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A little blog about shooting Mixed light set ups with the Fuji X-Pro

It seems to be that most people first looked at the Fuji X -Series cameras as street style cameras or reportage cameras.  At least this might of been how they were first marketed.  It was quickly very evident that the camera system was more than capable for much more. A fashion photographers dream is a quick, simple, stripped down camera that packs a punch. Super sharp and super punchy.  Shooting natural light is a lot of fun with these cameras as it does let you travel with smaller kit bags and encourages freedom and movement. Being able to use the “photographers eye” to work with natural light can be super rewarding.

For my work, I love to create a mix of the two. As much as I love the lighting styles of people like Joey L and Damien Lovegrove. I am trying to work out what my lighting style still is. Maybe one day I might work it out !!

Westcott Apollo + Nano Elemental 400w + Pocketwizards / All created light / Strobe

The Fuji works great in the studio, on location and a mix of the two. Which is what I like to to..   Using speed lights, mixing them with naturally created light and additive lighting styles is just so much fun. Playing about with light can be very rewarding.

When syncing the X-Pro, you have a number of options. It is great having the back up Sync port for a cable, but I use the Pocketwizard triggers. I do find that keeping the shutter around 1/160th of a second works well compared to the 1/250th that most people would be used to with a DSLR in a studio. Also.. when in the studio or using strobe lighting, I tend to go for the 18-55 zoom lens for some reason over the faster primes. I think this is the idea that if I don’t need a fast lens  I might as well have the OS lens or the chance to zoom.

It would be nice to have the X-Pro shoot using some kind of tethering to Lightroom or Capture one though, maybe some day !! The other thing that would be nice, which I am sure they will change for the next iteration of the X-Pro is to have the screen show the exposure rather than balance the LCD and only leave you to gauge exposure using the +/- meter. Trying to balance out all your tones can be hard, and shooting with colour filter or grad filters is not much fun either. Maybe also a dedicated X- Sync mode would be nice.. Kinda something like Pentax have. I am a big fan of the Pentax shooting modes.

Westcott Apollo + Nano Elemental 400w + Pocketwizard / Mixed lighting

Having fantastic low noise at high ISO makes the X-Pro one of the better cameras for shooting Mixed Lighting set ups.

This is my simple guide to better use of light with the X-Pro

1. Shoot on RAW (auto white Balance)
2. Balance your Natural Lighting elements first
3. Add in your created light to give high lights or balance the Images
4. Strobe lighting can be great for lighting other things than people.
5. Rear Sync your flash if your using long exposures
6. Shoot in Manual
7. In low light, a torch can help focusing. But I like to use manual
8. NEVER underestimate how useful a tripod can be
9. Always carry spare battery power ( lights, Camera & for your Pocketwizards)
10. A good PC sync cord in your bag WILL save your life one day.
11. A frio Cold Shoe & a tripod is an Instant Light stand for your Flash Gun
12. A good reflector is a great addition to your camera kit, but a good assistant to hold it is worth its weight in gold.
13. Shoot.. Review, edit ….. Pause and look about.. then carry on..  Are you getting the best shot?
14. Timing is everything… when using Natural light, look to see what the clouds are doing and how the light around you is evolving. Should you come back in half an hour ?
15. Research, know your location and plan for the right time of day.
16. Play about with your ISO
17. The X-Pro Sync’s at 1/180th, but 1/160th is as close as you can go. with a non Fuji Flash.
18. The EF X20 flash will sync at 1/250th
19.  Have fun and try stuff !!

All of these images have been shoot on the X-Pro and edited using Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop.

See HERE for information regarding my Lighting for Location Workshops. - For more info please e-mail, Dave@davepiper.co.uk or get in touch via (Here)

All natural light. Shot using the big orange flood lights that light up the side of the building.

All natural using reflections. Created using window light and some ploy board to create reflected light.

All Flash. Westcott Orb using SB900 + Pocket Wizards

Mixed lighting – Westcott Apollo using Nano Elemental 400w + Pocket Wizards.

All Flash. Westcott Apollo using Nano Elemental 400w + Pocket Wizards.

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 If you want to know more …. Check out our Location Lighting & Photography Workshop

Fashion & Commercial Styled Workshop.

