It's been a while hasn't it!

It seems like forever ago that I wrote my last post and in truth, it hasn’t actually been that long ago.

I never did get to Berlin on that holiday I had planned, I had to save those rolls of Lomography’s Berlin and use them for other things, but never mind. I haven’t (touch wood) knowingly had Covid, I haven’t been out of work in my ‘normal’ job and I’ve still been able to get out and shoot on a couple of occasions ,pictures from which you will see pasted throughout this post.

I’ve been one of the lucky ones…

…to-say the least.

With all of this madness and confusion that has engulfed the world since my last post 5 months ago; the ability, thought process and validity of anything that I might say or do was severely questioned before clicking the ‘post’ button or simply finishing typing a sentence. I’m sure that I’m not unique in that sense, I imagine many other creative people have hit the same wall and questioned everything.

I had written an entire piece about the death of George Floyd and my first outing to London since Covid struck, but didn’t hit the post button on both occasions. I would read back my words and think… ‘nobody want’s to know and nobody probably cares’. But here I am again, writing again. I’m going to attempt to keep this regular now. even if it’s only once a week. It’s better than nothing.

So here’s the update. I’ve decided a rough path that I’d like my life to take my life down. For years I spent my life going backwards and forwards within the music industry, for any of you that know the Austin Powers films, it’s been very much like the scene where he gets the vehicle stuck in the hallway.

I still get a lot of questions about the why’s and what’s when it comes to my decisions, but I feel happy with them. I just need to push forward with them and achieve everything I set out to do this time.

I’ll be back soon;

this time a lot sooner than the last…

I have a few things in mind that I’d like to write down so I will definitely get writing here more often.

Feel free to comment below… It’s always good to talk and thank you so much for making it this far! If you’d like to keep up to date with all my goings on, print sales etc… etc… then please consider signing up to my mailing list. It’s free and will only cost you a space in your inbox.

Take care, see you soon!

Lomography - Berlin Kino 400

Last weekend, the plan was to head back to the amazing city of Berlin. For this trip I decided to pick up a few rolls of the aptly named: Berlin Kino 35mm film from Lomography… I have to say I was very happy with the results.

I’ve only ever used Kentmere 400 before, a great, relatively cheap Black and white film, produced by Ilford and a cheaper alternative to their HP5 rolls that everyone knows and loves.

I wanted to try a roll of this repurposed cinema film to see what it was all about before: loading it up abroad, getting it back, wishing I hadn’t bothered and putting it down to another gimmick just trying to cash in on the analogue photography resurgence we are all seeing and (in part) enjoying.

Now... before I continue, I must add that I used an old Orange filter from Minolta so this isn’t a 100% accurate representation of the results you would get ‘naturally’’ from this emulsion. This did add some contrast to the images, but I like contrasty black and white, so aimed for that anyway. I loaded up a roll in my Canon F-1 (1st edition for those that are interested), slapped on the 50mm and headed into London to see what I could get.

I like the results that came out. There is a relatively average level of grain and I found it to be smoother than the Kentmere, even after overexposing the film in-camera by 1 stop. I like grain as much as the next person and it is one of the reasons I do enjoy the results that film gives us, however I do find it can be a little too distracting in high volumes.

Half way through the roll, my camera’s back popped open and exposed the film to the outside world for a very… and I mean minute second…causing the light leak that you see in frame 1 of this blog. I was sure that this was the end of the roll and ended up just shooting whatever came next without worrying much, having the thought of it’s demise in the back of my mind. To my surprise, the result has become one of my favourite disasters. I do wish I’d gone for two shots of the barber chair... but the end result having the frame sliced in two with that light burn down the middle has made a pleasing result in my eyes.

I was looking forward to seeing what results I could achieve in Berlin. As I said, I like my black and white contrasty and this is why I enjoy looking at black and white frames that were shots on Tri-X. I would have to say this film would definitely be a great alternative if you’re into that look but either can’t pick any up, or wanted to try something a little different.

I recently acquired a Leica M6 so I’m definitely excited to see what I can achieve with the pairing of these two and hopefully I’ll be able to bring something interesting with future rolls.

Why I think this 8 year old camera is still worth buying in 2020

Last year my partner and I planned a trip to Sorrento in southern Italy and, as with any holiday we’ve been on, I had the full intention of taking along a camera to capture the sights and sounds and hopefully get in a little street photography whilst there.

I hadn’t long owned my pride and joy, my Fuji X-T3, I had no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t have any troubles in this picturesque part of the world when travelling about the area, the only attention I’ve ever received in the past when walking around with it has been when someone has asked if it was an ‘old’ film camera or what year it’s from due to the great style (in my opinion) that Fuji incorporated when producing the camera.

