More sights of London with my Fuji X-E2

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 1250, ƒ/5.6, 1/100

I enjoyed seeing the sights in London. Some of the sights were just reflections in the sidewalk of the Coke sign in Piccadilly Square in London.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

There is so much to see in London and there is just not enough time for any tourist. So you pick your locations. Our family went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards ceremony.

It is really impossible to find one location to get good photos of every part of the ceremony. We got right next to the railing of the front gate. I had to shoot through the iron gates to get this photo.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 800, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

I found the Fuji 55-200mm lens just great to use for this situation. I was too far away for the 18-55mm, but was able to get some fun moments like this one of the London Bobby with tourists taking a selfie.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 800, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

I just had to wait and watch to capture people in wonderful moments of expression. This was easier to do than capture the guard. They are very business like throughout the event in their role.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 640, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

In photography to capture people's attention you need "surprises". Most of the time I find that expressions on people's faces is the easiest to find. However every once in a while something is different enough to be a "visual surprise" like this guard wearing a turban rather than the bearskin tall hat that the rest of the guards wear. Also the only one with a beard.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/3.5, 1/150

The most important thing for me the entire trip was that my wife and daughter were having fun. If they were enjoying everything, then I was OK with wherever we were in London.

We all love Harry Potter and my wife has been a Downton Abbey fan for a while. So London was a perfect place for a vacation.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/70

For me this photo made me think of the "Night Bus" in Harry Potter. Maybe before Harry Potter it would just be a double decker bus in London, but the storyline of Harry Potter will forever be burned in mind and now these are the Night Bus in the series.

Technical Tip

Before I could just concentrate on capturing moments and moods of England I had to understand my camera and make it do what I wanted and not just whatever it would create on it's own.

For all these photos I used the ExpoDisc to create a Custom White Balance. Using presets or Auto White balance just doesn't give me as good a results most of the time. Here is how I do that in an older blog post.

For the most part I think you can shoot much of travel photography with lenses between 28mm to 200mm. The FUJINON XF 18-55mm and FUJINON XF 55-200mm give me between 27mm to 300mm coverage. This was important to get those photos at Buckingham Palace.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 1600, ƒ/5.6, 1/100

You don't have to get a camera with changeable lenses, you can buy cameras that have built in zooms that cover this range for you.

My last tip for your vacation travel and well all photos is to write captions and keywords for the photos. This way you can find them later on when you need to. I use the software PhotoMechanic to do all my captions and keywording. Here is an earlier blog post to help you understand how this works. For those who prefer a video here is a video I created showing this workflow.

Most likely after this trip I will create a coffee table book with Blurb so I can enjoy this trip for years to come.