robvisual - photography

Adobe is back on the track. A new version of the Camera Raw Plugin and Lightroom has arrived. More information here: http://www.fujirumors.com/adobe-camera-raw-9-1-1-lightroom-cc-and-6-1-1-avaiable-with-improved-loading-speed-of-x-trans-raw-images/ This update is important. Because it will speed up the load-time of x-trans-files of your Fuji camera. I will update this post after I tried it.

Photography is like directing a moving in one (or a couple of) image(s). Something is going on in front of your camera and it is on you to capture it in a way the viewer can understand the message behind the scene that you want to tell. When it comes to street photography it is mucho grande important to tell a story with every single photo. The amount of detail and importance is to you liking. But there should be a path, motion or something else behind the final picture. Need some examples? arriving - X100s (f8.0) I was leaving a train station and headed over to a pedestrian bridge. From my higher viewpoint I saw this guy leaving a taxi heading over to a hotel. I grabbed my camera quickly because he was moving towards darkness (what makes a great background if he is half dipped into it). I framed the taxi at the bottom left so it creates a diagonal that leads the viewer to the moving subject (man). From bottom to top you can see it as a movie still that tells the story of som...

UPDATE: Don´t miss my newer arcticle about the XPRO2 and GAS How should this camera look like? Fuji has a tough job. Because the actual owners of this cam (like me) love it because of it´s design, the form-factor and that hard to explain portion of fairy-dust. The pressure is high. The successor of this photographic tool must be outstanding and godlike! Really? Not for me. I have a short list that would make me happy: newer sensor (foveon II) like the one in the X-T1 (more dynamic range) faster processor and write speeds sd-card-slot not at the bottom of the camera evf of the X-T1 up to date phase-autofocus (Extra) an option for street shooters to lock the manual focus for zone focussing! This is what I expect for an update. Nothing spectacular. I think this camera will be perfect with up-to-date specs. I know that there are thousands of wishes on the list like "put the button here or there" or "give us a 1.3 size sensor", but this is not important for...

Just my favorite photo of my last photowalk with a friend. We were driving around in industrial areas near the south side of the Hamburg harbor. This is a classic shot that works great in black & white. I love the darker background and that 3D like steam. steam - (X-T1 / 200mm @ f9.0)

Can you stand this Mavericks like wave of images for sale? It is all about selling and buying. Good photos are used by the industry to sell their things every day. The new instagram-killer eyeem.com has a business-model that is based on licensing your photos to companies around the world. That sounds good in the first place. But it kills the prices for people who live from photography. And big players adapt every fresh style from the streets to sell their (sometimes disgusting) stuff. Would you like to see the work of Henry Catier Bresson on a Volkswagen ad in the streets? And think about the money the instagram-founders got from facebook in relation the money you can ear by selling your photos (maybe to Mercedes). The same goes with other successful platforms. And your photo will cost just 20-200 dollars for stock customers? Every image. For a little business or a giant campaign! I believe that a well produced photo is a hundred (million) times better than stock. Imagine all that ...

He ran towards me and I grabbed my camera. He saw that he is in the way and tried to dive under my camera. But he did not know that I had a 12mm wide angle lens on. The long shutter-speed creates a sense of fast movement here. run - (XPRO-1 / 12mm @ f8.0)

Do you need an expensive camera to take good photos in the streets? Not really. As I said in my first posts there is no need for high-end equipment. You can even take interesting photos with your smartphone. Technically a high quality camera gives you more options when it comes to quality, post processing etc. but it won´t make you a better photographer. The most important camera is the camera you have with you (or forgotten at home as Zack Arias once said). I took the following shot with my Galaxy Note 3 an processed it with Pixlr: waiting (Galaxy Note 3) The shot was made through a rain coated window of a train. The light was harsh and makes the subject shine...

I don´t like to take photos of others creations, except it leads to new art with a different context. looking at (X100)

Life is fast and stressful. The pace is going faster and faster. Every day something new is happening. Your actual photos are just yesterdays news. It is about hunting for new images! green relief If you follow that road you will feel stuffed some day like someone in an "all you can eat" restaurant. Slow down. Try to catch the slowness of things. The nature-break in architecture. Beauty in ugliness. Or just something funny. Because art is also about a (your) different viewing angle on things we do every day. Art can make us think about life. behind the horse Most people are way too busy. Think about photography as a kind of meditation that slows you down. It gives you the ability to be an observer of the things that are going on in front of you and your camera. You can decide what to show to the eyes of the viewer. You can dig out all the forgotten things. The background of the scene or just the simple beauty in it. You are the storyteller... still open

Yesterday I had some after-work-spare-time waiting for my wife. So I decided to walk around without a destination. I barley touched my camera. There were no interesting things going on. But you should always be ready. As I was heading over to the train station this old woman was coming into my view. I quickly grabbed my camera to take this shot: Wind (X100s @ f8.0) I love the strong lines in this image and the woman who was walking against a stronger wind trying to hold her jacket while she is crossing the the first line. The dark background is a perfect backdrop and let the subject shine.

Sometimes you need to be quick. Really quick. There are situations that change in seconds. So you just have one to three seconds to raise the camera to your eyes and take the photo. The photo in this blogpost is one of this "quick shots". I was walking down the street with my wife as I saw people moving behind this door with shatterproof glass. So I raised the camera quickly to my eyes and took this shot. The camera was pre-configured to a zone-focusing-distance of 3 to 8 meters. I always switch the camera on with my pointing finger when I grab the camera with my right hand. The power-on-time of the X100s is fast enough to be ready. It looks like he is noticing me. Maybe he had a sense of being watched by someone else. The sunglasses are perfect because they are adding some mystery to the scene. A thousand possible stories told in one frame. behind - (X100s @ f8.0)