Fujifilm X-T1

3 Legged Thing Equinox Winston

So I received this tripod the other day through a 20% off drive at one of Sweden's best known camera stores, so I got it at very nice price even if it's still not exactly a cheap tripod. I just did a quick test today to check it out, so this is not a review, just a few thoughts. 

This tripod is extremely sturdy. It's made of 8 layer 100% pure carbon fibre and magnesium alloy. It is the biggest tripod that 3LT have in their current line-up of awesomeness. It's also the third 3LT tripod I have in my possession now. It's not a travel tripod, since it's too big and heavy, though it's still not heavy and ways in at 1.75kg without the head. The head that comes with it is the Airhed 360 which weighs 408g and the combination seems extremely sturdy. The tripod and the head both have a maximum load capacity of 40kg, which is quite a lot. I also added the Equinox Switch Clamp which is a quick release clamp instead of the "screw in and tighten" clamp that is original (which is a 360 pano clamp on this one, but I don't shoot panoramas anyways) and it works very smoothly and clamps on with a very firm grip on my RSS L-plate (all 3LT heads and clamps are Arca Swiss compatible). 

The locking system is second to none and since the tubes on this tripod are pretty fat, the locks are big, chunky and awesome to use (made of rubberised magnesium alloy). And while the locks are good on my 3LT Brian, these are even better. 

And like all other 3LT tripods, one leg is removable and can be used as a monopod. 

At the bottom of the center column, there is an attachment ring to hang some type of ballast from, to weigh the tripod down even more during extremely windy conditions. The tripod comes in a nice carrying bag (with shoulder strap) made of military grade canvas, which can be used as a ballast as well. It also comes with a multi tool/carabiner/bottle opener.

So yes, this is not the smallest or lightest tripod, but compared to my old Manfrotto 055 Nat3 tripod it's not even half its weight. And even though my 3LT Brian is awesome and sturdy for nearly everything, when it comes to several minute long exposures at the beach, something even sturdier is needed since even the slightest movement will end in a blurry photo, that's why I got this tripod, even if it won't come with me when I travel abroad. 

New London trip

So I've started to plan for my next trip to my favourite city, London.

My old passport will expire soon and I'm gonna pick up my new passport from the police this upcoming week and then I'm going to book the flights and hotel.
About the old one expiring, I renewed it just before moving to Australia. So, where the fuck did these last 5 years go?

Anyways, this time I'm gonna be staying around two weeks and I've started to get in contact with some models that I want to shoot with and they're more than before. I still haven't puzzled the actual dates together yet, but will do that this upcoming week after I have decided on the exact dates. I might try to squeeze in a couple more models than I've already been in contact with, but we'll see. I do want to do a bit more cityscapes and street photography than I did last time. 

The trip will be at the end of May and a few days into June. I'm also gonna go to MCM Comic Con, since I've heard that it's even bigger and better than London Film & Comic Con that I visited on my last trip in July/August 2016. We'll see about that as well.

Anyhow, here's an old photo of Millennium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral.

Not a review of the Fujifilm X-T2

No, this is not a review of it. I've had it for a week and it's much too soon to write a review on it, but I can tell you this, it seems promising. 

I've only shot a couple of test shots nearby and I've shot some model shots with it and some family shots for a work colleague, so it's way too soon to actually review it. So far I can say that it feels quicker than the X-T1, the autofocus feels faster and a bit more precise and the joystick for focus point is a nice addition, though I'll need some time to get used to it. The camera feels a little bit bigger, but since it is a little bit bigger, that's pretty natural. The camera feels solid and with the battery grip, it definitely is beefier than the X-T1 with battery grip, but it just makes the handling of the camera actually a bit easier. It's not a tiny camera with the battery grip attached, but still not big as in "Canon-5D-MkIII-w/-battery-grip" big. And definitely not as heavy either.

What else... The locking mechanism of the shutter speed and ISO dials, I don't know if I like it better or not than the one on the X-T1. I actually didn't mind how they worked. The third "axis" of tilting the screen is pretty nice though. 11 frames/second with the mechanical shutter is pretty fast, but I don't know why you would need 14 frames/second with the electronic shutter, since the problem with rolling shutter effect. But maybe they've done something about that? I don't know otherwise it's a pretty useless feature. And someone said it can shoot 4k video? That's nonsense, who shoots video with a still camera? 

The files then? Well, the dynamic range is supposed to be a little bit better than the X-T1, don't know if I can really tell yet though, I probably will when I've shot more with it. ISO is supposed to be better, don't know that either, it still doesn't look that nice on ISO 6400 I think. Haven't shot a person on that high ISO yet. 6400 on the X-T1 was useless, hopefully this will be better.

