what do you see like: 2015

decided to sell off my 6d and canon gear and go full mirrorless with a fuji x-t1:

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg622/bizarrogazzara/2011071531572006473_zpsd6506902.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg622/bizarrogazzara/2014059682603205007_zps750b4af2.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg622/bizarrogazzara/2011549809365749051_zps777d9a60.jpg

Lovely.

Hope you got good prices for yr Canon stuff. I have gone the other way - replaced my 40D with a 70D and added a 135L. Locked in now!

I will live vicariously through my wife's impending mirrorless kit, whether it's Olympus, Panasonic or Fuji.

cheers michael. ended up swapping out my canon kit with lenses from 16mm to 200mm to the same range in fuji for a total of £500 or so once the canon kit was sold. being able to fit the camera, five lenses, a flash and some extra batteries in a single bag i can carry comfortably for hours is more than worth it. and the fuji files are at least the equal of the canon ones, they really are amazing.

i've rented the 135mml a couple of times and it's gorgeous. best picture i've ever taken of my wife was with that lens.

I assume you got the 16-50/55 and 55-200, and which primes? The only thing that puts me / Pam off the Fuji X system is they don't quite have the ultra-slim form of the micro-4/3rds. 27/2.8 is the only pancake lens, right? Pam is coming to this from a better-than-a-smartphone perspective, rather than the smaller-than-a-DLR angle.

After attempting to carry around a 6D + hired 85L and 70D + 50/1.4 wedged into a small Crumpler last weekend, I know exactly what you mean about weight and access.

xp - yep, hired twice, just had to have it; did compare/contrast with the 85L on the crop body (equiv FoV) and, extra 4/3rds of a stop of light aside, it matches it f/2.0 and up and is lighter, faster, more reliable. I was never really going to buy an 85L, but this way I can pretend that I didn't just spend 700 quid, I *saved* 900!

70D + 28/1.8, I mean. The combo above would be a bit redundant.

i got the 10-24mm f/4, 23mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4, 56mm f/1.2 and the 50-140 f/2.8. they're all really fantastic pieces of glass, i can't get over how sharp they are wide-open.

none of them are pancakes, and you're right the x-ti isn't exactly pocketable, but for me the benefit was more in the overall weight than the form factor (and the quality of fuji images, which i fell in love with via the x100/x100s). the x-t1 with the 56mm is literally half the weight of my 6d with the equivalent sigma 85mm.

tbh, the 50-140 is getting right to the edge of the weight and size i'd want to attach to an x-t1 without a battery grip, but it's almost supernaturally good and considerably smaller than canon's image-stabilised f/2.8 70-200s.

this way I can pretend that I didn't just spend 700 quid, I *saved* 900!

i have thought exactly this way so many times about photo gear...

I've been lazy uploading my recent stuff to Flickr, but this thread has motivated me to clear out my backlog.

I envy that Fuji 23mm f/1.4; Micro-4/3 still lacks anything comparable in that focal length.

Got an Olympus 75mm coming soon in the post, which I'm very excited to take walking around Seoul.

cool, i've seen some lovely images from that lens

Goodness, you got the best of the best, BG!

I'd like an ultra-wide eventually; Sigma 12-24 makes the most sense (another lens I've hired twice), esp as the just-announced Canon near-equivalent will be three times the price, at least. So that would be 12-105 covered with zooms, 28/50/135 with primes and the 40/2.8 STM pancake for video. That'll do. But I am playing with the 8-15L Fisheye at the end of month (good old LFH and their half-price February deals).

i had the tokina 16-28 f/2.8 for my 6d which was really excellent other than the shape of the front element meant you couldn't put any filters on it. i've heard great things about the new(ish) canon 16-35 f/4 L too.

as far as fisheyes goes, i had a zenitar 16mm f/2.8 i got for £100 and it was easily good enough stopped-down past f/4 on the rare occasions when i felt the need to use it.

