Tested! Fujinon XF 35mm f/2R WR

Gallery (40 images): Tested! Fujinon XF 35mm f/2R WR

I recently received my own personal, brand new Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 lens, in silver of course, to match my silver X-E2. Actually, the combination looks rather retro and very nice to me, like an old Leica lens or even an old silver Hasselblad lens in miniature! The WR designation means it is resistant against moisture and dust ingress, joining the 16mm f/1.4 and 90mm f/2 lenses as the only primes with WR. How does it perform optically, you might be wondering? Well firstly, have a look at gallery of sample images by clicking on the above image, then continue reading below…

Suitably retro: the new silver Fujinon XF 35mm f/2R WR on my Fujifilm X-E2 body

with a wonderful Burke Mountain Leather custom strap and Fujifilm hand grip

Gallery: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, CA

Gallery (100 images): Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, CA

More catching up on photo processing! This is the first gallery from my March 2010 trip to southern California. It encompasses some photos from my drive down through California and then two days of shooting in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

It was an amazing year for blooming wildflowers and cacti, so I made the long run down to SoCal for a quick eight day road-trip. The above photo shows one of the abundant ocotillo shrubs in Anza-Borrego, with clusters of red/orange blooms at the ends of long spiny stems with lush green leaves. The park was exploding in bloom and the local papers were giving tips on the best places to see all the wildflowers. Well, it turns out I had to avoid those places, since the ones mentioned were packed with people (see photo 86!), many of whom were just lounging in the fields of desert wildflowers, off to the side of the road with folding patio chairs and coolers of beverages! Then there were all the other photographers in those spots too, zigzagging through the fields of blooms. Well, after visiting a few areas like that, I decided to explore the backroads myself, well away from the spots mentioned in the papers, and had a much more pleasant and fruitful time photographing away from the crowds...

All posts from this trip: California 2010

Gallery: Rhyolite and Mojave National Preserve

Gallery (45 images): Rhyolite and Mojave National Preserve

These are the first shots from my May trip to southern California, with my blog postings moving backwards from last to first. You can see all the galleries from this trip in order by clicking the following...

Link: All galleries from this trip...

The drive south from BC was mostly rainy and stormy and things didn't really clear up until I hit southern Nevada and the ghost town of Rhyolite. After Rhyolite, I bombed through Death Valley, deciding I should make time and get to Joshua Tree National Park to have a few days before the Memorial Day Weekend crowds hit. It was somewhat hazy through Death Valley, so I didn't take any shots until I got to the Mojave Desert National Preserve further south. I wanted to head over to the huge Kelso Dunes, but even there, the skies were very hazy and mostly gray. A little further south in the Mojave National Preserve, the skies started to improve and I finally took some photos. A lonely red Fishhook Barrel Cactus, with heavy and vicious spines, served to add some colour to five of the photos from one spot. The following morning was once again overcast and gray, not really clearing until I got to Joshua Tree National Park.

NOTE: Apologies, but I have noted that some of the "Back to post" links at the top of each image gallery are not returning you to the proper originating blog post as intended, rather back to the main page of the blog. I have not been able to figure out if this is a glitch due to the redirects from my mikemander.com domain host or something to do with Google Blogger. It was working fine for the longest time but within the last week, I noticed this glitch. Will be trying to fix this...