As always, WordPress kills the image quality in these thumbnails.  Please click to view better quality images!

I have been a long time Nikon SLR shooter.  I swore by them.  Last year I got tired of constantly carrying around a backpack full of SLR gear, however, and went looking for a small “point and shoot” camera that I could carry with me day to day.  Note that I wasn’t sick of Nikons…. I love Nikon.  Always have, always will.  I just wanted something a little smaller.

This sounds easy, doesn’t it?  Unfortunately, the downfall comes when you are used to shooting with large sensor cameras, expensive lenses, lighting, etc…. in other words you have become used to a certain level of image quality.

It took a long time but I found the Fuji x100s, a large sensor camera in a tiny, retro, rangefinder body.    This camera changed my photographic life.  It had quirks and limitations, but I finally had my “take everywhere” camera that led to a love of street photography… a new genre for me.  This lead me to looking into Fuji’s line of interchangeable lens cameras, and to the recent purchase of a Fuji X-T1 with the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm zoom lenses.

Over the last year my Nikon gear has seen very little use, to the point where I put it up for sale a couple of weeks ago and it is now almost all gone.  For the first time in a very long time I have a small camera bag with limited gear…. and I am totally excited about it.

They say that it is not the camera, it is the photographer.   In terms of creative vision this is completely true.  There are many “Uncle Bob’s” right now who are at a family member’s wedding with $10,000 in gear, but no clue how to frame a picture or get a proper exposure.  In many ways my Nikon gear outperformed my little Fuji cameras.  They are tried and true.  Still though, I am inspired by these little cameras… and there is something to be said for that.

These pics are just quick grabs from a test shoot today with my daughter.  Wordpress compression unfortunately kills them a bit, but I love them.   I can’t way to shoot more!