Fuji 7 cities in 5 weeks with the X-T1

KillRamsey

Hall of Famer
Location
Hood River, OR
Name
Kyle
I just got back from a 5 week family vacation. I'd like to post a few shots from each city that I like a lot for whatever reason. And, strangely, I've missed you lot somewhat. So there's that. Now let's not get all gushy.

Pertinent details:

- Wife is launching a bike tourism website, so we took folding bikes and our daughter and hit 7 places where she intends to launch routes, taking mostly Amtrak trains between the cities, some flights for the longer segments
- X-T1 in the smallish Domke bag, with only the (borrowed) 18-55 kit zoom and my 35 f1.4 lenses. All other lenses stayed home... gotta pack small when you're biking.
- X100 was with us, mostly used by my wife when I wasn't around for something, though I used it one night out of nostalgia
- The Yashica A 6x6 also came, and I shot 3 rolls here and there
- Wound up keeping about 3,300 exposures
- Split between "personal" shots and "for the business" shots was maybe 50/50
- Almost every day involved waking up, making breakfast in our AirBnB rental place, then hitting the bikes by 10am and gently cruising all over town to breweries, food joints, playgrounds (girl is 4, almost 5), etc.


Cities Visited:

- Atlanta / Athens GA
- Madison, WI
- Minneapolis, MN
- Glacier National Park, MT
- Leavenworth, WA
- Portland, OR
- Seattle, WA
- Vancouver, BC
- Chicago, IL

Ok, now on to some pictures...
 
Madison, WI

Ok, side note: these watermarked shots are mostly "me doing 'Commerical,'" wherein I try to imitate the look of professional shots without actually having the skills commensurate with actual proffessionalism...
14963179929_83785d07d5_c.jpg
Bikabout_Madison_Machinery-Row-Bikes by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15146911301_7f208b97fd_c.jpg
Bikabout_Madison_Candinas-Chocolatier by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963179719_51b407a2d5_c.jpg
Bikabout_Madison_Cargo-Coffee by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15126869176_9cca0320ac_c.jpg
Bikabout_Madison_ (30) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963325088_1e94dc29ae_c.jpg
Bikabout_Madison_Picnic-Point-10 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963325048_bf4db11485_c.jpg
Bikabout_Madison_Picnic-Point-12 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Wife took this one with the X100, and frankly nailed it in my humble...
15126868706_e4ee46e3e1_c.jpg
Bikabout_Madison_Mononoa-Terrace-1 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15146956451_0cefa411c2_c.jpg
KBRX8984 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963223179_f24c407835_c.jpg
KBRX9464 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
Nice work, and sounds like it's gonna be a cool website!

I do feel compelled to note that in the 3rd pic of post #3, both Holland and Denmark appear to have been swallowed by the North Sea...:crying:
 
A good friend from Highschool and college that I haven't seen in 15 years lives with her husband in the woods near Glacier National Park in Montana, so we also visited with them for 3 wonderful days, glamor camping in a huge tent. She's a river guide in the on-season, so we got to float a river for 6 hours. This water, until very recently, was frozen, and you remember that as soon as you dive in.

15150177305_f9f1bc9fec_c.jpg
KBRX0033RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15149775802_ed500243e0_c.jpg
KBRX0098RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

No zoom for him on the iphone...
15127151716_f6ddb6d463_c.jpg
KBRX0172RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15147193961_21e511f6be_c.jpg
KBRX0203RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

The view up at night by the capfire next to truck RV camper they're living in while they finish building their cabin. I know, I hate them too.
14963460819_47232cbf9d_c.jpg
KBRX0267RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Inside the park
14963607127_bdf3d1d98c_c.jpg
KBRX0309RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

1-arming it out the car window
15149774262_d2842b189c_c.jpg
KBRX0357RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Meeting the locals. (He was asking if we knew what happened on the latest episode of Game Of Thrones. His cable connection is spotty underground. We didn't know.)
14963606757_3ab507c902_c.jpg
KBRX0369RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963459999_169b9e1f81_c.jpg
KBRX0408RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Off the grid at the flat bridge mercantile, now 100 years old
14963606207_d9bf707ef2_c.jpg
KBRX0503RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Sunset back in the woods
14963605827_bb0d851083_c.jpg
KBRX0530RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Forgive me, but the sunsets there were NUTS
15150173685_264f30a4a0_c.jpg
KBRX0599RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963458149_a79423f3ea_c.jpg
KBRX0633RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963499760_a2c215a6d9_c.jpg
KBRX0670RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963606708_2f448ac126_c.jpg
KBRX0686RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr

