Pic(k) of the week 24: Fujifilm X-T1 getting wet in California

June 12, 2014

Pic(k) of the week 24: Fujifilm X-T1 getting wet in California

Hard to believe another week just flew by again! Time flies when you're having fun I guess...

Talking about time, this week is the 5th year anniversary of this blog. The numbers of readers of the BMP blog have over the years steadily increased. Looking at the demographics, they now include people from all over the globe; even Greenland! Yes, Antarctica is still missing... I've made great contacts through this medium, but more importantly managed to help people with their photography; my nr 1 objective when this blog was started just over 5 years ago!

Back to this weeks, Pic(k) of the week. One of the main points that convinced me into buying my second Fujifilm camerabody, the X-T1, is the fact that it is weather-sealed. Doesn't mean it is water-proof, but it should be able to take a significant amount of splash water or rain which is not uncommon during my outdoor shooting around the world...

A great place to test this was under the wooden Newport Beach pier near Los Angeles a short while ago! As I wanted to get below the pier right on the water line, I had to find a way through a couple of fences. No..., didn't break any!

As the tide was coming in, it must have been a pretty sight, seeing me jump around, avoiding to be washed away by waves crashing into a line of rocks! The camera got quiet a few splashes and it still works today; so I suppose that completes the "wet" part of the weather sealing test...

Last month, I picked up a Tiffen 3.0 (10 stop) Neutral Density (ND) filter for my new Fujinon 10-24mm wide-angle lens. Any readers not familiar with ND filters? Well, look at them like very dark sun-glasses for your lens. So dark that the human eye can't even look through it but your camera can! By removing 10 stops of light, it allows the photographer to shoot a much longer shutter speed, leading to a nice, smooth and silky water surface. It is an essential tool if one wants to do "Long Exposure" photography when there still is too much available light.

Just like most (if not all...) 10 stop ND filters, the stiffen filter has a quiet a bit of color shift. Using them for Black and White work, seems to be the easiest way to deal with this problem...

The image below, consists of 4 different exposure at varying shutter speeds between 7s and 30s. This way I was able to look deep into the shadows of the rocks and wooden pier structure, as well as into the highlights of the sky.