Being a Portrait Photographer these workshops will be tailored to the ideas and concepts of creating wonderful images of people on location.
We will look at all the worries that can arise from shooting on location and create some amazing location based Fashion Portraits.
From Wedding photographers to Fashion to family portrait photographers, if you shoot on location or have to think quick in tricky lighting, this workshop is for you. 

For more info please e-mail, Dave@davepiper.co.uk or get in touch via (Here)

Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten
From the Battery to the top of Manhattan
Asian, Middle-Eastern and Latin
Black, White, New York you make it happen

Brownstones, water towers, trees, skyscrapers
Writers, prize fighters and Wall Street traders
We come together on the subway cars
Diversity unified, whoever you are

We’re doing fine on the One and Nine line
On the L we’re doin’ swell
On the number Ten bus we fight and fuss
‘Cause we’re thorough in the boroughs
And that’s a must

:- Beastie Boys | An Open Letter to NYC.

Shot in September & August in NYC – This is a photography set of some of my memories in NYC.  There are many elements to New York but even with a thousand images you would only begin to scratch the surface of what truly is one of the worlds great cities.

 These images were created using all natural lighting and with Fuji, Nikon and Canon cameras. Sigma Lenses for the DSLR’s.  Thank you to Sam Krisch, Think Tank, Fuji & Sigma USA.

Photography: Dave Kai Piper

Hair & Beauty: Nic J

Model: Ivy Timlin

Stlying: Lesley DeFreitas

With Many thanks to Sam Krisch

Starring – New York City

Location shooting with the X-Pro 

Last year, as many of you now know, I had some great shoots with the Fuji X-Pro. I had the luck to travel a little bit and shot in some great locations.

I wanted to share some of the Kit I have used for my trips and my “go to” gear when it comes to shooting and travelling with the X-Pro.

The aim for me when working with the Fuji is to keep my kit to a minimum and as light weight as I can. Lighting such as the Orbis ring-flash modifier and a SB900 give me a great flash option where as the Westcott Ice light give me great Constant lighting options.

It is extremely useful to have a Compact Tripod system such as the Three Legged things tripods that can work as Camera Tripods or lighting stands when needed. In this picture, I have the CSC sized A0 Air Head and the Brian Tripod. This gives me a super compact tripod to use which will also hold a speed light above head height for great lighting options on location. Things like the Frio Coldshoe are priceless for mounting gear in a safe and secure way.

Do to the way I shoot with the Fuji cameras, I love to try and use as little created light as I can when travelling  This saves battery power and means I can shoot quicker. Having a large reflector is priceless. Here I have the large Westcott 6-1 Kit Illuminator. It has all the things you need for deflecting, reflecting, defusing and directing light. Firing the SB900 though the Orbis into the Defusing panel of the reflector is a great way of getting really nice soft light when you don’t have time to set up the Orb Softbox. The Orb is made by Westcott and is designed to be a softbox for speed-lights. This can all be mounted up using the 3 Legged Thing Tripod and Frio Coldshoe.

To sync everything together. I use the Pocket Wizards. The TT1 mini sits on the Camera and the TT5 goes onto the flash. At the moment in time, the Pocket Wizards are not supporting TTL for the Fuji, but, this is never really a problem as I prefer to shoot manual with the SB900 anyway.

A recent addition to the bag (Billingham 307) is a set of Lee Filters. They have created the Seven5 system with is a dedicated CSC Filter kit. Having some quick interesting colours to play with and a couple of ND Grad filters saves time in post pro

The Nikon SB900 is a great flash to use, due to the power output. I like to use it with the Godex Battery pack for extra power and life.

During any trip I also take a Laptop, SD cards and all the normal stuff that a photographer would take.

Location Lighting & Photography.

Fashion & Commercial Styled Workshop.

Being a Portrait Photographer these workshops will be tailored to the ideas and concepts of creating wonderful images of people on location.
We will look at all the worries that can arise from shooting on location and create some amazing location based Fashion Portraits.
From Wedding photographers to Fashion to family portrait photographers, if you shoot on location or have to think quick in tricky lighting, this workshop is for you. 

For more info please e-mail, Dave@davepiper.co.uk or get in touch via (Here)

We are very proud to announce two new workshops. While both look at the idea of creating light for location, we are having an introduction lighting day where we will look at the basics of mixing natural light that locations give us with key modelling lights or extra created light. The intensive session will go into more detail looking at multi-lighting set ups and dealing with a technical set ups.

