Travel to Victoria, British Columbia with the Fuji X100s

I've had my Fuji X100s for a couple of weeks now but haven't had an opportunity to travel with it. The challenge for me with this new camera was to see if I needed anything more for my photography needs when traveling, ie; zoom and wide angle lenses, filters, tripods, flashes; in other words an extra bag just for my gear.  This post is a result of purposefully traveling with nothing more than my X100s, two spare batteries, extra SD card and cleaning cloth; all of which fit nicely in my front pant pocket.  All the photographs in this post were taken with that camera.

The trip;  Victoria, BC on Vancouver Island in the Pacific Northwest.

Living in the beautiful Puget Sound Region of the Pacific Northwest lends itself to some of the finest travel around.  Seattle and the many stunning small mountain and harbor towns of Washington.  Portland Oregon and the Oregon coastal communities.  And just a little farther south, the incredible Red Woods of northern California, San Francisco and of course; the mesmerizing coastal highway, US 101.

Leaving Port Angeles, Washington on the Coho Ferry.

For something a little different and for as little as $17 and a 90 minute boat ride on the Coho Ferry out of Port Angeles, Washington; you can be in an other country and experiencing another culture.  Beautiful Victoria British Columbia on Vancouver Island.  It's located directly across the Straits of Juan DeFuca from Port Angeles, Washington.  The Black Ball Express operates The Coho and provides all of the comforts you'll need for the short ride.  A duty free shop, a food galley, comfortable seating for about a thousand people and big windows.  If you plan to drive around once you get to Victoria, there's even room for your car at a slightly higher fee.  However, I've never found a need to drive and find everything I need and want to do in Victoria easily accessible on foot, by boat taxi or regular cab.  Of course, there are also scooter and car rentals available on the island as well.

Welcome to Victoria, BC.  I'm on the Coho and actually leaving in the photo below.  The weather in Victoria is pretty similar to the weather throughout the Pacific Northwest, but maybe just slightly better. On this trip we had glorious sunshine for three of our four days and on the last day it clouded up and began to sprinkle.

View from the back deck of The Coho Ferry looking toward Victoria's Inner Harbour.

Traveling to BC you'll need all the usual papers for traveling out of the US.  Passports are best, but make a call and check first.  Arriving in Victoria's Inner Harbour puts you right in the middle of everything.  Hotels, restaurants, shopping, museums; are all within walking distance of the ferry landing dock.  If you have extra baggage, there are always cabs waiting right out front of the terminal.  Cab fare to just about anywhere in the city is usually under $10.

Once you're on the streets you'll see the wonderful preservation of Victoria's old buildings.  Anyone building in Victoria is only allowed to remodel the interiors of it's buildings and fix up the exteriors.  They may not tear any of the old buildings down and the result is a city of extraordinary old world beauty. Local and name brand shops are housed in these buildings, as well as some of the best restaurants you'll ever dine at.

The variety of cuisine in this town is phenomenal.  It is truly a world class culinary experience.  A favorite breakfast spot to frequent is The Jam Cafe, where the line to get in for breakfast on the weekend can be a little daunting, but so worth the wait.  Their "Caesar" (bloodymary) is one of the best I've ever had.

Huveos Rancheros from The Jam Cafe

The Huveos Rancheros were perfect. Another favorite for breakfast, if you feel a need to add something healthy and add some delicious fresh fruit to you diet is Cora's on Douglas Street.  Believe me, you'll get your daily serving of fruit at this place.  Breakfast, lunches, dinners are all excellent at so many places you just about can't go wrong anywhere you chose.

From easy walks around the city, China Town, High Tea at the Empress Hotel,

Lisa and Emma (my wife and daughter)
 at the entrance to China Town

One of the many welcoming doors to
the shops in downtown Victoria

water taxi rides in the Inner Harbour, to a double decker bus ride to Butchart Gardens; there is  much to see and do.

The Government buildings are open to the public and are stunning structures inside and out. The British Columbia Museum of Natural History is one of the best bargains you'll find for a good half days entertainment.  The rich and colorful history of the north American Indian is shown and told with magnificence and grace.

