Thursday, June 27, 2024

2023 Victoria Trip - Days 3 - 5

 Gallery (55 images): 2023 Victoria - City Walks

The next three days, I spent my time wandering around Victoria, part testing lenses and part just exploring the city. These were slow and relaxing days, wandering around and taking photos. I used to do this quite often in and around Vancouver, but I've never taken the time around Victoria.

I had borrowed a few lenses and a GFX body from my Fujifilm rep for a couple of the days. One was a pre-production Fujinon XF 8mm f/3.5 R WR (equivalent to a very wide 12mm lens on full-frame) and there are a number of photos in the above linked gallery that were taken with that lens. I was impressed enough with this lens, that this year (in 2024) I bought one just before my trip to the Southwest with Emily. It replaced the also otherwise excellent Laowa Zero-D 9mm f/2.8 manual focus lens I had been using for many years with my X-Pro2. In a few ways, the Laowa 9mm is actually slightly better than the Fujinon 8mm, but overall I ended up preferring the Fujinon for a few reasons, so I made the switch.

At the beginning of the above linked gallery, there are also some infrared (IR) shots taken with my IR-converted X-E2, a camera I rarely use and when I do, I always tell myself I need to use it more often since the results can be magical! The grain and highlight glow, to mimic B&W Kodak IR film, were added in post with Adobe Photoshop.

I had also borrowed a Fujifilm GFX 100S as well as the then new ultra-wide zoom Fujinon GF 20-35mm f/4 R WR (roughly equivalent to a 16-28mm in full-frame terms), and this combination proved outstanding, with the zoom lens performing pretty much every bit as well as Fujifilm's GF prime lenses. If I were to ever get a GFX system, that lens would be very high on my list of lenses to buy! There are no images from that combination in the gallery, although there are a number in the gallery accompanying my review of the lens on the Beau Photo website here... https://www.beauphoto.com/tested-fujinon-gf-20-35mm-f-4-r-wr/

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

2023 Victoria Trip - Days 1 & 2

Gallery (100 images): 2023 Victoria - City, Beacon Hill Park and Finnerty Park

This is the first gallery I've posted from my 2023 trip to Victoria, BC, in late May. My wife Emily was attending the Canadian Association for Conservation conference there and I decided to tag along, which gave me some time to meet up with some old friends and colleagues, as well as wander the city and take lots of photographs while she was busy.

Fujifilm Canada was working the same conference and I thank the rep for lending me the then brand new Fujinon XF 8mm f/3.5 R WR for a day of shooting in Victoria, a pre-production copy that nonetheless provided excellent image quality. In the meantime, I've purchased the same lens for myself and have been extremely happy with the results. For example, the recent posting of my 2024 Southwest Trip - Highlights gallery has many shots taken with the new XF 8mm.

The gallery accompanying this post has some shots I took while wandering around the city on the first day, then shots I took in Beacon Hill Park on the next day (the first ones with the rock formations sure don't look like they were taken in Victoria!), followed by a trip to Finnerty Gardens at UVIC, where I killed some time prior to meeting up with Eric Higgs, who is in charge of the fascinating Mountain Legacy Project. I acted as a consultant early on in the project, giving advice on the high end medium-format digital camera equipment used to capture the repeat photos for the project. Definitely head over to the link above to see some fascinating examples of how the Rocky Mountain landscape has changed over the last 100 years or so, due to both natural and man-made influences.

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Victoria Trip