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.

London

After my first evening in London, yes it's still awesome. And yes, it's still hard to shoot people here. But I only spent a couple of hours last night around SoHo/Leicester Square/Picadilly Circus since I was super tired. 

I've been on call for a week at work, which destroys my day rhythm and I have since a few days got a cold that is fucking with me and I also usually get a bit tired while travelling. 

But today I'm up for some exploring. Now I'm just waiting for breakfast and headache to disappear. Good times...

Models everywhere...

So, after a slow start with looking for new models and registering on sites like Modellbilder.se, ModelMayhem.com, PurplePort.com and writing to a bunch of people, now it finally has paid off a bit. Something loosened and now I'm starting to get in touch with interested and interesting models. Despite all the misery that is life, this might actually be a fun year.

So I might start booking new sessions in May, after I come back from my London trip. And sure I have been contacted by a few models and they have been interested in working together, at the same time this does not mean that I get to work with them all though, since people tend to change their minds, but still it looks promising. 

But probably will be shooting with my friend Hanna as the first one when I get back home again since we have quite a few different ideas to go through. And I did a shoot with her yesterday, and it was fun as always but it came to a very fast and abrupt ending since out of nowhere a heavy rain front came in and drenched us (pretty much). I had checked the weather since Friday but since neither DMI (Danish Meteorological Institute) or SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) said anything about it, it seemed fine from the beginning, but nope. 

There can't be any type of requirements to get a job working for a meteorological institute. I mean seriously? It must be the only job where you can constantly fuck things up, day after day after day.... without being fired. 

Anyhow, I think we still got a few shots that where pretty nice and I don't think we've ever been this effective before. It was fun, but still sucked because it could have been better. But still.

And once again I shot all with my Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 (at f/2 of course) and this lens is amazing. As long as I don't fuck things up, the photos are super sharp.

They can be found in my portraits section from now on. 

Models booked for upcoming London trip

This is quite awesome. Two (and probably a third) models are booked and confirmed for my upcoming trip to London in May. 

A couple of probably very different sessions, with a couple of interesting and very different models, with different looks and style. And sessions going from (as far as we have discussed) boudoir, forest/field to urban/street style. I'm really stoked since this is going to be super fun and the first time shooting models abroad. The two already booked and confirmed are full time models, so no TFP sessions.

The rest of my time will be spent doing lots of street photography (my main reason for going to London in the first place) and some architecture/night shots and hopefully not getting harassed too much by security when it comes to the last bit. I'm also gonna try and probably visit Highgate Cemetery again (since it's so awesome) and hopefully also maybe Nunhead or any other of the Magnificent Seven. 

I'll see how much I can fit in my schedule since time isn't unlimited (unfortunately). 

And I'm gonna hang on Starbucks (and Pret a Manger) with my new MacBook Pro and be cool...

I will try and update my blog while in London (at Starbucks/Pret a Manger, lol) and maybe get some fresh photos on here right away (otherwise I guess there will be lots of them when I get home again). And of course, some will pop up on my Instagram too. 

But it's still another 2,5 weeks away before I'm leaving. Damn it...

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).

Copenhagen Street Photography Part 26

First time in Copenhagen for probably 6 months or so. It nearly felt like there was a little bit of spring in the air and at times the temperature was not even that chilly and the sun was visible. 

I walked around for a few hours before heading back to Sweden again and got to experience what the poor bastards who commute back and forth over the sound everyday have to go through these days, the identity checkpoints at Kastrup (Copenhagen Airport). This sucks big time, BUT they are necessary because of the amount of refugees (actually they’re mostly non refugees) that Sweden has been over run with the last 6 months or so. 

What hit me (since it was a while since I was here last time) is that people don’t do much fun stuff, they mostly check their phones (which can be seen in a few shots) which is not that fun, but still it was nice to spend a few hours this Saturday.

Adobe Lightroom

Well, I really like this piece of (shit) software and I use it together with Photoshop (both of them are the CC versions) for every single photo I take. I do all the major work in Lightroom too, with just a couple of minor things in Photoshop. And it's usually a very awesome software to work with. Usually...

Though after updating to Lightroom 2015.5 (or 6.5 if you don't use the CC versions, they both have the same problem) the other day it and first launching it today, it had stopped working, after being solid as a rock on my iMac (like anything else when it comes to this machine) since I got the iMac in May 2015.

But today (after spending a day in Copenhagen) it pissed me off so bad, since it simply did not launch. And due to some things in this update not working correctly with OS X (don't think Windows users have had any problems) it has made a lot of people irritated and stranded with a photos not being able to get processed.

But now finally, after a few kinda angry hours of not being able to even launch Lightroom I found a fix. Still it's very annoying and Adobe has to fix this in a proper way, with a full new update, taking care of this and it has to be soon. Stuff like this is not acceptable.

Here's a link to the thread that helped me.

Lightroom 2015.5 won't start

Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR (again)

So, I did a new model shoot with my friend and favourite model today, using only the Fujinon 90mm f/2 R LM WR and never changed aperture from f/2 (I mean why should I). 

