~ Lao New Year ∽
Wat Lao Buddhamoongcoon
︵‿︵‿୨❀୧‿︵‿︵
Riverdale, GA | Sunday, April 12, 2026
For the first pretty calm Lao New Year in Georgia I thought about what gear to bring along. I gave my normal work cameras (Nikons and Canons) a rest and decided to shoot all Fujifilm as a challenge! So the loadout I settled on was: GFX50S + 35-70mm, XE-1 + 16-50mm, an S5 + 105mm f/1.4, and an Instax Mini for fun souvenirs for the kids. These aren’t my favorite or preferred cameras since the raw editing workflow is quite slow, but the cooler white balance and ability to really bring down the highlights of the Fuji files in their approved software is pretty nice.
I edited all the files in the Fuji approved software and it comes a lot closer than most other editing suites.
Last year I brought along the huge and heavy 200mm f/2 and to be honest I needed to save some hit points for the rest of LNY season. So here’s my photo story of the day, done with all Fujifilm cameras.
As I was heading out in the morning I noticed the first appearance of this spring rabbit. They’ve come back year after year, and I think they live in the brush in my backyard. Every generation likes to just sit in the grass.
Great performances by LDA and LAS! Towards the end there I moved the 105mm 1.4 to the GFX and shot it wide open manually. It’s probably the ultimate in subject background separation. Rotated vertically the GFX produces native 3:4 aspect ratio images that don’t need cropping for IG, but the other cameras are 2:3 so it’s annoying to have to lose much of your composition just to fit the box of a social media platform. Even FB has more options for image display.
These Fujifilm cameras are very slow methodical image making devices. The timing is very different from say mirrorless where you’re accumulating moments in bursts. The editing won’t get you pictures that look like Canons or Nikons, but it was worth an experiment. I thought about adding actual Fuji X-Tra 400 35mm film to the mix, but the cost of everything these days is just getting out of hand. At least we can still hang out and take pictures without too much effort or resources. Have a great start to Lao/Thai/Khmer New Year season everyone!
