Street photography in Valencia with the Fujifilm XT1, Fujinon & Lensbaby

Lensbaby Edge 80

Finally I've found the time to blog about my city trip to Valencia in Spain which I visit last january. It's been crazy busy since and to be honest I totally forgot to blog about this amazing trip to one of the most beautiful cities in Europe! Shame on me... ! :/
For this 3 day trip, which is actually to short to visit this gorgeous place, I brought my FujiFilm XT1, the Fujinon 16-55 F/2.8 and the Lensbaby Edge 80. The XT1 was a rental since my 60 pound dog jumped on my own XT1 a few days before my trip and left me with a cracked LCD. I can't tell you how heart broken I was after I saw that my beautiful and beloved Fuji was mashed up by my dear dog. I will never know why he jumped on the table where my camera was. I guess he thought that he had turned into a cat but luckily my dog didn't get hurt. A camera can be replaced, my dog can't. 

Anyway.. Thanks to the fantastic Fujifilm Customer Service in Europe, I had a spare XT1delivered the next day and my broken Fuji was taken care of. :) This is one of the things why I like Fujifilm so much: If you have a camera or lens problem, they'll fix it sooner than you can spell "Fujifilm". 

Fujinon 16-55 F/2.8 - Streets of Valencia

Valencia is a gorgeous city. With little narrow streets filled with art and architecture. And I really love art and architecture. To me architecture is art where people live in. And the gorgeous cathedrals of Valencia are such a sight for sour eyes!  With a pleasant temperature of 21 degrees celsius, I totally forgot the freezing cold of the Netherlands that I left behind. At the arrival at the airport is was so cool to see that the oranges are growing on the trees in the Valencia streets. If you're hungry, you just can grab one out of the trees! The next best thing of Valencia is the food.. And by food i mean Paella! Valencia is the place where they invent this delicious dish. So if you're going to Valencia, you've got to taste the Paella. It's the best Paella ever. 

Streets of Valencia at noon. Fujinon 16-55 F/22 

To bring the XT1 (the Xpro2 wasn't out yet) along with the Fujinon 16-55 and the Edge 80 was a good choice. I don't like to bring to many lenses while I'm on a city trip. Too many lenses gives too much noise in my head of what lens to use. I rather focus on my vision and image than to be busy with making choices and changing lenses. This distracts me from my actual goal: to capture life how I see it.

Museum of Art & Science - Lensbaby Edge 80

In my previous trip to Paris, the 16-55 has proven to be a good choice and in Valencia it showed again that this lens is a real work horse! Normally I only use primes but for city trips, my go-to lenses are one zoom and one prime. The Fujinon is fast, accurate focus, amazing colors and tack sharp. It's a bit bulky but I've taken it for granted because of the amazing IQ. The Lensbaby Edge 80 has always been one of my favorite Lensbabies, so this was an obvious choice to bring along with me (since the Twist wasn't out yet). The Lensbaby helps me to create more artistic images. 

Little Venice - Fujinon 16-55

If you're ever in Valencia, don't forget to visit "Little Venice" and the Museum of Art & Science. Beside the cathedrals these are the two places you must visit in this gorgeous city of Spain. 

I will certainly go back to Valencia to shoot some more but here you have a little impression of this fun city trip. 
For now, I'm going to pack by bags and gear because within a few days my Fuji Xpro2 and me will take off to Mallorca to shoot some underwater scenes. I'll keep you posted. ;)

Have a great and wonderful summer! 

The beautiful paintings in the Cathedrals at Valencia

I really love the architecture of the cathedrals

Museum of Art & Science - Lensbaby Edge 80

The streets of Valencia. Even here you see the police on every corner of the streets. 

This is a different kind of art. Sand castles at the beach

Every where you look there are growing oranges in the trees.