The XF 35MM at the Fair
We all love summer fairs. Although it is already the middle of August, and the days have become noticeably shorter, the Cobden fair was still a celebration of summer, blessed with beautiful warm evening weather.
Tonight I brought my wife, her friend, and my trusty X-t10 with the 35mm F2 to the fair. I didn't expect to shoot anything wonderful - rather I was hoping that I could capture a bit of the atmosphere of a Canadian mid summer fair. As the sun faded quickly, I shot almost everything at ISO 6400, save for the first two pictures.
For a fair atmosphere, 35mm was a tight focal length. But it made me think, forcing me to move about to frame my shots.
That said, the 35mm is decent for portraits, and is a very useful all round lens.
Now that I am working in the photography field, I feel a lot more free in my personal work. Perhaps I feel like I have less to prove, although I still know that I have so much to learn. At any rate, I feel more comfortable with just shooting whatever I want - experimenting.
Tonight I experimented by shooting the vendors interacting with their customers. A fair is not what I would consider a truly interesting event (too commercial for my tastes) but I enjoyed myself regardless.
The X-t10 performs very well at ISO6400, the max native sensitivity of the camera. Combined with the 35mm F2, the focus was dead on, even in very low light. The only thing I missed was image stabilization.
The picture above is probably my favourite from the night. I experimented with several angles, and had to wait for a moment when the proprietor was in the right position, as well as unobstructed by passing pedestrians. I particularly like the almost solitary feel it possesses.
All in all, I was very happy with my shots tonight - not because they were great, but because they were something outside of my comfort zone, and because I managed to capture maybe a tiny bit of the essence of a mid summer Canadian fair.