Totems in the BC Natural History Museum
Fuji X100s shot at ISO 3200

One of the Government buildings open to the public.

The dome (partially) inside the main Government building.

For those who love gardens, the tour to Butchart Gardens is an absolute must see.  The double decker bus that transports you is located in front of the Empress Hotel and the fee to the Gardens is $25 (RT).  You can also include the ticket price to get into the Garden as well for an additional $24.  So for $50 you get a very comfortable 35 minute ride in a double decker bus, a great narrative of the area along the way and your tickets into the Gardens.  The buses come and go every couple of hours.  (Be sure to tip the driver, he's full of good information and very nice.)

Butchart Gardens

Butchart Gardens

Come back to town from a day of sightseeing and stop at any of the dozens and dozens of coffee shops, log on to the free wife networks, check your email and relax before heading back to the room or out to dinner.

If you're a night owl, get ready for some real fun.  The bars in Victoria are great, lively, and happy places to be.  Live music in most places seven nights a week and the atmosphere is fun, fun, fun! The people everywhere are civilized, easy going, conversationalist and open to meeting new people.

So, wondering where to go for a great little weekend get-a-way?  Try Victoria British Columbia.  You'll love it.  We do every time we go!

Oh yeah, and the Fuji X100s was the perfect photographic travel companion.  Not once did I wish for longer or wider, or this and that, it just hung nicely around my neck or rested comfortably in my hand and gave me all the images I wanted.  Wonderful camera.

Thanks for reading.
Tom

My Fuji X100s and My 45 Year Old Canon QL17 ~ Photography Gone Full Circle

I've been taking pictures for a long time, never professionally although I have been paid a few times, but always just for the fun of it.  I have struggled to understand what kind of photographer I am, nature; city; architecture; landscape; fine art, and have decided that I'm a little bit of all of them.

The one thing I am clear about is that I love taking pictures, I love seeing the world around me and I love looking at it through a lens.  And I always, always have a camera with me.

Fuji X100s 2.0s @f4, ISO 500 ~ Bell Town in Seattle, Washington
photographed through a hotel room window

About 3 years ago I moved away from the large dSLR's in favor of the smaller more compact systems that are easier to have with me all the time.  I should point out that I'm 66 years old now and loading a bag or backpack with big heavy camera bodies and lenses and filters, and flashes just isn't that much fun and it's just not convenient for my style of shooting.  But I really enjoy good image quality and don't like sacrificing IQ for convenience.

Fuji X100s 1/320s @f8, ISO 200
Gig Harbor, Washington

So when the camera manufactures began producing the micro four thirds lines and the mirror-less lines I got excited about the possibilities and didn't hesitate.  I jumped right in.  I started out with the very first Panasonic micro four thirds right after it came out and graduated over the next couple of years, through a variety of other cameras,  to the Olympus OMD EM5, which I still have and like very much (especially with the Olympus 45/1.8 lens attached).  But even with the fine EM5 I found myself carting around a bag and lenses, albeit small ones, and that still just wasn't what I was looking for.  Simpler, easier, more convenient, great IQ and no bag of lenses, that's what I wanted.

In 1969 when I first got interested in photography SLR's were just coming into their own and rangefinder style cameras were on the way out, more or less.  I shot with a Canon Canonet QL17 with a fixed 40mm f1.7 lens.  It was with that camera that I learned to see the world around me with photographic eyes.  No zooms, no interchangeable lenses.  

Oddly enough it wasn't until after I got my Fuji X100s and unboxed
it that I realized how similar it was to my original Canon - Canonet QL17
purchased in 1969, 45 years ago.
I was very pleased with how they compared in looks.

Forty five years later enter the Fuji X100s.  Small, convenient, great IQ, fixed 23mm lens (35mm equivalent) and an APSc sensor, it's beautiful and can just hang around my neck as if there's nothing there at all.  Perfect.  But, fixed lens.  How would that work out for me after having access to such a wide variety of lenses?  So I looked back through a large collection of images over the past several years and found that the vast majority of my pictures were taken at or near the 35mm range.  I've shot a lot longer and tighter and I've shot a lot wider too, but picking through my favorite pictures over the years, I tend to like the 35mm to 50mm range.  After shooting the Fuji X100s for just a few weeks I realized that it's all I need.  35mm is where I see the world around me and my feet work perfectly as a zoom, in or out.

