Morning Flare and Classic Chrome

Dog walker approaching the sun.
FUJIFILM X-E2 XF 35mm f8.0 1/2500s Into The Morning Sun

I found myself back in Horsham Park this week as the dramatic low winter sun began warming up the frozen landscape.

The XF 35mm lens I’m using for the February challenge lacks the more advanced coatings of it’s newer brothers so is prone to flaring, which was difficult to control in the morning light. The top image was particularly badly affected but was rescued with a little selective desaturation. Flare isn’t always a bad thing though and can be used to great effect in the right situations.

Ram sculpture covered in frost
FUJIFILM X-E2 35mm f1.4 1/1585s Frozen Ram

All images in this post were shot in Classic Chrome (CC) with +2 colour, and are almost straight out of camera aside from a little cropping (and the aforementioned fix). CC has become my favourite of the Fuji film simulations and is the only in-camera colour mode that I use these days. After having spent years cranking up the saturation on my images I’ve really come to appreciate a more restrained use of colour since switching to Fujifilm.

Two trees in silhouette
FUJIFILM X-E2 XF 35mm f5.6 1/2091s Twin Trees

I think CC works particularly well here because it really emphasises the wintery feel and intense sunlight from that morning, even if it had a tendency to push the sky even more cyan than it already was sometimes.

Woman walking to work on frozen morning
FUJIFILM X-E2 35mm f5.6 1/220s Heading To Work

There is a pattern emerging in my shots over the past six weeks: the humble bench. Completely unintentional, however they’ve proven to be a convenient subject and prop.

Frozen Bench warmed by Sun
FUJIFILM X-E2 XF 35mm f2.8 1/4068s Defrosting in the Sun

I can’t decide whether to make more of an effort to leave them out in the future or fully embrace it as a theme; a bench gallery perhaps?

Bench in a field
FUJIFILM X-E2 35mm f8.0 1/108s Lonely Bench #2

Once again time was fleeting and the office beckoned, but this won’t be the last you’ll see of Horsham Park.

Man walking to work on frosty morning
FUJIFILM X-E2 35mm f5.6 1/861s Heading To Work #2