Off to South America.... Hopefully...

Flying out today to Houston then onto Buenos Aires for a quick trip to South America for just over 2 weeks.  We will have 6 nights in Buenos Aires, fly to Iguazu Falls for 3 nights, then onto Rio De Janeiro for 6 more nights.

Right now this hinges on the Chilean volcano Calbuco staying calm and not affecting our flights.  Last week Calbuco erupted for the first time in 4 decades.  If we had booked our trip one week prior our flight would have been cancelled.  Woke up this morning to see that Calbuco has erupted for the 3rd time in 8 days...  Early indication is that it is not a major eruption and should not affect any air traffic (fingers crossed).

Anyways, packing my photo kit for the trip.

Bag:

ONA Camps Bay - love this bag.  Had an ONA Bolton Street, which was good but sold it for the Camps Bay.

Cameras/Lens:

Fujifilm X-T1 - Changed from Canon over to Fuji just over a year ago.  Best decision I ever made.

Fujifilm X-E2 - Got a great deal on this just before Christmas so grabbed it as a backup body, but enjoy it's more compact size.

Canon S95 - Last piece of my canon gear, this little camera is too good to not have on the trip.  I wasn't going to bring it but its so small so throwing it in.

Fujinon 10-24 F4 - Wide angle

Fujinon 18-135mm - Grabbed this for the weather resistance construction and so my wife doesn't get sick of me changing lenses ;)

Fujinon 27mm - This pancake lens makes the Fuji system ultra portable.

Other stuff:

Tiffen Variable ND filter - use this for long exposures.

ONA  Lima Strap - perfect for the X-T1

Sirui T-025X tripod - small and light, perfect for travel

Canon wired trigger (RS-60E3) - another holder over from the Canon days but works with the Fuji cameras.

Also bringing a bunch of batteries and SD cards but those are not interesting...

Off to pack and will hopefully be landing in Buenos Aires tomorrow morning!

Introducing Keltie!

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When my wife's family decided to get a Labrador puppy last fall I was excited to be able to take some photos of her.  Little did I know that puppies do not stand still and are full of energy, which resulted in a lot of blurry photos.  The two below were the only decent ones of her as a small puppy.

Keltie in September 2014 (Fuji X-T1, 55-200mm)

Keltie in September 2014 (Fuji X-T1, 35mm F1.4)

Fast forward seven months.... The snow has melted and Keltie has learned to play fetch (she is also four times larger).  While we were visiting last weekend I was able to wear her out and get some photos of her being somewhat still.  All were shot with X-T1 and 56mm F1.2.

Keltie in April 2015 (Fuji X-T1, 56mm F1.2)

Keltie in April 2015 (Fuji X-T1, 56mm F1.2)

Keltie finally worn out!! (Fuji X-T1, 56mm F1.2)


B&W Film

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My second experiment with film was a roll of Ilford HP 5 Plus 400.  I recently received the pictures back from the lab.  Overall I don't think I did a very good job, a lot of the photos seemed soft and only 13 of 30 were decent, and that is probably a stretch.

Anyways here they are:

I think I will step away from film for a bit.  It was fun to play around with and made me think a lot more before pressing the shutter button which was a good learning experience.  I will probably give it a try again, but with some upcoming trips I will get back to digital.