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I haven’t really done any blog posts yet that are just more generally about photos I’ve taken, so I feel like our recent (and much needed) vacation down to the Caymans is a good opportunity to rectify that.

Last week we were fortunate to be able to journey down to Grand Cayman with our two little ones and my parents. Our 2 year old had never been to Cayman before, but our oldest was with us the last time we visited around 3 years earlier.

In any case, this was the first real vacation we’ve had since buying the Fuji X-T2, and the first real occasion to put it and my weather resistant XF 23mm lens to the test. Since most of the time we were out on the beach and in the water, this seemed like a perfect body/lens combo.

There are a couple of KEY things I want to point out about the pics I snapped on this trip:

• My kit for this trip consisted of my Fuji X-T2 and 3 lenses (XF 23mm f2, Mitakon 35mm f0.95 Mark II, Samyang 12mm f2)

  • Almost all beach and ocean pics were taken with the XF 23mm f2 (due to its weather resistance offering me at least some peace of mind). In general, I loved this lens for this trip (which is funny, because I typically don’t gravitate towards it at home). It was perfect for the beach and bright sun given how well controlled the lens is compared to some of my other lenses (including vintage lenses).

• For post-processing, I shot all of these pics in RAW, but this was the first time I decided to use RNI Films emulations as my initial pass at post processing (rather than completely editing myself from scratch or starting with Fuji’s own built-in film simulations)

  • The RNI film emulations I used were (primarily) Optima 400 01 and Kodak Gold 100 01 for color, and Kodak Tri-X 400 for black and white.

  • Generally, I really liked the film-like aesthetic I was able to get by starting with these emulations. Many of the pics after applying the RNI presets are blown out in terms of the highlights, but this was partly deliberate in post processing to give it more of that classic beach feel.

• Gear Issue: Both my Fuji X-T2 and XF 23mm are weather resistant, and I was not shy about bringing my setup out on the beach and with me into the surf. That said, there was no moment where I felt the camera was exposed directly to sand and/or water, so there really shouldn’t have been any issues either way. Yet, at some point during this vacation, my shutter button on my X-T2 became somewhat “sticky” and hasn’t improved much in the last week. On further investigation, it seems other Fuji users have had similar issues with their shutter buttons. Really not wanting to have to send this thing in for repairs!

Now for the pics…

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