• Great locations
• Practical Hands on workshop
• Guided shooting sessions & challenges
• Model & Make up Artist plus great styling
• Free Workshop guide to what we did and how we did it which comes after the workshop. This is custom to the workshop and will recap and cover all the stuff we did and questions asked.

Introduction Session:

• 27th of July,  £235 pp or £400 for both days
• Aimed at people wanting to get out the studio with flash or HMI lighting.
• People looking for an overall guide to shooting on location.
• People wanting to see how to mix Created Light with Natural Lighting.
• Simple set up demo’s and simple ways to start shooting on location, with or without created light.

Intensive Session:

• 28th of July,  £235 pp or £400 for both days
• Aimed at people who need to start to control the environment around them.
• Remove the worry of unknown locations.
• Simple tricks you can bring into your workflow on location
• Multi Light set ups
• Bringing your style out of the studio
• HMI over Flash or Natural ?

Location is TOP secret for these events, places are strictly limited.

For more info please e-mail, Dave@davepiper.co.uk or get in touch via (Here) 

BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW !!

A little background on the Theatre in Lynchburg.

During a recent trip to the USA, Sam Krisch arranged a trip to a GORGEOUS old theatre. This is a little story about the fundraising project to restore it.

“Literally thousands of historic theatres have been lost forever across the United States… but a small miracle is under way in Lynchburg’s revitalized downtown.

The 1905 Academy of Music Theatre (closed for more than a half century) has been saved and stabilized, and will undergo a full and historically accurate restoration in just a few years. With the stage and stagehouse already reconstructed, plans are being finalized by our experienced team of architects, engineers and theatre operation experts, and a major fundraising campaign is about to be launched.

In the coming months this page will take you inside of our theatre, while updating you on the progress being made and the role you can play in her rebirth as the “Jewel of Main Street.”

-David Jenkins, Executive Director

The 1905 Academy of Music Theatre, located in downtown Lynchburg, is one of Central Virginia’s most notable historic treasures of the last century. Now the only remaining of six original Academy of Music Theatres in the Commonwealth, this edifice boasted perfect sightlines, extraordinary acoustics, and was Lynchburg’s first fully electrified building. The theatre hosted landmark performances by artists who were vital to the evolution of the performing arts in America, such as George M. Cohan, Will Rodgers, Paderewski, and Ethel Barrymore, among many others.

www.academyfinearts.com/HistoricTheatre/SupportTheAcademy.asp

With thanks to Sam Krisch

Fashion & Jewellery : La De Da, Inc
Styled : La De Da, Inc / Carole Hughes / http://www.ladeda.net/
Model: Noelle @ Modelogic Wilhelmina

with kind permissions of The Academy of Fine Arts,

Lynchburg VA

Most, if not all the images are taken on the Fuji X-pro, with the rest taken on a D800. It was a very interesting location to shoot. I really wanted to recreate the mood in the images. It was a steaming hot day and the dust we had kicked up around the building was pretty gritty towards the end of the day. ( I got my eye infection this day ! which resulted in me having to deal with American Health Care. 90% of these images are only lit with the available light but I did create some lights for some of the shots. This was with the 400ww Nano head, just using the bare bulb as a modelling lamp.

Just a little blog and update. On the 22nd of May I have been invited to speak at Cambrian Cameras.  I will be talking about Cameras and trying to discuss the idea of the ‘Best’ Camera.  It should be a fun day out and I shall promise to keep it fun and light hearted.  Kris Williams from Welshot Imaging will also be talking during the event.  The event is the taking place in store at Colwyn Bay. We are staying over the night , so if there is anyone who wants to shoot some things around the local area, just get in touch !! Also.. if anyone knows of any great places to eat, Ray Fitchett and I will be very thankfull !!

We had the Front Cover of Photo Pro this month !!  Whoop !! – Well done to all involved / Art directed by Chloe=Jasmine

There is a new Fuji Lense out (Fujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-F4.8 R LM OIS ), there is an announcement for new Firmware coming for the X-Pro & X-E1 ( The new firmware will be available in July 2013 for download at Fujifilm.com)

So the other I was on the underground with a brand new set of Billingham Bags, the train spluttered to a halt, I was then covered by thick black oil and soot from the air vent above me. I went from well dressed with my matching Billinghams to chimney sweep in a heartbeat. I would not of minded to much if I hadn’t of been on the way to maybe the most important meeting for a long time. My claim has been lodged with TFL and lets see how long it takes, meanwhile, there is a Hadley Pro & 307 with battle scars housing the X-Pro + Company.

