[Snapshot] Corona break

Genieten van buiten en zon tijdens corona tijd. Taken with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 | 27 mm | f/4.0 | iso 200.

Recently my girlfriend and I had to go into town. I was in need of a haircut and she was in need of some new clothes. Neither of us are very fond of busy shopping streets, and this aversion has only increased with the situation around Corona. We were therefore somewhat unpleasantly surprised when the city centre was busy (wednesday, around 14:00). In our minds busier than usual. Apparently shopping is part of what people consider ‘essential’. Mind you, we were there too, so have no right to judge.

My haircut was done fairly quickly, and after hanging around a bookstore, deliberating wether or not to buy Jimmy Nelson’s ‘Before they pass away’, I waited for my girlfriend, ready to go home. This group of people caught my attention. They were clearly enjoying the outside, and the sun, while they still could (at a distance). I also noticed the great number of people carrying plastic coffee cups. According to the news, buying coffee to go is the new ‘going out for lunch’. I’m afraid this Corona year has undone most of the good progress we had reducing our plastic waste, with all those disposable masks and coffee cups..

Navigating the maze

Someone I met today on a photography forum said it quite eloquently: ‘Yikes, soo many settings!’. He was speaking about the new Fujifilm camera, the Fujifilm X-S10. I don’t know anything about it, and don’t feel the need to. I have given up on the numbers and letters Fujifilm uses to give all it’s camera-lines a name. Names which are evolving and changing as well, so it is difficult to keep track of. Each new camera has a slightly different set of features to distinguish it from its neighbour. We should make a flowchart! Does it have a flip-up/down screen, follow the arrow to the T section. Is it weather sealed? Follow the arrow to the T-single digit section, that sort of thing. One thing, however, is shared by most, if not all of these new cameras . The abundance of settings!

I admit I did not grow up at the height of the digital era. We got our first computer when I was about 12 I guess, and I got my first mobile phone when I was 16. It was not a very smart phone. It could switch its cover, you could somehow get it to use an mp3 as ringtone, and you could text and call. After that, progress began to do its thing, and before long I was the proud owner of an iPhone 4, a laptop, a digital camera, and all the rest of modern necessities. I consider myself to be quite tech-savvy, in that I can usually operate these digital devices without much trouble. This is especially true for cameras, of which I have owned many, from many brands, and as such can usually find my way around quite easily. As I have been using Fujifilm as my camera brand for almost 9 years now, I can navigate their cameras blindfolded, helped by the fact that their design philosophy is quite tactile, so long as you don’t need to dive too deep into the menus. Every new generation has been thus been welcomed with open arms, and the menus were quickly explored to set up the camera to my exact needs, and to make the most of new features possible. Until now.

I can sympathise with the comment made by the anonymous guy at the photography forum (a Fuji forum, no less, with visitors used to Fuji cameras). Because I also recently bought a new camera. Not the X-S10. I bought the X-T4, whose simple naming I can understand, as it is the fourth generation of the T line. I have owned the X-T1 and the X-T2 before the X-T4, therefore the naming was familiar. The settings, however, weren’t. Somewhere between the time I bought my X-T2 (January 2017) and the X-T4 (June 2020), Fujifilm somehow found a bunch of extra settings lying around that they thought would fit perfectly in their new camera. It is not just that there are more things that you can set, it is also that those settings can be set, and tweaked, and even different settings that are set can then be sub-set. It’s like navigating the labyrinth of The Maze Runner. Or, for those of less youthful persuasion, the Minotaur.

A good example is the continuous autofocus. Even my first Fuji X-E1 camera, back in 2012, had continuous autofocus. It is set by the switch on the front left of the camera, and this switch has not moved since. It was there, very familiar, M, C, and S, when I took my Fuji X-T4 from its box. Continuous autofocus was always a bit of an adventure. It could go well, and you would love the results. It could also go horribly wrong, delivering a heap of pictures that were al out of focus and could go straight into the trash. They have worked on this since the X-E1, and now you can set your continuous autofocus to custom settings, of which there are 5. Each setting for a different kind of movement. Great. And then there is the 6th setting, where you can sub-set all parameters for your own kind of movement. And the continuous autofocus is just one setting that you can tweak. Then there are the video settings, ranging from HD to 4K to 24.95 frames per second to 59.9 to F-log recording and who knows what else.