So it's been a long journey to end up right where I started with almost identical cameras and fewer choices to make that get in between me and what I want to photograph and I've never been happier.  A happy snapshooter grabbing shots of the stuff I see around me everyday, everywhere.  And, maybe, some of the best news is what my wife said; "You don't look like a photographer, you just look like a tourist". Yes!  I love being a tourist.

Here are a few more shots:  One from a day trip up to Port Townsend, Washington a couple of days ago with my good friend Mark for lunch and few snapshots.  The other from last weekend in Seattle, Washington to see Bruce Cockburn.

Electric Port Townsend, Washington
This bicycle is electrically operated and the gentlemen with the gracious smile having lunch is the owner.
Fuji X100s 1/125s @f5.6 ISO 200

Bruce Cockburn at Neptune Theater in Seattle, Washington.  I didn't have good seats so this is cropped way tight
to get this NO flash shot.
Fuji X100s  1/30s @f4 ISO 500

Thanks for reading.
Tom

Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Victoria, BC and Seattle,Washington. Wine tastings and a Seahawks Superbowl Victory. Ghosts and the Underground tours in Seattle. It's been a fun start to 2014.

Well it's been a fun start to the new year. Emma's preparing for University and looking for where she wants to go, so trips to Portland and Seattle have been our first places to look at as possibilities.  So far we've been to Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, Portland State in downtown Portland, Oregon and The University of Portland in North Portland.  In Washington we've been to Seattle University (Emma liked it here quite a bit) and Seattle Pacific University.

Between trips there I've been to San Francisco to visit with Steve and Laura (and Catherine who is celebrating a birthday with Laura) and to Victoria, BC to visit with my good friend Lewis, who is wrapping up a big environmental dredging project in one of Victorias harbours.  We've been on Ghost Tours and visited the Underbelly of Seattle and have just had fun in general.

We are so lucky to live on the left coast.  Perfectly situated for access to some of the best travel locations anywhere.  And, San Francisco happens to be one of my favorite cities.  I flew in to SFO, took the Air Train to the Bart and the Bart to the Powell Station in downtown San Francisco.

The Bart connection at SFO

In just a short easy to navigate 30 minutes, I was in the heart of San Francisco.  Why Seattle can't get it together to have a light-rail system that operates as efficiently as the Bart is a mystery. But for anyone planning a visit to San Francisco and you don't want to spend $50 for a cab, or $30 for a van that stops everywhere and could take up to a couple of hours, The Bart for $8 is the way to go.  Simple, easy, fast and convenient.  After arriving in San Francisco I walked to the Hotel Monaco http://www.monaco-sf.com/ where I met with Steve, Laura and Catherine.  This hotel, right next to Union Square, is awesome.  Great staff, nice and well appointed rooms, wine bar everyday and convenient to everything.  Catherine and Laura were celebrating a birthday and Steve and I were playing with new cameras and exploring the city.

Something we discovered that made our trip even more fun was a business called https://www.getaround.com/  With the app for this you can rent cars directly from their owners for more than reasonable rates.  We rented a 2004 Porsche for $8.50 an hour one day and a 2011 BMW 3 Series for $10.00 an hour on an other day.  We even saw older Honda Civics for as little as $4.50 an hour.  And it could not be easier to do.  

Steve with the BMW rental

Here's Steve with the BMW.  It's parked in an underground garage with in and out privileges so your free to come and go all day long.

Of course once we had a nice ride under us we had access to anywhere we wanted to go.  One of the first places we went was across the Golden Gate Bridge to photograph the bridge from the Marin County Headlands on the north and west side of the bridge.  Good luck was with us because a beautiful fog bank was rolling in along with some bright sun at our backs.  The views from this side of the bridge looking back at the city and Alcatraz are just stunning.  From there we drove in to Mill Valley for coffee and a late morning snack before driving back to the city.

