It was the evening of November 30, and I was exhausted and/or out of time. I had pictures ready to post, but they all lacked an appropriate caption to do them justice – and I wasn’t about to go ahead and let off all the awesomeness that was November 2024 with some cheap, shallow quotes and/or poorly thought reflections.
December, on the other hand, has been quite the unorthodox pairing of a lot of stuff on my plate, followed by quite the effort to slack, with the excuse of relaxing and unwinding. With that said, all that should have been reflected on days and weeks ago regarding November – well, all of it was in the backburner… all until today, at least, when I started off with my recollections of the Incognito concert, posted just earlier.
I thought, nobody’s really expecting anything on Instagram right now, so here I have more time and a more generous maximum character/word count… So maybe, before I decide to post anything on Social Media, I’d write about more of November here in detail – with the pictures, of course.
Let me start with a little history regarding my Fujifilm X-T1.
Take not that it wasn’t my first Fujifilm camera; No, I had an X-E2 first – bought it second hand, August 2014.. had it until it was stolen, kit lens and all, somewhere between June and July of 2016. Friend of mine then reached out and said that someone he knew was selling his X-T1 and 35mm f2 combo, so I bought it.
At first, I wasn’t so comfortable with the fixed zoom, but I eventually came to appreciate it. Life happened, and I was able to build my lens collection to a 12mm f2, a (very remarkable) 16-55mm f2.8, and a 55-200mm, variable max aperture. That was my system as I shot sunrises and sunsets here at home from various perspectives and different weather conditions.
The X-T1 was my faithful workhorse as couples renewed their wedding vows on a boat going around the sea of Galilee. It took great pictures, whether I was taking in the hectic, spicy vibes of the Mahaneh Yehuda market or the (supposedly) somber scenes inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (I say ‘supposedly’ only because there was a heck of a lot of people inside) in what I’m assuming is old Jerusalem.
In the same year my X-T1 was witness to the lightning storms of Virginia, and the hot air balloons in Temecula. At around the end of 2019 the X-T1 was what I had when I had to take 1, then 2, then 10 steps back to take the Burj Khailfa from top to bottom. It was the same system that took pictures as we enjoyed the still desert, followed by the fire dancers and the (literal) belly dancers at night.
Whether I was stuck in traffic, or thousands of feet above the ground, the X-T1 served me well by taking photos when I could.
I made the impulsive decision to buy an X-T3 as an ‘upgrade’, so I could have the X-T1 as a secondary body – one would have one of the wide angle lenses, while the other one had the 55-200mm lens. I’m not necessarily sure how long that lasted, because it eventually came to a point that the X-T1 just failed to turn on, leaving me with just the X-T3 (and, well as always, my phone) to take pictures. Needless to say, the poor X-T3 had to contend just as much as the X-T1 during its day, with dust in the sensor from me changing lenses recklessly.
Earlier this year, I had my very first experience of entrusting the X-T1 to a stranger in Lalamove, and then to another stranger who took a look at the body. He gave me bad news, and worse news – the board has its issues, and there is a shortage of parts, considering that the X-T1 was a far discontinued model.
He set proper expectations regarding what I was getting back, I allowed him to make his moves and paid him as requested. I got back an X-T1 that could only operate with its Electronic Shutter only, and I could only use Manual Focus Lenses with it.
Considering that I experienced bomb after bomb in my finances this year, I held off in buying a proper lens for my poor soldier… that is, until around early November, when I received my order of a Meike 25mm f1.8 manual focus lens from a delivery rider.
It was around November when I started shooting with the X-T1 again… and well, the results were enjoyable. Take a look:
Prior to our trip to the Incognito concert last November 10 I was advised that they wouldn’t be allowing ‘professional’ (meaning bulkier than usual) cameras at the event.. So I left my poor babies behind, relying solely on phone photography – and I didn’t just have my handy dandy iPhone X in all its classic glory (with an equally ‘classic’ camera), I also had a Huawei phone – my backup holding my old number when I changed numbers.
Looking back, there really wasn’t much of an adjustment when I started using the X-T1 + 25mm combo, because I was technically shooting with a prime lens on the iPhone X, just with fixed and variable digital zoom. But when I used the Huawei phone I appreciated how it had dedicated cameras and sensors for both wide angle and regular focal lengths.
Take a look:
Different devices, different perspectives. I suppose it’s part of being present in the moment to give your best, with whatever you have. It’s a reminder for me, not to be so critical of what I have or don’t have, thinking that this is what defines a good event or occasion; No, it’s our attitude that makes the most of whatever happens, and the most of whatever we have at the time.
Look, I obviously had to have a closing line to this. I just hope I made a little sense back there.
As always, if I forget to mention anything, I’ll bring it up next time.
Until the next post though, may the Lord continue to bless us all.
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