Cherry blossoms – part 1 of 4 (X-Pro1)

I woke up early today, before dawn, to go to the Washington Tidal Basin and take some pictures. The night before, I’d gotten my kit ready: tripod, flash, Fuji X-Pro1 with 35mm lens, Hoya RM72 infrared filter, Canon 5D Mark III, 17-40mm lens, 24-105mm lens with weak polarizer filter, 100mm macro lens. I left shortly before 6am… and I got there about 30 minutes later than I would have liked.

I was lucky to find a parking space. As expected, there were people everywhere, and although many of them were quite courteous to me, I never cease to be amazed how oblivious or inconsiderate some people are. When I asked someone if I was in his way, he remarked that I was the first person all morning who’d bothered to ask.

panorama shot with Fuji-X-Pro1 and 35mm lens

Overall it was a lovely morning, and switching between my two cameras, I ended up taking several hundred photos in the five hours I spent there. I started off with my 5D on the sticks and the X-Pro around my neck. I continued that way for most of the morning before switching things around.

I truly appreciate both cameras for different reasons. One of the advantages with the 5D Mark III is the ease with which I can shoot HDR. While there’s nothing that prevents me from doing the same with the X-Pro, I prefer to use it for infrared photography instead.

As the title suggests, there are three more of these posts – my 5D shots, as well as HDR and infrared. The plan is for each one to better than the last! At the end, I’ll put up a poll that a few of you might want to partake in (hint).

Although this is my first post of the series, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like the photos in it. All of them are out-of-camera JPEGs with Velvia film simulation. I processed (and cropped) some minimally in Photoshop Elements… my only mistake was compressing the file size too much. They aren’t stunning, but I’d like to think there are some keepers here. If you disagree, feel free to make your voice heard. Every one of these shots was handheld.