Last weekend, Andrew and I decided to head up to New York for the day. The weather called for all-day rain, but we decided to take a chance and go anyway. If it was sunny, we'd go to the falls for a bit, and if it was rainy, we'd explore Buffalo for the day. For once, the timing worked out perfectly. We arrived in Buffalo to perfectly sunny skies, and got to Niagara Falls just before the weather shifted. We only spent about an hour and a half at the falls, but it turned out to be plenty of time for us to walk around, for the dogs to sniff, and for me to take some photos. 

I took my new (to me) Fujifilm X-E4 and 27mm f/2.8 pancake lens along with my trusty X-T5 paired with my 23mm f/2 lens. The X-E4 isn't weather sealed, so I only used it right as we arrived before the wind shifted and the weather started to turn. (I also took my Olympus Infinity Stylus loaded with Kodak Ultramax 400, but those photos won't be ready for a few weeks.)

I'm so proud of myself for not being shy about photographing people anymore.

Not too shabby for blindly firing off a shot above my head and Fujifilm autofocus.

  

I was very excited to be back in Tim Hortons country.

About 30 minutes after arriving, while we were still on Terrapin Point, the wind shifted and we were almost immediately soaked with the mist from Horseshoe Falls. I quickly swapped cameras and watched as dark clouds began to roll in.

After leaving the falls, we spent the rest of the day around Buffalo. We went to Duff's for lunch, then did some shopping around town before finally heading home. Andrew is slowly turning me into a football fan, and I've found myself rooting for the Bills and Bengals, so seeing the new Hightmark Stadium all lit up at night was pretty neat. 

And we obviously got wings for lunch.

Cameras used:

Fujifilm X-E4 + Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR

Fujifilm X-T5 + Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR

Since picking up my X-E4 a few weeks ago (after falling in love with the form factor of my X-E2), I've carried it with me everywhere. That finally paid off when a stormy day led me into the (somewhat) dry shopping mall in our town. I've photographed this mall before here, but I wasn't comfortable shooting in public at the time, and I didn't stay long. This time, I let myself stay as long as I pleased and I came away with some shots that I'm pretty happy with. 

The mall has lost several more stores since I was last there to photograph it, so only about four retail stores remain within the mall, along with two anchor stores, a Planet Fitness, and a casino. Some storefronts appear to be being used as surplus storage, but most are vacant with the gates closed and windows covered with paper. The ceiling is in worse condition than ever, with water coming through the light fixtures, ceiling panels, and skylights. You can see most of my photos feature at least some missing ceiling tiles. Many also feature janitorial mop buckets and wet floor signage.

While photographing an area of the mall, an employee at one of the locations walked by and commented on the water coming in through the light fixtures and dripping into the buckets below. "You should see what it's like back here," she said as she motioned to the back room of the location she was working at. "It's all exposed wires and water coming in through the walls. Safe, right?" I replied that I couldn't believe it was in such a state of disrepair. She shrugged and said, "the owner makes more money if it burns down."

Although I'm happy with the photos I took yesterday, walking around reminds me of what malls were like when I was younger. I found myself feeling sad for the plants that were being watered by the dripping ceilings, for the handful of stores with no customers, and for the general state of the building. I'm not sure how much longer it'll stick around, but I'll be stopping in every now and again, and I'll surely document those trips well. 

All photos taken with the Fujifilm X-E4 + Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR. 

I was recently in the market for a smaller camera that I can use as an everyday carry when Andrew is traveling and I’m on my own with our dogs. I love my X-T5, but I find it to be a bit too cumbersome to have bouncing around on my neck when I’m on my own on our walks and hikes. I would also hate to lose my footing on a walk around the neighborhood and compromise my main camera on such a mundane outing. That means I usually leave home without a camera, and end up regretting it. 

Recently, I’ve been carrying my LUMIX GF1, a micro four thirds camera from 2009. It’s the one camera that I kept when I sold my MFT gear when switching to Fuji, along with the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 II. And while it’s still a perfectly capable camera for everyday photography, it’s definitely showing its age. I find it just a little too slow to keep up with the faster pace my dogs demand, and its lack of viewfinder means that composing and taking photos takes me a bit longer than I’d like. It’s more suited to solo photo walks where I can give each frame the time it needs.

 

I landed on the Fujifilm X-E2, which is from 2013. Old, by most standards, but perfectly suited for my use case. This model has the addition of phase detect autofocus, rather than solely relying on contrast based autofocus like the X-E1, and I find it to keep up quite well. I took many photos during my initial walks with it where I’d shoot from the hip and fire off shots in quick succession to see how it kept up. I also took many, many photos of Wednesday as we played fetch at the dog park, and it didn’t miss focus once. I’m not going to be doing any wildlife or motorsports photography with it, but it can clearly keep up in the areas I need it to.