If you attended the workshop this month and didn’t get your PDF – Post Workshop recap guide- Do let me know. Also… if you want the Guide, Just let me know.  We had a great time even with the very last moment double booking of the Space then a change of rooms to a room with no electricity. The aim of the day was to not just paparazzi the models, but to create an open discussion and break down some of the preconceptions that some people have about different types of lighting.

After a re-setting up in the morning due to the changed location, and finding electricity. We sat around the table and started the process of looking at different images and deconstructing them. In a difference to many workshops I have seen and witnessed, I really wanted to try and promote the idea that as delegates everyone had something to offer and contribute. We went around the group sharing ideas and discussing the pro’s and cons of different lighting techniques. We had a good chat about who likes to use what sort of lighting and how they use it. People showed photos and spoke at a little depth about the lighting used. One thing that stuck in my mind is that a common view was that Natural Light was not seen as a constant source of lighting. Many people had a little fear of the unknown and but would like to see how other people use other types of lighting. Something that really stuck out in my mind was the different ways people ‘see light’. During the deconstruction elements phase of the workshop I tried to explain how I ‘see’ light. Just a simple lighting set up outside can be viewed in many ways. We took a few moments to break down a few images and talked about how we can look at how light works on location, comparing the sun and clouds to soft boxes and diffusers, floors acting as reflectors, dark walls as scrims etc…. The idea was to point out and highlight how light works in everyday places and thus being able to take this information and recreate it at will in any given place using powered lighting elements.
During conversations we decided that there are a few types of lighting:

• Digital Lighting
• Natural Lighting
• Strobe Lighting
• Constant Lighting

Stuff we looked at:
• Westcott IceLight
• Westcott Apollo Softbox
• Nano Mono Block Strobe 400w
• Profoto Pro Daylight 800 Air HMI
• Pocket Wizards
• Orbis RingFlash
• Westcott TD6 SpiderLight

We then spoke a little bit about each of the lights and had a little look about how they work, in the afternoon we headed over the the STUNNING location of Bristol & Exeter House - http://www.bristolexeterhouse.co.uk/

We also had our first Enlight PhotoPro Hosted Workshop. Strobe V’s Constant Lighting was themed and thank you to the delightful gentleman who photoshopped me into Darth Varder whilst showing off the  Westcott Ice Light. Thank you to everyone who attended the day and thank you to our lovely model – Chloe-Jasmine Whichello.

Anyway…. Last September I went out to the USA to see Sam Kirsch. I was lucky enough to take some of Lesley De Freitas (http://www.lesleydefreitas.com/ ) stunning silk dresses. Sam has a gorgeous black bottom pool and just suited the shoot perfectly. Our Model was from Wilhelmenia – Stephanie Knight.

Shots are a mix of X-Pro & D800, some of them are lit with an Orbis Mounted on a 3 Legged Thing with an SB910 providing the light.

The editing process involved two Duotone layers in overlay mode, a lift in the Saturation then graduation layer with some orange and yellow tones overlaying the whole image.

Photography: Dave Kai Piper
Model: Chloe-Jasmine Whichello @ Metro Models
Fashion: Cristina Adami
Fuji X-Pro 1 | 400w nano + Westcott Apollo

The new new Fuji zoom lens (18mm-55mm) proved very useful here. The whole shoot was shot on the Zoom at f18, once again using the 400ww  Nano Light using the Apollo from Westcott to help shape the light.

If you are wondering how image number 6 was shot, it was a photograph of a reflection back into the room. The Double Glazing on the window gave back two different reflections, giving the split images.

www.steverichard.com

Being a Photographer is pretty fun at times. I love the creative journey that I find myself on. I find that although I am a very visual person, I am getting more and more drawn by the world around me.

I try to spend a good deal of each week exploring blogs and looking for new inspirations to draw upon.  Last week I found Steve Richard (Link).   I got in touch as I always do and asked if I could share some of his work on my blog. I do encourage people to head over to Steve’s website for more of this lovely work.

