague. Many times you make these informal shots and the don’t turn out. This one did.
Camera: Leica Monochrom 246
Exposure: 1/2000
Aperture: f/0.95
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 1,000
This still life like image reminds me that there is something to be seen in the everyday moments that surround us. It is also one of the first images I’ve made with the Noctilux lens which renders images like no other. I love the combination of sharpness and out of focus bokeh of this lens that is singularly unique in the world of photography.
Camera: Leica Monochrom 246
Exposure: 1/125
Aperture: f/1.2
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 1,000
This shot of my friend Brian Ellison was made down in Torrey, Utah at the Stray Arrow Ranch Apple tasting, late in the evening long after the sun went down. Brian was illuminated by a single row of naked light bulbs hanging across the yard. The Noctilux lens was stepped down to f/1.2 to get more of his face in focus, but shooting in low light is where this lens excels. Brian and I don’t get together often, but we went to high school together and it’s always good to see him and talk life and family. This image reminds me of that.
