Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

I need it

Did I already buy another lens for my newly purchased Fujifilm XT-5 camera? Yup! Looks like gear acquisition syndrome is in full bloom. I mean, what’s the point of an interchangeable lens camera if I only have one lens? Granted, if I were to have only one lens, the Fujinon XF 23mm F2 would be it. A compact walk-around lens at my favorite, most-used focal length: 35mm full-frame equivalent. Obviously then the 23mm F2 was the first lens I bought along with the XT-5.

Soon to join that lens is its close cousin, the Fujinon XF 50mm F2. At a 76mm full-frame equivalent, it’s ideal for portraiture, and when I want to punch in a bit during photowalks. Shooting down urban streets, the 50mm can compress the background and block out the peripherals stuff that a wider lens would otherwise get in the frame. During the photowalk in Chinatown last Sunday, I was limited in what I can do when photographing straight down Grant Avenue, carrying only the 23mm. I actually took out my iPhone to use its 77mm full-frame equivalent telephoto lens instead.

Won’t have to do that anymore! With the 50mm F2 in tow for the future I’ll just have to quickly swap between the two lenses should I desire a different perspective. You know what is really baller, though? The professionals that carry multiple camera bodies, with different focal lengths of lens attached to each. Therefore, instead of swapping lens, they just swap between the bodies during a shoot. In a money-no-object world (or a I actually make a living from this hobby world), I would have a second XT-5 attached to the incoming 50mm lens.

Another reason for buying the XF 50mm F2 right now is I want to take photographs of my friend’s newborn twins. Not only is 50mm a more flattering focal length, but I can also get the shot I want without being super close to the babies. Trust me, I’m not spending money simply to have more shiny objects on my bookshelf! (Though that’s very nice too, admittedly.) Everything I buy these days must serve some utility.

JPEG shooter

This past Sunday I got a chance to take my new Fujifilm X-T5 camera out for some first time test shooting. A photowalk around San Francisco Chinatown in the afternoon was called for. After reading the manual front to back and adjusting the custom buttons to my liking, it was time to see what the X-T5 camera can do. (Pairing it with a Fujinon XF 23mm F2 lens.)

Perhaps it’s the substantial money I dropped on essentially switching to a new system (Sony to Fujifilm) talking, but I was pretty immediately smitten with the X-T5. A touchscreen on a camera is so useful (My old Sony A7R2 did not have one). On the Fujifilm I can touch to lock focus on a subject/object and it will do so until I tap again to cancel. It honestly feels kind of cheating to me. I remember the old days of having only eight focusing points on a DSLR, and needing to perform the focus and recompose technique.

Now I can simply touch almost anywhere on the frame and it will lock focus automatically. Magical.

Fujifilm’s famous film simulation modes is as advertised. After seeing how each of them look, I chose Nostalgic Negative as my go to. Nostalgic Neg has the bump in saturation I typical do for my own RAW edits, plus a warm tonality that I prefer over something cool. Set white balance to automatic, and I simply let the X-T5 do its own interpretation of the scene vis a vis the colors.

Kind of funny how I’m essentially treating a “DSLR” camera as a point-and-shoot. It’s like going back to the days of instant film cameras: I don’t control how a film roll will look coming out of development. Being able to get interesting and usable JPEG files straight out of the camera makes me want to go shoot more. Because upon returning home, all I do is transfer the JPEG files off the X-T5 and onto my Mac’s Photos app. That's it! I’ve not touched any of the RAW files from the Chinatown photowalk - there’s really no need.

At some point I might even shoot only in JPEG…

We are sitting too comfy

Apparently, July 2023 is the hottest month in recorded history. It sure does not feel like it here in San Francisco, though I’m sure it’s been absolutely sweltering soon as outside of the city confines. Just a week ago I was sweating it out across the bay in Oakland at an A’s game. But soon as I cross back over to San Francisco, the marine layer welcomes me like a blast of chill in a summer’s desert. We are damn lucky the city have stayed relatively cool, whist the rest of the world is melting down. Granted, we sure pay dearly - in cost of living - for it.

Sometimes I wonder if we ought to have survivor’s guilt, vis a vis climate change. Other than the droughts and smokey wildfires of past years (never forget the big orange sky), I would say San Francisco have been relatively unscathed thus far. Good thing increased carbon emissions in the atmosphere doesn’t cause a correlative uptick in earthquake risk? They’ve been telling us since middle school (that would be early 2000s for me) that we are due for the next big one, and we ought to be prepared. Yet we’ve still not experienced anything close to the 1989 quake.

I really should get that earthquake preparedness kit (finally) in order.

It’s been devastating to watch the wildfire tragedy in Maui unfold. Nearly 100 people dead, whole neighborhoods burned down, and the fires still burning throughout the island. The deadliest wildfire in over a century, and it’s in Hawaii of all places. The islands are not what you would associate with fire disasters (Hurricanes or tsunamis would be more apt), so it makes what’s going on even more shocking. Please donate to the first-respond efforts: American Red Cross is always good. For something more local, the Hawaii Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund is recommended (That is where I donated).

Shopping spree

Black Friday for our local Target store is not the Friday of Thanksgiving. Rather, it’s the weekend of move-in day before the start of Fall semester at nearby San Francisco State University. The horde of freshmen, with their family in tow (keepers of the credit card, obviously), attacking the shelves for their everyday dorm-life needs. That includes a SodaStream for one guy, and a whole vacuum cleaner for another person. The latter of whom is a guy I very much personality align with. A dirty room is simply unacceptable.