I don't know, can't be bothered writing more about it right now. Gonna take it more for a spin this weekend with two different model shoots in Copenhagen on Saturday, and see how it behaves. 

Like most people on social media do, here's shots OF the X-T2, not photos taken with it...

The whole family. Shot with iPhone 6.

Barbican Estate

I've posted a few shots of this cool place before in my cityscape section, since I visited this cool place last year while in London. This time I walked around a little bit more and it's an interesting place. The brutalist architecture is well, brutal in a way and the feeling while walking around is that it's both modern, and kinda old-ish, not ancient old, more dated and stuck in the 60's old. 

Still it's a fascinating place and here are a few shots. 

LFCC

That stands for London Film and Comic Con, which I attended one and a half week ago. 

It was a pretty cool experience, since I've never been to one before, and there's an even bigger one apparently (Anna Quinn told me so) at the end of May, with more of everything, including cosplayers, so I guess I'll have to go for the last week of May next year instead of first week. 

 It was hard to get any decent shots of cosplayers, since there was crap backgrounds and other people everywhere, but here are a few shots anyways.  

London July/August 2016 Day 9

Yesterday I went to London Film and Comic Con, held at Olympia, London. 

Quite a lot of people, but heard that it had been packed on Saturday, so was glad that I went on Sunday instead. One of the reasons to go there was to have a look at what it was like, be able to shoot some cosplayers in costumes, and the other reason to go on Sunday was to catch up with Anna Quinn, the model I shot with in Copenhagen in the end of June. 

I met Anna and we chatted a little bit and she was dressed as HellBoy, and looked awesome. 

I saw quite a lot of cosplayers dressed up in different costumes, some that I recognised and some I didn't. And with quite a large difference in quality and time/money put into their costumes. it was fun though, but I was pretty tired after the visit. I will post some more photos here. Now here comes one of Anna/HellBoy. 

London July/August 2016 Day 8

Went on my last model shoot for this visit yesterday, with the lovely Lauren. 

This was the first time we shot together, but it went rather well and we might be able to do it again on my next visit which I don't know when it will be, maybe in the spring of 2017. 

Lauren is a nice and easy going person and I had a nice afternoon/evening and while two of our locations didn't work out pretty much because they were so overcrowded with people, it was still good. 

As with my other shoots, I'm gonna post process the shots while I'm back home, but here is one test shot though.

London July/August 2016 Day 7

Had an interesting model shoot with the lovely Chloe yesterday. It took us south of the Thames and to Nunhead Cemetery, one of the Magnificent Seven, cemeteries built in the 1830's-1840's. 

We were running a little bit late and when we got to Nunhead station, it started raining. Awesome. We didn't explore as much as we wanted both because of the weather even if it cleared up and stopped raining after a little while, but also that we were running a bit late. 

After that we went to the more multi cultural East London and to the wonderful part called Hackney. Hackney has been a bit gentrified as I've heard but while sitting on the overground train it looked kinda shit around the area and it hasn't got the best reputation. We were not shooting in the street, but at a rather nice hotel next to Hackney Central station. 

I got back my to hotel after midnight so it was a long day, but we got some nice shots. And here's a quick edit and preview of one of them.

London July/August 2016 Day 4-5-6

So been doing a little bit of this and little bit of that the last couple of days.. 

On day 5 I was supposed to have done a model shoot, but unfortunately my model had to cancel since she was covered in heat rashes. Did not look very nice, judging from the photos of her body that she sent me and I hope you'll get better soon. 

Yesterday I did do a model shoot with the lovely Beth Smith in Epping Forest. Very nice place and model and I had a good time  and will post process the photos when I'm back in Sweden. Here's just a test I did. 

And today I'm off to do another model shoot. 

London July/August 2016 Day 3

Third day in a really hot London.

Been to the Barbican Estate once before and it's really cool and I had to go there and have a second look.

After sweating for a few hours, stopping by at a steakhouse for a healthy pile of tasty meat, I got back to my hotel in the late afternoon, had a shower to cool off and thought that I should stretch out on the bed in the cool air of the A/C before going out to shoot some cityscapes in the blue hour. Big mistake. I fell asleep and missed all of that. Awesome...

New model shoot

Had the pleasure of meeting a nice, bubbly and gorgeous woman this Sunday by the name of Susan. We met for a "fika" (as we say in Sweden, which pretty much means a cup of coffee), chatted for a while and then had a test shoot in the small city of Helsingborg. 