For me, there are so many reasons why I love these images. The great use of light and space is just devine. The limited colours and tonal ranges just suit and finish what is a wonderful body of work. Timeless and classic.

Over at Steve’s website he has a little about me:

Steve Richard has been plying his trade in the mysterious photographic arts for well over a quarter of a century. Steve is both a stills photographer and a cinematographer, thus bringing an unerring sense of style and composition to all of his work.  Steve’s visuals capture the imagination, challenge preconceptions, and merge a classical ethos with urban grit and 21st Century techno-savvy.

Born and raised in a small town in Eastern Canada, Steven took his first photograph at the age of 12, over 37 years ago.   Much of the early years were spent developing his craft while working in the various commercial facets of the photography trade.  During this time he developed a significant love hate relationship with photography, and actually gave up shooting a number of times.  During these down times he has worked as full time musician touring across Canada, a recording studio engineer, a fiber optic network designer, a teacher at Dalhousie University, a cinematographer , and has developed the necessary skills to produce a fine bowl of Tom Ka Guy soup. His passion for photography developed into a full obsession about a decade ago when he decided to only shoot the subjects that would interpret his view of the world.   For the most part this meant a combination of humor and beauty mixed with the dark side of life.  He now spends most of his fine art focus on dance and bodies in motion.

Kindly Steve also agreed to a question, I asked:

“Being a photographer myself, I do understand the creation process that can go into a shoot. Some people use an organic nature, some people use moodboards and careful planning combined with current observations to ensure there photographer tells the correct messages. Where do you find your work fits in with this process and do you think you as a person is truly represented in your work ?”

I look at the creative process as having two distinct paths, one being the craft of photography and the other being the art of photography.  On the craft side I am more of what you would call “old school”.   I have been involved with photography for over 30 years so needless to say I grew up with film related workflows. I am definitely not one of those shooters who are clinging to the film world; in fact I have been shooting digital since 2001 and would never go back.  What is important for me, however, is that I still use the same mentality and approach that I did when shooting film.   I am not very interested in post-production work and I spend a great deal of time with initial setup and lighting.  I love the process of creating an image in camera and will rarely do anything in post.

On the art side I have a general set of rules that I call my personal dogma (strong form and line, subtle story lines, no sense of place, anonymity, etc.) that I apply to every image I create.  This dogma is really the foundation and base for all of my work independent of the series. With each individual series I apply a more specific set of parameters that form a framework (constraints if you wish) for the images within the series.   When it comes to the actual shoot I only have my personal dogma and the constraints for the particular series in mind when I begin to shoot. I will have certainly done the lighting and know the frame, but I do not have storyboards or any other significant planning beforehand. I like to wait until the model walks on set and then we begin to develop the shot. I guess you would call this more organic in nature since the shot is totally affected by the mood and emotional framework of both the photographer and model at the time.  Definitely a bit more unpredictable than having every detail worked out beforehand but for me this is what I love about the creative process.

Am I truly represented in my work by this creative process? I have no idea.   I have this saying that has become my mantra: “it is easy to create an image of a beautiful thing, what is difficult is to create a beautiful image”  (replace beautiful with strong, unique, timeless, etc. and it still applies).  What I have found is that many photographers find it difficult to recognise the difference between the two.  I hope my creative process keeps me on the path of creating images that tend to be unique, strong and beautiful. I am definitely not at a point that I can create something wonderful every time I work, but every now and then I do end up with something that I believe fits this mantra, and in that maybe my creative process does represent who I am as an artist.

Fuji , they make the  “best camera ever made” according to  Zack Arias.

Is Fuji  just another camera company? A camera with some well constructed PR and planning? Can a Fuji Camera REALLY make you a better photographer ? At the end of the day, as any photographer worth anything will tell you, the brand of camera you use is really not going to make you a better photographer. Or a worse one for that matter. Photography is a craft, the camera is a tool. A tool is only as useful as the person holding it. Forget all the techy articles, forget all the crap about how sharp is this and the blah blah blah.. You want the truth about photography ? You want the secret that unlocks it all ?

Well, you’re screwed. The truth is, there is no magic bullet, there is no magic camera and no magic lens. It should be wise at this point to point out that this blog and every other blog is only one point of view and should be read and considered as such. I wanted to use this article to unearth some of these rumours that Fuji make the BEST camera in the world. It’s impossible they do, just as point of logic. Anyway who defines best ?

