I have been thinking about three ideas last week, but didn’t quite know how to write about them. 1) The seed of this post was planted by a video by Ulysses Aoki in which he talks about “taking photographs of nothing, in the middle of nowhere”. As a street photographer, it would be amazing to […]
I went out for a long walk today, with my 75mm XF 50mm f2 lens. I have only done street photography with the 35mm and 50mm lenses so far, and I often found myself getting too close when framing the compositions, and having to back off. Once I made the adjustment, though, I really enjoyed […]
I’m learning — by observing my own experience, and by reading about the experience of others — that any repetitive daily practice, with attention and intention, begins to feel like mindfulness meditation. Reading, writing, walking, running, gardening, baking, sketching, painting the piano, even making photographs. I have been reading a lot of photography books. Some […]
I don’t like taking selfies and I don’t like being in selfies — the extended arm to fit the face and some context into the tight frame at the 28mm focal length, the slightly downward-facing flattering angle for hiding the double chin, the big smile we seem to reserve for when we are being photographed, […]
I have been reading a lot of photography books, especially street photography books, with an intention to discover my street photography style, by osmosis. Last week, I read three photography books that showcased a wide gamut of classical and contemporary street photographers with very different styles — Magnum Streetwise edited by Stephen McLaren, Street Photography […]
I already knew I loved the wide angle 24mm focal length. It’s wide enough to capture the full scope of a room, or a street scene, or a landscape, while still minimizing distortions. I love my tiny XF 16mm f2.8 prime lens and like using both my XF 16-80 f4 and XF 10-24 f4 lenses […]
Fujifilm cameras have a unique and much-beloved feature — film simulations based on classic film stock for in-camera RAW to JPEG conversion. ClassicChrome for color and Acros for black and white are my favorites. You can apply these film simulations in camera while shooting in JPEGs, or afterwards to RAW files by connecting the camera […]
Henri Cartier-Bresson’s essay on the decisive moment is the source of one of the most influential ideas in photography: To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression. … […]
Most of the time, I shoot in aperture priority, and most of the time, I leave the aperture at maximum (f2 for most of my Fujifilm lenses). Most of the time, it results in the effect I am looking for, with a shallow depth of field, a sharp in-focus subject and soft out-of-focus foreground and […]
Today, I baked a loaf of bread that is difficult to categorize. I used two-day old, high-hydration, long-fermented sourdough pizza dough, stuffed it with olives and doused it in olive oil like a focaccia, then baked it in a closed dutch oven like sourdough bread. The result: a dense loaf with a crispy fried crust […]