All of this makes the X-T4 (and I guess the new X-S10) a very flexible and capable camera. It is probably one of the best cameras out there, and certainly the best camera Fuji has produced up to this point. At the same time it is the reason I have not used any of these settings. I fully admit I am of the generation that never reads a manual, and without this, there is just too much menu to navigate to fully research, find, and adjust all the settings that are possible on this camera. I have had this camera now for 6 months, and I have not even looked at most menus. Maybe, somewhere, sometime, I will have no choice to take the manual, and go through all the settings one by one. See what they do, see what fits best with my shooting style, and create my own continuous autofocus settings. But for the first time since I have owned cameras, this is a thing. 

I’m sure that most of these settings will be very useful to some, and maybe there is even someone out there who will use it all. I think however, that 97% of users do not. Nothing wrong in this, of course. Better to have it, and not use it, than need it and not have it, though you do feel this multitasking capability in your wallet.I bought my X-T4 for two main reasons: the image stabilisation, which I ‘need’ for video, so that I don’t need a dedicated lens with stabilisation, and the photo-video switch, so that I can quickly switch between photography and video, something that is very handy during assignments. Aside from that, for what I do, the video features in the X-T2 were good enough and I think I may never get around to tweaking all things in the menus.

The good thing about all this is that even without doing all of that, the X-T4 remains a great camera. You don’t need to tweak settings you’ve never heard of to have a great shooting experience, and I’ve even found two more reasons to justify having bought it. The fact that you can name focal length and lens manufacturer to non electronically coupled lenses so that they appear in the exif data, and the shutter sound. Or rather, the lack thereof. The shutter has become my favourite feature since I had to photograph a defence ceremony where you could hear a pin drop, but not my camera!

Last but not least: this complicated digital beast of a camera makes me appreciate the simple experience of shooting with the old (old, it is barely 8 years since it was announced) X-Pro1. You can not choose between electronic of mechanical shutter, there is only mechanical. Too many focus points to focus quickly with the joystick? Not a problem, there is no joystick, and very few points. Video settings? It doesn’t even have a dedicated video button. And yet, this simplicity gives a sense of satisfaction. Satisfaction that you don’t need to think about settings. The satisfaction that you can just shoot, and all other things go away. The satisfaction that you don’t need to find your way out of the maze: there is no maze!

I hope everyone is in good health in these strange times. Keep happy, keep shooting. As I’ve not added any photographs to this post, I promise to post some images soon 😉

[snapshot] Autumn

The trees are turning yellow and orange, and the mushrooms are popping up: it’s autumn!

Fujifilm X-T2, Helios 44M-4 at f/2. Acros + green film simulation.

Vintage lenses: flawed but beautiful

Over the years I have acumulated quite a lot of gear. While I will probably never stop lusting for new shiny cameras and lenses, with my current collection I can fulfill any project to my, and my clients, satisfaction. From photography to videography, from macro to landscapes to watersports, it is all there. As the mirrorless photography world matures, upgrades are less interesting each year, and I will keep working with what I have for the foreseeable future. 

However…

Where the new modern models and lenses start to loose their attraction, the vintage photography world does not. Over the years I’ve bought and sold quite a few old vintage lenses, ranging from the 50s to the 80s and to modern non-autofocus products. When I started out with my very first dslr (the Canon EOS 1000D, for those interested), manual focussing was something from the stoneage. Outdated and obsolete. I’m from a generation that had never seen cameras without autofocus. As such, it was hard to imagine the tactile feeling of focusing a lens, and the joy that this can bring. It took me a while to get into the idea of using vintage lenses on modern bodies, and that this could give a different experience from using autofocus lenses. Not necessarily always better, but different and pleasing nonetheless. 

Over the years since my first MF lens, the Samyang 12 mm f/2 (which I’m still using professionally, in favour of the Zeiss Touit 12 mm with autofocus), I’ve collected quite a lot manual (vintage) lenses, and it is not seldom that I step out of my front door with a bag that contains more manual focus lenses that native autofocus lenses. 

