Hearst Castle

One of the reasons we decided to stay in Cambria for our weekend getaway was because of its proximity to Hearst Castle. While I had stopped by Hearst Castle before, I had never taken the time to join one of the tours. This time around, we planned ahead and took a morning tour of the the upstairs suites. The tour inside lasted about 40 minutes and then we were able to roam the grounds outside for as long as we liked. Our tour guide had a lot of personality and gave us a great deal of insight into the history behind William Randolph Hearst and his historic mansion. I think my favorite parts of our visit was the indoor Roman Pool and the spectacular views of the coast from the grounds surrounding the mansion.

Long Weekend in Cambria

My wife and I took a road trip up the California Coast recently to Cambria, a scenic little seaside village located on Highway 1 halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. We stayed in a small hotel on Moonstone Beach Drive called the Cambria Landing Inn & Suites. The room was nice and the location of the hotel let us explore the beach without getting in our car which was a big plus. During our stay, we tried out the local restaurants in downtown Cambria (our favorite was Robin's), relaxed, and enjoyed morning strolls along the Moonstone Beach Boardwalk. It was a great weekend getaway and just what we needed to recharge after a busy couple months at work. I didn't spend much time shooting on our trip, but I did capture the following images during those morning strolls on the boardwalk.

Morning Long Exposures in San Francisco

We stayed along the Embarcadero near the Bay Bridge during our trip to San Francisco. This gave me a chance to shoot some early morning long exposures of the San Francisco Bay. I photographed the Bay Bridge at sunset the last time we visited San Francisco so it was nice to catch a couple sunrises this time around. Here are three of my favorite images shot on two consecutive mornings with the Fujifilm X-T1 and XF 14mm and 60mm lenses.

San Francisco and the X-T1

As I mentioned last week, I sent back my first X-T1 because of the light leak issue. Well, thanks to a timely post on Fuji Rumors, I was able to order a second X-T1 in time for our trip to San Francisco. The X-T1 I received from Amazon has a serial number higher than the ones noted by Fuji here and I confirmed before our trip that the light leak issue has been fixed, at least for my camera. In addition to fixing the light leak issue, I was pleased to find that Fuji seemingly addressed the issue with the 4-way directional pad buttons. While there is no confirmation of this from Fuji, the buttons on the directional pad of the camera I received have noticeably more feedback than the original X-T1 I returned. I wasn't able do a direct comparison since I sent back the first X-T1 before ordering the second, but I definitely find changing focus points less challenging.

With that, I'll leave you with some images from our time in San Francisco shot with the new X-T1 and XF 14mm, 35mm, and 60mm lenses . By the way, all of these were edited in Lightroom 5.4 using the newly available Fujifilm camera profiles. I'm really liking the new profiles so far and I have a feeling I'll be using the VSCO Film presets less and less going forward. If you haven't updated Lightroom yet, I suggest you head on over to the Adobe website to download the update now.

The Fujifilm X100S for Travel Photography

Over the past six months, the Fujifilm X00S has traveled with me to San Diego, Seattle, Paris, London, and New York. During these trips, I've used it to shoot everything from snapshots to long exposures. Having used the X100S extensively as a travel camera, I wanted to share my general impressions on using it for travel photography.

London Eye sunset long exposure - London

What's Good for Travel Photography

I shared my thoughts on the Fujifilm X100 a year ago, and all the things I loved about the X100 also hold true for the X100S. The small size, the excellent image quality, and the ease of use are all things that made the X100 an excellent travel camera. With the X100S, Fuji has managed to make a good thing even better. The speed of the camera has been improved all around, the resolution of the electronic viewfinder has been increased, and the sensor has been upgraded to an X-Trans CMOS II sensor. Each of these improvements have made the X100S an even better travel camera than the original X100.

In addition to all the technological goodness, there are two other reasons why I find the X100 and X100S to be ideal for travel photography. The first is the simplicity that these cameras bring to my photography. By limiting myself to one focal length (sometimes two with the Wide Conversion Lens), I am able to focus more on the images I create and less on the gear I use. This in turn makes it easier for me to be in the moment and enjoy the places we visit.

The second reason these cameras make ideal travel companions is because the leaf shutter they use are nearly silent. Without having to worry about the sound produced by a traditional shutter, I can capture images that I would normally pass up. Since the X100 and X100S are so small and stealthy, I find that I am also able to get quite close to my subjects without really being noticed.

What's Not Good

As great as the X100S is, there are still things that need improvement. The first of these things is the accuracy of the battery indicator. While I can live with the subpar battery life of the X100S, I find it much harder to live with the accuracy of its battery indicator, or lack thereof. Just the other day, the battery on my X100S went from what appeared to be full to empty in less than 30 minutes. To avoid situations like this while traveling, I make it a habit to fully charge my batteries each night, regardless of what the camera's battery indicator says.

The other thing that I would like to see improved is the focus accuracy. Even though the focusing speed of the X100S is improved, I find that it still has a tendency to miss focus. This is especially apparent when the background is brighter than the subject. In these instances, the X100S will almost always focus on the background even though the focus indicator says otherwise. For this reason, I would love to see the face detection system from the X-T1 incorporated into the next version of the X100S. As gimmicky as face detection may be, the system on the X-T1 seems to work quite well and would likely reduce the number of out of focus images of people (especially when the camera is handed to someone not familiar with the X100S).

Final Thoughts

For me, the original X100 was the camera that made photography fun again. It had plenty of quirks, but once I learned to live with those quirks, I was rewarded with amazing images. The X100S very much embodies everything the X100 was, but with fewer quirks. Sure it's not perfect, but no camera is. As a travel camera however, the X100S is as close to perfect as I have found. It is small enough to fit in a coat pocket, yet capable enough to handle almost any photographic situation I throw at it. To give you an idea of it's versatility, here are a few images from my travels with the X100S thus far.