Shooting for the weather in travel photography with my Fuji X-T1

With modern digital cameras and even cell phones making it easier for anyone to grab a decent example of a popular location, the real challenge in travel photography is coming up with a unique shot.   One method I use to try to separate my images from the standard postcard views is to shoot for the weather instead of for the subject. Weather is the only thing about a location that is constantly changing, and the one element you can use to make a situation uniquely your own.

All the images in this post were taken from the same location on different days, or different times of day. In each of them I composed for the weather phenomena that was occurring and kept the main subject, the Empire State Building, subservient to it. All were done with the Fuji X-T1 and either the 18-135mm, the 14mm, or the 10-24mm lenses.

Here the sunset spread itself over 360 degrees of the sky so I used the 18-135mm lens at 18mm to capture two images that I later merged in Photoshop to make an inclusive panorama.  I formed my composition by keeping the building small towards the bottom of the frame allowing the line of clouds to take the eye directly to it. 

Sometimes you just get lucky. The cloudy day was clearing around sunset when a lone cloud passed in front of the top of the building. I photographed it as it passed. At one point it totally obliterated the view of the tower. This is one of my favorite shots as the ghost-like apparition of the building emerges from the haze.

Pretty much a standard view of the entire scene, but again at 10mm to gain the maximum effect from the dramatic formation of the overhead clouds.

Sometimes it is the effect of weather on a scene that yields the interesting photo. Here I used the long 135mm focal length to capture the colorful reflection of the setting sun in the windows of the Empire State Building. 

Yet another day with yet another, different cloud formation to illustrate my point. Same scene and treatment as some of the images above but with a uniqueness due only to the difference in weather phenomena.

A deep blue, morning sky was crossed with jet contrails. I converted the image to an infrared version of black and white to emphasize the stark abstract pattern made by the white lines against the blue sky.

Here I photographed the fragmented and abstracted sunset reflection of the building in a nearby window. 

Another infrared interpretation as an early morning fog cleared out leaving part of the steeple in the cloud.

Powder explosion photograph

I always wanted to try a powder explosion photo so when we had dancer Samantha Needles in the studio for a lifestyle shoot it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

For those who do not know what a "powder explosion" is, the model begins with a closed pose and is covered with powder. We used talcum powder, but there are many other variations that work quite well. We also put some powder in the models hands so she could release it as she opened the pose. When ready, the model bursts out into very open pose creating a powder trail as she goes.

The scene needs to be somewhat back lit to contrast the powder with the background. We placed two studio strobes on either side of the model and just a tad behind her to highlight the powder. The photo was taken with a Nikon D750 and 24-70mm zoom.

The View -- take #7 a time lapse video at sunset

This is the final day of my one-week project of photographing the view from the new apartment. Tomorrow it's back to normal.

For this post I did a time lapse as the sun set and glinted off the building windows until the tower lights came on at night. I used the Nikon D810 and new Nikon 20mm f/1.8 lens. The series was taken at 15 second intervals for a about just over two hours.

The View - take #6, sunrise to moonrise on election day

I greeted the dawn with the Fuji X-T1 and 18-135mm zoom and continued on through the day with the same combo. At night the Empire State Building was lit with red and blue to represent to two political parties on election day.  Click here for a schedule of the lights of the Empire State Building.

Sunrise at 6:29AM over the East River. 

Building lights at dusk. The building on the left with most of the lights is the Empire State Building.

For election day the Empire State Building was lit in red and blue to represent both political parties, with added  alternating blinking colors while the election results were being tabulated throughout the night.

The view I have of the Empire State Building is high enough to eliminate any perspective distortion due to camera tilt.

Normally, the tower lights are turned off around mid-night. For the election, however, the flickering red/blue changed to all red to commemorate the winning party once the election results were in, and the lights stayed on throughout the night until the beginning of twilight the next day.

The moon, close to full, rises in the east at sunset.

The View - take #5 panorama

For this version of the view I did a full panorama of the scene at dusk taken with the Fuji X-T1 and the 14mm lens. Hudson River is on the left and the Chrysler Building can be seen far in the distance on the right. The final image is made up of three hand held vertical images assembled using the photomerge feature in Photoshop.

The View - take #4

The changing weather continued to provide some variety for my one week project to photograph the Empire State Building from the same viewing spot for a week.  The evening sky was filled with moisture that sponged up the lights from the tower creating a bright halo effect above the building.

I used the Fuji X-T1 again with the 18-135mm lens and hand-held the shot for 1/10 second at an ISO of 1600 and focal length of 18mm. The Fuji 18-135mm zoom has an incredible 5-stop vibration reduction, which I have begun to rely on to keep the hand-held images blur free. Even so, I whenever I shoot hand held I always hold the shutter down and allow the CL motor to record several shots for each burst while I concentrate on steadying the camera. Working at a short aperture of 18mm also minimized blur, as motion is magnified at higher focal lengths. I rather liked the results of this take and intend to include it in my platinum portfolio.

The View - take #3

This is the view of the Empire State Building from the apartment on a rainy day. Using the 18-135mm zoom on the Fuji X-T1, I switched to manual focus because AF would have a hard time discerning the drops. I left the lens at its maximum open aperture to keep the building as out-of-focus as possible.