All the Fun of the Fair

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Vivid.”

In late October 2013 I took delivery of a new camera, a Fuji x100s. I’d bought it so that I didn’t always have to cart round a backpack with DSLR, plus lenses, plus filters, plus ….you get the picture. My enthusiasm for photography had got me to the stage where I just had to have a camera with me at all times, which meant that every time I left the house I looked like I was off on an expedition, hence the Fuji purchase.

It was already dark when the delivery man dropped off the parcel containing new toy, so all there was time for was a cursory skim through the manual (re how to attach strap and where to insert battery and memory card) and then off to the bright lights of Blackpool.

As usual, was cold and windy on the pier that night and my hands were cold; my fingers were numb on the unfamiliar camera controls and putting on woolly gloves didn’t make it easier. I remember thinking that coming out on a night like that with a brand new camera wasn’t one of my better ideas and that the results would be so disappointing I’d be disheartened.

So, setting the ISO to a previously unbelievable 3200 ( ok, my pictures would be the grainiest and noisiest ever, but what the heck! I’d take a few and then go for a bag of chips!) and aperture to 2.8, I held the camera at arms length and clicked and lo and behold, a flash fired. Now this really was a surprise as I didn’t know the camera had one.

All in all I was very pleased with this, my very first picture with my new little camera:

And no noise at ISO 3200!!!!!!