First trip with the 100-400 - The Industrial North East

Bill Allsopp

Rookie
Location
Leicestershire
Name
Bill Allsopp
Recently I had a few days away in the North East of England, not always great weather but often great light. Two days before I left I took delivery of the Fuji 100-400mm lens. I had been dithering over this lens for months. Twice I have ordered it before cancelling. I am so glad I finally did go for it. Yes, it is a bit of a brute to lug about but it is so worth it. Just over half of the best images made on this trip have come from it. The sensible way to deal with the weight is not to carry everything else as well. I took to carrying the 100-400 plus a 10-24 and 18-135 in a very small bag with just spare cards, spare battery as well as the X-Pro2. That is not a lot of weight at all.

Over the years I have come to the understanding that, even for landscape photography, the broad view is often not the best view. The less you include in a frame the more you see of what really matters. That concentration on subject matter is what gives impact to an image. Sometime however the view in front of one just demands you use all of it.

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The industrial North East

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Storm over the Tees

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Sturnus vulgaris


As I said earlier I did not always have great weather but because of the stormy weather I had great light. In between the rainstorms - wow! Take for example the picture of St. Mary’s lighthouse. I drove along the coast road to be greeted by the sight of St. Mary’s illuminated by sun with a really dark storm moving off behind it. By the time I had stopped the van and got my camera out it was in shade again but I got out the camera, set up my tripod and waited, and waited and got cold and wet until I went back in the van and to heat some warm soup. I had already seen a broad band of blue sky off behind me so I reckoned I had perhaps 20 to 30 minutes before the sun came out again but I knew I must not leave it too long or the storm would have disappeared too far offshore to act as a backdrop. All in all I must have hung about for an hour to get the shot, when you have travelled best part of 150 miles that’s not long to wait.

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St. Mary's after a storm

A rainbow to boot. Shame it wasn't over the Lighthouse - but that's being greedy I suppose.

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The pot of gold.
 
Superb images Bill, the rainbow shot is stunning (would make a great wall poster) - so glad you are enjoying the combo and as much as I am looking forward to the XT2 for sport/action images the XPro2+100-400 is superb and great for fast action.

Did you get the 1.4 convertor with the lens (a great combo deal)? It makes a fantastic combination taking ip up to 800+mm.
 
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