In the latest post about my journey through different camera bodies I mentioned yesterday that I buy my own kit, which has the benefit I don’t need to be concerned about the wants and needs (or restrictions) of brands. I do however sometime borrow some kit to try out and see if it suits me. One such occasion was with the Fuji X-T2 and it didn’t quite go as smoothly as I’d hoped… or more to the point as smoothly as Fuji might have wanted. I’d been out to Burning Man with the X-Pro2 the year before and it was good, and I wanted to see a little more from the range so decided in 2017 to try the X-T2 and take it to Burning Man as well. I felt I was pretty clear about the stress it would be under and the environment out there… but it would be fair to say that Fuji were not exactly enamoured with the dusty condition it returned in. On the plus side, the images were great, and it handled the extremes really well from a reliability point of view!

(Side note, not the worst camera mishap I’ve had… that probably goes to a Hasselblad. More about that in a few days!)

Oops!

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-08-29 14:28:35
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time1/6400
• Aperture3.6
• ISO200
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.

This was one of my most difficult photos of 2017.

This amazing sculpture from Burning Man is the brilliant work of Peter Hudson. You may remember this scene from your mythology, where Charon rows the dead across the river Styx.

The sculpture requires at least six spectators to pull a series of ropes in a certain manner. Once the wheel starts spinning fast enough, strobes start flashing, animating the skeletons. Each of them was animated by a Pixar artist and there was a magical effect. Capturing the motion and the strobe all at once was extremely difficult. I thought about it for four days before finally taking the shot. I’m sure my Burning-Man-Buds Tom Anderson and Cliff Baise tired of me speculating about the shot!

Burning Man, Nevada

Zoetrope

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-08-29 22:33:17
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time12
• Aperture2.8
• ISO200
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1.67

This one was awesome. Stood and watched it evolve for ages…

Epic Sky Over the Playa

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-08-30 06:51:34
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time1/1000
• Aperture7.1
• ISO200
• Focal Length55.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Just one of those random Burning Man things…

Sea Creature in the Desert

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-09-04 20:50:10
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time1/4
• Aperture2.8
• ISO200
• Focal Length22.7 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Looking for the nearest post office it seems…

The Sun Bear

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-08-27 06:38:53
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time1/500
• Aperture4
• ISO250
• Focal Length22.7 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

I’ve started to mentally prep for this years Burning Man. Not long to go now! Earlier while thinking through my plans, it occurred to me that it’s going to be super interesting to see who’s there and who isn’t from the people I’ve bumped into before. It’s been so long since the last official burn and no doubt people have been through a bunch of life changes. Can’t wait to catch up and hear all the stories.

Karla

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-08-31 16:45:49
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time1/3200
• Aperture2.8
• ISO200
• Focal Length37.6 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

I’m hoping we can squeeze a few more weeks out of the awesome autumn/fall colors that are currently exploding around Queenstown (and Arrowtown) and then it’s on to winter in June/July… It’s been over a decade that I’ve been here, and it still feels a bit weird to have winter in the summer months. 🙂

The Studio in Winter

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-09-16 15:24:56
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time1/125
• Aperture9
• ISO250
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

It would be fair to say that there is no shortage of neon on display during the average night at Burning Man.

Neon

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-09-03 21:12:17
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time1/8
• Aperture3.2
• ISO200
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

This was a creation at Burning Man in 2017. I think it was called “Charon” and obviously it’s pretty cool at night… mesmerizing even. During the day though, and especially when silhouetted at sunset/sunrise it was almost as impressive.

Mesmerizing

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-08-29 22:33:17
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time12
• Aperture2.8
• ISO200
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias+1.67

Back in 2017 I took the Fuji X-T2 off to Burning Man. I was interested to play with it in general but the main reason is that those Fuji cameras are known to be pretty durable… and that is a real bonus out on the playa. Looking back through those images now, I’m super happy with how many of them turned out, some of my finest BM portraits for sure. Thanks Fuji 🙂

(And yes, the camera survived 🙂 )

Durable Portraiture

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2017-08-31 16:55:34
• CameraX-T2
• Camera MakeFuji
• Exposure Time1/8000
• Aperture2.8
• ISO320
• Focal Length17.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias