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Red Rock Canyon and the Fujinon XF 23mm

Having read so many positive reviews about the Fujinon XF 23mm, I decided to rent it for a quick weekend trip to Las Vegas. Since we only planned to be there for 24 hours, I knew my opportunities to shoot with the XF 23mm would be limited. Nevertheless, I thought spending a couple days with this highly regarded lens would give me an idea of how using it would compare to shooting with my X100S.

Well, after spending the weekend with the XF 23mm, I must say that everything I've read about it is true. Optically, it really is a great lens. From my completely unscientific testing, sharpness, resolution, etc all appear to be excellent. On my X-Pro1, I found the focusing to be a tad slower than the XF 35mm, but not enough to make a difference for the subjects I normally photograph. The one issue I did have with the XF 23mm was that I found myself missing focus quite a bit when shooting at f/1.4. Much more so than with the XF 35mm. Since I didn't have an X-E2 to try this lens with, it's hard to know if the X-Pro1 was the problem. Regardless, I was thoroughly impressed with the lens and the images it produced.

As much as I liked the XF 23mm however, I just can't justify purchasing one right now. For my style of photography, my X100S works just as well and allows me to have a second body just in case my X-Pro1 acts up. With that, I'll leave you with a few images from our early Sunday morning drive through the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

The Best Views of Paris

While in Paris, we visited five places that gave us a bird's eye view of the city; Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Montparnasse Tower, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame Cathedral. Since it was the off season, the only location where we encountered much of a line was at the Eiffel Tower. Instead of waiting in the regular line that would've taken us all the way up by elevator, we opted for the shorter line that required us to take the stairs to the second level before catching the elevator. It was quite a trek up to the second level but well worth it, not only to bypass the longer line, but to get a closer look of the tower itself.

View from the second level of the Eiffel Tower

View from the second level of the Eiffel Tower

It turns out that stairs would become a common theme at all these places since we had to climb at least a few steps to reach the best vantage points at each location. The fewest steps we had to climb was at Montparnasse Tower. After taking the elevator to the 56th floor, we only had to go up one floor using the stairs to get to the open terrace.

View from the terrace at Montparnasse Tower

View from the terrace at Montparnasse Tower

At Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame Cathedral, where there were no elevators, we had to take the stairs all the way up to reach the best views of the city. I'm not quite sure how many steps we ended up climbing in total, but each and every one we was well worth it.

View from the dome at Basilica of the Sacred Heart

View from the dome at Basilica of the Sacred Heart

View from the top of Arc de Triomphe

View from the top of Arc de Triomphe

View from the towers at Notre Dame Cathedral

View from the towers at Notre Dame Cathedral

Of the five places, Montparnasse Tower probably had the best overall view of Paris since the view actually included the Eiffel Tower. The view from the Eiffel Tower itself is quite spectacular and well worth the trip up. My favorite, however, was the view from the towers at the Notre Dame Cathedral. Since the cathedral is located in the heart of Paris, and the towers are not quite as high as the Eiffel Tower, the view felt more immersive than the other locations. On top of that, the intricate details of the cathedral and the abundance of gargoyles made the views, and photographs, much more interesting. 

11 Hours in London

During our visit to Paris, we took a day trip to London that gave us roughly 11 hours to explore the bustling city. Since I'm still struggling with editing my images from Paris, I decided to shift my attention to some long exposure images from London. Here are three that were shot using the X100S and the Lee Seven5 filter system I purchased shortly before our trip. The items I ordered included a filter holder, 49mm and 58mm adapter rings (for the X100S and the XF 14mm), a Big Stopper 3.0 ND, and a Soft-Edge 0.9 Grad ND. I haven't used the system enough to decide if it's a better solution than the screw-on ND filters I've been using, but I will say that the Grad ND came in handy on many occasions.

Big Ben - 58 seconds at f/11

Big Ben - 58 seconds at f/11

Tower Bridge - 240 seconds at f/8

Tower Bridge - 240 seconds at f/8

London Eye - 300 seconds at f/11

London Eye - 300 seconds at f/11

Jet lag, the Wall, and Random Images from Paris

Seeing as this is the third morning in the row that I've woken up at 3am, it's safe to say that I'm still on Paris time. Speaking of Paris, what a beautiful city, eleven days and I feel like we only scratched the surface. Of all the cities I've visited, Paris is definitely the most photogenic. Funny thing is I feel like I hit a wall sometime during our trip, the photographic wall. The one that makes me want to put down the camera. The one that has made it hard for me to look at my images from the trip. And the one that has kept me from posting anything on the blog. It happens every year, so I know it'll pass. Only a matter of time.

Luckily, I did some editing in Paris so here are a few random images from our visit.