It is sharp, it really is and I really like this lens. It handles well on my Fujifilm X-T1 especially now when I’ve got the VG-XT1 battery grip on while doing portraits. It’s got a nice balance and for being Fujifilm, a pretty fast autofocus with only a little bit of hunting now and then (it still has a long way to go before coming anywhere near my Canon 5D MkIII). The aperture ring seems stiff enough, though I have only shot this lens at f/2, so haven’t played around with it. The focus ring is smooth and nice and there’s nothing to complain about there either.

But I think it’s a pretty easy lens to shoot with, with no problem to nail focus (if it’s not hunting which happens sometimes like I said before) which I’ve read others saying. Sure, you can obviously not use a shutter speed that is too slow for the focal length, but that’s just basic knowledge. The conclusion is that it’s an awesome lens.

I mean, I’ve already written a review, I guess this is just some added thoughts. All right, enough of this. 

That’s right, some new shots in my portrait section, with this lens.

New model shoot.

If nothing screws up the plans (like me being on call or the weather turning out to be shit) on Sunday, I'm doing a new shoot with my friend  favourite model, Hanna. So beware, I think it might turn out to be awesome.

My portrait section will be updated when I've got the new shots edited and done.

Thoughts about the successor to Fujifilm's X-T1

UPDATED

Since I see that this post is one of my most viewed (thanks guys for stopping by), I’ll update it a little bit.

So, what do I think about Fujifilm X-T1 and what do I hope they “correct” for its successor? 

Well, in general I think the X-T1 is an awesome and very capable little camera. There are a few things that Fujifilm needs to fix for this to be a serious camera for professionals and hardcore enthusiasts (like myself I guess). Here are some things that I can think of right now.

BTW, I will from now on just for simplicity, call the successor X-T2 (it might be called something completely different, but it seems logic).

  • Autofocus. Fujifilm is a great company in the way that they follow the Kaizen philosophy of continuos improvement and are releasing firmware upgrades every now and then. Autofocus is a major thing that has seen improvement with these firmware upgrades, though they still have quite a bit left until they are on par with let’s say something like a Canon 5D MkIII (just a comparison since I own that camera also) which has really good autofocus. I have read that there is some improvement on the newly released X-Pro2, so hopefully they improve that even a bit further before the release of an X-T2.
  • ISO. ISO needs to be improved. For a successor to the X-T1 to be a really good choice for landscape photographers, at least ISO should start at 100 if not on 50, definitely NOT on 200. For long exposures with for example Lee Filter’s Big Stopper or similar ND1000 filters, starting at ISO200 is a real drag. I use ISO 100 or 50 with my Canon 5D MkIII and ISO200 is simply not an option. High ISO needs to be improved as well. I’ve tried ISO6400 once on the X-T1 and never again, since the results were totally useless. And I’m obviously talking about shooting in RAF, shooting in JPG is never an option and I’ve never even tried it with the X-T1. Since no camera in the history of cameras have ever exposed 100% correctly, the need for lifting shadows or reducing highlights and the control that RAW (in this case mentioned RAF) gives is crucial to get the most out of your photos. That’s why shooting in JPG is never an option. For me that is, and it should be for you too.
  • Double SD cards. Though I think it probably will come to the successor since it’s been implemented on the X-Pro2, a feature like this might really attract “pro” users. 
  • Exposure bracketing. X-T1 has a really good dynamic range (that I hope will be improved further with a new sensor as swell) and I don’t really feel the need to shoot HDR to tackle tricky lighting situations since the RAF files can be pushed really good in both directions in Lightroom, but still for people who like to shoot HDR, 3 shots with 0, +1 and -1 exposure steps is not good enough. Sure, it can be done manually, but it must be very easy to fix this thing so at least 5 shots and (at least) +2 and -2 steps can be done automatically. And also, the speed while doing this needs to be higher both to reduce of movement in the scene and also while doing this hand held (you obviously should always use a tripod for best quality, but sometimes it’s not an option).
  • Flash sync. 1/180s is not good enough. At least 1/250s for it be considered a choice for many pros. This needs to be improved as well, but since I’ve read that the X-Pro2 feature this, I guess it probably will be the same on the X-T2. 
  • Since I’ve also read that the X-Pro2 now have a small “joystick” for changing focus points, I hope this will come to the X-T2. I’ve used this for 12 years on my Canon cameras and it’s awesome and would speed up the change of focus point significantly.
  • Video. Please just drop the whole thing. If you want to do video, get a Panasonic or something. 

These are some things that I think of just now and that needs to be “fixed” for a successor and I might come up with more stuff. I’d like to use my X-T1 for more than I do, and to let go of my Canon 5D MkIII, but not yet. I believe that mirrorless cameras are the future, but in some ways they are not “there” yet, maybe the X-T2 would close the gap further more between the DSLR’s advantages and the mirrorless’ shortcomings.

Also, this post might be updated again…