My Fuji X100 (sorta) Review

I've purchased many cameras over the years, always looking to find just the right tool that would make me the better photographer, always naively telling myself that "if only I had this camera then...". Of course every photographer romanticizes that they can walk the streets of say, Paris with some exotic old camera, perhaps a Hasselblad, and that because of this magical camera, they will become a master photographer and every frame will come out ready to hang in a gallery. Every photographer deludes themselves with this idea because the technology that makes photography possible is part of the appeal of being a photographer in the first place. So why not dream big?

I caught the camera bug early in my college days. In fact, my first big camera purchase was a Hasselblad 501cm with 3 lenses and 2 film backs and a Polaroid back -the works.  But in the end, guess how that camera spent most of its time. Yep, on a shelf, collecting dust. The dream that now that I had the perfect camera I would be on my way to being a great photographer turned out to be exactly that: just a dream. That's not to say I didn't shoot my fair share of film through that camera. I certainly did. But as my photography output increased, the fact of the matter was that I could no longer justify the time or resources it took to shoot film, and sadly this beautiful piece of photographic technology became the last choice when it came time to grab a camera and go. It's a digital age and I needed a camera that can give me the immediacy that digital photography affords.  The problem was (and I suspect many other photographers feel the same way) that carrying a digital camera around with you everywhere just wasn't cool. I hate to say it, but when your only choice is to grab your big, heavy, dorky digital slr or an expensive and antiquated film camera, you often left the house with no camera at all. In fact, I found myself becoming less and less a photographer because I simply had my camera with me less and less of the time.

So when the Fuji X100 was announced in 2010, I, as did so many other photographers, took a knee and thanked the photo gods for answering our prayers. Here was a piece of technology that seemed to be designed by Cartier-Bresson himself, had he only lived in the age of iPods and HDTV. The romance of photography was back, as this camera married oldschool style with cutting edge performance. In short, this was the camera that would make carrying a camera around your neck cool again. But I wouldn't let myself buy another camera just for camera's sake. I had neglected too many good cameras and determined that in order to take in a new camera, I had to sell another I already owned. So after much agonizing and suffering, I sold my Hasselblad kit (a decision any photographer would understand I did not make lightly) and bought the Fuji X100.

Was it the right move? In a word: yes.

In more than one word: yes, yes.

There are enough reviews of this camera out there for you to read if you need to geek out over specs and features. I recommend starting here. For me, I only need the camera to tick off a few things. As I already said above, it needs to be convenient enough to carry with me anywhere, while providing me the convenience and performance of today's current digital sensor technologies. The X100 does this in spades. Sure the camera is too big to carry in a pocket like an iPhone, but the camera has a full aps-c size sensor with amazing low-light performance, a beautiful 35mm (equivalent) lens, and a gorgeous hybrid ovf/evf which makes the act of photography feel so much more authentic than using an iPhone. So in a way, this camera is more about making me feel more like a photographer than anything else. And while I've finally grown out of the dream that having the right camera will make be a great photographer, this camera makes me feel like every time I use it I'm becoming more and more the photographer I want to be.  That experience is something that I don't think is stressed enough when you read online reviews.

I've been settling in with this camera for a few weeks now, and I'm loving every moment with it. Not only does it feel and look like the camera I've been waiting for, but the performance is simply unmatched. Sure, there are some issues with it. The manual focus sucks, and in low light, the AF can hunt a little. The menu isn't great and I also don't like that I can't seem to turn the image review off which sometimes hurts my ability to get the photo in a clutch moment. But my god, this camera does so much else right, how can you possibly whine about any of that other nonsense? The lens is amazing (I don't miss not having a zoom, in fact I love the discipline that comes with using prime lenses) the image quality is superb, and using it in silent mode people don't even know I have a camera with me. It is hands down my favorite camera and am happy to say that it's the first camera I've ever purchased that doesn't spend most of its time gathering dust on a shelf. Here's to being a photographer again. Thank you Fuji.

Self Portrait

Here are some of my recent photos:

11.11.11

6 min exposure taken 11/11/11 from 11:11-11:17am

DMTNT

DMTNT 2011

Aaaand we're back. I love the new site for so many reasons. It's bold, it's beautiful, and does a great job of showing off the work without too many bells and whistles. Unfortunately, it's just wasn't a good fit for the blog, so RedTown has returned to its happy home and I have to say, it feels really good.


And to kick off our return, I'm happy to post some photos from a recent shoot I did for a good friend's band DMTNT This duo turn out some pretty intense electronic metal which sounds pretty amazing.  I totally dig their adventurous soundscapes that are both technical and challenging while just skirting the edge of aural overload. You really should check out their tracks but to get the full effect you really have to see them perform live.


I instantly knew going into this shoot was that I wanted to pay homage another electro/guitar shredding duo whom I'm really big into: RATATAT.

Ratatat

I often reference other photos I love in the work I do. Not only am I inspired by great photography (as I think all good photographers are) but I often find that when I see a photo I love, I want one of my own in my portfolio. While I consider these two photos to be very different from each other, I think it goes without saying that the inspiration is clear. This isn't to say that I'm always trying to make my own facsimile of someone else's photography when I work. And I'm certainly not trying to make any claims that mine is an improvement over the original. In fact, one of the key things I love about Ratatat's photo is it's retro snapshot quality, which is clearly absent from mine (I think it's fascinating how I'm drawn to photographs whose style IS so different from my own). But I do argue that being open to other photographers' work and acknowledging how the images you respond to the most affect your own vision is a good thing.

