Long Day

Taken with Fuji X100T. In-camera monochrome conversion.

January Twenty-Ninth

On Sunday, thousands of people (the count I saw was more than 10,000) gathered in front of the White House to protest the administration's refugee ban, and then marched down to the Capitol to protest Congress' inaction. I was already downtown for work and walked down to the protest with my cameras. I have three sets of photos from this demonstration. This is the first set. The next set, which are on medium format film, will probably show up in a week. And the last set, on 35mm film, I'll have to develop sometime this month.

Anywho, here are my digital shots from today. All taken with a Fuji X100T using the wide-angle converter, and edited in VSCO for iOS. The "wide-angle" in this case is 28mm, which is a little tough. There's always so much in the frame. But I think I used the space well, for the most part. As always, let me know what you think.

January Twenty-Eighth

We are down in Charlottesville this weekend to visit some family. We took a quick walk this morning and I brought a camera along, which was great because we ran into a few friendly neighborhood pets. Given what is happening in the world, I thought a few animal photos would be nice. Taken with a Fuji X100T using the wide-angle attachment. Edited in VSCO for iOS.

California Miscellany

Here are all the photos that don't really belong anywhere in particular. They are of particular scenes and areas that struck me while we were driving around California wine country. I'll say this to close out this series of photos: Of the trips I've taken over the last few years, this was definitely one of my favorites. We will go back again, no question.

January Twenty-Seventh

Instead of going straight to work this morning, I took the bus to a stop near the National Mall and walked through the "March for Life," an annual gathering and demonstration in opposition to abortion. I took a few photos with my Leica M5 and you'll see those whenever I develop that film. Until then, here are two shots I took with my Fuji digital camera. I converted them to greyscale and edited them with VSCO for iPad.

I said this on Twitter, but for as much as I like black and white photography, digital conversions don't touch the look of analog black and white, whether scanned negatives or actual prints. There's just a certain something to film that's missing in digital.

With that said, I'm still happy to share these. Let me know what you think.

A young girl in a "Make America Great Again" hat.

A group of friars crosses the street on the way to the march.

Graves

We spent one day in Sonoma while up in Northern California, exploring the town and drinking (a lot of) wine. There's an old cemetery not far from downtown Sonoma, and we walked through just as the sun was setting. Many of the graves date back to the town's founding, and at least one veteran of the Revolutionary War is buried there.

Goat Rock Beach

Goat Rock Beach is part of Sonoma Coast State Park, which was just 30 minutes from where we were staying. We went there twice. Once, on our first full day in the area, and again on Christmas morning, to see a particularly large rock that sat in the middle of a field, about a mile from the beach itself. The first set of photos is from that first day. It was a little cooler, a little misty, and very gray outside. Driving in, there were scenic places to park, and so I took a few "establishing" shots, just to provide a general picture of the area. It shouldn't be a surprise to learn that, even in the bright afternoon light, it was beautiful.

And our second visit, again, was to see this rock. It sounds silly, but it was a pretty impressive rock! So I'm glad we spent the time to see it (and enjoy the sunrise on the coast).

January Twenty-Fifth

I have color film in my Leica at the moment, so for grayscale photos, I had to rely on my digital camera, which I also keep in my daily bag. I took two photos today, one while waiting for the train, the other while walking home from work. Both were edited in VSCO for iOS. Let me know what you think.

On the platform at the NoMa-Gallaudet station.  

One of the stone sculptures on the Carnegie Institute building.  

Duncan's Landing

The second part of Christmas morning was driving down from Goat Rock Beach to Duncan's Landing, where you can see more of the coast. Other people had the same idea, so a few of the photos are of the people (and dogs) who joined us on the beach. My favorite shot out of this batch is just of the rock that sits on the beach. It's dramatic, but not in an overbearing way.

Vineyards

For Christmas break, my wife and I went out to the Russian River Valley in Northern California to drink wine and enjoy the scenery. The area, if you're not familiar, isn't far from Napa and Sonoma (just an hour and a half or so) but has a vastly different feel: Rural and low-key. For vacations, I like to take slides, so I brought a box of Fuji Provia 100f and my Fuji GA655 rangefinder, which is like a medium format point and shoot. It's perfect for vacation snapshots, and is a great introduction to medium format if you're willing to live with a fixed-lens (40mm equivalent).

Anyway.

This first set of photos is from a few of the vineyards we visited. They're basically all a variation on the same kind of photo, but you'll forgive me if that style and composition appeals to my eye. Let me know what you think, as always.