Tokina is appealing, especially the speed of it, but I might miss 12-15mm. And the Sigma is much lighter.

true. i was looking seriously at the sigma (and some of the samyang manual-focus primes) before i got the tokina - in the end the wider maximum aperture of the tokina won over the crazy wideness of the sigma. i still occasionally wonder whether i made the right choice, although i guess it's kinda moot now that i've switched systems.

Odd, dream-like moment from the top-deck of the 38 bus:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7414/16583673491_cea2954d32_c.jpg

crikey, how did they clear everyone off i wonder?

I like to think that she scattered them through the sheer force of her dancing.

Duvet weather:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8576/16417921605_e633a495e8_c.jpg

love the ballerina pic, michael

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg622/bizarrogazzara/2016145513073609802_zpsf068930f.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg622/bizarrogazzara/2016148997533598111_zps02f83611.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg622/bizarrogazzara/2014825516913131538_zpse7aa0b4e.jpg

hey whatever happened to not_goodwin? do any of the rest of you like to take landscape and/or nature photos?

I rarely get out of London! One of these is landscapey.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8709/16767822009_2ab1c05a99_c.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8680/16682563105_18c95caf9c_c.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8636/16494929098_5a24d2dc93_c.jpg

especially like thoughtful bus driver, in midst of glass, lines, reflections, letters, colors

the bus driver is amazing. the reflections on the glass do a great job of describing the surroundings.

Thanks! Such an expression of serene concentration. If I was about to negotiate Piccadilly Circus in charge of a double-decker I'd be wild-eyed with fear.

http://36.media.tumblr.com/a81fdab85733d76f393669e9558bd552/tumblr_nlxz1u6Oek1sz4jfjo3_1280.jpg
http://41.media.tumblr.com/ef94a0e999526557ff382d99b8063cd6/tumblr_nldlbt5kfW1sz4jfjo1_1280.jpg
http://40.media.tumblr.com/7b9599eb25178ca24fa26ca0cd4ec584/tumblr_nlbp6eFWm51sz4jfjo1_1280.jpg

nice, last one puts deep focus to good use; i like how the graffiti echoes the vegetation

Really like the middle one, bizarro gazzara.

Not really been taking many photos in 2015, that said here are some iPhone ones from while I've been out on my bike over the last couple of days. Though a more honest representation of what I saw would be road and handlebars.

https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/X_2CRn9TVBrAKR7m-SxXos2n4gvU8dr4yXv4cMFhsaA-768x575.jpg
https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/o5Bd5VmfR8Z3sofCTNa7KSnsenB-in-LbwiThibCtfs-576x768.jpg
https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/ufKdplhFnGodl5TdKMaC7R184VFHj3RjOKyrGj_5Tpw-768x768.jpg
https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/vB8TUz2sMJHqC-Dkr2mRWFJt-tNII46gaCz8e-WKsdg-768x768.jpg

those 4 skies: the firmament. i appreciate the spareness of these, feels philosophical, esp like last 2

squirrel diptych (2014)

http://i.imgur.com/HzsuWVZ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/pkdPUAs.jpg

love it. more you look, more interesting & pleasurable diptych gets (e.g. noticing visual rhymes within each & linking the two).

:) at off-kilter fencepost, magrittean leaf-birds

& of course aw squirrel! deadpan (funny/ poignant) connection with animal there reminds me of ed panar’s animals that saw me (though this def its own thing).

ps delete "funny/poignant"; it's plain deadpan & i like that here

I'm trying to force myself to work on photos again, so here are some pictures I just uploaded. All from last year though.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7659/16540403384_9825804378_z.jpg https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8757/17161200242_f362176b64_z.jpg https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7585/16540402824_aef9719cb3_z.jpg

these are all very good

& pink & blue taste great together

sorry you're having to force a photographic lifestyle, i feel you

it's hard to just dig through your chronology sometimes i think

well I just haven't been taking many pictures lately. anything sort of good comes from probably six months ago at least. I figure it will come back later.