The camera I brought with me was the Fuji X100s.  It was a rental from Lens Rentals http://www.lensrentals.com/ and I just can't give this company higher praise.  Fast, awesome customer service, large selection and fair prices.  I've rented from them 4 times and have never been disappointed.    The Fuji X100s is one of the best cameras I have ever used and the image quality is magnificent.  This camera feels and operates like a photographers camera.  I'm hoping to have one of my own soon.

The Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands

On a disappointing note Steve and I learned that the famous Sam Wo's restaurant in China Town is no longer open.  I'm glad to have had the opportunity on several occasions to squeeze through the kitchen and up the flight of steps to eat there.  It was a landmark.

In all the trip to San Francisco was way too short but a better time could not have been had even if it was longer.

The following weekend I found my way to Victoria, BC on the Coho's ferry Black Ball out of Port Angeles, Washington.   Sometimes we get lucky here in the Pacific Northwest and have truly beautiful winter days.  This was one of them.

The Black Ball Ferry in Port Angeles, Washington

Another wonderful city to visit that's easy to get to, has really great restaurants and lots of them, nice hotels a very lively night-life and good shopping is Victoria, BC. You'll need a passport or enhanced drivers license and a trip through customs.  The Black Ball is $17.00us one way and the trip is about 90 minutes.  There's food and a duty free shop on board and comfortable seating.

More photos of trips taken to Victoria, BC can be seen here; http://www.tomcollinsphotography.com/Travel/Victoria-BC/

Some more localized fun was happening right here in Gig Harbor, Wa and Seattle.  Some friends of friends have recently opened a Winery in Belfair, Wa called The Mosquito Fleet Winery. We were invited to a tasting and we were not disappointed.  Great wine, good food and wonderful friends.

L to R; Jaycee the Winery owner; Stacey and Joe Marten

And to bring it all current, last weekend we went to Seattle for a tour we have heard about often but have never done and now are glad we did.  The Seattle Underground tour was fascinating and highly recommended.  Really interesting history about how that city was built.  The other tour was Spooked in Seattle.  Ehhh, not so much fun but if you're in to ghost stories it might be.

Finally, in the midst of it all the fabulous Seattle Seahawks won the Superbowl.  Perfect way to round it all out.

Thanks for reading.

Tom

A Day and Evening In The City (Seattle, WA)

December 28, 2013

The Classic Martini and my sweet Lisa Mae at Olivers in
the Mayflower Park Hotel

A sort of birthday, Christmas, anniversary celebration. Lisa and I went to the city for wine, food and song to celebrate another fabulous year together. We shopped, had lunch at a Japanese place, drinks at Oliver's, appetizers at The Palace Kitchen and saw Pancho Sanchez at Jazz Alley. Fun night!

I wanted to take advantage of the day out in the city and do some street photography and brought my OMD and my new iPhone 5s.

Who could refuse?  
Plus have you ever had the 
Mac n Cheese at the Icon Grill in Seattle?

But I was just too distracted.  Caught up in the moments that we were sharing as a couple, as friends and not seeing the photographic opportunities as they're unfolding around me.

The discovery I made is that seeing and making photographs while shopping and being attentive to others doesn't really work well for me getting the images I might otherwise want to make.  So I went back to the car, put my OMD and the extra lens I had away and decided to shoot using only my new iPhone 5s.

And, while not as good as my Olympus, it didn't really disappoint either.  Dark streets, dark clubs, bright neon and no real way to make adjustments (using the built in camera) it still managed to deliver some web capable images that will keep a moment in time and leave a trail of memories of the night.

So story telling versus high quality image making is the point and I really like telling little stories.

A (not so) new Japanese restaurant in the
Pike Place Market area.  Pretty good food, really slow service and really busy.

Pancho Sanchez, live at Jazz Alley in downtown Seattle.  Great show.

