So it finally happened - 3 days in Cinque Terre, 3 in Florence, 1 in Milan and 1 in Lake Como/Como/Bellagio.
Agonized for months on what gear to bring slowly going from crop sensor to Canon 6D and then ending up bringing the 40mm lens only.
Further agonizing brought me to the Fuji X-T20, but got cold feet as I was about to make that happen, bought a CPL for my 40mm lens and called it a day. On a side note - it was really sunny at times and am thinking that maybe a 6-stop ND filter might maybe be a good thing for bright sun. Gonna have to figure that out.
On another side note, there was an AWESOME photographer on our Lake Como tour (the only of our tours with the rest being by the seat of our pants without knowing what we were doing) who had the Fuji X-T20 and made quite a case. At a certain point my family asked if I was traveling with him or with them. I really did learn a lot from him.
The lesson learned (which I already pretty much knew) was that when traveling with the total-non-photography family it's important to not be bogged down by gear. Not one lens change (other than some minor filter fumbling) and very little disruption in the family vacation flow. The only incident was when atop the Michelangelo park in Florence getting the sunset shot overlooking the city I need another 15 minutes and they had had enough. Got some good ones nonetheless, but concluded that shoot with "You're a bunch of ****** losers." and then went for a lovely dinner.
I think that possibly the ultimate might be a fixed lens 35mm compact or 35mm equiv. Still not ruling out the Fuji, but not until finances aren't an issue at all. If that day comes then maybe a great system would be the 14mm, 27mm and 56mm lenses (with the 27 the staple, the 14 for interiors and the 56 for creativity).
Without further ado here's the first of what'll likely be my Dirty Dozen. It's overlooking Vernazza which is the 2nd (traveling south) of the 5 Cinque Terre villages along the Italian Riviera -
Agonized for months on what gear to bring slowly going from crop sensor to Canon 6D and then ending up bringing the 40mm lens only.
Further agonizing brought me to the Fuji X-T20, but got cold feet as I was about to make that happen, bought a CPL for my 40mm lens and called it a day. On a side note - it was really sunny at times and am thinking that maybe a 6-stop ND filter might maybe be a good thing for bright sun. Gonna have to figure that out.
On another side note, there was an AWESOME photographer on our Lake Como tour (the only of our tours with the rest being by the seat of our pants without knowing what we were doing) who had the Fuji X-T20 and made quite a case. At a certain point my family asked if I was traveling with him or with them. I really did learn a lot from him.
The lesson learned (which I already pretty much knew) was that when traveling with the total-non-photography family it's important to not be bogged down by gear. Not one lens change (other than some minor filter fumbling) and very little disruption in the family vacation flow. The only incident was when atop the Michelangelo park in Florence getting the sunset shot overlooking the city I need another 15 minutes and they had had enough. Got some good ones nonetheless, but concluded that shoot with "You're a bunch of ****** losers." and then went for a lovely dinner.
I think that possibly the ultimate might be a fixed lens 35mm compact or 35mm equiv. Still not ruling out the Fuji, but not until finances aren't an issue at all. If that day comes then maybe a great system would be the 14mm, 27mm and 56mm lenses (with the 27 the staple, the 14 for interiors and the 56 for creativity).
Without further ado here's the first of what'll likely be my Dirty Dozen. It's overlooking Vernazza which is the 2nd (traveling south) of the 5 Cinque Terre villages along the Italian Riviera -