(I think I can never be productive at making pictures and making music at the same time, and that's ok)

not that I've been productive at either lately, but I've wasted a lot more spare time using synthesizers. it'll flip back in a couple years probably. it's hard to get back into the same mindset as before, when looking at nice pictures made me very excited to take my own, and to edit them.

v cool, really like these, there's an uncanniness here that's up my alley

re digging through one's chronology, in my experience that can sometimes be as (or almost as) important as taking (new) pictures

an always developing aesthetic (personhood) doesn't just affect the pictures you take in the present, but also affects your appreciation/ recognition/ edit of the pictures you've taken in the past

i've been surprised at times to (re)discover (to "get" and come to love) photographs i'd neglected or put aside

even if old photographs don't make your "edit", going through your archive you learn things about your own sensibility, themes, etc.

and there's always the proustian thing. going through old photographs (maybe even more if they don't have obvious personal or sentimental value) is an existential trip

taking fewer pictures feels healthy to me
like letting some go by
remembering that they did not need capturing, really
with the exception of pictures of people
already so many pictures, &c&c&c
multiple sidewalk variations

& i don't know it's good to at least actually sense a natural inclination/disinclination, i think. instead of just routine clicking forever. especially if you're doing something else. sometimes when i'm not taking pictures it's because i'm tangled up in film vs digital debates or photography vs film torture, probably, in the background, have felt an impotence or lack of value to photographing things, have not walked half a block back to photograph a window that reverberated a little. it would be great if through all those spells i'd done the thing i was thinking about, instead of just not-doing the thing i usually did - so like if i had spasms of video & eras of digital, just aging. i read this beautiful david hockney bio, recently, & he was so good about aligning how he spent his time with where he was up to intellectually, or in mood. getting interested in polaroids & so dropping everything to pursue them, just fully engaging with the thing while he was enthusiastic about it & able to concentrate. going where the energy was. faxing drawings, &c.

really what i am saying is remember that william eggleston plays synthesised piano also

xp

& yes! drash otm

having to look while editing is how i got however smart i am

but also

chronology is tiring

& pretty heavy

i think

it's good to at least actually sense a natural inclination/disinclination

just fully engaging with the thing while he was enthusiastic about it & able to concentrate. going where the energy was

really what i am saying is remember that william eggleston plays synthesised piano also

otm, for me. (with proviso that photography like writing is different practice for different people, can’t generalize, etc)

but yeah— for me, photography is v tied to & dependent upon subconsious/ mood/ impulse— being moved to seek/ look/ frame/ press the shutter for reasons that aren’t entirely intellectually known to you. (really conscious, carefully planned or forced photography is more likely just to look like photographic paradigms you know. of course all photographs will look like your paradigms, to a large extent, but if forced it's more likely just to be hollow imitation). so imo it’s key to stay in touch with inclination, mood, etc. (not necessarily in a self-aware way; you can be opaque/ numb to yourself yet still feel impulse to take photographs).

it’s a cliche, but in my experience v true that what you read (or write), listen to (or play), what you live & experience, informs your photography as much as anything photographic. e.g. pursuing your aesthetic pleasures (in any medium) & taking care & time to savor that pleasure— dwell in it (poem, painting, song, film, feeling), not necessarily analyze it.

i have more vivid memories of photographs i didn't take than of photographs i did take

chronology is tiring
& pretty heavy
i think

this is true too. dealing with this at the moment, i think.

ps "photography is v tied to & dependent upon subconsious/ mood/ impulse"
and chance

chinavision did you ever share those photos you had in the book

I think they're all on flickr in some form or another.

or good old http://ihardlyknowher.com/altairnouveau

I can't write much right now since I'm back in the office, ready for another slog of a day, but I appreciate the thinking and writing here by people who can express themselves better than I can.

but yeah— for me, photography is v tied to & dependent upon subconsious/ mood/ impulse— being moved to seek/ look/ frame/ press the shutter for reasons that aren’t entirely intellectually known to you.