Susan hadn't been photographed "seriously" before, but I find her to be very natural, fun and easy to work with even if she wasn't experienced as a model. I think it went really well and I'm definitely gonna shoot with her again, next time with more of a theme of some sort. 

For now, I've put some shots in my portraits section. 

London May 2016 Pt. 1

So I haven't posted any shots from London until now (except for model shots in my portraits section). As I've mentioned earlier I wasn't super inspired which is weird in a way, since this is my favourite city. But it might be because I had a cold and was annoyingly tired a lot of the time in between my model shoots.

Anyhow, I'll start with a few black and white shots of the city. Nothing new, nothing revolutionary, no new viewpoints really or anything, but oh well, that's the way it is sometimes. All shot with the Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R combination, except for one, with the Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R instead.

London Day 7

Today I had booked a shoot with Beth. Beth was the third and final model I had booked shoots with and like the other two, she was a total delight to work with, really nice very positive. 

With a walk from Liverpool Street Station it took us to Brick Lane and Shoreditch where we shot quite a bit. From there, a tube ride and walk to British Museum, where the main middle area has a roof which acts as a giant softbox and really softens the light. 

After a quick lunch we went to Westminster for one of the walks along the Thames. She shot a few shots there, but it was too crowded and the light was really harsh, so we ended the last model shoot for this trip. I've been lucky though, to have booked three very different but all lovely models which I would like to work with again, next time I'm here. 

Here's a sample from inside British Museum, with Beth. The rest will be processed when I'm back in Sweden in a couple of days. And they will also end up in my portraits section. 

London Day 6

Yesterday I had booked a shoot with "Lucifera", a lovely woman that I've been chatting a bit with on Facebook prior to this, discussing what to shoot and where and so on. 

It turned into the longest shoot I've done, and I was exhausted at the end of the day (back at the hotel at 11:30 at night). It took us to Abney Park Cemetery, one of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries built in the 1830's-1840's in Stoke Newington and to The Well Hall Pleasuance, a garden in Eltham. 

But it was a great day, "Lucifera" was really professional, super nice and awesome to work with. And the day produced quite a lot of shots, which I post one sample of here. More will come when I'm back in Sweden again and will be found eventually in my portrait section.

London Day 4

This day (Monday 2/5) I didn't have a model shoot planned, not from the beginning. Then it turned into a short session which turned into be a much longer than planned one. 

But that didn't matter since it was with Chloe again, who is a real pleasure to work with. We had a great day in Hyde Park and shot so many photos which I will post in my portrait section when I have processed them back in Sweden. 

But here's a test of one of the shots from this session, not the final image,

London Day 3

I had a model shoot planned for yesterday, with a very special young woman, the super cute, nice and professional Chloe. 

It went really well and we had an awesome Sunday afternoon, which started under Waterloo Station in the Leake Street Tunnel, on to a skate park in South Bank and ending up in Camden Town. I'm really impressed with her and I'm totally baffled since she told me about how few photographers that wants to work with her. Yes, she's got a different style and sure maybe it doesn't suit every kind of shoot, but look at her, her look is awesome! And she's so nice and good to work with and I really don't get it. Are photographers of today really that small minded and backwards? I guess you are, and fuck you if you're one of them. 

But again, I really like her and out of the blue we arranged another shoot today (in a few hours from now) for some shooting in Hyde Park. It's gonna be super fun and I'm really looking forward to it. 

And here's a test of one of the shots from yesterday. When I'm back in Sweden I will post process the rest of the shots and put some in my Portrait section.

London Day 2

Must be because I'm getting old, or the bed is not good at my hotel, but after walking around yesterday my back is totally fucked today. Which is awesome since I have a model shoot among stuff today. Oh well, my friends Voltaren+Panodil hopefully will step up and help out a bit. 

Like I said, a bit of walking and finished off the day by shooting at the Millennium Bridge. Met an extremely chatty Irish woman called Cecilia that I talked to for about an hour. Nice. 

I will post lots of photos after getting back home, but here's a shot of The Shard.

New model shoot

So I did another model shoot with my beautiful friend and model, Hanna. Fun as usual, cold as usual and we tried out the antlers I've had for a little while which were cool, but clashed a bit with her outfit. But still a few shots that I liked.

It was quite dark, so a couple of them are shot using the Rotolight NEO (continuos LED light), but all of them shot using my Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR. This lens is INSANE and easily my favourite Fujinon lens (at least for portraits).