Jamestown Settlement

In the summer, Tim and Terry came to Williamsburg for a visit. We love having them, they are wonderful folks, and it’s really nice to be able to just talk to people of a like mind. Love y’all!

Anyway, we tend to go out sight seeing when they are here, so we decided to go to Jamestown Settlement. There are two Jamestown museums in Williamsburg, the other being Historic Jamestown. The two are not related, but are very near each other geographically. It’s a bit confusing, but there it is.

Oh, before we get too far, I would be remiss not mentioning that the camera du jour today was the illustrious Fuji X-Pro2 with the renown XF35mm f1.4 lens mounted on it. This lens has an allure about it that is inescapable.

Having a quick lookie see in the archives, and couldn’t find where I’ve told this tale in the past, so we’re going to diverge for a little minute from The Jamestown Settlement.

Many (10+) years ago I bought my first Fuji, an X100s. I was a Nikonian at the time, but for a plethora of reasons the Fuji ethos called to me. I came this || close to buying an X100 in Heathrow one time.

So, when the X100s was announced, I placed one on preorder onthe ‘zon.

As luck would have it, it showed up about 2 days before I was to take an extended trip for work, 6+ weeks, so I left it home.

So, when I got back, and after the 30 day return period, I opened the box and started playing around.

H’mmm. This was NOTHING whatsoever like the Nikon D200 I’d been shooting with. Menu’s completely different, etc, etc, etc. To be kind, we did not mesh well. Luckily (?) it was beyond the return window.

This went on for some time, and slowly I came to be able to get the images from the little Fuji that I was looking for.

After a business meeting in San Diego, I had the afternoon off. I drove down to Point Lomo State Park to have a lookie see.

Beautiful place. When I got there, the sun was directly overhead and it was VERY glarey. Difficult conditions for good photography. I went walking around and found the path to the bottom of the cliff to the beach.

About that time the weather turned. I’m from New Orleans and you can smell the rain. This was one of those events. The wind came in, it got appreciably cooler, but the light, the light was fantastic, dark, gloomy, streaky, a photographer’s dream.

Being still a bit uncertain about the Fuji, I turned on exposure bracketing and went shooting away.

When I got home and loaded the images, I was literally shaking with excitement as I was hopeful that just a little bit of what I saw in mymind’ss eye was captured.

And my hopes were born out. Oh my goodness. This is what emerged:

At that point I knew that the Nikon gear I was holding onto was superfluous, so it was all sold on E-Bay.

That little X100s accompanied me on travels across the globe, back to Singapore, the UK, Greece, etc. It was the only camera I took on a tour that Melanie and I took around Ireland in 2016.

Some time later, we were planning another trip to the UK, this time with a tour around Scotland. Thinking about it, I thought that a zoom lens would be beneficial shooting in Scotland. Melanie and I had spent the summer of ’92 there and the vistas are grand, needing a good focal length range to embrace them properly.

So, looking around ‘bay I bought a lightly used Fuji X-Pro and a XF18-55 to go with it. As it turned out, it was a wonderful combination. Many an image was captured with that pair, but unfortunately the XF35mm f1.4 mentioned above was soon to enter the picture (no pun intended).

The lens was bought on a whim about 5 years ago. Upon it’s arrival, it was mounted on the Fuji X-Pro and it was magical. Absolutely magical. Dunno, brought me back to earlier days. Simple, straightforward, one focal length. Unfortunately, this left the excellent XF18-55 an orphan.

Shortly thereafter, that was resolved with the arrival of a NOS Fuji X-T1. That was an excellent match for the XF18-55. Unfortunately, this was all a slippery slope. The dreaded Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) had reared it’s ugly head…

The three cameras were from different era’s in Fuji’s history, and as such all had very different user experiences. Unfortunately, I didn’t and don’t use any of the now three cameras enough to develop muscle memory so, it was always a bit of a learning session depending on which camera I picked up on the way out to shoot.

In the fall of 2020, Best Buy put a tranche of NOS Fuji X-Pro2 on sale. Santa Claus was kind enough to acquire one for under the tree, but now there were 4 cameras in the mix. Oi. So it was decided to sell the X-Pro and the X-T1 and buy an X-T2 with the funds. The X-Pro2 and the X-T2 were introduced within months of each other and had very similar features.

I was going to sell the X100s, but resale values had fallen through the floor and it just wasn’t worth selling. I bit the bullet and bought a X100f from Map Camera in Japan. It was from the same era as the other two, so at least there was some commonality.

All this went on very nicely when the “influencers” decided that Fuji X100… were the cameras to have. Resale values of used X100 cameras shot up. The value of my X100s doubled, so I sold it off and used the proceeds to buy a XF16-80 zoom, which is mounted on the X-T2. It’s a great pair.

Well, now that that sordid tale has been told, let’s get back to the topic du jour, The Jamestown Settlement.

Most of Historic Jamestown is outside, whereas there is an actual indoor museum at the Jamestown Settlement.

The lovely folks at the desk indicated there was going to be a musket demonstration on the way to the ship exhibit. Tim is fond of black powder activities, so we wandered in that direction.

This gentleman had just started a demonstration of the use and operation of a black powder rifle of the the era.

Truth be told, there is a lot of nuance to operating these, which I’m sorry to admit has escaped me. There are fuses, and wicks, and gunpowder and stuff all to be applied in the right order, lest one blow oneself up.

Once the demonstration was over, we decided it was time to go indoors as the heat was settling in.

Our first visit was to the auditorium, where a short film was shown. This was at the end.

This sign was near the door. A photo forum that I frequent, Cameraderie, has a thread showing signs, so I grabbed a shot for inclusion.

We walked around the exhibits. There aren’t too many images, so I’ll include them all. Not any reason to yammer endlessly about them, so, I’ll just let you look at the images.