Blossom | FUJI X WEEKLY

Salt Lake City: Temple Square Spring Splendor

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Ritchie Roesch

Vibrant Flowerbed – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

It’s spring, and of course that means spring blossoms. Flowers are in full bloom. Vibrant colors can be found everywhere. One of the more impressive places to see the spring splendor is Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. Temple Square is an icon of the city, and a tourist attraction, with visitors coming from across the globe. In the spring the grounds are covered with blossoming flowers.

At Temple Square you’ll find well-kept grounds and interesting architecture. It’s a religious site, and there’s a chance someone might approach you regarding that. I’ve had that happen a couple of times, but it was only slightly awkward and it only happened a small number of times compared to how often I have visited. In other words, most likely you’ll be left alone. This is the church’s property, so be respectful should someone speak with you. It’s usually somewhat crowded, so you’ll blend in with all the tourists snapping pictures.

When I captured these pictures last week, I used a Fujifilm X-T30 with a Fujinon 35mm f/2 lens attached to the front. This is a good lightweight combination that’s great for walk-around photography. I spent about forty five minutes strolling the grounds. Temple Square is a great location for flower photography in the spring. Being an urban environment, it’s a bit unexpected. If you find yourself in Salt Lake City, it’s worth visiting.

Singular Red Flower – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Bright Red Blooms – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Red & Yellow Blooms – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

The Color of Spring – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Field of Flowers – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Touch of Purple – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Church Grounds – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Pink Bloom – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Thanksgiving Point Ashton Gardens (Part 2)

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Ritchie Roesch

Caladium Leaves – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X100F

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s photoessay of the Thanksgiving Point tulip festival, in which I used a Fujifilm X-Pro2 and 16mm lens to capture blossomed flowers in the beautiful Ashton Gardens. This post has a Part A and a Part B. The first part features just a few photographs that I captured last fall at Ashton Gardens inside Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah. The second part features photographs that I captured of the tulip festival last year using a Fujifilm X-E1 with a Rokinon 12mm lens and an X-Fujinon 135mm lens.

Early last fall I visited Thanksgiving Point with my family. We went to a couple different museums and then, since my wife and kids had yet to see Ashton Gardens, we made a quick stroll through it. We didn’t stay long and I didn’t take a whole lot of photographs. The camera I used was a Fujifilm X100F, which I had only owned for a couple of months at that time. These photographs are straight-out-of-camera JPEGs.

I went to the 2017 tulip festival alone because my family was out-of-town. I was using a Fujifilm X-E1 at the time (this was several months before I purchased the X100F), and I had one wide-angle lens and one telephoto lens, although I used the 12mm lens twice as much as the 135mm lens on that trip. Carrying around two lenses was much less convenient than having just one lens attached to the camera (such as the X100F or X-Pro2 with the 16mm lens), but it allowed me to capture some images that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. These photographs were post-processed using Alien Skin Exposure and Nik Collection software.

I shared this year’s Ashton Gardens tulip festival photographs yesterday, so I thought it was fitting to also show these other photographs captured at the same location. Enjoy!

Delicate Pink – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X100F

Koi Pond – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X100F

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival 2017:

Tulip Blossom Monochrome – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

Little Blooms, Big Blooms – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

White Bloom – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

Tulip Bloom – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

One Tulip – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

Tulips By The Creek – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 135mm

Garden Statue – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 135mm

Tulips – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 135mm

Pink Tulip – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

The Secret Garden – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

Tulip & Wall – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

Thousand Origami Cranes – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

Forest & Falls – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

Colorful Floating Umbrellas – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-E1 & 12mm

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival With Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 16mm Lens

Posted on May 12, 2018 by Ritchie Roesch

Tulips In Acros – Lehi, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 16mm

Lehi, Utah, is a suburb of Salt Lake City. Within Lehi is Thanksgiving Point, which is a not-for-profit farm, garden, museum, sports, food and entertainment complex. It was founded by Alan Ashton, who invented WordPerfect software back in the late 1970’s. Within Thanksgiving Point is Ashton Gardens, an incredibly beautiful 55 acre oasis that seems miles away from the hustle and bustle of the city that’s outside the gate. The largest man-made waterfall in the western hemisphere can be found here.

Every year in mid-April through early-May there is a tulip festival inside Ashton Gardens. It’s reminiscent of spring in Holland. In fact, the nearly 300,000 tulips found at Ashton Gardens are imported from Holland. It really is an amazing sight to behold!

As you can imagine, if you are a landscape photographer or love photographing flowers, there are very few places that are better for capturing great images than Aston Gardens in the spring. It’s such a lovely place! There is so much beauty around every corner. If you are in the area during spring, be sure to plan a visit to Thanksgiving Point.

I went to the tulip festival at Ashton Gardens with my newly acquired Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR lens. It’s a very good lens that I’ve been very happy to use, and its 24mm equivalent focal-length is great for this type of photography. The X-Pro2 and 16mm combination proved to be perfect for this photographic endeavor. All of these images are straight-out-of-camera JPEGs. I used Velvia, Astia, Classic Chrome and Acros film simulations for these pictures. Yes, the same recipes that I use on my X100F also work on my X-Pro2.