We got the tent.
14963603487_81e54f71f6_c.jpg
KBRX0690RT by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
More old friends in Leavenworth, WA, which is a small ski town just over the Cascade Mountains from Seattle. I went to highschool and college with him too, and they used to live closer to us, in Vermont. Camped the first night, in a gorgeous place called Icicle Creek.... which was as cold as it sounds. But wonderfully refreshing.

Almost as many deer as Montana
15150307235_4d33b10810_c.jpg
KBRX0707 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

How kids ought to grow up, ideally
14963592829_306dd1b34e_c.jpg
KBRX0774 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

He and I stayed up later for one more beer, and to admire this view (note the shooting star)
15150304565_86a7cff0f2_c.jpg
KBRX0783 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Their youngest, already a charmer
14963737627_dd15a2e715_c.jpg
KBRX0802 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Series: Bugs On People
14963738198_cfaab03310_c.jpg
KBRX0915 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963736617_f154e70256_c.jpg
KBRX0922 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14963737598_18e423cee4_c.jpg
KBRX0923 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15149901532_41831b6e0f_c.jpg
KBRX1016 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Not because it's an amazing photo, but to prove that I'm no sissy, dammit.
15149904852_fdbf5cb865_c.jpg
KBRX0965 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
On to Portland, Oregon.

The train got in late, so we were late getting to the rental house.
14963840758_5699fe8c50_c.jpg
Bikabout-Portland- (2) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Again, trying for "commerical"
14963695009_c6ed04a838.jpg
Bikabout-Portland- (9) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

What we did all day, everyday
14963694689_81c7f21e48.jpg
Bikabout-Portland- (16) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

I set up to take a shot of this fountain / plaza, and these girls were having the best time, and when she saw me she ran over and did this. Man did I get lucky.
14963733350_595a54fe73_o.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Bikabout-Portland- (40) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15147426031_48aa938ec6_o.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Bikabout-Portland- (65) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Love that flip-out screen for going unnoticed as I shoot people biking by...
14963839708_2f03c7c7cb_o.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Bikabout-Portland- (69) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

How you carry your growler home in Portland
14963837987_fa27b7b085_o.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Bikabout-Portland-Clever-Cycles-3 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

One of my better commercial interior shots I think
15127383646_d60ce852dc_o.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Bikabout-Portland-Hopworks-Urban-Brewery by gordopuggy, on Flickr

My setup, including camera bag and copilot
15127460586_3936355fa6_c.jpg
Bikabout-Portland- (20) by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
Seattle... my surprise favorite hit of the trip. I already love Vancouver and Portland, but man did Seattle surprise me in good ways.

14963835799_020f479af7_c.jpg
KBRX2009 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

1-handed with my arm hanging out behind me as I steered my bike with the other
14963979748_e0ff0481a7_c.jpg
Bikabout-Seattle (19) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Waiting on a street corner as the girls ran in to get croceries
15150546885_b4e9b52d6a_c.jpg
Bikabout-Seattle (32) by gordopuggy, on Flickr

SEATTLING
14963978518_4beb2965bb_c.jpg
Bikabout-Seattle-Space-Needle by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Also while waiting for the girls to grab groceries. Nice Guzzi V7.
14963977947_1b4760477b_c.jpg
KBRX1829 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

By the locks
14963977788_10a7df0586_c.jpg
KBRX1907 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15127526666_b9ca2750fe_c.jpg
KBRX1933 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Sooooooooo many seaplanes
14963980868_6821e8c299_c.jpg
KBRX2159 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Set up the shot, frame it, then realize she's making that fake smile face, lean face over out from behind camera, do something goofy to get a real one, CLICK
14963976908_e171d91e7b_c.jpg
KBRX2198 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Trusty steed
14963875410_4c58ac4ace_c.jpg
KBRX2214 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Some hills are just too steep to ride up
14963831589_e4abc3f87e_c.jpg
KBRX2347 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
Ok, Vancouver.