X-Pro + 18-55 lens

So when it comes to the “new Leica” or the “best camera ever made” you have to understand that just because Zack Arias proudly said it, its does not make it true, nor does it mean that you should run out and buy one, even if he is right, and to be honest, he is right.. it IS one of the better camera systems ever made. Still,  just because I utterly adore the cameras it DOES not mean that you should agree blindly without challenging. Just because we say that they are some of the best cameras ever made, it does not make it true. It is just a point of view.

There’s a distinguished looking ol’ fellow sitting at the bar. He has silver hair and laugh lines around his eyes. He’s well dressed. Well groomed. Well traveled. You can tell he’s seen a lot in his time. His classic Morgan is parked outside. There’s a pretty young girl on his arm listening to his stories of being a globe trotting documentary photographer. He sips his 50 year old Chivas Regal. His name is Leica. Yeah, he’s the world’s most interesting man. 

*note, I happen to think that Roger Rabbit it the coolest guy EVER, hence his inclusion into  Zacks’s diagram* 

But in every sense of the word, this is just more than ‘just’ a new camera emanating from  Fuji HQ. As our dear American friend Zack pointed out in his blog, which personified Fuji into a cool hipster-esque kid.

“Tattered 501?s. Grease stained tee. Three days of scruff…..The young girl that was sitting with Leica heads out the door but not before slipping her number into Fuji’s back pocket. Fuji sips his beer and quietly tucks it deeper into his pocket so he doesn’t lose it.”

Clever use of the stereotypes indeed, depicting the “other” camera manufacturers as needs and old men bickering amongst them themselves. Interestingly Leica was the first to offer friendship to Fuji in this imagery bar. I do wonder what Leica think of this new found praise being given to Fuji ? One does think they would like to have a friend at the top and really welcome the companies company. I wonder how long it really is before the next Chanel advert to feature an X-Pro appears. I think Lecia are still the very top of the pecking order on so many levels. (I am the only to of watched The new CHANEL N°5 film and saw nothing but the M8 ??)  Do you think we will see an X-Pro in the next Chanel advert ? I don’t. There still is a difference in chic and style. The Leica brand just oozes style and class.  While Fuji still make £79.00 cameras they will never be stylish to be cool like is Leica cool.  I promise you Hermès are not about to make a Hermès X-Pro anytime soon. Anyway.. who says Fuji want that crown ?

Fuji are interesting. They are on the verge of creating something very amazing. So why has the geeky company somehow made photography interesting across the levels again? Let’s for a moment imagine a world where Photographers are paid for their services. This makes them a Professional Photographer. Some people have Photography as a hobby, and I would guess that this where most professional photographers start. From here photographers undergo a metamorphosis into the coffee swilling, self aware artists who sleep all day and work all night. During the curation of this process, the element that made the hobby fun are lost. The business takes over removing most of the random fun elements and rightly so. As things are scaled up, the costs are too. Things escalate to a point where a photographer is only shooting when paid and shooting things in a democratic way working with teams of people all giving input.  On many occasions, the fun elements are dangerous and bad for business, they have to be forgotten. When you have clients paying big money, its not a laugh and a joke anymore. You have to deliver no excuses.  In a blink of an eye, the reason you love photography is nothing to do with the business you now run and shapes your life.  In the world of the pro photographer, clients can care very little about the fun element during the creation process and only really care about the delivery and end result.

Combining this weight of responsibility to your studio staff and agents and clients and your family together is no laughing matter. Then, when you start to also add on the  fact that a photographer today can deal with more criticism and taunting in a day than most people take in a year (see my article about being a Social Photographer). Keeping in a joyful headspace is not easy. Many a great photographer loses their hobby to the business  and also loses an outlet from the business.  This ends up a something many photographers call, ‘stuck in a rut’.  Keeping this great mental positivity is hard work.  It seems all people want to do is moan about things. Never has a photographer had to deal with such blunt, crushing comments from such a un-educated group of people before. Being plugged into the social media as an image maker is somewhat of a double edged sword. Facebook,Twitter, Pintrest, Deviant Art, Flickr and so on and so on. One moment people love us and our work, 100 ‘likes’ a photo then.. bang.. people cutting in barbarians. As we all know.. the public are crushing at times and uplifting the next. Sharing work on all these social platforms is not a fun process unless you have the thickest of skins.  Then came the iPhone…..

