The Road to Work

The Road to Work - Fuji x100s, 1/80, f/11, ISO 2500

Life is hard. Poor me. I have to cycle to work every day, and my route takes me along the Eerste River in Stellenbosch, on a well-maintained cycle path. These are some of the vistas I have to cycle past twice every day.

The Road to Work II - Fuji x100s, 1/140, f/5.6, ISO 800

Remnants of the old bridge - Fuji x100s, 1/550, f/5.6, ISO 800

If you're wondering why I'm shooting at ISO 800 in good light, it's because the little Fuji x100s has an extended dynamic range mode, at which it effectively under-exposes at native ISO 200, then boosts the shadows two stops. It works pretty well with the built-in JPG engine.

Eerste River in Spring - Fuji x100s, 1/120, f/5.6, ISO 800

It doesn't work automatically in Lightroom, there the images are over-exposed, and you need to drastically dial down the highlights to get the same effect. However, you will find that there is a huge amount of highlight headroom.

eXperience - Fuji x100s, 1/110, f/8, ISO 800

Speaking of Lightroom, I have recently installed Photo Ninja, after numerous comparisons claiming that PN can render better detail than LR for the Fuji x-trans sensor. I must spend more time with it, but my first impression is that this is often true. Some of the above images were in fact processed using PN, can you guess which ones?

A photo phone

 

Tendrils of Spring - LG G2 phone, 1/60, f/2.4, ISO 50, HDR mode

I'm always late at adopting the latest technology, so I only recently got myself a smartphone. After much compulsive reading of reviews, I am now the proud owner of LG's G2 phone (yes, I know the G3 has come out now, but that came shortly afterwards). Its camera is actually not bad, I especially like the HDR mode, which produces quite impressive results. Pity it doesn't shoot RAW.

Flowers and Ivy - LG G2 phone, 1/60, f/2.4, ISO 50

As is often mentioned, your best camera is the one you have with you, and of course this thingy is always in my pocket. Plus, it's nice to have a camera on which I can browse the internet, play games and sometimes even make phone calls.

More Flowers - LG G2 phone, 1/120, f/2.4, ISO 50

Did I mention it's spring here in the Southern Hemisphere?

Yet More Flowers - LG G2 phone, 1/120, f/2.4, ISO 50

The tiny sensor on the phone makes for a very deep depth of field. The focal length is a mere 3.97mm.

Google, the artist

 

Awesome Tendrils - LG G2 phone,1/60, f/2.4, ISO 50, "photo awesome" by Google

Sometimes Google takes it upon itself to "enhance" some of the images that my phone backs up to Google Drive. Here is one example that almost works, I would have chosen the tendril in the lower right not to be blurred.

Anyway, that's it for me for today. Being Daddy is a full-time job, and I'm still being a Mathematician in my spare time, and a photographer in my sleep. Perhaps one day Google will do the photographing for me.