Autumn has come to an end on the Pocono Plateau.  Not so much the calendar season, as that ends with the winter solstice.  But photographically, the season was over after a late October nor’ easter which stripped most of the trees of their remaining leaves. Soon nature followed with early season snow.  For now, winter seems to have begun.

It was a lovely fall this year.  There was a lot of mild dry weather that delayed the foliage peak by about a week. There were rich colors contrasting the sodden flat season we experienced last year.

Here in northeastern Pennsylvania, the first signs of autumn occur in late August while it is still rather warm.  Here and there the uniform green will be touched here and there by yellows and reds.  The small maples, who tend to leaf out in the early spring to grab at sunshine before the canopy closes over, are also the first to turn in the fall.  It is the sight of their bright red-orange leaves, scattered over the foliage and the ground that heralds the more colorful times to come.

The larger maples are often the next to go.  Soon the poplars, beeches, and hickories, will change.  Underneath them, the forest floor is transformed by the bright orange of the Cinnamon ferns, and the pale yellows of the hay-scented variety, accented by the deep red of the low-bush blueberry and other heaths that carpet our woodlands.

The holdouts tend to be the oak trees, the prevalent species on most of our local ridge tops.  They stubbornly stay green until the rest of the trees have passed their peak, finally displaying a variety of orange and crimson colors to the fading forest.

I for one truly enjoy the fall, particularly the midseason with temperatures in the high fifties and low sixties.  This affords me the option of wearing sweaters once again, the better to cover my lumpy sixty+ year old body.  I enjoy finally being able to shoot deliberately, often with a tripod without being assaulted by legions of biting insects. I love the cool crisp mornings with frost coating the landscape.

Now in mid-November, as I write this, the ground is covered with a light coating of snow. It has been rather cold for several days with daytime highs in the high 20’s  The deer are acting strangely, moving about in larger groups a way one seldom sees in the summer.  Unfortunately, one particular little buck wandered in front of my pickup truck in the last week, causing considerable damage, and ending his short life.

I have not seen a bear in several weeks. I hope they are “denning up” so that my garbage can go out in the evening rather than in the early morning shortly before the truck arrives.

In this season, I occupy my time by gathering and splitting firewood to fill my woodshed. Once the leaves on my lawn are dealt with, it becomes time to change my equipment over to the tools of snow removal.

So now we have an early taste of winter.  Unlike most people I know, I actually hope that this is a sign of what’s to come, as, without snow, winter to me is just a bleak brown season devoid of recreational and photographic opportunity.

Now,  as it is dark shortly after work, I must content myself with a book and a warm fire.

Hopefully soon, the real winter will begin.

The”late adopter” strikes again.

I had been interested in the Fujifilm XE3 since it was introduced in September of 2017. I already had 2 bodies with the same sensor and processor ( the X100F and the X Pro 2) and couldn’t justify the introductory price. So I bided my time.

Several months back, a deal was offered on the XE3 in this case bundled with the XF23mm f2.0 lens and I finally gave in.  The new camera was meant to replace my previous small bodied interchangeable lens camera, the X-T10 for one with the same image quality and controls which I have grown accustomed to on my other bodies.  I’ve been shooting enough now that I have some thoughts on where this camera and lens fit in, at least in my workflow.

This is not meant as a technical review , for this equipment has been out a long time, and there are many in- depth evaluations available elsewhere.  This piece, merely fulfills my self-imposed obligation to have something to say about the Fujifilm gear that I acquire.

The XE# is really small.  It is certainly smaller than its predecessor, the XE2, thanks in part to the loss of the directional pad, and some of the external buttons functions are taken up by a touch screen.

With the 23mm lens mounted, the combination is quite compact though not as much so is my X100F.  But like that camera, it is discreet and non-threatening, and I think another good choice for street shooting.  Though not quite as sturdy in feel as the fully weatherproofed X Pro 2, it definitely feels substantial, and “part of the family”.

It has a very adequate electronic viewfinder with the usual features.  There is a new icon on the screen however signaling the functioning of the touchscreen, which can be turned off, turn on fully, or to avoid being activated by one’s nose, activated on one side only.  So far I’ve tended to keep it off as it’s reasonably easy to unintentionally trigger a camera function.  But the screen is fully customizable as are the other buttons and dials on the camera. I may yet turn it back on.

