Blog
A blog about photography and travel.
Washington DC
Long weekend in the US capital
Late November I travelled to upstate Pennsylvania for a customer visit. I would have loved to spend a few days exploring there, it looked like an interesting rural area with rolling hills, colonial-style houses and nice small cities. There was no time for that unfortunately.
I did extend the trip to stay a few days in Washington DC. The city has an imposing center, with grand government buildings and memorials clustered around the National Mall. Other things to mention are the Arlington cemetery, which is well worth a visit, and the unique metro system. I’m a bit of a train fan, and I found the brutalist design used for all the stations fascinating.
But on the whole I have to say that the city is not very inspiring, so a couple of days is more than enough for a visit. Also the weather was mostly gray and rainy, and not ideal for photography.
Photos taken on Fujifilm XT5 and XE4 cameras using a variety of lenses, and an iPhone 13 Pro Max (due to a temporary misplacement of the real cameras).
US Northwest
Summer vacation in Oregon and Washington
For summer vacation I travelled with my sister and her family for a couple of weeks in the US Northwest, staying in Vancouver WA on the border of Oregon and Washington. It was a family vacation in a nice house, with lots of good food and wine, my niece’s birthday and all around fun.
In terms of nature, the area sports the magnificent Columbia River Gorge, the Oregon Coast and a set of dramatic volcanic mountains such Mount Hood and Mount St Helens. Quite a large area to cover but absolutely stunning. Definitely worth another visit.
Seattle and Bellevue
Back in the US of A for a bit - and a new lens
Mid November I travelled to Seattle for a week of work at our company’s office. I flew in two days early to spend the weekend in Seattle, and to take the edge off the jetlag, before going to Bellevue where the office is located. At the end of the trip, after my flight was delayed by 24 hours, I spent one more night in Seattle.
Not much going on in Bellevue in terms of photography but I did manage to spend a couple of days walking around Seattle taking photos. There was a definite change in the atmosphere from the last time I was there with lots of homeless people about, stores and restaurants closed and even Macy’s is closed. Especially the area around Pioneer Square has really gone to the dogs. On the positive side the double decker highway on the waterfront has been pulled down and the area is being re-developed.
The morning after I arrived I picked up the GF80mm F1.7 lens for my GFX50R at Glazer’s Camera, a wonderful camera store close to the city center. The GF80mm is a magnificent lens, one that I’m really looking forward to use in the future. It’s incredibly sharp and has very pleasing, soft bokeh when wide open.
The photos are taken with the GFX50R using the 50mm and 80mm lenses, and with the XE4 using the 16-55mm lens.
