I am in Iceland with Chris Sanderson today, and this is the day before we head to Greenland.  A few weeks ago we announced that our first Greenland Workshop is taking place next August 27 – September 6, 2017,  I’ll be doing this workshop with Art Wolfe and three other fantastic instructors.  The trip we are about to embark on will give us a chance to see the places we will be visiting next year and plan out the trip to get to the most photographic locations.  We will be on board the Ocean Nova, the same ship we have used numerous times before and will be sailing on this November for our South Georgia – Antarctica voyage.  We will arrive back in Reykjavik, Iceland on September  14th.

We’re Outta Here

Chris will head back to Canada, and I will continue to Italy to meet up with a good friend as well as Nick Devlin, and we will take a few days to work our way north by car to Cologne.  Along the way, we will be putting the Fuji X-T2 to work on the landscapes of the Dolomites.

As you are surely, aware Photokina takes place in Cologne September 20-24th and Nick, and I will be there to provide daily updates on what’s new and great at the show. It’s hard to believe there will be any more announcements as this has been a year of camera and products launches throughout the year.

Rumors do abound, though, and I signed some NDAs so I can assure you there will be some surprises left.  It’s always interesting to see what the talk of the show will be.  Last Photokina it was the Samsung NX1.  It was supposed to be the camera to change things.  Well as you know that didn’t last long as it is now gone. So, any bets on the hot product for this year?  We have a busy schedule of meetings and will share what we can on a daily basis.  I want to thank Nick Devlin for joining me this year.

If you want to catch up and be prepared for this year then visit the links to the right and review the news from Photokina 2014.

So, while we are gone, we have a number of articles and workshop announcements that will be published.  We are also working on a number of product reviews we will be finishing up on our return.  Plus in early October Chris and I will be on the west coast doing the video for our next “Shooting with The Masters”.  I know you’ll love this year’s Master, and we are looking forward to it.  More on who when we return.

Then it is off to PhotoPlus East.  Don’t forget we will be doing a memorial for Michael on Friday evening.  Hope you can join us.

Please join Teya Flaster, Kevin Raber, Chris Sanderson and Luminous Landscape friends
For a celebration of Michael’s life & work.
5 – 7:30 PM on Friday, October 21st, 2016 (During PhotoPlus East Show)
The Tryp New York City Times Square South Hotel
345 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Photo Of My Case

In case you’re interested here is the gear we will be taking to Greenland.  I’ll also be using my gear throughout the whole trip while in Europe.

Chris’ Gear to Greenland:

2 x Panasonic GH4

2 x Metabones Canon>m43 reducer/adapter

Canon 16-35

Canon 24-105

Panasonic 100-300

Olympus 12mm & 45 mm primes

7 x GH4 batteries

2 x chargers

ND & Polarizing filters

Zoom H6n recorder

2 x Sennheiser radio mic transmit/receive

2 x Tran radio lavalier radio mics

1 x Rode on-camera mic w/ wind sock

MacBook Pro

2 x 1.5 TB LaCie Rugged drives

Kevin’s Gear – Greenland, Italy and Germany

This will be a Fuji trip for me especially because I have the NEW X-T2 and want to give it a complete infield workout.

Fuji X-Pro 2

Fuji XT-2 with booster grip

10-24mm lens

16-55mm lens

50-140mm lens

100-400mm lens

1.4x extender

2x extender

56mm 1.2 lens

23mm 1.4 lens

Three extension tubes

Numerous ND and Polarizer filters

Sony a6300 which will be used at Photokina

Having Fun With The Fuji X-T2

These images are from JPEGs made directly from the X-T2 with some adjustments.  RAW file support for Capture One will be coming shortly.

So far my experience with the X-T2 is amazing.  It focuses so very fast and the vertical booster grip makes it a joy to hold in vertical position.  Image quality is astounding but I expected that after using the X-Pro2. I was able to customize the Q menu to be able to reach features that I want to change regularly.  The camera can bang off 11 fps while keeping focus,  I’ll have a complete report in the coming weeks after using it on this trip.

Kevin Raber
September 2016