The Alps, Amsterdam & the Fuji X100T

Awhile back I wrote a post about my search for the 'Ultimate Travel Camera', eventually purchased a camera after much deliberation, lazily never made a follow up post about it and have since purchased yet another camera to replace the first 'ultimate travel' camera. Whew. The long short of it? I purchased a Panasonic Lumix LX10, didn't fall in love with it and decided to go back for my gut instinct of the Fuji X100T.

So here I am a few weeks into owning the X100T and I've been loving every minute of shooting with it. While I won't dwell on the Lumix (I plan a post about my experience with it soon), I just never fully loved shooting with it. It simply stayed in my bag too often and I was rarely inspired to shoot with it. I should've known the Fuji brand would be calling my name and I'm happy it's my new everyday carry. 

This post won't be a 'review' because there a million such things out there to geek out about over specs & pixel peeping. Nope, just some pics and the simple joy of shooting with a very capable compact camera that produces gorgeous images.

The Alps offer nothing less than impressive views.  

Typical scene around Chamonix.  

Made friends with this amiable bar keep over our shared passion for Fuji cameras. Bummed I didn't get him in focus as I was still getting used to handling the X100T. Good to show failures & successes too. Next time.

Wow.

Then it was off to Amsterdam for a few days to let the legs recover before we headed home. I wanted to put the X100T through the paces in an urban environment and one I'm more familiar with. Definitely starting to get used to this thing.

Amsterdam is for...

Locals.

Photo Lego Dude checking out the tulips.

Best way to get around town.

Bikes everywhere.

Haarlem.

Photo Lego Dude approves the design of the X100T. [iPhone X]

Delta Airbus 350 at the gate. Goodbye for now Amsterdam and welcome to the family X100T.

 

 

 

The Passenger from Sudan

As an airline pilot I’ve had the opportunity to carry countless passengers to their work, vacations, families & homes. The makeup and sheer diversity of those passengers has always helped remind me of the larger world we all share. One morning several years ago one passenger in particular got my attention and her story suddenly has a bigger meaning that I felt I needed to share. 

The morning started out fairly routine, I stopped by my usual place in Chicago’s O’hare airport for a coffee then headed toward the gate to get ready to fly to Omaha, Nebraska to start a day of flying. Upon arriving at the gate I noticed a passenger that I would not have necessarily expected on a flight to Omaha. Sitting in a wheelchair was a woman that seemed anxious, exhausted, and frightened. She wore a very colorful but ragged dress & head scarf, had but a single shoe and quite literally looked as if she had been pulled straight from a remote village somewhere in Africa. In fact she actually had been as I would shortly learn.

She appeared to have no one else traveling with her and attending to her were two young volunteers from the O’hare Traveler’s Assistance program. One of which waved me over and asked me to step aside as I was the Captain on the flight and he wanted to ensure our crew was aware of her story. Or as much as they knew anyway.

Turns out this poor woman had just spent the night huddled in a staircase at O’hare’s airport. Alone & frightened an airport worker found her around 6am sobbing to the cold concrete. She didn’t speak a word of English and as best as the volunteers could tell, she had somehow missed her flight to Omaha the previous night and didn’t know what else to do. All she had with her was a plastic bag that contained her documents, contact info for her family and a letter in broken english stating where she was going along. Her boarding passes indicated she had connected through Frankfurt, Germany with a continuing ticket to Omaha. 

So all we knew is that this anxious and scared woman was trying to get to her family in Omaha and escaping the civil war that was happening in Sudan at the time. She was a refugee. 

Suddenly, I knew that I had to see her through all the way to her family in Omaha. The volunteers made certain her concerned family was notified of her being safe and was now on her way to Omaha. I thanked the volunteers for sticking to her side all morning and assured them we’d see her through to her family.

I head down the jet bridge to the aircraft and briefed my crew who were already preparing for the flight. My crew was blown away by the story and was instantly ready to assist. We boarded our new friend ahead of the other passengers and helped her get settled and comfortable. Finally a faint smile broke out on her face as she realized our caring crew was going to go her to her family. This was the final leg in what I can only imagine had been a long and arduous journey.

Once we landed in Omaha we didn’t have a lot of time on the ground before our return flight to Chicago as per standard operations but I was going to ensure she got to her family before we left. I left my crew to prep the plane for the return flight and walked along side our new friend who was beginning to realize her journey was complete. We shared a smile and then as we rounded the last corner toward the terminal exit her face finally lit up. Her family was there waiting, happy, excited, relieved. I stopped, watched for a moment as they embraced, wiped a growing tear from my eye and then headed back to my plane to continue our day.