I had a meeting downtown just after lunch today, so I shortened my eating time by about 15 minutes to allow that time on my lunch break for shooting.  I parked where my meeting was and then walked around just in the 2-3 block area right around for a little while, grabbing only my Fuji X-E1 with 18-55mm f/2.8-4.  I knew given the mid-day sun that colors were going to be washed out, and so shot with the intention of black and white processing (and, in fact, shot RAW+JPEG in black and white to see a close preview of the final image as I was shooting).

It felt good to do some nice urban shooting, and I think I got a fair few decent shots.  I always try to find at least a few minutes each day to take some photographs, and sometimes they come out OK, and sometimes they’re duds, but at least I’m out shooting.  I was pretty pleased with today’s haul.

Most of these are processed in Silver Efex Pro 2, but the second and fifth are out of camera JPEG.  What astounded me in this shoot is the incredible dynamic range on the X-E1.  In all these images, even if I processed them to deepen shadows, I was able to keep detail in all areas even when there’s direct sunlight next to deep shadow.  Especially amazed at the second shot, “Riding Columbus,” which was shot into the sun (the sun was just above the frame), and yet still kept detail in the sky and in the deep shade of the bike shelter.