A distinction must be made here between vintage and non vintage manual focus lenses. Some manufacturers still make modern lenses without autofocus (Leica, Voigtländer, modern companies like Samyang), which are manual focus but specially designed for modern digital bodies. These lenses are made with modern machinery and contain the newest coatings, and therefore deliver optimal image quality on a digital body. Vintage lenses are designed for analog cameras and are usually made without the newest developments in lens technology. As such, the usually have characteristics that would not be tolerated in mondern lenses: flaring, colour shifts, abberations. Some older lens designs cause less sharpness than we are used from modern lenses. Others are just as sharp, but are less contrasty than we are used to. Every vintage lens is different and has characteristics that you can like or hate. The results you get are not perfect, but that is not the point. An images does not need have the perfect image quality to be a good photograph, as our veneration of the old photography masters proofs. 

A few months ago I bought another vintage lens that is legendary in vintage photography circles: the Helios 44M-4. This lens is a 58 mm f/2 lens that, together with its brother, the Helios 44M-2, was produced with an M42 mount in the Sovjet Union from 1958 to 1992 on a massive scale. It is one of the most widespread lenses in the world today, and because of this, it is quite affordable. The main attraction for many is the ‘swirly bokeh’ effect that this lens offers (instead of perfect round bokeh balls in the out of focus areas, the bokeh has a circular pattern to it, with squashed ‘cats eye’  bokeh). On modern lenses, an inexcuseable effect, in vintage lenses hightly sought after. I was curious what the fuss was about and got one. And hated it..

The lens itself is ugly. I used it a few times, got other projects, and put it in my lens drawer with the intention to sell it again. Not helping was the fact that the 50-ish focal length is the most found focal length in my lens drawer. Nor did I really manage to create the ‘swirly bokeh’ effect that I expected (a full frame sensor would probably help in that regard). Recently I was looking for something different and gave it a second chance. I put it on the Fujifilm X-T4 for a few walks in the neighbourhood, and this time I did fall in love. I have the suspicion that the M42-Fx adapter that I use has a slightly wrong thickness, as the lens is very good at close focusing, but does not reach infinity unless you stop down to f8. This allows you to photograph quite close up, giving you smooth and beautiful bokeh (not necessarily of the swirly type). As I love close focusing lenses, this one has just climbed my favorites ladder and has surpassed the Voigtlander 50 mm f/1.5 Nokton, which is stunning to look at and delivers excellent image quality, but can not focus as close, and was 10 times its price. Also surprising was the resolution this lens delivers, details are clear even at high magnification.

I will continue to put the lens trough its paces, and will also check the drawer for other forgotten gems (like the 50 mm Meyer-Optik Oreston f/1.8 that I haven’t used in ages but has the same close focusing strengths and is razor sharp). Some results from this lens are below.

And here it is: the Helios 44M-4 on my trusty Fujifilm X-T2. The lens itself is quite compact, but with the M42 to FujiX adapter makes the lens a bit longer.
A Jpeg image, straight from the camera and decreased in size. I liked the contrast and sharpness of this image. Taken at f/2 with the X-T4 with film simulation Acros + green.
Taken with the X-T4 at f/2, film simulation Eterna. I’ve never really used Eterna except for video. The muted colours really made this image for me though.
A bokeh test. Taken with the X-T4 at f/2. Not sure of the film simulation.
Another bokeh test. Straight from the camera and resized, Fujifilm X-T4 at f/2 with film simulation Acros + green.
I liked the symmetry of this image with the striped poles flanking the winding path and the dogs flanking the biker. Fujifilm X-T4, probably taken at f/8. Not sure of the film simulation.
Fujifilm X-T4 at f/4 in Acros + green. When I walked past the goat had a magpie on its back. I liked the black and white combination of the goat and the magpie, but the magpie flew off and didn’t return. Still liked the image of the goat..
A resized close-up of the goat, showing the amount of resolution this lens has!
Another bokeh and resolution test: Fujifilm X-T4 at f/2. Based on Classic Chrome, but edited.

The milky way over the Wadden Sea

This image was taken with the X-T4 and the Laowa 9 mm. The sky was a 4 minute exposure using the iOptron Skytracker Pro at 800 ISO, the foreground a 20 seconds exposure at ISO6400 without the tracker.

