30 Days with the Fuji X-Pro3: Day 15

Today’s image is a sharp left turn from a lot of the images I’ve been posting so far. For the most part, the X-Pro3 is at home with wider angle lenses in a street or documentary setting..just like the Leica and Fuji film rangefinders it was inspired by. The X-Pro3 is a modern camera, though, and that affords it a greater degree of flexibility compared to the old film rangefinders.

In some cases (and I’m becoming more and more convinced that this is the majority of cases) this flexibility is a creative hinderance. In this case, though, I’m really glad I wasn’t boxed into shooting this stunning sunset with a wide angle lens or a film stock that wouldn’t do the colors justice. Of course it’s possible to capture an image like this on an old Leica rangefinder, but you’d have to be lucky/rich/crazy enough to own a telephoto lens and be able to hit focus (though in this case simply setting focus to infinity would be good enough). And you’d have to feel comfortable burning a lot of frames until you get one with the geese in the perfect position. And you’d have to do all that without the assurance that you got a keeper.

Like I said, in a lot of cases and for a lot of people that might be the better way to create. But for me in this situation, I’m really glad I had a modern camera with an excellent, low-lag electronic viewfinder and a relatively inexpensive yet incredibly sharp telephoto lens. Technology is pretty amazing.