A Fuji Xmas At Big Bear

March 3, 2026

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For Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, my wife and I decided to get out of town and go up to experience winter in Big Bear. It was also a great place to take photos with the Fuji X100T.

I originally planned to shoot some landscapes at Big Bear Lake or Lake Arrowhead, but you know how it goes when it’s cold. Standing under the stars, watching my hands freeze to my tripod, didn’t sound like fun. S,o I ended up hanging out around town and shooting with my Fuji X100T for two days.

Sample Photo using the Fujifilm X100T flash with the ND filter

ISO 200, f/2, 1/10000sec, flash power -2/3 – Classic Chrome

Fuji X100T At Big Bear

For most of the midday shooting, I played with the on-camera flash. You can get some nice fill light and great photos with the right settings.

I tried some shots with the ND filter so the background wasn’t overexposed, but then I felt like the scene got too cluttered. I turned off the ND filter to help the foreground stand out. You can see this effect in the photo above and below.

I’ve posted the camera settings for each photo and the film simulator below. All photos were shot in RAW and processed in Lightroom with new presets I’ve built for Fuji film simulators.

Using the Fujifilm X100T Flash In The Day

ISO 200, f/2, 1/1000sec, flash power -2/3 – Classic Chrome

ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/10000sec, flash power -2/3 – Provia

ISO 4000, f/2.8, 1/60 sec – Classic Chrome

ISO 200, f/11, 1/210 sec – Classic Chrome

ISO 200, f/11, 1/10sec – Classic Chrome

ISO 500, f/2.0, 1/60sec – Classic Chrome

ISO 2000, f/6.4, 1/1000 – I left my flash on – Monochrome

ISO 200, f/11, 1/320 sec, no flash – Pro Neg. Hi

ISO 200, f/11, 1/280 sec – Monochrome+Ye

Dinner In Monterey Park

Incidentally, it’s almost impossible to find any restaurant other than iHop and maybe Del Taco open on Christmas Day. If you can, call those restaurants. So, on our way back home to the City of Angels, we made a pit stop in Monterey Park, which houses a very large Chinese community, actually the largest in the United States. Luckily, the Chinese don’t close down shop on Christmas day.