As an avid sailor, I try to make it a habit to make a sailing trip to the Wadden Sea, a tidal sea in the north of the Netherlands, at least once a year. Naturally I try to combine this with taking photographs, and as it offers a stunning landscape with its mudflats and wide horizons, usually I come back with a crop of images that I’m really happy with. However, one image has been eluding me for the past 4 years. I had in mind to photograph our flat bottomed ship (a Vollenhovense Bol, for those interested in such things), high and dry on the mudflats, with the milky way in the background (astrophotography being another genre which really interests me). This is not as easy as it sounds, however. The area of the Wadden Sea is generally one of the darkest in the Netherlands, so no problem there. The problem is in the tides, and the weather of course. Apart from having to be granted a clear night sky, a feat by no means a given with the weather patterns in the Netherlands, the timing with the tides must be exactly right. The ship must be on dry land somewhere between 11 PM and 1 AM, there should me no moon, and the ship should also be floating again at a not too ungodly hour to continue what is in the first place a holiday.

In april we managed to grab a weeks sailing, and on the final day I was granted a clear night sky. However, the moon was up and ruined any chance of a good milky way shot. In addition, the bottom of that part of the sea where we had parked for the night was not solid sand, but a sort of sludgy ooze. Not the best ground for a tripod. As one of our shipmates was an astronomer, we banded together with our photography and astronomy apps, and concluded that the best chance to get a nice holiday and good weather, and make my dream photograph, was August 13th. As it happened, we could rent the ship again that week and we booked it on the spot (helped also by the fact that this was a holiday that was solidly Coronoa-proof, something quite uncertain for other holidays at that time). 

So, last week was that week. How did it go? Well, the 13th of August was cloudy, so no joy. Fortunately, we saw that coming and made the most of the few nights preceding the 13th for some attempts. The best opportunity came on the 9th. We had beached our ship on the mudflats just northeast of the little harbour of Noordpolderzijl, Groningen. We knew that between 10 PM and 1 AM we would probably be dry on the flats, and hoped for solid sand. Our wish was granted, and apart from the light pollution of the large city of Groningen to the south, the conditions were perfect.

Usually I only bring my small travel tripod on holiday, but as there was so much photography at the core of this holiday, I decided to bring my large and heavy tripod. To protect it from the sand and the residual salt water the bottom part of the legs were wrapped with garbage bags and ductape. I also decided to bring my iOptron startracker, as this tripod was sturdy enough for its weight. As camera I was a bit torn between the Fujifilm X-T4 and the Fujifilm X-T2, the X-T4 winning in the end by a narrow margin (although in hindsight I think I would have preferred the X-T2, there were some weird issues with unsharp images on the tripod, but this might have been due to shifting sands). The 9 mm Laowa and 12 mm Samyang completed the kit.

Between 10:45 and 0:45 I played around on the sand next to the ship, as my shipmates were stargazing in the dark. After some preliminary shots of the milky way and deciding which angles were best for the ship – milky way combination, I tried some extra shots with the star tracker. As at 0:30 the moon rose (also a magical sight) and the water started to rise again, I got back on board. Trying to edit a milky way photo on an iPhone really doesn’t do it justice, and the tracked images could not be edited anyway (as the foreground was blurred due to the motion of the star tracker), so really checking the files had to wait until we got home. 

For the final figures I cannot admit to few edits. The best files were obviously the ones where I had used the tracker (at ISO 800, in order to keep the shutter speeds at a manageable level), but these files had to be combined with the other images which had a sharp foreground. No problem for the mostly straight horizon, but not so easy for the ship, which I had to manually remove the background from using a wacom tablet and pen. Combining the cleaned up forgrounds with the milky was was then easy, although I might take a few more tries to really clean up the files. 

‘it has been a dream photography project that has come to fruition after several years’

I hope I haven’t bored you with my ‘little’ story above, but as I said, it has been a dream photography project that has come to fruition after several years of – not exactly failure – but lack of opportunity. I’m pleased with the result, and one of the images has already been bought by the major sailing magazine of the Netherlands as its opening spread (parly financing my holiday, which is nice). I hope you like the result as well!

For those interested in some technical stuff: I used the iOptron Skytracker Pro for the sky section of these images. At ISO800 I was looking at 4 minutes exposures. In hindsight I think I could also have gotten away with 8 minute exposures, but Wadden Sea sand is not the greatest of supports for the tripod, so at that time I didn’t risk it. I was also limited in my time on the sand as the water and the moon would rise shortly after 0:30. The 12 mm Samyang was used at f/2, its brightest possible aperture, while the Laowa 9 mm was used mostly at f/2.8, and once at f/4, as the Laowa has some horrible vignetting that is most visible at f/2.8. Shutter speeds for exposures without star tracker were 15 seconds for the 12 mm and 20 seconds for the 9 mm (its wider field of view allowing for a slightly longer shutter speed).

