[Music] I've been doing a lot of long
hikes over the last few weeks looking for new locations and I've been keeping my
camera equipment very minimal for these hikes, I found that carrying less has made the day
out more enjoyable. so today I'm going to chat about my lightweight camera setup whilst
trying to capture a few landscape photos. Before we get on to the lightweight camera setup I
need to grab this shot here because conditions are looking absolutely beautiful right right now just
a touch of mist and the autumn colors creeping in which is absolutely fantastic so quickly going to
get a dry pod setup see if we can grab one quickly ah beautiful what a beautiful start to the morning
so longterm viewers of the channel might recognize this composition here cuz it's a composition
I've shot before it's actually in my zen as well and this is something that I've been working
on continually for about a year now and I think it's great isn't it to keep revisiting scenes try
to make the best from them and also to see how they changed during the seasons as well now we're
creeping into Autumn we' got some wonderful colors on the Copper Beach tree that's in the background
there looks absolutely amazing so yeah things change so much don't they through the seasons and
it's just great to be able to capture that yeah so compositionally I think it works really well
at F9 quarter of per second ISO 160 not going to waste any time cuz I'd like to see if I can back
a couple more images while this mist is hanging around so let's uh go ahead and grab this image
now focusing on the nearest tree and that gets us everything nice and sharp throughout the scene I
always enjoy taking this [Music] shot so whenever there's mist and light around you always get that
sense that it's kind go pretty quickly and I've got that feeling this morning you know it's been
so warm I just feel like this mist is going to just evaporate so quickly so the camera and lens
combo I've been using for hiking is this the Fuji xs10 which is a really capable camera and it only
weighs 465 G the xs1 is a couple of years old now and in fact there's a new model out which I think
is the xs20 however I think the xs10 still has a lot to offer and current you can pick this up for
between 6 and 700 on the used Market which in my eyes is a great bargain for what you get couple
that with the £ 18 to 55 lens and you've got a really nice setup for less than £1,000 used so I
usually use the xs10 to film these videos with but it is a decent steals camera too and it offers a
ton of features it's a 26 map apsc sensor and the image quality is spot on I reckon I definitely
have no quals whatsoever about using this camera to shoot Landscapes with I do have another lens
what I want to talk about as well which really complement this setup but I really need to grab
another image first before this Mist dissipates which I think might happen quite quickly so
I've been playing around with this composition for some time now and it's incredibly Bright Now
shooting back towards the Sun as the sun's come up over the top of the hillside there but the
scene's lovely there's a few compromises I've got to make as is always the case with Woodland
photography isn't it got this amazing oak tree here with overhanging branch which is being back
lit which looks fantastic on the opposite side there's a few more Oak branches drifting over into
the right hand side of the frame which is framing the oak or ash tree in the background I can't make
out exactly what it is from here but yeah looks really nice and what I'm going to probably do is
just maybe crop this to a 16×9 or something like that because I feel the sky is too bright at the
top and it's going to drag the eye straight up out the top of the frame but I really like the Mist
hanging in the trees over there looks really nice so yeah I think this is a a decent shot in terms
of compromises there's a grass field at the bottom there and it's been cut for hay recently and uh
yeah there's like a pathway that goes through the sort of middle of the frame so I've positioned
the tripod up quite low so I'm including some of the foreground bushes and Bracken here to try to
hide that uh cut field because it kind of looks a little bit sort of man-made if you like and
not so natural so I'm just yeah just lowering the camera down to try to hide as much of that as
I possibly can and I think you know it's all about compromises and it wooden photography you got to
move left and right zoom in move back and uh yeah try to eliminate as many distractions from the
frame as you possibly can and I think I pretty much got the best of what I can get here I quite
like it really like the back Lighting on these leaves looks absolutely beautiful yeah really nice
let's go and grab this one then so focusing on the actually the lights better now it's more diffused
before we'll get in some flare so F9 125th of a second yeah that looks much nicer it's funny isn't it how the light changes just
over a period of a few minutes [Music] wonderful [Music] what a stunning morning
just [Music] beautiful so it actually feels like it's getting foggier which is H pretty amazing
wasn't expecting that and uh these beach trees look absolutely great so I'm pretty sure I
can make another image up here this morning yeah [Music] stunning so to complement the xf8
to 55 lens I have the XF 70-300 which has such an awesome reach for such a compact lens it's also
nice and light weighing only 580 G now there is a little Gap in the middle of the focal range but
for me I'm comfortable with that because of the extra 100 mm you gain in length compared to using
the 55 to 200 lens which doesn't leave a gap but is obviously shorter the funny thing is the xs10
and the 18-55 and 70300 we approx proximately the same weight as my xh2 and 16 to 55 lens so that's
a massive difference and I reckon sometimes less is definitely more now all three the body and
both lenses have stabilization which is really nice especially if you want to go super light
and not take a tripod and that's a massive plus Point too now there are a couple of issues
to note with the xs10 and the 1855 they're both not weather sealed and the body only has
one card slot but I've got this camera pretty wet on multiple occasions and it's dealt with it
absolutely [Music] fine so when conditions are beautiful like this you always feel a little bit
rushed don't you and I always keep trying to tell myself just slow down and try to make the most
out of every single scene I find fine-tune the composition it's better to come back with two
or three decent compositions than five or six average ones there's nothing worse is there than
getting back home thinking I just wish I'd spend a bit more time on that composition cuz I could
have eliminated that distraction from the edge of the frame or something like that so yeah trying
to concentrate trying not to get carried away cuz conditions are just beautiful right now this
scene is really painly it's got this wonderful Horse Chestnut in front of me on the left hand
side just getting its beautiful orange tips to its leaves I always like the horse chestnut as
they turn early and the rest of the forest is still a deep green color which is always cool
love that contrast Autumn often starts earlier than you think and that's something I've learned
over the years yeah it's just a a collection of trees basically we've got some beach Beyond The
Horse Chestnut and there some road to dendrum a bit further on as well with their twisty gnarly
branches splashes of light coming through the scene every now and again as the Mist clears
but yeah just continue to shoot a scene like this over the space of five or 10 minutes as the
conditions are changing rapidly so yeah lovely little scene this one I think settings are pretty
similar to before actually eighth of a second F9 ISO 160 game focusing in the middle of the
scene that gets me everything sharp and I'm not too worried if my depth of field Falls away
into the background there because we've got that nice mist and that adds to the separation
anyway so yes 8 second F9 ISO 160 2 second [Music] timer [Music] so I've been thoroughly enjoying
this little setup over the last few weeks and I think I'll continue to use it especially
for camping trips or Mountain hiking now while gear is super important and this video
up here I talk about one of the most underrated but crucial parts of landscape
photography so highly recommend checking out that video If you enjoyed this week's
Excursion please be sure to give it a like because that really does help me out and if
you fancy supporting what I do further then please consider checking out my zen or
upcoming workshops or other the proceeds going to reaching new locations such as this
thanks again I hope to see you all next week