In keeping with its status as a more amateur/enthusiast product, it carries a switch on its top plate, offering to move the camera into an “auto” mode.  This switch can be inadvertently triggered, likely changing the settings and format you have chosen (it has happened to me).  I should probably use some gaffers tape to keep it from moving.

The camera is quick and responsive, it seems to have autofocus performance certainly similar to my X Pro 2.  In fact with a joystick, it shoots pretty much like a miniature version of the camera.  And with the same sensor and processor, it has the same image quality.

A new feature of this camera is Bluetooth.  This allows you to connect for control from your cell phone in a matter that is less battery intensive than the Wi-Fi connection used in previous cameras.  I’ve played with this a bit and it seems to work well.  Using my phone’s display helps to make up for the fixed rear screen of the camera. 

The XF 23 mm f2.0 WP is a small compact lens, fairly well built with a small sun shield, which hugs the front element.  The small lens cap either fits on the filter threads of the lens or the orifice of the sun shield.  The focus ring moves smoothly, and the overall impression of quality is high.  Though I have done no formal testing on the lens, I had been shooting some casual landscapes with it, and so far it seems to be very sharp.  I know from MTF testing published elsewhere, that the lens outperforms the lens in the X100 series, and stands up well to the significantly larger 23 mm f1.4 version that has become one of my favorite optics in the XF series.

In fact, this camera and lens combination really begs the question as to why I need an X100 series camera.  Though this combination is larger than the fixed lens X100, I’m not sure the size difference is significant.  The other main difference would be the X100’s optical/electronic viewfinder but I’ve rarely if ever use the optical feature so this is somewhat lost on me. 

Now some of you are probably thinking: why should I buy the XE3 when there is a new generation of Fujifilm products, with a new sensor and processor being introduced. Well maybe, because the new hardware brings only slightly improved resolution and dynamic range over those products I currently own. 

As I’ve written elsewhere I’m starting to think that cameras in general and Fujifilm products, in particular, are reaching a point where further improvement to the basic technology is slowing.  If I am right, it probably makes sense, at least in terms of cost/benefit ratio, to buy equipment one series behind, so to pick up bargains.

We’ll see how long I stick to that idea.

I’m writing this on December 5. I’m sitting at my desk, at about 7:40 AM, the sun has just risen in the east-southeast, as it does at this time of year when the sun’s arc is short. A straight shaft of sunlight pierces the window to my left and gently warms me on this cold winter morning. It is a welcome sensation that I have missed over the past 4 or 5 months given the abysmal weather we have been experiencing.

For the first time it seems since the early summer, meteorologists are predicting a prolonged period of dry, clear, if cold weather. For people prone to the “winter blues”, this is a welcome development.

When I last wrote back in early October, we had not really experienced any real autumn color. As it turned out, it was a long time coming. Usually, so-called “peak leaves” occurs around October 15, with the foliage largely off the trees by the end of the month. This year, the days around Halloween were probably the most colorful.

If only the weather cooperated. It seems like every day I was off and available to shoot, it was pouring rain. This was true through most of the weekends in the last several months, which initially got very discouraging. I got about when I could. I found myself relying on the X Pro 2 when shooting between raindrops given that it is relatively weatherproof.

Perhaps the only weekend in the fall that I remember there being favorable weather was in early November. At that time, my wife and I traveled to New York City to support a good friend who was running in the New York Marathon. Both Saturday and Sunday were clear, with mild temperatures.

We walked the city extensively and were quite surprised by the level to which New Yorker’s turned out for the event, and the extraordinary organization involved.

My wife and I watched the race in the upper east side, from a neighborhood pub which is frequented by a good friend of mine. It was a welcome respite from the rain and fog of the Pocono plateau.

Alas, on Monday morning when I woke to take a last photographic sojourn around Manhattan, it was raining again. Drat. I didn’t even get to make my usual walk to B+H photo.

 Back at home, whatever was left of the fall visuals, was pretty much eradicated on the 13^th of November when a rogue, early season nor’easter dumped snow over the region. At the altitude where I reside, we got about 13 inches of very dense snow that was quite challenging to remove, particularly given that I had not yet converted my equipment over to winter mode.

The snow hung around for several weeks, but then, a long period of warm rainy/foggy weather finally has returned us to our late fall landscape.

So now we are looking at a prolonged dry spell, and hopefully, the end to this weather pattern which has plagued us since at least June.

We’ll see…