Summer Is Almost Over

End of Summer (click to enlarge)
A JPEG image; I love Fujifilm color rendition!
X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 28,3mm; 1/320th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

In the northern hemisphere the end of summer is closing in on us.  At least the end of summer, as we typically define it, is coming to a close.  Normally in the United States the Labor Day (first Monday of September) holiday marks the end of the summer season. Family vacations are over, schools go back in session and the general feeling of summer and all that it means starts to fade.  Professional, as well as all levels of school football, season starts.  A gradual change in the weather patterns begin.  It won't be long before the Jet Stream starts to dip farther to the south bringing cooler and dryer air.  To me there is a general sense of impending quiet and a slow down from summer bustle.  To kids, a return to reality.

The water in the image above is the James River.  Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, was settled on the James River in 1607 just a few miles north (to the right in the image) of this little beach.  At this point, the James River is about 4.5 miles wide.  You can barely see the shoreline in the distance.  Across the river is Isle of Wight County.  Isle of Wight is another name derived from the British as are most names in southeastern Virginia.  What you can't see is a rather large, 4-lane highway and draw bridge just out of the image to the left. 

I visited this small beach last Saturday.  I was just out wandering with my camera.  The day was hot, humid and mostly overcast but there were some broken clouds.  You can tell by the intensity of the shadows.  Not many people on the beach for a Saturday. Everything was low key and a bit subdued.  I suspect that is because most people are already preparing for school to resume and pretty much consider their summertime activities over.

I posted this image because I love the colors from Fujifilm cameras.  This is a JPEG image with the Provia film simulation.  Fujifilm has done a wonderful job in creating their film simulations.  However, with a bit of work, I was able to pretty much exactly match this image with the RAW file.  It took a while to do so.  

That raised a question.  Why work hard to get great color out of the RAW files when they are already present in the JPEG files?  Something to think about when the scene is an average scene and no drastic editing is needed.  I've been a die hard RAW file shooter since I bought my first digital camera in 2001.  But I find myself using JPEG files with my X-T2 more than ever. It seems to me that for the average scene which doesn't require a lot of recovery, editing, etc., the JPEGs work just fine.  Yes, I know they are only 8-bit but for most images the JPEGs work very well.  It is nice to have the choice.  I'm going to have to experiment to see if I can create a preset in Lightroom for my Olympus E-M1 Mark II to mimic the Provia colors of the X-T2.  I'll let you know in the future how that goes.

I hope you have enjoyed your summer.  No onto the autumn when it seems Mother Nature takes a deep breath, brings out the most beautiful time of the year (to me) before getting on to the business of winter.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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