Definitely. When I know what I'm trying to do I'm usually disappointed with the results and (this is something I especially notice now when I'm painfully trying to fill up a paid-for Zenfolio site) while it's maybe "good enough" for Flickr and def fine for a quick fire up to Instagram/FB, I'm completely nonplussed by its mediocrity and lack of surprise months later and don't really want it to represent my work. Whatever that is.

I do take an awful lot of meh.

I like this one for the O-O-F woman under the pier.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8714/16954343847_947964297c_c.jpg

This appeals purely for verticals and backlit curves but everyone seems to like the fact that my children choose how to decorate my apartment and I have no control over it:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8754/16974067768_dbe75a022a_c.jpg

And this because the grubbiness of the sign makes me wonder whether the frozen yoghurt has some essence of sea bird in it...

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8684/16975582689_e5d2d8c033_c.jpg

evocative, like these v much. i also feel, like you, that my most "successful" photos tend to have a surplus something compelling in them, fascinating or absorbing the eye/ feeling, that's not the visual-thematic focus of the photograph (though may have connection to it, not necessarily). often something you only notice later, often something very small, prima facie inconsequential to the "meaning" of the photograph. a gleam of light, a strand of hair. maybe related to barthes idea of the "punctum" (as opposed to the "studium").

at some point i'll have to share some photos with you guys, the ilp crew. just have to get over or around, somehow, my weird pathological need for online privacy/ anonymity. i.e. get over myself.

loved your site (sight), chinavision

I got an X100T for myself, and randomly had a couple of weddings to go to, so I decided to be the extra photographer for them:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8770/16422743984_1a5fdcdb3b_b.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8599/15947181683_147c3a6bf9_b.jpg

And then I just liked this one of my son Owen at Glen Canyon:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7352/16368741755_63ecfffa1b_b.jpg

great stuff schwantz - love the flare and unguarded moment in the first one, the sense of movement in the second and the starkness of the third - i'm a sucker for a landscape with a person in it

i love the x100 series so much

bizarro otm

Thanks!

schwantz, those X100T photos are nice, especially the last one.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7642/17204617215_b8ed8cc6f1_z.jpg

ty
not yet, tho someday i might
i have private password-protected website i stimes work on for my own amusement & don't show anyone (lol, eyeroll)
yeah i shd post more here. maybe ilp shd have outpost thread on 77.

Do you have an idea of publishing the site/doing anything else w the photos in the future? Do other people see them in any way?

i do consider possibility of going 'public' in some form or other (e.g. via website or tumblr) at some point, but currently reluctant/ unprepared to do so

also have idea of self-publishing some books someday maybe

Do other people see them in any way?

friends & family have seen a few
stimes i think my photolab developer(s) know me better than anyone :)

Little tree on the side if one of the three sisters, in Scotland.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/761/21477277423_9f6da82f32_c.jpgLittle Tree

*of

This is the first photo I've taken in ages that I've liked.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5772/22042372339_033aec8a49_c.jpg

i like it too

Yeah, that's great.

It's really good.

I'm just doing the usual of snapping hoardings and through shop windows on my lunch break / commute home in the absence of any subjects or going anywhere interesting.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5740/22229633565_fef0efa25d_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5799/21986302989_142b59c7c3_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5778/22160588822_3876eb1b11_c.jpg

That 1st one reminds me of the split lens technique they used in the 60's & 70's, the 3rd must be the most depressing sign to some lonely folk...

Eilean Donan Castle.

Another from my little road trip in September. Hoping to go again in March if I get the time.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/717/22094625549_f618e84112_c.jpg[url=https://flic.kr/p/zEqJpP

No prostitutes there either.

