My simple Landscape setup

For my landscape photography, I will make everything as simple as possible. I will have a tripod, mechanical release shutter cable for my Xpro-1 (only option as Xpro-1 do not have a electric link to shutter), B+W ND 6stops screw-in filter 67mm for my Zeiss 12mm. Note that I have "black taped" the wordings on the lens as there are times the wording was captured by the sensor due to the interior reflection of the filter.

I will focus on the composition of the shots and moving around. I am not the type that keep adjusting the setting or switching filters. I prefer to get a good perceptive and catching the light and moment.

There is a shot of this below reflection of the water, if i didn't capture that moment of stillness, the opportunity will be lost as after that shot, a canoe went pass and the sharp reflection of the shot was gone.

 

I would minimized using filters as some of the filter may cause the colour to be off. If light is low, I will use the bulb mode of the XPro-1, squeeze and hold the mechanical release.

I will shoot RAW only for landscape and the rest in Jpeg.

After shooting, I will process the images in Lightroom 5. The usual adjustment, will be reducing highlights and increasing shadows. Increase Saturation, sharpness and horizon leveling. After that I will export out and share.

 

For Lightroom5 , I will also use the grad ND function to adjust the images especially sunset and sunrise shots due to the differences in stops on the ground and sky.

Here are more of the day shot around the same area.

National Gallery Singapore- Xpro-1 Fuji

This is a photo gallery of the recently opened National Gallery for Art. This building was used to be the Supreme Court and City Hall.

Shot by Xpro-1 Fuji and mostly 12mm.

For the Touit 12mm Zeiss lens, it does perform well in such situation. This lens is not as popular as the Fuji 14mm f2.8 or the 10-24mmf4. The 12mm wide angle look ensure a perspective look that a normal eyes cannot see. I personally think this lens is a in-between the 14mm and 10-24mm,.It is one of my favourite lenses for tight indoor shots and landscapes. This lens is bought during a sale last year and will be in my arsenal as long as I am still using Fujifilm X mount camera.

The other favourite lens is the 27mm. The main draw for 27mm is the thin profile as it look like the X100 (the camera that still in my heart) In addition, the sharpness / reasonable bokeh in the images is gorgeous.

Making your old camera to have wireless connection to your smartphone or tablet

Nowadays, most new DSLR, mirrorless cameras and compact cameras come with the "wifi capable" technology built-in the body. With this new spec, we can download the images direct to the phone or tablet and share the photos to the social media immediately.

Remote control by smartphone and wireless viewing thru the phone can  also be done with this feature.

For FujiFilm's XE-2 , XT-1 and XT-10, there are such features available. As for Xpro-1, which is a 2012 camera, there is no such feature available.

To have similar feature on Xpro-1, I bought a wifi SD card and with this card, I am able to download the images I took immediately to my Iphone 6 and share with my friends and love ones immediately. For fast processing, I use the "snapseed" app for the images before sending out or sharing in social media.

When there is a gathering, party and event, I will use this feature to share and people will appreciate the gorgeous photos taken from the APS-C camera compared to a direct iphone shot.

I uses a Toshiba wifi Flashair SD card. All you need to do is to download a free app to the Handphone or Tablet and good to go.

Note that the wireless remote feature cannot be done.

Food Photography Workshop by Fujifilm Singapore

Today I attended a workshop organised by the FujiFlim Singapore. Presenters include professional photographer Ivan Joshua Loh and food blogger Lim Jen Jen.

They show how food photography was done and adding elements of colours, angle of lighting, using flash, natural lights and common mirrors can make a difference to the final image output.
Adjustment of the food items was one of the things I learn today. And most food shots done for magazines are shot vertically due to the magazine aspect.

The workshop was held in the Dakota Crescent Cafe a nostalgia place located in the old public housing estate that will be torn down in 2016.

Fujifilm Singapore has brought a arrays of lenses for the participants to try out. I chose the old XF60mm f2.4 macro. Here are some of the shots of the food shots & the location shots by XPro1 (12mm,27mm and 60mm)

Changi Village with Xpro-1

Equipped with Xpro-1 with 12mm Zeiss and 55-200mm, I had a short 1 hr shoot. The sunrise was not as intense as I wished but it was a nice morning stroll along this rustic place in Singapore.

I had an encounter with three Pied- Hornbills in the area too and manged to capture one of them with the 55-200mm.