[Snapshot] Project Neowise

As everybody and his uncle is now posting images of the comet Neowise online, I had to get a go at it. Light pollution where I live is heavy, and cloud cover frequent, but in the past week there were 2 clear nights in which to capture the phenomenon. It took a while to find it, but once you know where to look it gets easier.

[Fujifilm X-T4 | Fujinon XF 16-55 mm f/2.8 | 16.5 mm | f/4 | ISO500 | 30 seconds]
I found I liked a landscape shot with the comet in it much better than a shot of just the comet with a bit of foreground, so the comet is quite small in the photograph. The shutter speed is on the long side, and the comet is showing a bit of a trail because of it.

[snapshot] Zeevonk/Sea Sparkle at Katwijk

Sea Sparkle in the waves. Unfortunately there was too little Sea Sparkle to make it very spectacular, and too many people to make it very comfortable to be there. Fujifilm X-T4, XF16-55 mm f/2.8 at f/2.8 and ISO6400. Shutter speed around 1/10th of a second.

Yesterday a friend enthusiastically apped me that it was the perfect day (night) to go to the beach and photograph Zeevonk, or Sea Sparkle, a small sea creature that exhibits bioluminescence when disturbed. Never having seen the phenomenon in real life, I signed on to a late night trip to the beach.

Unfortunately, we were not alone. I guess half the local residents and a lot from places farther afield were there as well, in a swim, walk and disturb frenzy, hoping to see the beautiful blue glow appear. It was there, but not in very great quantities. Sometimes you could see a wave appear blue. Just as if it was lit up from below. Pretty enough, but not entirely spectacular. It was nice to see it for the first time though! And a nice place to test the X-T4.

I read a news article that the Sea Sparkle is appearing more often than before, so maybe again soon?

It is all about stuff

In our current society there is an odd, but perhaps understandable, obsession with stuff. Especially new stuff. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of electronics. Every so often a new iteration of the iPhone, or any other smartphone for that matter, is launched, with ever more new features that we are told we absolutely need. It is the same in camera-land. Every other year (or more often) camera manufacturers launch a new camera, a new lens, a new feature. Users start reading reviews (or viewing them, in this youtube-fueled age), and it is often easy enough to convince yourself you need this new camera, these new features. I am, by no means, immune to this. 

I’ve done this often enough. I’ve bought enough cameras, lenses, bags or accessories in the past few years to finance a few expensive holidays. Partly I can excuse myself. I’m a professional photographer, I need stuff to work. And I would be right. But as Kevin Mullins, a professional wedding photographer from the UK, writes on his blog: ’there is stuff that you need. And there is stuff that you want.’ The line between those two things is easily blurred. Recently I’ve been trying to ‘unblur’ the line, and have started to get rid of some of the things I thought I needed (and it is surprising to see how many things you find out in hindsight to be unnecessary). In recent months, cameras, lenses, and accessories, have been flowing out of the house in a steady flow. It is not just that I find that I don’t use some of those things, it is also that by reducing the number of choices I have, I make my photographical life much simpler. I’m not a minimalist, and probably never will be (I still have 2 choices for a 35 mm lens, not to mention the 5 50-ish lenses I have in my drawer), but I am slowly reducing my quite extensive collection (because that is basically what it is).

‘New gear doesn’t help you take better photographs, but the right gear does!’

Now you might think that reducing my photographical clutter would also involve not getting new stuff into the house. And that is correct, up to a point. However, with the motto ‘New gear doesn’t help you take better photographs, but the right gear does!’, I decided, that for my professional work, I needed one more thing. Replacing the sold X100, X-E3, X-Pro2 and second X-T2…, is the new Fujifilm X-T4. A brandspaninking new camera. I have been testing it for several days now, and must admit I’m not yet over the moon about it. It is an electronic powerhouse, don’t get me wrong. The menu mentions items I’ve never even heard of. The autofocus is so fast I’m not even seeing it lock on. It shoots fifteen frames per second. And maybe that is one of the things that feels wrong about it. It is just a bit too glib, too silent, too subtle. I liked my X-T2 better. Then again, I don’t need to be over the moon about it. I just need to use it for assignments, and in that field the X-T4 will probably deliver in spades. So here I am, back to ‘just’ 4 cameras.

