As 2024 is near a close, I wanted to write about how the year kicked off. It is the 1 year anniversary of me hitting the submit button on the final version of this photo essay for FujiLove. The submission was not without its challenges because during the process, I was hit with the Covid bug and could barely pull my head off a pillow. A deadline is a deadline though and I pushed through and was able to get it completed. Once delivered, the wonderful people at FujiLove also reached out and wanted to use one of the images on the cover. Yes please. The article premise was about traveling with 1 camera and 1 lens and how you can, not only make it work, but find it freeing as well.

If you are not familiar with FujiLove Magazine, they put together a quality monthly online magazine featuring all things Fujifilm. Along with the magazine, there is blog posts, podcasts, reviews and other great things around the X and GFX systems. Please check them out at http://www.fujilove.com

My journey with Fujifilm:

To make a long story short, in 2019, I was not photographing as much and ended up selling most of my gear. When the dust settled, my only remaining digital was a Fujifilm X Pro 2 I had collecting dust. Now I was no stranger to x series cameras having owned the original x100, x pro series and tried the XT series, but nothing ever stuck around in my camera bag. The difference this time was it was all I had, so I was able to use the system distraction free.

That summer of 2019, we went to Europe and I was able to use solely the Fuji X Pro 2 with just a 35mm lens for the entire trip. Afterwards, I sat on the images before editing them, but once I finally got around to going through them, I couldn’t believe the results.

The following summer, us and some friends took our families on a national park trip out west to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and the Badlands. Still, my only camera was that x pro 2. the difference this trip though, I tossed in a custom recipe and added JPG as well as raw. Still unsure of the in camera ability, I needed the raw safety blanket.

After this trip, when I finally sat down to review the images, I didn’t touch a single RAW file. Since these two trips, we have now crossed into the 20’s for national parks visited and each park has had my x pro 2 along with the same 35mm f2 lens. I still prefer my original JPG recipe from all those years ago. It gives me consistent results I need and keeps me from sitting behind a computer editing.

If you would like to check out the issue, look to for January 2024 release and article title “to Fuji with all sincerity”