Waiting

Waiting:

Seems like the old saying "no matter where you go, there you are" is especially useful when we find ourselves having to wait.  It can be a stressful time or a time of complete relaxation since much of the time we spend waiting, there really isn't another choice.  So we make the best use of our time that we can.  Friends to chat with, books to read, smart phones and pads to surf the web and check our email and FB status, catch a little shut eye or just stop the presses and do a little day-dreaming.

I want to build this project album of photos of people in everyday life, doing what most of us have to do at some point or another and Wait.  I'm looking forward to watching how this grows which of course means I will likely have to do a little waiting myself.


I'll post the beginning of this project here and link it to my website here http://www.tomcollinsphotography.com/Projects/Waiting/28580397_TWgfvk

where the album of photos can be viewed as it's being built.

It's funny coming up with projects like this or any other kind for that matter because once you get the idea for a direction and you spend some time thinking about it, the idea itself begins to make itself present in your daily life.  As long as you are one of those devotees who carry a camera, of any kind, with you everywhere you go, you will be ready to start to capture your project in photos.  If you're very thoughtful you'll even be able to "make" your photos rather than just "taking" your photos by being prepared and being in places where the theme for you project is most likely to be present.  And, with that thought in mind, anywhere you go, there you are.

I hadn't realized that this idea of making photos of people 'waiting' was something that I've actually been up to for some time.  The idea to do this I thought just came to me the other day while I was waiting in the hospital for my wife to have a day surgery.

I was sitting and waiting for hours and as usual had a camera with me and as I looked around the waiting room I saw my idea come together.  Seeing the other folks sitting, sleeping, reading, surfing the web on tablets and smart phones, chatting with friends and all waiting.  All doing the exact same thing in different ways.

That's when it occurred to me that this could be a fun photo project.  After all most of the time, most of us are waiting for something.  In line at a check out, for a movie, for a light to change, in a traffic jam and on and on.  We spend lots of time waiting and what we do with that time is interesting to see also.  So, with this in mind I began to look around the waiting room I was in and look for ways to make the pictures I wanted to tell my story of waiting through photographs.

When I returned home and had a little extra time to play with my pictures, I started to look back in my archives and realized that this theme is something I've been shooting for some time but never really thought of as a 'project' or theme.  I've been taking photos of people sitting and waiting for years.

But I like to be current and I like to be out making photos at every opportunity I have so I've decided to not add many of my old photos to this collection and instead try to build it with new ones particularly because now I'm aware of the project and I believe I'll make my shots differently.

The photo on the right of pedestrians waiting for a light to change while standing in front of the Today Show building at 30 Rockefeller Center was made in December 2011.

The photo on the left was made in March of 2011 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.





















Thanks for looking. To see the entire collection as it's being built, check out the gallery at:  http://www.tomcollinsphotography.com/Projects/Waiting/28580397_TWgfvk
All photographs in this post were made with either an Olympus OMD E-M5 or an Olympus E-P3.  Lenses included the Olympus 12mm/f20; Olympus 17mm/f1.8; Olympus 45mm/f1.8 or the Panasonic/Leica DG Summilux 25mm/f1.4.

My Dog, Eli, Ate My Lens!

It's not like I'm not used to it, my dog likes to eat my stuff.  My earbuds, my remote controls, my money clip and any of the money that's in it, almost anything that's laying on my nightstand or within reach on my desk.  So I'm normally pretty good about keeping things out of his reach.

Without thinking last week I left one of my prized Olympus lenses lying on the corner of my desk inside a small pouch (to protect it from the elements or from taking it in and out of my bag or pocket, not from a large canine putting his strong jaws to work on it).  Later the next day when I was packing up my photo gear to go out and shoot I realized that I didn't see my 12mm lens.  I looked in the bag I had out yesterday and not there.  Looked on the table where I keep all my lenses and gear neatly organized and not there either.  I start to panic wondering what I had done with it and began frantically going through my coat pockets and tearing around the house.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small black something tucked in-between the cushions of the green living-room sofa.  Oh no.  This is where I found my Klipsh earbuds a few weeks ago.  No, it can't be.  As I got closer I knew that Eli had found my lens and took it to his favorite place to chill and chew on stuff.  I pulled the black bag out of the sofa, unzipped it, (thankfully it was still in one piece, and pulled out the beautiful silver Olympus 12mm/f2.0 lens.  Well, not so beautiful anymore.  Now marred with teeth marks and scratches.  I almost threw up on the spot.  That lens is expensive and I can't afford to replace it.  Of course Eli is laying on the floor in front of the fireplace just chill-axing and taking a little snooze.  Oblivious of the pain he has caused.