Whilst witnessing the purchasing madness going on (I was going to the Whole Foods at the same mall), I thought to myself, “Gee, I hope the crew at Target knew to stock up for this occasion!” “What if everyone wanted a coffee maker?” You see, our Target is not as big as the typical one. Under normal operation there is no way it can handle thousands of freshmen moving in and buying stuff. Heck, I can still remember going there not too long ago and was unable to buy the particular socks I wear. Not in stock.

The manager of that Target should be fired if the store were ill-prepared for Fall move-in day.

Seeing countless SUVs lining up towards the dorms with the entirety of a student’s living needs is a reminder that summer is almost over. I don’t know, it sure felt like a quick one to me. Work-wise it’s been bit of a lull since June, honestly. I am actually looking forward to having jam-packed days of action, and a bustling campus full of students and staff. The 2023-2024 school year is the first one since the official end of the pandemic, (Federal COVID emergency declaration ended in May of this year) so I am wondering if the campus can return to its former glory of packed buildings and halls.

Like back when I went to school at SFSU in the late aughts.

I got to workout more

Every Tuesday for the past few weeks I’ve been going over to the Marina district to attend improv class. It’s really nice to be in that area during the evening hours. The Golden Gate Bridge makes a dramatic backdrop when you’re near the water. My friend and I have been doing a food tour of the area as well, picking a local spot to have dinner before class. It’s been a highly enjoyable time, even though we are doing so after already spending a full day at work.

What I’ve noticed in the area is the sheer amount of people running/exercising. It’s kind of inspirational, actually. These people are getting a workout in after a long day of work. I on the other hand prefer to workout on the weekends. But that limits the total amount of exercise time possible. Sometimes a weekend get busy with social stuff and I would have to forgo working out. Seeing people in the Marina exercising on a weekday gives me motivation to do the same.

Therefore I am going to start working out on certain workday evenings. I’m lucky to be in a house with a squat rack and an exercise bike in the garage; might as well take advantage of it more fully.

Things are happening!

Hey so what a crazy day thus far. I was ready to walk to work when I received a phone call from my housemate (I was already out the door so a shout downstairs wouldn’t have sufficed). He says his pregnant wife’s (a fellow housemate, obviously) water just broke. Things are happening, so I’m needed to take a sick day and look after the dog. It’s all good: I need very little motivation (slash excuse) to not go to work. And mind you I like my job a lot.

So right now I am just chilling at the house with the dog, whilst waiting for the good thing to happen. How long a woman stay in labor varies, right? The babies (it’s twins) will either come out later today, or sometime tomorrow. God willing the labor period isn’t anymore longer than that! I am most excited (among many other excitements) to finally find out the names. I guess it’s unlucky to reveal the name before the baby comes out? Therefore none of the friends know the names yet. We’ll find out when the boys pop out of the mommy.

And then everything will be different after that. The house will be a constant backdrop of baby noises, interspersed with momentary periods of silence. Noise-cancelling headphone technology will come in real handy for me. Earplugs for sure when I go to sleep. Someone’s going to still get the proper amounts of sleep in this house, and it’s going to be me. Because I need to be in peak condition whenever my help will most certainly be asked for in the coming future.

Half joking aside, it’s rather emotional to think such a big life event is happening for my close friends. I’ve other friends with kids, but this particular one hits figuratively close to home: we’ll all be under the same roof. The fact that I’ll get to witness (and hear) the process on a daily basis is kind of special. Looking forward to it!

Pursuit of imperfection

Perhaps going from a full-frame sensor Sony a7R II camera to an APS-C sensor Fujifilm XT-5 would indeed be a downgrade. You can’t beat laws of physics, right? Given the same situation, the larger sensor Sony will always capture more light, with better resolving power, than the Fuji. I don’t suppose it’s typical that a photographer goes back down a step in terms of sensor size. Once they get to full-frame, they either stay there, or wait enough years to pay up for an ever larger medium-format camera.

I have my reasons for going back to an APS-C sensor, of course. As someone who is wholly satisfied with the pictures my iPhone outputs, I am not concerned about sensor size. A photograph is capable of telling a story no matter the tool that it was taken with. Physical limitations are something work around, rather than lament the lack of. The iPhone can never match the bokeh of a proper DSLR/portrait lens combo, but I can still be creative in how I frame the subject. It’s a sort of creatively that breeds from limitations.

The modern full-frame camera is simply too good. Most units from a major manufacturer can output pin-sharp photos in crazy high resolutions. There’s so much dynamic range, so much leeway to edit a file that the capture process almost seems secondary. Why care about getting the proper exposure or framing something just right when it can all be fixed in post-processing? And because you can get a photo to be even more perfect in post, editing becomes a necessary chore. You have to, because you can.

The reason I bought the Fujifilm XT-5 is because I only want to shoot. To use the JPEG images straight out of the camera (got to love those Fuji film simulations) - because I’ve already put enough thought to exposure and composition at the moment of capture. The point is to shoot more, and not spend hours in front of the computer editing. I am perfectly happy to give up some fidelity in pursuit of this. (Near) perfection is overrated anyways. A picture with blown highlights and or crushed shadows can tell a story just the same as one with the utmost amount of dynamic range.

Limitations breeding creativity.