Fun with the Fuji 16mm f1.4

It’s always so much fun to get a new lens for my camera and this one is special in a few ways.  It’s a Fujifilm 16mm f1.4.  On my camera that gives me a 24mm field of view. In other words it’s pretty wide and brings in a relatively large amount of the environment that I’m shooting in.  That’s some of what makes this lens so much fun and such a special lens to shoot.

I was in a discussion with a friend of mine recently about the difference in how one person sees and interprets the environment they shoot versus an other.  My friend likes and sees the world around him up close, nothing extra in the frame but the subject. I typically shoot a little wider and bring more of the environment into the scene.

Crazy fun at the Pike Place Market

His images are stunning and there’s no questioning what the subject is because it fills the frame.  I like his work so much that it inspired me to get a lens that would accommodate that look and went out to capture images in the same way.

But it didn’t work for me in the same way that it does for my friend. It’s fun and I like the look of that type of photography and I do still occasionally shoot that way,

Seems like a pretty happy dog and human

but overall that’s just not how I see or how I tell stories with pictures. I felt restricted. Like I just couldn’t tell the whole story of what I saw.  I found myself backing up to get more of the scene in my viewfinder.

So I decided to get a lens that would bring what I saw, my vision, into the viewfinder and got theFuji 16mm. It offers a wide view and I can get up really close if I want to, as well. It renders an image that is sharp, has great color and is fun to use. With a super fast aperture of f1.4 I can create images that separate the subject from the background and it will do it all in low light conditions. It’s built really well and feels good in my hand. Technically it seems pretty close to perfect and there’s been a ton of articles written and reviews completed that hold this lens up as one of the best.

I’ve only had it for a week and haven’t really even had much time to use it. But the handful of images I got walking around Seattle with my wife

Seattle intersection with my lovely wife

(she inspired me to get it, whew! that doesn’t happen often) was enough for me to know that I will enjoy this lens and it may end up mounted on my camera and not coming off. I love having a tool in my bag that interprets my vision of the world and does it so well.

Seattle, Washington ~ Pike Place Market

Gig Harbor, Washington just minutes before the solar eclipse.  We only got about 90% coverage but the light changed to this eerie look, the temperature dropped and it got really quiet.

Tom