I removed the chewed up lens cap and the rear cap and luckily didn't see any teeth marks in these two critical spots.  I ran upstairs to get my camera and mount the lens on to see if it would still function.  Much to my elation it did.  Focus, manual focus rings, locking mechanisms  everything still functioned perfectly.  I took a few quick snaps to be sure and yes, it still works perfectly.  It's just ugly now.

A few minutes later Eli wakes up from his blissful slumber and comes upstairs to my photo-room to say hi.  Walks up to me as he usually does, dropped his head in my lap and looked up at me with the same usual demanding I rub his head and say hello look.  What could I do.  The damage was done.  And he's so sweet.  I rubbed his head, told him hi and promised I would go to the grocery store and get him some bones.  Maybe that will help.

And I promised myself to be sure and keep my things out of reach of Eli since he can't seem to resist a good chew on my stuff.  And even though my lens is ugly now it at least has it's own story.

Shoot In The Rain.

We've been lucky this year, here in the Pacific Northwest.  We just made it to something like 80 days in a row of no rain, well no measurable rain.  That truly is something and it hasn't happend for 92 years.  But as those of us who live here know, it will end.  And as of yesterday it did.  The rains have returned.

With the rain comes, of course, gray, overcast days that don't produce much light, very little contrast and soggy conditions that make you want to stay home.  This year I'm adapting a different approach.  I'm going to go out and stay out in it and make the rain, the wet earth, the gray skies my focus for photography for the winter.  That's easy to say and the challenge has been made.

After all we are the center of the universe for goretex style clothing.  Between Eddie Bauer, Filsons, LL Bean and the rest, we here in the Pacific Northwest must account for a large percentage of their sales.  In other words we have access to all the dry, warm, well made clothing and shoes a person needs to go out in the inclement weather and enjoy the great outdoors, rain or rain and stay warm and dry.

To kick start my challenge of shooting in the rain this year I decided to head out on the very first day of a good downpour and went up to the Mt. Rainier National Park to Mowich Lake.  Mowich Lake is about 2 and a half hours from Gig Harbor, WA, up Highway 165 through Wilkenson and Carbanado.  Fourteen miles of this drive, just after Carbonado, is "washboard" roads that have been severely damaged by logging trucks so the drive is difficult. And along this stretch, not very pretty.  It's been largely clear cut until you get to the park entrance.

But once you get to the Mt. Rainier National Park it all changes quite quickly to magnificently beautiful, even in the rain.  From the park entrance to the lake is a smoother drive through beautiful forest.  Arrival at the lake is breath taking.

The lake was shrouded in clouds, steady rain and 42 degrees F.  Quiet, peaceful and not one other visitor.  I knew I was in the right place and had made the right decision to shoot in the rain. 

However, my first thoughts were to wish for sunshine.  I thought to myself, wow, this is so beautiful I just wish it was nicer out.  But wait, isn't that exactly the reason I was here, to look past the otherwise gloomy, unimpressive weather and find the natural beauty that lies in what was delivered?  My natural instinct was to want it to be different but what I wanted to do was have a change in perspective, to see in a new way, to appreciate the moment.

I spent the next couple of hours hiking around the lake on the well maintained trails and explored the area for photo opportunities.  Of course with the fall colors, the beautiful mist and the quiet peaceful atmosphere it was perfect.

As for my challenge to get out and shoot on these coming wet, gray and soggy days, this couldn't have been a better send off or a more inspiring reason to keep doing it.

So, load up your gear, add some sandwich baggies and rubberbands to cover and protect your gear, make a sandwich, get your best and driest clothes and go shoot in the rain.

Thanks for Reading,
Tom