Beautiful Day

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (55mm, f/4, 1/480 sec, ISO200)

This is part two of the beautiful morning in Colorado. Autumn arrived in the Rockies, the trees changed colours and together with the cloudless blue sky it looked just awesome

Originally the day was planned to be a travel day and at the end it was because we drove all the way from Ouray, Colorado to Holbrook, Arizona. Sometimes those travel days are just days spent in the car to get from A to B without a lot of photography. Well, this day was different.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (47mm, f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (16mm, f/8, 1/220 sec, ISO200)

It was still below zero degrees Celsius but the sun wash shining bright and the light was fantastic. It was a wonderful morning. So far this was a fantastic vacation. We started in Los Angeles almost two weeks ago and we still had one week ahead of us before we go back there to fly back home.

This morning we realised that winter is just around the corner but we would go back to summer one more time in Arizona and California. That’s why we love the South West of the USA because from below zero back to 40 degrees Celsius is only a days drive away.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (18.2mm, f/8, 1/210 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (37.6mm, f/5.6, 1/480 sec, ISO200)

I just parked my car beside the road and jumped out to take some pictures. I was the only one without a tripod because of course the guys from the photography workshop all shot there cameras on tripods.

I appreciate that a tripod slows you down and for pure landscape photography they are still the best but I haven’t touched a tripod anymore for a long time. For travel photography they are awkward and many places I have traveled in the last couple of years are far too busy for tripods. There is hardly place for me own feet in Bangkok, Hyderabad or Shinjuku.   A tripod there wold be madness. But back in the old days I shot Velvia which was 50 ASA (or more like 40 ASA) and a tripod was needed for anything but bright daylight.

Today tripods are a rare sight but that’s also true for a real camera. I literally have seen thousands of selfie sticks within the last couple of years but hardly any tripods or cameras. So I enjoyed to see so many cameras on tripods and I felt like a snap shooter.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (16mm, f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO640)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (55mm, f/8, 1/500 sec, ISO200)

I didn’t even switch lenses. The fantastic Fuji XF 16-55/2.8 WR was all I needed to cover the scene. This has become my travel lens on vacations simply because it covers almost everything. If you look back to the last blog entries from my USA trip you will see that almost all pictures are taken with this lens.

From an image quality point of view there is no reason to use primes instead of this top zoom especially in landscape shots where most images are taken with smaller apertures. The reason why I still prefer primes when I go to Asia is simply because I prefer a smaller camera around my neck when I walk around all day.

But for road trips the XF 16-55/2.8 WR is perfect and it gives super sharp, contrasty and colourful images like the one below. I wish I had such a great camera and such a great lens when I started to travel more than 30 years ago.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (29.2mm, f/8, 1/340 sec, ISO200)