Fujfilm X-T1 ~ Late Night Photography, High ISO, Adverse Conditions and A Very Capable Little Camera

Recently I was invited to photograph The Final Voyage of The Kalakala Ferry.  The circumstances were daunting to say the least.  I would be traveling several miles on a 32 foot boat in one of the waterways in Commencement Bay, near Tacoma, Washington.  The assignment was to begin at 1:30 am and last through the night until around 6:30 am or so.  It was relatively cold, around 40 degrees F, but on the water it was a bit colder.  And it was raining, steady and continuously all night long.  If all that wasn't enough, it was dark.  Very dark.  Maybe a few lights reflecting from the shore here and there but mostly just dark.

The Kalakala moving through the
Hylebos Waterway.

My job was to shoot it as it was being moved by Tug to the Graveyard where it would meet it's demise and be dismantled and forever gone.  I was honored and felt privileged that I would be one of the last photographers to see her float.

But this entry isn't as much about The Kalakala as it is about the Fujifilm X-T1 and it's remarkable ability to perform under really bad conditions.  Cold, wet, windy, lots of movement and very dark.  I probably didn't need to be so surprised when I got home that morning and loaded my photos into Lightroom expecting them to be unusable, but instead finding them to be perfectly usable, but I was.

I had this little mirror-less, APSc sensor, camera handheld for about 5 hours.  Much of the time wrapped in a gallon size ziplock bag with a rubber band around the lens and frequently stuffing it into my coat.  The lens I had mounted was the Fujifilm 18-55 f2.8-4, otherwise know as the Kit lens.  A tripod would have been pretty much useless due to the vibration coming from the boat engine I was on and much of the time I was to far away for flash to be effective, and I don't like using that style of flash.

So my only option was to shoot this little Fuji at 6,400 Iso and to set a shutter speed that would, hopefully, allow me to shoot without too much motion blur.  When possible I did change the aperture but largely it was at f2.8.

The Tug, The Fury, pushing The Kalakala

Long story short, this camera is capable, very capable of performing under some difficult conditions. Are these images perfect?  No, not at all but they work.  This wasn't a professional scenario where big lights and crews were available.  This was a quiet, middle of the night, stealthy kind of project.

Getting on and off a boat in the dark, in the rain from a slippery pier can be a little tricky all by itself. Getting on and off a boat in the dark and in the rain with bags and bags of gear and a tripod would be a different story.  I had no bag, no tripod and used my pockets for all my extras.  One extra lens, batteries, extra SD cards, cleaning cloths etc, all fit nicely into my coat pockets.

In an earlier blog post I wrote about my switch to mirror-less and my choice to go with Fuji and I am still so happy I did.  I really enjoy shooting this camera and don't feel like I'm missing a thing not having my big DSLr.  I'm an amateur, I'm getting up in years (just a little) and lightening my load was important.  But not giving up image quality and performance was important as well.  I don't feel like I gave up either.  I know that a huge mega pixel DSLr will out preform my little X-T1 but for everything I do this has turned out to be the right camera for me.

The Kalakala at her The Graveyard, her final resting place.

More photos can be seen here; http://www.tomcollinsphotography.com/Maritime/The-Kalakala-Ferry

Thanks for following along.

Tom