HL fotoeins

18 for 18: Fotoeins Fotograms of 2018 (IG)

Above/Featured: A test image with the X70: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC – 1 May.

In continuing my year-end reviews over the last five consecutive years, I look back at 2018 through 18 Instagram images from two major travel events: Austria and Germany in May, and the American Southwest in October. One big change to the way I think about and carry out my photography has been the addition of a compact mirrorless fixed-prime camera, the Fujifilm X70, which I obtained in May.

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Santa Fe Bite, Santa Fe, NM, fotoeins.com

Cozy cafés, Southwest sabores

Our time in the American Southwest was much more than the extensive drives, more than the 3100 miles accumulated on the road. We were eager to sample the food, and specifically, the sustained burst of heat from red and green chiles famously represented in New Mexico. The following are some of our favourite flavours with visual reasons why we were not disappointed and why we want to go back.

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Classical Gas Museum, Embudo, NM, fotoeins.com

Colours of the American Southwest

Above/featured: Classical Gas Museum: Embudo, NM – 11 Oct 2018 (X70).

I wrote previously about our time (in autumn 2018) driving through parts of the American Southwest where I also gave more “shutter workout” to my Fujifilm X70 compact mirrorless camera.

We’d seen an abundance and variety of colours throughout our journey, and upon return, I asked myself from what we had witnessed if there were sufficient examples to show. What follows below are sets of images from Arizona and New Mexico, with colours distributed throughout the “ROYGBIV spectrum”: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

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Bugs Bunny, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Bully for Bugs (1953)

That Left Turn in Albuquerque, 1938-2019

Above/featured: Image still from “Bully for Bugs” (originally, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1952).

Something is burrowing through the desert when a creature pops up through a hole in the dirt. A grey rabbit stands, brushing himself off and looking at his surroundings. Realizing he’s not where he should be, he checks his map and says aloud with mild irritation:

I knew I should’ve taken that left turn at Albuquerque.

That Bugs Bunny statement is a frequently used gag in a number of Warner Brothers cartoons. But in all seriousness, it is a very specific geographical reference. What does Bugs mean by “that left turn?” Is it a real thing?

Let’s go to New Mexico in the American Southwest, to Albuquerque, whose modern development has been shaped by the car and high-speed roads. The city’s history is tied with the creation of the American highway and one of the most well-known: US route 66.

After the 1937 realignment of highway US route-66, Albuquerque’s Central Avenue became the east-west “Mother Road” through the city. Driving west on Central Avenue towards the city’s Old Town district, the road bends slightly right and northwest to run parallel with the Rio Grande river. The road eventually comes up to a junction, and drivers are faced with choices at the intersection of what are now Central Avenue and Rio Grande Boulevard.

• Turn right, and drivers are headed away from US-66, northbound towards Santa Fe.
• Jig slightly left, and drivers continue westbound on US-66 towards Arizona and beyond to the highway’s western terminus in Los Angeles, California.

John Deeth also wrote about the “left turn” in August 2011.

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Fuji X70, Fujifilm X70, Fujifilm, X70, Peak Design

My Fuji X70: from Austria to the US Southwest

Instead of merely complaining about a desire to carry something lighter for day-to-day photography situations, I decided to do something about it a couple of weeks before my month-long visit to Austria in May 2018.

I looked online for a mirrorless compact camera, but I didn’t need the latest or a top-line model. I preferred an older model with a lot of online reviews and user comments, and I decided on a compromise among three criteria: cost, weight and size, and image quality.

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