Apr
05
Very often I find women’s approach to photography much better than men’s. Men view cameras as toys. We cherish cameras; we talk about them and even argue about them. Unfortunately this technical approach often keeps us away from what is really important in photography. Immediately after my wife, Kasia, took our Fuji X100 into her hands, I knew this camera was special. She never reached so eagerly for our Nikon or Canon gear unless she really had to. She disliked everything about those cameras. They were heavy, complicated and uninspiring. This time was different. She picked up the X100 and never wanted to let it go. She had her three favourable dials at her disposal. She didn’t worry about the sensor or lens rating. Kasia didn’t care about RAW conversion or all the other nuances – she went straight to what she does best – painting with light. She viewed this camera as just a tool to realize her vision. When Kasia decided to travel to Senegal, her choice was Fuji X-E1 with the XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM IS zoom. It had all the key elements of the X100 plus zoom, which covers her usual focal length. She took the camera, played with the controls and she was ready to go. Kasia saw the camera as a way to transfix the moment and capture her travel experiences. It wasn’t the usual touristy trip. She went to raw Africa with a group of women with whom she had worked to help women in Senegal over the last few years. Kasia documented the beauty of this continent along with its struggles. She saw human suffering but also tremendous and authentic joy and hospitality. And she captured all her experiences on camera. I was privileged to help my wife to organize her photographic work and after viewing it numerous times, I have to tell you what an incredible body of work it is. This type of imagery requires total dedication to the place and subject. Kasia really cares about the people and places she photographs and you can see it! In the next few blog entries, Kasia will be publishing her account of this trip and her experiences of shooting with the Fuji. Here is a photo teaser of what’s to come. Stay tuned.
All images taken with Fuji X-E1 with the XF 18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM IS zoom and B&W UV filter. Processed in Capture Pro 7 and Lightroom 4.
See more great pictures on olafphotoblog.com
Apr
05
I’ve been planning to do a spring themed editorial shoot with Ali Tate at Milk Management for a while now, but due to London’s current awful weather conditions we have been holding off a little; however last weekend we decided to take a leap of faith and head down to Columbia Road Flower Market with the Fuji X pro 1 in hand…it took all of 15 mintes to discover that it was just way to cold to either conceive of an on location shoot and get a spring like feel. So using our noodle we decided to purchase a few flowers from the market and head back to the studio…Despite the cold it was still light so I managed to get all the shots using purely natural light from my patio doors with the Fujinon XF 35mm lens open wide at F1.4. See the results below…..
Apr
05
Fuji have been making some incredibly exciting cameras of late, I owned the fujifilm x100 and loved the handling and simplicity of it. I’d been looking for a walk around camera that could produce excellent images, handled well and was digital. I have a wealth of film cameras that live up to this billing but I wanted digital for quick access to the photos. I loved the x100 but found myself constantly wishing for interchangeable lenses. When the x-pro 1 was announced it seemed to answer all of my wants Relatively lightweightChoice of lensesA workable viewfinderGreat image qualityNot spend Leica money to get it
The viewfinder was what lead me to the x100 in the first place, it uses a hybrid optical and electronic viewfinder changed at the flick of a switch. The fuji x-e1, which is practically the same beast as the x-pro 1 only has the electronic viewfinder. So, I sold the x100 and got the x-pro 1. It’s incredibly well constructed, solid and has the feel of a Leica M. The lenses so far from Fuji have been excellent, the 35mm f1.4 being the pick of the crop, it truly is an excellent lens and is a joy to use. From all accounts the 18-55mm zoom lens that was released recently is incredibly good. Due for release this year is the 56mm f1.4 which I can’t wait to get hold of. Here’s the proposed line up from Fuji. As with the other x series cameras the out of body jpegs are incredibly good, outstanding even, which seeing as right now there are no great options for raw file handling, is essential. I’m an Apple aperture user, as with most software choices it’s what I’m comfortable with, Ive used it so long that I find it quick and unobtrusive in my workflow. Due to fuji’s use of the x-trans sensor, Apple don’t support it as yet, I’m not even sure if they ever will, as trying to get a definitive answer from Apple is difficult. Adobe Lightroom supports the x-pro 1 raw files, but I’m not too happy with how it handles them and neither are others. There are a few other options, Capture One, Silkypix and Accuraw, I haven’t used Capture One for the x-pro raw files yet, but Silkypix and Accuraw are absolutely horrible. For me, this is a serious limitation, I’ve never shot in jpeg before, I came straight from film to raw and my entire way of working is based around raw. All that said, the x-pro 1 does some things so well that I’ve so far never cursed not having the raw file for an image, namely -
