Glazer’s Photofest ’23 (and I have a backlog to tackle)

It has been a very long time since I’ve updated my site. Earlier in the year a large move preoccupied me, but later on social anxiety was (and still is) the main obstacle. I still live in Skagit County, but no longer live in a dangerous part of it. Despite the fact I’m now in safer pasture, I seem to be withdrawing socially to the point I metaphorically need my arm twisted to do almost anything in public that isn’t work related in some way. I can’t seem to do anything without belittling myself one way or another, and my judgement seems impaired as a result.

What finally got me to post here again was I decided to go to Glazer’s Photofest since the timing lined up for me to attend a couple events Fujifilm was sponsoring run by David Julian. These included both a lecture and a photowalk to South Lake Union, and there was an emphasis on taking pictures others didn’t see as well as using angles requiring a position other than standing.

The best picture I got following this methodology got praise from those I had shown it to at the event.

However, I came to similar conclusions earlier this year in the tulip fields. I didn’t spend as much time in the fields this year, but got better pictures using largely the same approach.

The Acros + Color Filter feature was also discussed. While the scenery out here wasn’t as conducive to this in my opinion, I did still give it a few shots.

While the lecture covered being opportune striking up conversations with subjects and offering to give a print afterwards in exchange for being in a picture, I’m still an opportunist with things that aren’t people. This picture of a gosling was snuck in by the geese already standing guard for a crowd with shorter lenses, but I had a slightly longer one from behind (and I’ll give away there’s also a crop here). Further, I got into a conversation about objectively bad lenses still having their uses from this picture; since I used an EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM for it. (This lens is an early 2000s “long range kit lens” that has a reputation for bad mannerisms and poor performance. It earned its place in my bag with how it can soften water in harsh light, and it was also just the ticket for the highlights here too!)

The lecture also discussed looking for a picture in a scene others aren’t seeing. (To paraphrase: “Don’t be the group that’s all taking the same picture, find the different picture standing in the same place”.) While not exactly the same concept, I ran with a similar one: During the walk to South Lake Union from Glazer’s, I kept my camera at the ready with a slightly long lens (an EF 100mm f/2 in this case). This got me some nice shots of a parked Vespa right at the start of the walk.

Speaking of walking, I had a haphazard time parking. Ample free parking was said to be offered, but I couldn’t seem to find it; so I wound up parking all the way beyond Fremont and got an urban hike to and from parking. (I could have just taken buses most of the way there, but my RRFP card for them is broken so that would be arduous in its own way.) This exhausted me to the point I barely made it that last block to my car and lied in anguish when I got home, but there’s more pictures to be had from that trudge.

The Fremont Bridge was on full display both ways, and I even got to film it opening and closing after the “Don’t Walk” bell caught me halfway across it on the way back to my car. However, the resultant videos are large enough I’ll have to find some other way to share them (and I’m still prone to talking over things I shouldn’t).

While this picture is not exactly a demonstration of its full potential, I did (irresponsibly) pick up the new XF 30mm Macro and had it equipped on the way back to where I parked. The little bits of sales pitch Fuji and Glazer’s were able to wedge into the lecture certainly worked, notably the “Try the lens before you buy at your local camera shop, rather than ordering out of a catalog”. Usually this pitch isn’t effective on me; but for a lens like this where focus mannerisms are paramount, it was worth it. (Oddly what reinforced this was being burned by a used EF Compact Macro that doesn’t get along with my Fuji that I also bought here a couple years ago. Since I didn’t bring my camera in with me back then, that one is my own fault.)