Bermuda in February

KillRamsey

Hall of Famer
Location
Hood River, OR
Name
Kyle
In short, the New York Times article on my wife's bike travel website caught Bermuda Tourism's attention. They offered to fly us all there, put us up, feed us, and show us around for 5 days. I paid for exactly one lunch all week. It was ... surreal, beautiful, relaxing, and wonderful.

I brought the XT1, 3 charged batteries, the small Domke F5B bag, and the following lenses crammed into it:

- Rokinon 12mm f2
- XF 18-55
- XF 27 f2.8 pancake with circ polarizer
- XF 35 f1.4

I feel like the Rokinon was behind fully half the keepers. I cannot say it enough, that lens is stellar, and a friendly companion. We brought folding bikes, and biked 2 of the 5 days. Here's the stuff I feel strongest about:

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KBRX0654
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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KBRX1456
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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KBRX1550
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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KBRX1748
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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KBRX1957
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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by gordopuggy, on Flickr

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KBRX2281
by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
And, tellingly, of the pictures that made the cut for this thread in my mind, only two were NOT taken with the Rokinon... my wife lifting the bike over her head, and the beach shot right below it.
 
You are one lucky ..... nice! Was the biking any good over there? I really liked the beach shot with the footsteps; the rocks and windy surf in the background look like an awesome place.
 
I am lucky. It was so bizarre to be treated to everything, every day.

The biking is odd. No one bikes there anymore for transportation, except kids. Some roadies out for exercise, and some mountain guys out for thrills. Streets are super narrow, twisty, and up-and-down, though the hills or low. But the drivers are incredibly nice, and patient. They still understand that the street belongs to everybody there. So many people walk along the shoulder that they're expecting you, and speeds are low anyway, plus it's such a small place that everyone knows everyone else. So you can't honk and be a jerk, because that person knows someone you know, for SURE. So you have to ride with cars around you sometimes, but the cars are very nice. The rail trail is ok, could be amazing if they would refurb and pave it, and rebuild all the missing bridges. THEN, it would be world-class.
 
Well congratulations! What a wonderful gift and kudos to your wife and her web site. I love this set! The lighting warmth, emotion, and beauty all wonderfully captured. Your eye and skill set shine in these. The 4th one might be my favorite. I might clone that hanging hand on the right side before printing.
 
Well congratulations! What a wonderful gift and kudos to your wife and her web site. I love this set! The lighting warmth, emotion, and beauty all wonderfully captured. Your eye and skill set shine in these. The 4th one might be my favorite. I might clone that hanging hand on the right side before printing.

I don't actually have the ability to clone it out... just Polarr (web-based jpg editing). I'm kinda low-tech.
 
And, tellingly, of the pictures that made the cut for this thread in my mind, only two were NOT taken with the Rokinon... my wife lifting the bike over her head, and the beach shot right below it.
Beautiful set Kyle! I hope your wife's website creates some income, but if it doesn't, it's already more than paid for itself, no? NICE perk!

It sounds like you may just be a wide angle shooter at heart, which I can fully relate to. Unless I'm shooting people specifically, I tend to shoot most of the time with the widest focal length I have available. I'm forcing myself to shoot a lot of longer stuff lately, but I can live with a 24/28mm 90% of the time, and if I start the day with a 21mm on the camera, I rarely ever take it off. When I shot with Fuji, I spent a LOT of time with the 14mm. In fact, for a long time the only Fuji gear I had was an XE1 and the 14mm. I'm sure if I'd stayed with that system, I'd have added the Rokinon as well. I shot briefly with the Zeiss 12, but it was expensive and seemed kind of big at the time.

Enjoy!

-Ray
 
I was thinking today as I biked that I could live with a 2-camera setup in my bag for these trips: One with the rokinon 12, and one with the XF 35 1.4. And if I had the XC 50-230 lurking somewhere in my luggage, cool. But I really could pretty much do it all that way, with very few compromises. In bright light, I can toss the rokinon into f4 and manually focus it out near infinity with one hand (ie, while biking, which is a VERY common setup for me) and not worry about focus. And I know the 35mm focal length really well, so I generally know where to stand with that f1.4 lens.
 
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