Goodbye 2017 and Hello 2018

Continuing the blog serialisation of my popular X-Pro Series lust/hate/love story:

Part 97: Goodbye 2017 and Hello 2018, hello 2018?? WTF? Well as ever with my X-Pro BLOG, these are articles I wrote and published as webpages a while back, I think it’s May now? I’m actually typing this on April 2nd. Confused? Imagine how it is for me 🙂

Still, I guess I get chance to see how what I envisaged for my site in 2018 is panning out…

So the sun sets on another year!

I’ll spare you the my favourite images of the year post – but only because I wrote that last week 🙂

New Year’s (yes I appreciate that not every culture celebrates new year as per the Gregorian calendar) is a funny time….

….you’re almost railroaded into reminiscence and introspection whether you like it or not.

2017 wasn’t a great year. Regular readers will know that this was the year my father lost his battle with cancer. Those of you with experience and knowledge of such things will know that meant that I had to spend a lot of time in hospitals, a lot of time travelling to the UK (where I’m from but not where I live) and therefore a lot of time away from my 5 year old daughter.

Perversely 2017 was a good year for photography. I’ve used photography as both a rock and a crutch.

2017 was a great year for Fujifilm. The X-Pro2 and X-T2 had many FW updates, they were joined by the X100F, X-T20 and X-E3, and Fujifilm brought medium format photography to the high street.

The number of readers I’ve had has grown in 2017. That never fails to amaze and humble me. (I realise that a minority of you share my amazement 😀 )

This, my little corner of the internet, is after all only really about the X-Pro range of cameras. I envisaged it as a kind of online magazine, a virtual coffee table book all about the X-Pro 1 and 2. (That’s why each article ends with next page / previous page in case you’ve ever wondered)

I’ve also noticed that many of you seem to relate to the site as a blog more than a site, So I might look at that a little bit.

Today I had thought about writing about the latest X-Pro2 FW update. But to be honest, we’ve all had a very ill Christmas! Nothing serious… colds, coughs and fevers! (mrs Adam spent Christmas day rocking a 39.5 c / 103 f fever!) I think that when your child starts going to school, you’re presented with opportunities for picking up illnesses that rivals the merchant navy 😀 😀 😀

So I haven’t really got around to looking at the new FW. Plus the weather has been biblical (like build an ark biblical)

The FW has a lock up bug if you shoot the advanced filters with compressed RAFs. Don’t sweat it, Fujifilm are on it. (April 2018 note yes they’ve fixed it now)

The histogram and blinkes look good, very good – if that works well then that’s a significant improvement to how we can use the X-Pro2 to shoot. A very mature feature.

What do you have in your mind for 2018? Do you have photographical resolutions? Do you have travel destinations or subjects that you’d love to shoot?

Fell free to comment and share. Let’s get a dialogue going.

For 2018 I’d like to expand a bit upon the types of things that I write about.

I don’t want to stop writing about cameras (nor do I want to start writing about post processing 😉 )

I hope to continue to be able to borrow things from Fujifilm Portugal and perhaps collaborate some more with Fujifilm UK. (I also want to write more for Dear Susan)

But I’d like to write more about photographs and photography.

This is possibly a dangerous step…. I’ll be honest with you. My posts that rationalise GAS or review lenses are significantly more popular than those that talk about what lenses and cameras can actually be used for 🙂

But I’m not doing this to chase visitor stats.

There’s so many sites and facebook groups dedicated to gear, and gear is very important, but my desire for gear is quite small, my operational window (in Fujifilm terms) is basically two bodies and three lenses. I have a couple of non-Fujifilm cameras, but they don’t need writing about. For better of worse I have a circa 2012 X-Pro1 and a circa 2016 X-Pro2 (the two other cameras are circa 2009 and 2014), and I find it’s all I personally need, and usually all I want.

So I’d like to try and add an undercurrent of contentment to my non-gear writings in 2018. Obviously I’ll completely redact that if a X-Pro3 lands 😀

But don’t fret gear fans – I’m not done with gear and I still “owe” you the 35 F2 v 35 F1.4 post. It’s coming. (April 2018 note nope still not written it!)

My loose plan is to write about street photography more, to write more about what makes the X-Pro range such unique and special designs, to look a little at these words such as Filmic and Organic which get brandied about with certain cameras (April 2018 note I might start that tomorrow, which if I do, will mean about 5 weeks before you read this)

I’d like to write and share more about images; about making them, appraising them and the enjoyment and enthusiasm that elicits within me

As I’m fond of saying – there’s variable data and attribute data (Variable can be measured: which car goes fastest? Attribute is opinion based: which car is the nicest colour?)

I want 2018 to be a little more attribute based

There’s nothing there that I haven’t touched upon already, but all themes I wish to develop.

I’ve not really written about anything this week! I know it’s a bit me-me-me (apologies) but like I opened with… railroaded into reminiscence and introspection whether you like it or not

Next week the article will be page 100. What a lovely round number to start a new year with.

If you’re celebrating, then have a great time tonight folks.

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