“All I can feel is freedom!” (X-shooter George after his switch to the X) – Wildlife photography

George

Hi Patrick,

I’m a new convert to Fuji and thought I’d share the journey with you. I did a blog on the change, and then a review on the X-E1, and you can find them here:

The DSLRosaurus (“All I can feel is freedom!”)/ Fuji X-E1 review (“All my concerns about changing from a DSLR system were totally unfounded. I doubt I will ever own a DSLRosaurus ever again.”)

The biggest anxiety I had during the changeover was if the Fuji’s could handle wildlife. To give you an idea of whether or not the [shoplink 12881]X-E1[/shoplink] can handle wildlife, I’ll just say that where I used to be happy if I managed a dozen keepers, I’m now finding I’m managing 30 keepers or more. Not only that, but the RAW files are a real joy to work with. Check out these recent photos from a wildlife shoot, all taken with the X-E1 with [shoplink 12892]55-200mm[/shoplink].

shot 1 / shot 2 / shot 3 / Many thanks to Fuji for transforming my photography life, and I can’t wait for the X-Pro 2!

One of my biggest challenges in the past has been capturing the moments. Well, not really capturing the moments, but having RAW files at the end of the day that were usable. It’s been a problem. In the past, if files weren’t too noisy, they would be too soft, or not have enough dynamic range, or something else that mostly prevented me from using them professionally even though I’d caught the moment. Since changing to the Fuji X series, my keeper rate has rocketed up. We were on a seals shoot this past weekend, and I jokingly said to my gf that I thought I might have as many as 40 keepers. I laughed when I said it as it was a joke, as I expected *hopefully* perhaps up to 20 *in my dreams*. I’ve just finished working through the RAWs today and I have 36 keepers! For example, here is a grey seal mother and her pup having a kiss out in the ocean. I knew I’d caught a once in a lifetime moment, but in my heart I doubted my gear. Had my gear caught focus? Would there be enough dynamic range as I was shooting almost into the sun. Would the pup’s white fur be too burned out? What would the noise be like? Again, the RAW files astounded me. Here’s the photo. Not only was it sharp, there was hardly any noise, and I was able to pull the detail out of the pup’s white fur with no problems at all.

Here is a heavily backlit sun shot of a male grey seal mating with a female. I couldn’t believe how much dynamic range there was to play with in the RAW file. I know for a fact that if I’d taken this with my old gear, this shot would have ended up in the recycle bin as the highlights would have been totally burned out.

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Here is another example of a heavily backlit subject, a bull grey seal who decided to come out of the water to check me out. You can’t mess around with wildlife when shots like this present themselves, you just have to take the shots. Again, I was convinced that the RAWs would be unusable, but as you can see there is plenty of detail and colour in the highlights and in the shadows. This is another keeper I most definitely would not have had with my old gear.

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The details and textures in the RAW files are also astonishing. You can’t really see it in these small jpgs, but this seal you could almost reach out and touch in the full sized image it’s fur and whiskers look so real.

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As to favourites? Well, here are three very recent ones [Patrick: one is shared at the beginning of this post] from the last couple of weeks which I love, and which I’ll be entering into a top Scottish photography competition – a family portrait, a pup, and a seal in the surf. Next week I’ll be trying out the [shoplink 12887]18-55mm[/shoplink] with wildlife, and I’m excited about it. I’ve not been this excited about photography for a long, long time.

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