COLOUR ON THE STREET
That’s something that doesn’t happen very often, colour photography isn’t something I do, and I’m not sure why that is.
My simple therory is that I like colour photography, but I like black and white photography more, and I think it’s because I have a love for old photographs, most of which are black and white. I like the look of them and I think I subconsciously try to emulate what I have in my memory from the pictures I’ve seen in the past. But why I like black and white photography is a story for another time, today it’s about going out and shooting colour pictures.
I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just whatever caught my eye, all the usual, light, shadow, faces, and of course colours. I don’t always take photographs becuase I’m trying to say somethng, most of the time it’s just because I like to, I want to see what something looks like as a picture, how the light is falling on a subject, how the tones will look in a black and white image, and today how the combination of camera and lens renders the colours. Yes I like to capture certain moments if I can, but it’s not always about that and sometimes you don’t see any, it’s not that they’re not happening somewhere, they are, but just not happening where I am at that given moment, that’s what makes it worth while, what makes it a privilege, that when I do see and photograph a moment, that I was there to see it and to capture it.
I took this picture from inside a coffee shop, I just liked the light on the mans face with the added bonus of the light bouncing off his t shirt lighting him from below, and I also got some quirky reflections.
As the saying goes, you have to be out there to get the pictures, they don’t come to you, so although I didn’t get anything special, I was out there looking for it, I was out with my camera and I was happy.
So, what’s attracted me to shoot colour?
I think it’s a combination of a few things, firstly I’m using the 35mm 1.4 fujifilm lens, you know the one, yes that’s right, the magic one. Its funny but that’s still what people say about this lens, that it renders a certain look to the images it produces, I don’t think it’s magic myself, but it’s definitely what It does to colour images that has got me shooting more colour photography. The second thing is being able to mess with the fujifilm colours in camera, changing so many things can give some great results, and now you can also use the Fujifilm Raw converter software which is free, so a combination of those two things is what’s driving me to shoot more colour, and I’m really loving the results.
fujifilm xt5 + 35mm 1.4
Do you still use the fujifilm 35mm 1.4? If you do I would love to hear your views on it, do you own an original or is it a new version?
I think the image quality from it is great, it’s plenty sharp enough and the focus is pretty decent on fujifilm new boddies, I know it’s not as quick to focus as the new lenses and it’s not weather resistant, but that stuff doesn’t overly concern me, I’ve used cameras that had no weather sealing for years and I’ve never had a camera stop working on me so it’s not something I’m going to start worrying about now.