- High Iso performance
The Fuji x-pro 1 is incredible with high iso, these two were shot at iso 6400, and the last one at iso 3200. Completely usable and noise free, couple that with the 35mm 1.4 lens and you’re all set for low light photography. My first digital camera, the full frame Canon 5D, as amazing as that camera still is, couldn’t hope to compete with the fuji x-pro at high iso and my 5D mkii just about keeps up……
See more pictures on alexlagarejos.blogspot.co.uk
Apr
05
We just love this family, they are always so joyful and Heidi and Lana have the sweetest spirit. After a cold and long winter it was a joy getting out into the sunshine and photographing again. This is my first post with images from my new camera, a Fuji X-Pro1 with a 35mm F1.4 lens. I photograph families, wedding and seniors for the most part, add events or occasional corporate head-shots. I have always used Canon equipment, all Pro gear, my current setup is Canon 1D Mark III and all “L” lens. As many of you know carrying those for a 10 hour day along with a backup body and lens can be a real torture on the body. But this little camera a joy to carry. The X-Pro1 has it’s quirks, no doubt about it, it’s not the fasted camera to focus but when it does the images are tack sharp. the colors are just beautiful. At this point I don’t see myself relying solely on this camera for any billable photo session. I would miss to many shots. For this family session I found I did capture the images and could capture them sharp but I missed to many shot’s. There is just enough that I would miss the facial expression by fractions of a second, giving me a good image but not the intended image. My 1D Mark III is a speed demon, and I rarely miss any image I intend on capturing. I have a rule when it comes to editing images, spend no more then 1 minute per image. Most of these where processed in less then 30 seconds. Here’s a little Fish Eye Magic. There is no flash used in this image yet the X-Pro1 did a great job metering for the both the sky and the couple. And yes the sun was at their backs.
See on www.jimmydouglas.com
Apr
03
The small island of Fuerteventura is just off the coast of Africa and while it was snowing in the UK we basked in 26º sunshine. This is just the second time I’ve shot with Carla so I arranged a recce and a practice shoot the day before the workshop. I had done a provisional recce of the island and a shoot with my mate and fellow tutor Martin Hill at the same time in 2012. So we knew it was going to be amazing. This recce with Carla was just to refresh my memory and check that everything was still okay. Together we mapped out our shoot locations, decided on the styling for each zone and planned the lighting set ups…..
See on www.prophotonut.com
Apr
02
I’ve been trying to shoot more people lately. It’s not always easy though, especially for someone like me. I was raised to be considerate of others, so the cognitive dissonance that comes with traditional street photography is often hard to shake. Still, I persevere. I wait. I sneak around, or I distract and disarm. Then I take my shot. It’s never been ideal and every now and then I even need to shoot blind. Missed opportunities abound. I feel like a creep most of the time. But sometimes I’m not creepy enough. The other day, I had to eat my lunch at a restaurant while listening to some airhead ‘like’ talk endlessly about ‘like’ utter nonsense. I wanted to walk up to her, take a few shots, and then do some show and tell on here for everyone’s benefit. Maybe if it had lasted just a little bit longer… but I’ve already given her more props than she deserves! DC is full of interesting people. Some are more unique and ‘photogenic’ than others. The city itself is constantly evolving, but I have a feeling the cast of characters will remain largely unchanged. If I can capture some of these characters in this particular space and time, I’ll be satisfied. The most memorable street photos usually tell a story. Maybe I’m biased, but I’d like to think that most of the images below tell some kind of story. Some are obviously better than others. Surely I’m not lying when I say that I’ve come a long way from my last similar post… but I also know that I still have a long way to go. All of these pictures were taken sometime in the last few weeks with my Fuji X-Pro1. If you follow my blog, you know I only have the 35mm lens (for now). As you’ll see, I still haven’t been able to get very close to my subjects. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be comfortable getting up in someone’s face for a candid shot, but I’ll keep trying to move closer. And I’m still getting a wider lens, although I’m not sure which one yet.