Really like the door photo, and that's a much better angle on Eilean Donan than my drive by shots from the car!

m0v3d 2 c4l1~4~rn14

http://i.imgur.com/UYHwo2q.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Bp3xrSR.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/nA7LoDL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/oSDUkBp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/pdxczv7.jpg

really like the third one

gbx it's the notes you're not playing

i like them all! i was just really struck by that one

Strong Verticals

Another from Vienna...
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/621/21905990964_029954e7d6_c.jpgUntitled

Bit big, sorry.

Cool!

really like those schlump
like play on visibility, layered veilings, light & shadow, event of small ephemeral human figure in scene

Charity shop non-purchases on a Sunday afternoon...

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5809/22318371860_917b05a0da_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5690/21885138253_1e29b4c44c_c.jpg

She ain't heavy, she's my sister...

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5794/21963091664_1297b652df_c.jpg

Took some pictures at my kids' school carnival today...

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5655/22654721495_31242f4d4c_b.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5720/22031115934_5be31fd80c_b.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5730/22640433202_203759f5a7_b.jpg

Lovely colours.

Great light too! Same goes for your last set, Michael.

Thanks! Kind of jacked everything up a bit in Lightroom this time. Also, it's the perfect time of year for good light around here.

Lots of lovely fog lately.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/751/22792112475_787b6672a2_c.jpg

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/589/22778619032_7c06ca181e_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5624/22170997713_7ba66cdb28_c.jpg

Great time of year (for taking photos)!

Some favourites from Mexico:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/635/22069147390_0d6606e377_c.jpg

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/771/22043338439_74a89d1f25_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5716/22044700299_cdabfa1f83_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5644/21643898463_5cb9ea27fc_c.jpg

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/608/21590104394_e11a3a4d7b_c.jpg

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/657/21584378573_e1d84bbf63_c.jpg

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/722/22011633410_bf18de6f6b_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5804/22003428750_4042fc241b_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5689/22151867236_3a6a125ba7_c.jpg

Great stuff! Going to Thailand next week - hopefully I can get some good pics...

Isle of Sky again, 5am start for the Old Man of Storr, had to stop for this. I'm a sucker for a sunrise/sunset...
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/767/22957651942_34aabdb011_c.jpgUntitled

Another from Skye...
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5738/22594244574_cbe727b213_c.jpgSkye Bridge

A few from my family trip to Thailand...

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5741/23091527109_4ddb0b0335_b.jpgShaved ice toppings by David Isbister, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5710/22834087923_4f91fce508_b.jpgLong boats by David Isbister, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/738/23352004972_a74733acb0_b.jpgGrilling fish by David Isbister, on Flickr

The whole set is here

Love the ice toppings one.

Great shots, particularly 2 & 3, is that salt on the fish?
That's a great camera and lens you're using, how is it usability wise?

Another from Scotland trip, one of the Three Sisters in Glencoe
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/665/23248509220_89eabff518_c.jpg

Thanks! Yeah, that's salt. I'm using the X100T (no detachable lens). I love it. Only drawbacks are:

1. Stuck with one lens. Makes the camera small, but it's pretty wide-angle.
2. Battery life isn't great. I bring an extra battery, and it can charge via USB so you can use one of those phone backup batteries to charge it in a pinch.

I'm sure there are other ones (esp. Vs. a high-end camera), but I've been very happy with it. If I had to do it again, I might have gone with the X-T1/10 so I could get some different lenses.

phone dilettante here, considering purchase. virginia in october: http://imgur.com/a/EAlyM

http://i.imgur.com/X1zBcyj.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UmpKa76.jpg

That second one is really pretty (first one good too)!

Another from the Scotland road trip. I'm going back in march, Doing the NC500 this time, I hope i do it Justice
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5622/24009354715_0b612a8499_c.jpgNeist Point

An alleyway at the Glasgow Cross end of Argyle Street.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1676/23416787743_e4d18451e0_z.jpg

A few shots from the studio:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1577/24079241219_a3bfab0320_b.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1686/24151685280_824cd98f5c_b.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1560/24427257656_960bb3e373_b.jpg