When getting closer to the time of travel though, I had a LOT of people asking me if I was:

1) going to be visiting Naples whilst there

2) planning on taking my camera

The general facial expression was one of great concern or disdain and they would swiftly knock down my confidence a peg or two when they received my resounding reply of: ‘YES!’.
The consistent advice was they had either been, or known people that have been to Naples and witnessed or been a part of a mugging where someone had had their camera… so this got me to thinking…

I browsed the net and watched countless YouTube videos on differing small cameras. I weighed up the pros and cons and decided, I was definitely going to go for something from Fuji as, I like the colours and had already started building a collection of lenses or had the adaptors for my older lenses to attach to it from the X-T3. Further browsing was done, I didn’t want to spend a tonne on the camera either as I didn’t want to run the risk of being mugged for it and losing a great deal of money. It was a situation in which I would be more upset if I had lost the card containing the images and not so much the body and lens.

I settled on the X-E1. I had looked at the X-Pro1, but it was slightly out of my budget range at the time and I wanted something that was pocketable in any situation (with a small enough lens on the front) and had a big enough file size to produce decent quality images. It also comes with focus peaking, handy for me when using my old Helios 44-2 lens or my Canon FD 28/50mm lenses and a pretty decent built in flash that came in handy later on.

It didn’t let me down.

I kept saying to my partner ‘why don’t you take it out with you on the other days and use it for your pictures?’ but she was happy enough using her phone and didn’t see the need to have something as complicated to take pictures with, so, the X-E1 sat in my camera bag the hotel room for the first part of the week.

The day we planned on travelling into Naples came around; I packed up my X-T3 in the camera bag and locked on my 18-55mm kit lens, a lens I hadn’t planned on using with the camera as I’d picked up the cheaper 15-45mm f/3.5 to go along with the camera… my damage limitation kit if you will.

Napoli Centrale

We got into Naples and I felt on edge the entire time with that whole speech that had been drilled into my mind by so many people of their tales of camera thieves operating on every street corner; assuring me that my Camera WILL be stolen.

We ended up in a not-so desirable part of town, taking a wrong turn after leaving the station leading us to the Piazza Nationale. Upon deciding what route to take whilst trying not to draw too much attention to the fact we were wandering tourists and didn’t have a clue where we’d gotten ourselves, I caught these two photographs.

In all Naples was a filthy city, but I didn’t once feel threatened by anyone there. Not once did someone approach me to steal my camera and I certainly didn’t witness anyone being mugged for their camera or bag, however this isn’t to say: ‘go there, you’ll be fine’… I may have just been lucky. It’s a great city for street photography, gritty and filled with interesting characters. But this isn’t a review of Naples and how photogenic it is, I apologise, let’s get back on point.

At first it was a strange experience using the X-E1. It’s much smaller than the X-T3, not quite as small as something like a Nikon or Canon digital point and shoot, but it’s also nowhere near as large as something like a budget DSLR from any of the main contenders. The viewfinder is a little laggy and definitely sits on the softer side of life… the images render a lot better than the preview in the viewfinder and on the back screen, but this is coming from the privileged point of view that my first experience with such EVF technology was the X-T3.

There is no live preview so what you are seeing isn’t necessarily what you will get in the final image, but I don’t think this is such a bad thing. It forces you to have to understand your lighting and surroundings much like film or Cheaper DSLRs. Granted you can chimp at the image after you’ve taken it and correct it by shooting again or in post with the RAW file, but you find yourself thinking a bit more as the chomping will only slow you down in the long run.

My first digital camera was my friend’s old Canon 550d so I wasn’t far away from having used that… I treated the X-E1 as such and this, I’d say, is the best way to think about it when using the camera; like an electronic version of a DSLR’s optical viewfinder… I know that’s what an EVF is, but pretty much all new mirrorless cameras will give you a live preview of what your shot will look like once you’ve hit the shutter button, so you can adjust there and then for the perfect exposure, aperture etc… unless you’ve chosen something like the X-Pro series and you’re using the optical viewfinder, something I’m very keen, but yet to try out.

The images that you’ve seen thus far are a selection that I took in Naples with Fuji’s 18-55mm but the ability to attach my other lenses with the use of a cheap adaptor meant I was able to bring the camera along to London on days out for my partner’s birthday with the 28mm Canon FD lens on front. Giving me a 40mm (in full frame equivalent) focal length. I’ve never used a full frame digital camera so I don’t feel like I was missing out on all the common aspects you get by owning one so for the price and the compact nature, I would definitely say it is worth a punt if: you are looking to build a lens collection for the X series without going mad on price, I’ve gotten great results with the X-E1 and my 35mm f/1.4, if you’re starting out in the world of street photography and don’t want to break the bank with something harder hitting, or if you are looking for a digital ‘beater’ to attach those quality manual lenses to without breaking the bank (this is what a good friend of mine has done), also another way to train your photography skills and bring you a little closer to practice shooting before diving into film photography, especially if you turn off focus peaking.

I hope this has given you a good insight into what else is out there in this crazy world of camera marketing and that constant feeling of ‘I NEED THE LATEST CAMERA FOR MY WORK TO BE GOOD’ that is projected onto YouTube and Podcast audiences from the big manufacturers.

To finish off, here are some shots that I took on a day out in London with the X-E1 and a Canon FD 28mm lens.