The Thanksgiving holiday presented another opportunity for me to learn more about using the FujiFilm X100s. This mirror-less camera was the only camera I took with me while visiting family. Traveling with this much smaller camera was very freeing! I did not have to keep track of gear, and it was much easier to move the camera around in right places like kitchens where lots of good food was prepared.
Food Photography
On this trip, I specifically tried to use the built-in on-camera flash. There is a tiny rectangle above the lens where the stroboscopic light comes out of the body. This is different from many DSLRs with built-in flashes in that this does not “pop-up” above the lens. Seeing this setup, I thought that this would create problems with red-eyes because of the angle of the flash and lens were almost the same. This was the case, so I would not recommend using this for portraits. There is a hot-shoe slot on the top of the camera body, so I will try using an external flash unit with this body if I need to add light while photographing a lot of people.
Portrait Photography
It is possible to use a slow curtain sync with the flash in order to mix the flash with the ambient light. In this case, the flash worked well to add some blur into motion-tracking photos. I can see this being useful where direct flash mixed with a bright background can add some creatively blurred photos much like the motorcycle photos. This would likely have to be done with a manual pre-focus on the subject since the auto focus tracking in the camera is very slow. In what I wanted to capture at family gatherings, this camera suited me just fine!
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