Making friends while daddy has a beer (taken with X100)
15147709031_1ea3ac7424_c.jpg
DSCF6254 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Sunset on the way home, again the X100
15150689865_a16f2ca866_c.jpg
DSCF6276 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Still prefer the color shading and smoothness of the X100 slightly more than the X-T1
15150283542_ea43a1f899_c.jpg
DSCF6282 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

As a working tool, however, I vastly prefer the XT
14964017170_2b5fa6425b_c.jpg
KBRX2369 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

For some reason I love this one. I'm wierd.
15150689295_2cf8a84b94_c.jpg
KBRX2389 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

There's a sign on it saying "For People Only" but he had some anyway
14964123157_3784b1dbb4_c.jpg
KBRX2461 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14964123067_e9acf9b21f_c.jpg
KBRX2513 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Seeing = not as good as feeling
15147706291_fa73797d9b_c.jpg
KBRX2630 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

More "commercial" work
15150690685_5d39d3535a_c.jpg
KBRX2696 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Sunset
15150284332_7ac764ae24_c.jpg
KBRX2768 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Whatever it used to say, it don't say it anymore
14964121977_82dcdfacdc_c.jpg
KBRX2815 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

From a bridge
15150282902_88d0898ccb_c.jpg
KBRX2889 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
And finally, Chicago.

Lots of this.
14964280988_0f51bd4f64_c.jpg
KBRX3031 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

When you bike downtown, this is a frequent site above your head
14964177470_65e88f03d2_c.jpg
KBRX3096 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Live jazz
15150853215_86f5631c72_c.jpg
KBRX3106 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

They had these planters downtown full of corn, which the birds LOVED
15150852355_b221a397ab_c.jpg
KBRX3127 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Trying for anything BESIDES the usual "bean" photo. These are friends who came down from Michigan to hang out with us here.
14964278078_95f48f4079_c.jpg
KBRX3153 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

More commercial effort
14964132049_a850e7d83f_c.jpg
KBRX3157 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15150850295_c5466c9fc0_c.jpg
KBRX3194 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14964280287_3b168cd076_c.jpg
KBRX3196 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

A narrow gap
14964129629_acc43ef444_c.jpg
KBRX3206 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Enjoying tacos (wife took this one with the XT)
15147861551_549a772e8e_c.jpg
KBRX3227 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

The little stock flash on the beach at night
15150845835_22edffe5ac_c.jpg
KBRX3240 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

14964170040_7210c9de10_c.jpg
KBRX3250 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

The beach at night, ambient, 35mm f1.4
15150847825_746f91a449_c.jpg
KBRX3264 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

15150844735_a5fc97de74_c.jpg
KBRX3286 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

She stole my gloves, because she got a blister. This is upon hearing "they have a cold water tap machine!"
15150436512_938a465071_c.jpg
KBRX3416 by gordopuggy, on Flickr

I started walking before the 10 second timer went off, but I like it better than the second effort, with my fake smile. Also, I love my new helmet even if it looks like a construction worker's.
14964127889_702edabce4_c.jpg
KBRX3402 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
This is one heck of a series of (great) images! I'm looking forward to coming back and seeing them on a larger screen than my phone. Those little wheels must have done a seriously large number of revolutions!

It's funny, two days from the end, in Chicago, we were getting sorta fed up with our rental house and the pot holes and the cars, and maybe were just a little tired of traveling, maybe not. At any rate, BANG the wife's rear tire had a catastrophic blowout (1 inch slit, no patching that) just half a mile from the house. I took it as a sign, we moved the rental car reservation up 2 days earlier, and left that very night. The poor little Schwalbe tires had finally had enough.
 
Last thing before I leave it alone... the basic gear review.

