Downtown Orlando On a Weekend

As an Orlando native, I drive through the downtown area fairly often. However, since picking up photography recently it feels like I get to be a tourist in my own city again. Another friend of mine shoots on Fuji, so we decided to do a few early morning photo walks near his apartment building.

For these photo walks I shot on my Fujifilm X-T50 while primarily switching between a Fuji 23mm f2 lens and a Sirui 56mm f1.2. I have only had my camera for about a month now, so I’m still quite new to everything. Experimenting with settings and watching YouTube videos has helped immensely in deciphering the level of granular control I feel like I have over this camera. I found a useful video from Roman Fox on shooting aperture priority with some go-to settings to try. This helped a ton and allowed me to focus on the actual process of taking photos.

After each session, I ended up with a fair amount of architecture shots. I found myself drawn to the clean lines of buildings against a clear blue sky, or details in architecture being cast in strong light. I did try my hand at taking a few photos of people, but man is it tough! I will admit the first time we walked around I was glad to have my friend there to help with the awkward feeling. The second time around felt a little more natural. I’m sure I’ll get more comfortable over time.

So far I think I’m digging tighter focal lengths a bit more, considering I tend to crop my 23mm (35mm full frame) shots in a bit more often than not. With a tighter focal length, in this case the 56mm, there was less to worry about in the frame in terms of composition. For a beginner like me it helped to not feel overwhelmed by detail in the frame trying to make a shot “work”. Like I said though it’s barely been over a month so I’m sure my opinions will change a million times over.