I went up to Williston, ND for a couple days a couple weeks ago, and instead of hauling up all of my big Nikon gear like I usually do I decided to just bring my X-T1 and 3 lenses, the 18mm f/2, 23mm f/1.4, and 56mm f/1.2. This combo along with around 6 batteries in a bag weighs less than my D4 + 24-70 f/2.8 combo, so that was very nice.
I went up to see my wife, since she is an engineer for SRF Consulting here in North Dakota and her project is out there in Williston, but I figured I could take a few pictures while I was out there. Now she did still have to work, though, so I got to hang out with her on her paving site, where she is an inspector.
Before I go more into it, it seems that every time I drive to Williston there is an amazing sunset.
I went up to see my wife, since she is an engineer for SRF Consulting here in North Dakota and her project is out there in Williston, but I figured I could take a few pictures while I was out there. Now she did still have to work, though, so I got to hang out with her on her paving site, where she is an inspector.
Before I go more into it, it seems that every time I drive to Williston there is an amazing sunset.
Every single time. X-T1 23mm f/2.8 1/125 ISO 800. Taken out of the sunroof of my car while I was driving...
Now a construction site is a dangerous place, lots of large machinery and gruff workers about, so I got a good health and safety talking to (from my wife), and a high-vis jacket and hardhat, and they set to work. I have never really been one to pay attention to construction work, but the concrete paving process is actually quite complicated and time-consuming. Pretty much the whole time I was there (a couple days) they got through about a mile of highway. Crazy.
My wife (in the SRF vest) surveying her domain as they get started. X-T1, 23mm f/5.6 1/300 ISO 200
Without getting super close I was definitely interested to see the process from the perspective of both a Mechanical Engineer and a photographer. Lots of small intricate moving parts in the big machines all moving perfectly with all of this dirt and grit flying everywere. After seeing what one piece of sand can do to a robotic system it was amazing that it all works ever. They pretty much just deposit a giant pile of concrete in front of the big red machine, which then smashes it all down into a near-flat slab of never ending road.
 Pile. X-T1 23mm f/13 1/60 ISO 200 |  What comes out of the back of the machine. X-T1 18mm f/2 1/3800 ISO 200 |
 Finishers. Making sure everything is nice and smooth. X-T1 18mm f/8 1/1000 ISO 200 |  Work it. X-T1 23mm f/8 1/250 ISO 200 |
There is also pretty much an endless line of gigantic dump-trucks constantly depositing concrete from a plant somewhere near-bye into the big yellow machine that then deposits it in front of the actual paving machine. Throughout this whole process my wife and her fellow engineers have to make sure that everything is working smoothly between the concrete deliveries, the surveyors, the finishers, the operators, and anyone else you can think of.
On-site conference. X-T1 18mm f/8 1/250 ISO 200
A few more photos here before I close out this blog post. Not too many people want to read about construction, so I will finish out with my thoughts on how the X-T1 performed here:
What I liked:
Handling:
Having a smaller camera in this situation I feel was definitely beneficial. I could move around more easily and stay out of the way more than if I had been carrying my D4 or D800.
Exposure:
Being able to see the exposure in the viewfinder is awesome. With a hugely backlit scene in a lot of these photos I was able to dial in my exposure compensation in order to preserve details in the much more interesting foreground. With my Nikon gear I would have had to take a few test shots to dial in the settings so that the backlighting wasn't as bad.
Tilting Screen:
Sometimes to get the super low shots the tilting screen was awesome, but it also allowed me to be more on the look-out for machinery or workers and stay out of the way more than if I would have had my face pressed into a DSLR viewfinder the whole time.
Image Quality:
In this situation the image quality was awesome. Yes it was a low ISO thing, but there is something about the Fuji colors that I love over even my D800.
WiFi to phone:
A lot of my Wife's family doesn't really know what it is that she does, so it was really nice to be able to shoot the Jpeg photos (shooting in RAW+ Jpeg) to my phone and post them to facebook or instagram. Those are some of my most-liked images, actually. It was nice
What I didn't necessarily like:
Weather Sealing:
None of the lenses that I was using are weather sealed, and it is QUITE dusty in Williston. I had to do quite a lens and sensor cleaning when I got home. The perfect lens for this whole day would have been the upcoming in 2015 Fujifilm 16-55 f/2.8 R WR weather sealed lens. So if Fujifilm wants to send me one of those I'll go take more construction photos with this great system.
Battery life:
Since I was using the LCD on the back a bit, the battery life did suffer a bit. I think in around 7 hours of shooting that day I went through 3 or 4 batteries. That was with leaving the camera on with the EVF+eye sensor going, so that could have contributed a bit, but not too much.
And since that was a HUGE block of text, I'll leave you with one more super artsy photo:
Until I stop being lazy and actually write more of these...
Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios
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