See more pictures on blog.karimhaddad.com
Apr
02
Having a background of photography and graphic arts, I am always looking for the odd sign or notice that will put a smile on my face. A few turned up in Myanmar as you will see below. Also interesting was the car and driving laws. The cars are right hand drive, just like Australia but instead of driving on the left side of the road they drive on the right side. Confusing to an Australian driver! This came about in a government move to further remove memories of the British occupation, so on a given day all cars moved to the other side of the road. To add to the mix there are also a number of left hand drive cars as well. The number plates on cars, buses and trucks are in the native language as seen below, but taxis are now getting English language number plates. As a tourist how do you report a misbehaving taxi driver if you can’t read the taxi number plate? Easy, put English language plates on them. Another odd thing is that there are no motorcycles on the road in Yangon (was Rangoon) the story is a general’s car was run into by a motorcycle so he banned them all from the city. Don’t worry there are plenty of motorcycles in Mandalay to make up for it. All pictures taken on a Fuji X-Pro1.
See more pictures on www.rogergould.com.au
Apr
01
Wie Millionen Iren in aller Welt feiern auch die Münchner Iren und ihre Freunde ihren Nationalfeiertag. Am 17. März fand in München die Parade zwischen Münchner Freiheit und Odeonsplatz statt. Das Motto lautete – Let´s paint the town green! Und während der Winter den Norden Deutschlands noch fest im Griff hat konnten wir uns in München über etwas Sonne freuen. Beste Voraussetzungen also, die Parade mit der Fuji X-Pro1 und dem Fujinon XF 18-55 F2.8-4 R LM OIS zu begleiten. Die Flexibilität des Zooms kam mir dabei wirklich entgegen und so konnte ich problemlos zwischen Weitwinkel und leichter Telebrennweite wählen. Außerdem ist die Fuji für solche Zwecke natürlich besonders geeignet, da sie wesentlich unauffälliger als eine große DSLR ist. Dies hatte ich zu Beginn meiner Arbeit mit den Fuji X Kameras oft unterschätzt. Aber es macht wirklich einen Unterschied ob man einer Person mit einer X-Pro1 oder mit der D800 vor der Nase rumfuchtelt. Einziger Wermutstropfen: Der manchmal verflixte Autofokus – ja auch mit dem Zoom gibt´s Momente wo die Kamera partout nicht scharf stellen will…und der Moment ist dann vorbei…die Parade weitergezogen. Nach all den neuesten Firmware updates habe ich sogar manchmal das Gefühl, dass das 35er in manchen Situationen schneller fokusiert. Ich werde das in den nächsten Wochen mal genauer vergleichen und wieder berichten. Bis dahin – enjoy the pics!
Google Translater (ENG)
http://bit.ly/10stfIN
http://bit.ly/10stfIN
See more pictures on www.cleareye-photography.com
Apr
01
I am a happy owner of a Fuji 60mm XF macro lens for a month by now. Here I will write down the most common experiences what I had with it.
All of these pictures what you see, are the original jpegs. Just right from the fuji X-E1.
Lets start with the bad news. The autofocus is far from good. It is slow, and sometimes it has difficulties to find the focus even in normal light. It can struggle really hard. I found for the best solution if I switch to manual mode. Like that I can focus with the AE-L/AF-L button, and in the same time I can override manually. It worked quite well like this. The manual focus is really strange… But not as terrible as the people write it on forums. (Except when you need to focus from the closest of the fairest distance. That is awful.)
Before it I used a 105mm Vr Nikkor, so I can make some comparison….
Conclusion:
It is a very well built, tough little lens. With very good sharpness and details. The autofocus sometimes is a pain, but in manual focus it’s working well. Mostly when you use it for close subjects. (And for what else would you use a macro lens? By the way, it wouldn’t be bad for portraits too. I will use, I am sure!) Actually the use of the manual focus and the electronic viewfinder together, was absolutely amazing for macro photography. I think, we will work very well together with this lens.
See full article on lightandnaturephoto.com
Apr
01
Weeks of shooting lead me to more understanding on this beautiful camera, the more I struggle with it, the more I am attached to it. And I am particularly please on the black and white rendering on the Fuji X. All pictures OOC jpegs (aka “out of camera”) , with monotone mode of the camera, I have already set some custom sharpness, contrast, highlight and shadow tone adjustment from the camera.
See more pictures on www.keithlowphoto.com
