#fujifilmshots

[seatosomert]

The Big Smoke.

Yesterday, I headed to London with a friend who'd asked me if I'd do some photography coaching with him.

I prepped him my Sony a6300 with a couple of lenses and spare batteries and we headed off first class (a first for me) on the train.

Our first stop was Camden.

We left the station and entered Camden High Street. My friend had not used the camera before so I showed him a few basics and how to use the (excellent) auto focus system and to manually over ride it etc.

We chose a nearby bin. So whilst shooting this bin we were approached by a teenage lad who had come from the opposite direction of the bin so I didn't even notice him, he was well out of frame. I thought he was going to ask us what we were shooting but instead he threatened to smash up my camera if I didn't stop taking photos of him! I think he was probably high on drugs and paranoid (and if I am honest, he looked like he was up to no good). Any way. I challenged this which he didn't like. I don't think he didn't like that I wasn't frightened of him. I called him back and said to come and look what we'd shot and showed him the bin. He shut up and walked away. Probably feeling a bit of a dick by this point.

This kid was about 16 years old and 9 stone wet through! Any way, after meeting our new friend, we moved odd up the High Street and into the Camden Lock and market area.

We grabbed a few architectural shots and some Churros (oh yes...) then headed back to the train station, passing our new paranoid friend who was still in the same spot two hours later on and off his phone and fiddling with his little man bag.

Our next destination was Shoreditch.

I love Shoreditch and in particular, Brick Lane for street photography. The street art and mix of characters and architecture are amazing. I visit every time I am in London.

It didn't disappoint and we grabbed some great street art shots from there.

Our next and last shoot location of the day was Shad Thames.

The area comprises of converted Victorian Warehouses, now mostly very expensive apartments that retain much of the original charm from when the buildings existed as work places for the many.

Just around the corner we had Tower Bridge and the Shard so no shortage of architecture to shoot.

We could have spent a couple of hours in that area but we were pushed for time and it was 7.15pm and we needed to get to Kings Cross for our 8pm train back to Leeds.

So I grabbed a couple of shots of Tower Bridge and the Shard at high speed as we rushed to London Bridge station.

We made it to Kings Cross with 30 minutes to spare.

We spent the journey home debriefing my mate's images and showing him how to edit in Lightroom mobile.

We had a great but knackering day. One thing's for sure... we'll be back to the Big Smoke for another shoot soon.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this article it would really help if you liked and shared for me so please consider doing that for me.

As usual if I can help with any photography tips message me and if you have any tips for my next visit to London I'm always looking for new ideas and locations to shoot so do let me know. All the best and see you again soon.

Kind regards.

Neil.

[seatosomert]

Fujifilm X series Film simulations.

So last night I discovered that the X+series cameras from Fujifilm have the ability to create other film stock simulations than the standard Fujifilm own brand.

My favourite film of all time is Kodak Portra and I found a Portra 800 simulation.

So I set it all up from a tutorial on YouTube last night and I've had a little play with it today.

These few images are my results so far from just messing about

I last shot Portra 800 in November and I had large prints done and digital scans. I can confirm that they simulate extremely well in my Fujifilm XE3.

I'm really impressed!

I'm going to get some prints done in the near future and I'll let you know how I get on.

The B&W shot is Acros with red filter.

That's it for now.

Any questions, comments or tips you have for me with the fujifilm let me know.

Don't forget to do all that good stuff and like, follow and share.

In a bit.

Regards.

Neil.

[seatosomert]

London July 2020.

London has always had a draw to me.  I love the big city feel, whilst also feeling somewhat at home.

It has such a diversity of cultures, whilst retaining it’s quintessential ‘Britishness’.  

My youngest lad loves London. We’ve not been since Lockdown and as Lockdown has started to lift, I somewhat apprehensively made the trip down with him on Friday.

I expected huge crowds, crammed Tube trains and masses of people not respecting Social Distancing.  I figured if we did our best to protect ourselves by wearing PPE grade masks and taking precautions ourselves to Social distance the best that we could, we would be as safe as we would be as safe as we are in our home town of Leeds.

The first thing I noticed was the care that LNER had taken to Socially distance and clean the trains.  We could smell it had been sanitised as soon as we boarded the train.  There was a food bar on, but no food trolley.  Attendance at the food bar was managed by restricting who attended coach by coach upon tannoy announcement.

Once we were in London, Kings Cross station was busy, but no where near the volume you’d normally expect for a Friday lunchtime.

The story was the same when we moved to the underground.  There were comparatively very few people on the trains.  It was easy to Socially distance.  Of course everyone was wearing masks.

I noted that there were a lot of police on patrol down by the London Eye area, armed and unarmed.  Some were positively engaging with families.  It had a good vibe and we felt safe.  Safer than our home town of Leeds in fact, where i personally have observed a much more lax approach to not only Social Distancing, but the wearing of masks.  

It made me realise just why London has the lowest re-infection rates in the UK, whilst Yorkshire has the highest.  I wondered as to why that is and this dominated my thoughts for a while on our train journey back home.

I do hear a lot of ‘Conspiracy Theory’, suggestions from one or two people i know closer to home when i am back in Leeds.  I wonder if it is this trend that is leading people not to stick to the Social distancing and mask wearing as much as they seem to be doing in the Capital?

i don’t know the answer and i have my own personal thoughts on why i think there is this disparity that i choose to keep private.

Anyway, back to the day in London.....

We hopped on and off the tube very quickly and it was super efficient.  that os the great thing about the London Underground.  You can get anywhere in London within about 20 mins and typically the average journey for us was around 8 minutes.  I can’t get from one side of Leeds to the other in half an hour let alone 20 minutes on public transport.

We landed at Waterloo Station in good time for a boat trip I had booked for my lad’s 13th Birthday, the Thames Rocket.

We killed some time with a much needed, cold, refreshing drink, in the 36 Celsius summer heat, which was relentless.

The boat trip itself was just brilliant!  I didn’t really know what to expect and thought it would be mostly a slow, sight seeing tour with 2-3 minutes of blasting about on the Thames, then it would be done.

I was wrong.  We were on go slow as we sailed down the Thames within the restricted speed limit areas.  Once we passed Tower Bridge however, that all changed.  We then had at least a 20-30 mins blast along the thames at high speed, with high speed turns and u-turns.  We even had a bit of a bost chase where we jumped over the wash from the high speed boat we were pursuing.

It was just great and i highly recommend it.  I’ll be doing the same again next time I am there for sure.  Worth the money.

My lad loves Chinese food and wanted to head to China Town for some authentic Chinese food. So after a short tube journey and a 15 -20 mins walk through part of Covent Garden, we were in China Town. We enjoyed a great meal, and I had a couple of much needed, ice cold Tsing Tao beers.

The Lad wanted to go into a Chinese Patisserie and then we slowly started to make our way back towards Kings Cross Station for our journey home.

A fleeting visit to London but a very enjoyable one.

If you’re interested, i took most of the images on my Fujifilm XE3 and a handful on my mobile, a Sony Experia 1.

I shot s bit of video whilst i was there which i will look to edit up and pop on here too on a separate post.

As usual, any questions, fire them in the ‘Notes’, and if you like what you see, please like and follow and don’t forget to share with your pals.

I’m interested to share ideas, locations to visit in London, or anywhere else in the world that you feel is great to shoot street life.

All the best.

Neil.