I’ll keep my Fujifilm X-T2 as a weather sealed back-up, and I will keep using the old X-Pro1 and X70 for personal photography or projects. And that is it. There are still a drawer of lenses and a cupboard of bags to slowly empty (to a non-photographer, they will probably still look ridiculously filled). For now I think I’m on the right path, and I will be content with the stuff I have (speak to me again in a year).

In all this there is the unusual situation that I now own Fujifilms first X-mount interchangeable lens camera, and their latest. It is an odd comibation to have next to each other, and a testament to how far the camera world has come in just eight short years. On the one hand the (in modern sense, it was launched in 2012) ancient X-Pro1, with it’s slow minimum shutter speed of 1/4000 seconds, it’s limited amount of AF points, its sometimes hunting or slow autofocus, its clunky shutter sound. And on the other hand the recent, top of its class, X-T4. With lightning AF speed, a fully articulating screen (I need to get used to that by the way), a focus joystick, more AF points that my fruit tree has lice, and soo soo many more functions. The coming days and weeks will show which of these – the dinosaur or the tesla – I will enjoy shooting with more.

My apologies if I seem to be rambling a bit. I’ve been wanting to post something on the update cycle of electronic products, the cleaning up of my photography clutter, the rediscovery of the X-Pro1, and the purchase of the X-T4, and somehow all of these things wound up in the same post. Maybe I’ll try to do separate posts on these topics later! Hope you are well and happy photography.

To not leave you with no photographs at all, above one of the testshots with the new X-T4. One thing I do like very much is the classic negative film simulation that this photo was taken in. I like the somewhat muted, not very contrasty look. Taken with the X-T4 and XF 23 mm f/2 at f/2.

[Snapshot] Sunset in our back yard

Sunset at the Broekdijkmolen.
A vertical panorama of the Broekdijkmolen, a windmill 5 min walk away from our house. We were watching a series on TV when the light outside was changing. It is great to be able to get my gear, walk out the door, and still be in time to catch the beautiful moments.

An overdue update, June 2020

My latest post on this – my unofficial weblog – was from Februari 2019, over a year ago. It would be easy to say that I’ve been busy, it would be easy to say that I had more important things to do – and to be fair, we did buy a house, which did take up a few months of my spare time – but the truth is mostly that I didn’t search for time to spend on writing. That, and the fact that somewhere in the last year, a php-update error transformed this site into a white page with error lines, and technical me didn’t know how to fix it (and couldn’t care enough to ask for help).

I recently did that, and lo and behold, it is working again. Time for a long overdue update.

With the world upside down due to the COVID-19 outbreak, my photography assignments cancelled, our (social) calendar empty, and a new appreciation for ergonomically sound chairs to work in (which we do not have in our home office), I’ve been able to focus more on personal photography work. I’ve also been contemplating a bit where to take my photography in the coming times.  A topic maybe for some other time.

Suffice it to say that we are fine. We’ve moved into a new (larger, thankfully, with this work-at-home situation) house, we’re able to work from home quite a bit, and we’ve had relatively little direct trouble from the epidemic that is raging outside, apart from not going on our planned holiday (northern Italy, not the best destination at this time) and not seeing our parents and friends. We can survive that, surely. 

I’m hoping to add regular posts here in the near future, but in order to not say goodbye without some photographic content, I’m adding some images from a personal project that has helped me through these corona-times. 

We’ve made it a habit to take a daily walk through the small bits of nature close to home, and we regularly hear and (fleetingly) see pheasants. I’ve made it my quest to photograph them with old analog telephoto lenses. Over time you get to know their habits and habitats, and I was able to get some decent exposures these past few weeks. I hope you enjoy these photograhps as much as I’ve enjoyed taking them!

This male pheasant was parading quite some time in front of me. Almost too close for the Leica-R Elmar 180 mm f/4 that I was using this day. I was quite pleased with this images rendering.
Also with the Leica-R 180 mm, this male pheasant was a bit more shy and stayed close, but didn’t show itself and only peaked through the leaves at us.