To sum up, if a photographer is only as good as their worst photo, taking photos for a bit of fun is quite a daunting for a pro photographer.. “what if a client sees it ” is a common thought of mine, “they will think I am crap!” “Are people going to think I have given up Fashion photography if I take a few photos on holiday and some photos of my Grandma? People are going to think my model selection is not up to much ?” Trust me, you may laugh.. but it happens and I am quite sick of people commenting on my personal life and personal photos that I take during the house of a day when I revert back to being a hobbyist. I really don’t want to have to worry about perfect light ALL the time. Sometimes I like taking photos…

Well, Apple gave us the way forward. They gave us the platform for the Hipstamatic App, which gave way to Instagram, which gave the rise to being socially connective though images. The key here though, that these forms of photography were in way connected with the professional world of image created. It gave a level platform and everyone had the same tools. The skill was in the creation and use of the tool. Pro Photographers could once again take photos in a world where they are not judged on skill or money or production. People understood the media and that it was only there for sharing moments thus, not to be taken seriously. It’s not a real photo, its just Instagram. A snapshot  a moment, a bit of fun. But then, something interesting started to happen. People who understood light and the complexity of image making started to create some amazing stuff on this fun format and pushed the industry for better cameras while still only just being fun. As a progression of time happens, more fun products came out to fill the need for this new breed of converse wearing geek chic photographer. Vitally, the idea of using images to document day to day life and sharing them was kept as fun and chic. There was no pressure to have perfect images, and the viewer of these images were viewing them in the context to what they are. In a nutshell, we have ended up creating a culture that has some context of what they they a looking at when it comes to images and how to react to them. I can make two images and the style of the image with change the way people look at it due to the crop or style. People still don’t see social media images as real photography and thus…. photographers can use it to have fun again.

Fuji X-pro + 35mm /60mm

Enter the X100 and X-Pro. These cameras carry on that aspect of fun and deliver it into the hands of a photographer with all the power and quality of the tool they use at work with all the kudos and chic of the Instgramming world. When I first got the X-pro. I edited most of the images on my phone from the camera. Apps like Pixlr Express and Snapseed as well as Instagram are the intended direction of most of my X-Pro images. But.. then.. that client phones you and wants a 20×30 of the park you instagramed last night. Boom.. get the raw file , into Photoshop, to the printer and you have a fine art print good enough for any gallery or any wall in the world. For me, the X-Pro is my best friend that also is a kickboxer and lawyer rolled into one. Never leave home without it and feel totally prepared for any shoot with it.

During the move from Film to Digital we have had loss and gain in the need for Image Quality and the need for Social photography. After some time the we get the X-pro which both satisfy the need for image quality and the social need for photography. Or Work and Play.

Photographers are dull when working, but Photographers are crazy fun when playing, this is the duality that Fuji have caught so well.

Its like having Porsche 911 as a taxi cab, but being able to seat 6 plus all the luggage. I mean, even David Beckham has one….

So, what are we saying here. Fuji have got on the bandwagon. People are image aware more than ever, people expect things to look good and work better. Style and substance are needed and more importantly, people are willing to pay to have it. Apple have built a behemoth of a company based on the concept of premium. Create the demand and people will buy. The Fuji looks good, and makes me feel good. I feel good even when it is in the camera bag, I love that I feel good, I love that it’s retro and people think I know more than I do because it looks like film. “gosh he MUST be good if he is using film”. I love that it looks good AND is good. I love that there is a range of good cameras that look good. I love that there is a little cute red version and the black metal X-pro. I love that Fuji have made me Love a tool which has made me fall back in love with shooting for fun. I think the reason Zack says it is the best camera in the world ( talking about the X100s) is mostly due to the how it makes him feel when he is using it.  This is then in turn making him more confident and push his own creative ideas and its a fantastic thing. Would you want that ?

The funny thing here is that we have not even mentioned how the cameras actually work, and nor am I going to.  I think you should find a store, and have a look yourself.

So I will  leave you with a parting thank you from me to all the guys at Fuji. From the PR guys & gals to the chaps who make the teas in Japan, thank you, thank you,thank you.  You made photography fun again.