Lens Decisions
I talked it through with my friend with the XE-1, and he convinced me that the right setup for the kind of minimalist traveling we did, but with such a heavy workload, was his 18-55 kit zoom and my 35 f1.4. In fact, he probably would've just taken the zoom, but I couldn't live without a fast prime for bokeh and for evenings. I'm glad I did that, I think now in hindsight that was a perfect setup for light travel. I didn't miss the 27 pancake (which only really excels at being small), the 14 (which is stellar but slowish, and 18 is close enough for most interior shots), or the 56 (which would actually have made some shots better, but 3.5 @ 55 is enough bokeh to separate the background a little... not important enough to have lugged that brick all this way). I think the 23 f1.4 lens would've been GREAT to have, but I don't own it, and I'm not sure where I would've put it, so the 35 turned out to be perfect for portraits and low light goofing around. I used it most nights after about 6pm, unless I opted for the zoom for its lens stabilization while riding. Reviewing shots every few days, I could almost always pick out the ones shot with the 35... it IS better, it is sharper, and those creamy backgrounds make my heart sing, when that's the look I wanted.

X-T1 As A Tool
I remain very, very happy. I used 8fps, I used 3fps, I used panorama, I shot almost exclusively in JPG only (heresy!), and when I knew the shots were going to be used for Instagram / web only, I shot in Small 1:1 format to save time. I got my Velvia and Astia profiles to be VERY similar, with the Astia being gentler on the shadow details, so that I could use those two back and forth more or less 100% of the time. I used manual focus fairly often to set up bike lane shots of folks going by, and the flip-out screen got used a lot as well. I went through MAYBE 1.5 batteries a day, often less than 1.0, and I have 3, so this complaint of mirrorless cams not having enough juice compared to DSLRs just doesn't jive with me. When extra batteries are tiny and $30, good lord, why would I care? I guess I don't use High Performance mode ever, which must help, but I got at least 400 shots per battery. That's enough for me not to have anything close to a "gripe." That damned memory card door, however, can go straight to hell. I must've opened it by accident about 30 times a day. Serious, serious oversight / design flaw. Doesn't cause any problems, just annoyance, so -shrug-. Also the wifi app got used almost daily to post a few photos to my phone and then facebook. Wife loves that feature. We'd do that during dinner most nights after we ordered food.

Protective UV Filters
You all know this, but Use Them. I had a very light drop in the bag, and still managed to destroy a UV filter. Cracked, bent rim, had to plier it back into shape to unscrew it, but the lens is 100% ok.

That Domke Bag
Is a star. Love it, still. I used two canopy bungees (the short loops with a plastic ball at one end) to go from having it on my handlebars to having it on my shoulder, which happened appx 4,000 times a day, everyday when we'd arrive somewhere and lock up. Un-do the junction from the bars, pop them together to each other to form a strap, toss it over one shoulder, DONE. McGyver-approved.
 
I bit off topic, but how do you like the folding bike compared to a full size?

It's a great tool for the right job. Folding bikes CAN be a frustrating exercise in compromise, if you get one that

1. Doesn't fold quickly and easily
2. Doesn't fold down small enough to go overhead on a train / plane
3. Doesn't have good components
4. Doesn't have full-length crank arms
5. Doesn't have well thought out bag options for clicking on your luggage pretty quickly, be it around-town stuff or a full travel setup like we did

We first had a cheap Citizen folder, it was cute and had racks, and it was about $430. Then we borrowed a Brompton ($2k) from a friend and took both on a train vacation to Atlanta. I got stranded on the platform in Penn Station in NYC trying to break that big Citizen bike down, while my wife had the brompton down in seconds, and had her self, our luggage, and the 4 yr old daughter all on board already. Add to it the cheap components that all shifted and broke easily, and the short crank arms that made you feel like you were on a clown bike (little forward momentum per pedal stroke effort) and we knew it was doomed. Then it got stolen, which made the decision easier on me. We wound up buying 2 used Bromptons off Craigslist. They're fast and light and fold up tiny, though they aren't ideal for rides longer than, say, 15 miles? That's subjective, but the bumps and ruts are much more pronounced on small wheels, the steering angle is steep so the handling is twitchy... you get used to that, but it's still correct to say that it's twitchy. To reiterate: if you want to hop off a train / boat / plane in some new city, unfurl your own bike and instantly start cruising around for miles and miles without dealing with

- Subways
- Traffic
- Other People

then folders are like magical jet packs.
 
Back
Top