Normally I like to go into any shoot having already worked out any technical unknowns. It looks bad when you show up for a shoot and don't have the slightest idea how you're going to get the image. But when you're working with friends, sometimes you just want to try things without worrying about how unprofessional it might look. If ever there is a time to make mistakes and try to learn a new process, this is the time to do it right?


This shoot was challenging in that I'd never shot a photo where the main source of light was from a projector. There were some instant unknowns like just how much light does a projector put out? Will I have to shoot super wide open and still only be able to hope for 1/4 sec shutter speed? Then there were conceptual issues to work out.  I knew from the beginning that I wanted to project a barcode, but somewhere between first concept of the photo to execution, I had complicated the idea by wanting to project weird color charts, or old Magnum press b&w photos. Once I tested out all these alternate ideas and found them all to suck and returned the original concept, it all just clicked. Not only was the graphic quality of the black and white lines eye catching, but it was a far more symbolically appropriate image that fit better than any of the other images that night.

early reject

The key to this shoot was to approach it with a firm idea, but be flexible to change my vision when challenges presented themselves. Frankly, the final product is miles away from what I originally imagined, (the original concept included a fog machine and more lights) but because I knew where I ultimately wanted to take this photo, and was able to learn as I went along, I was able to create something that surprised and excited me while staying close to my original concept - an important skill when working for any client.

After nailing the money shot, I had 2 more portraits I wanted to do for the fellas:

And that's it! It was a fun night full of learning and making some killer photos. A big thanks to DMTNT for being super chill and hugely patient while working out the technical details of the shoot on the spot and for being able to hang for hours until we got it in the can. Check out DMTNT's music and be sure to check back here on the blog as I have much to catch up on and plan to be posting more in the coming days/weeks.

It feels good to be back!

New Home!!!

RedTown has a brand new website and with the new site comes a new blog!

Redtownphoto.blogspot.com has been a good home to us and we're sad to say goodbye, but we're very excited for future at our new blog.

Check it out! www.redtownphoto.com/journal

Goodbye old friend...

Untitled

Sunday sketches at the Beach

Happy Mother's Day!

It's that time of year once again when we take a moment to say "I love you" to those special ladies in our lives.

I love you mom!

Dana Lee - March, 2011

Shoshone Falls

Been in the studio working with a new camera that I will post about soon. It will hopefully be the set up that I use for the Empty City (working title) series I'm working on and takes a lot of getting familiar with it for me to be sure that I'm getting the most of out it. It looks like it's going to be a great system and can't wait to get some images out of it.

In the meantime, here's a photo I took during my short trip back home early this month. I took a mini break from photography while I was out there, but couldn't help but get a few photos anyway.

Rainy Beach

It's a rainy Sunday in Chicago and I decided to take a trip to the beach and poke around a bit. The beach in winter is such a strange world - hostile and desolate, and very beautiful. Here are some photos from today's walkabout.

Neli

Fantastic photoshoot yesterday. Great model, great laughs, fun photos.  I'm very happy with the outcome of this shoot. I couldn't have asked for a cooler, more laid back model in Neli. As you can tell, she's a pretty hip Haitian with serious style. She came to me wanting some photos done for her annual birthday photo (pretty cool idea if you ask me) and I don't think she was ready for the results. 

*Blogger has an annoying tendency to darken photos. There is more detail in these photos than meets the eye in this post. Sorry! 

Wrapped

Very excited to share 3 new photos for a small portrait series I began over the weekend. It's an exploration of a few concepts that have begun to penetrate our portraits: the obfuscation of the subject's face and the tension it signifies between expectations and the persona (see Son of Man and Hannah for more on this theme), combined with archetypes of high fashion - the female nude used as a hanger for some ridiculous piece of haute couture. The fun of combining these two ideas is the use of common place materials as representatives of this idea - manila rope, plastic drop cloth, and red yarn. Each material presented its own unique challenge, but the red yarn was especially tedious. It required about a half a pound of yarn and an hour of wrapping to complete the headpiece.  Well worth the effort though, for what I feel turned out to be some great photos.

Untitled Work in Progress

Here is a sneak peak of a new project I've started that explores the city during its twilight hours - when the din of urban chaos quiets to a murmur and we are left alone with the opportunity to experience the infrastructure that makes the machine work. It has been beyond freezing the past few weeks in Chicago, especially at night, so the pace of new photos has slowed a bit, but look for more of this project in the future as it develops into a cohesive body over the next several months.

Lost and Found {L&F}

Sorting through some past work it's amazing to see just how many photos fall through the cracks. Photographers are always shooting - it's like breathing. We do it unconsciously and often. Even when we don't know why we want to take a photograph, we take it anyway, and with any luck it might turn out to be something special. But somehow, for one reason or another, even good photos get lost in the stack of photos we take everyday. 

Here's a few photos I fished out of the cracks, blew the dust off, and found worthy of sharing. The first in our new Lost and Found {L&F} series:

Empty City

This is a test photo of a new series that I'm working on - photographing the city as a backdrop in which the ebb and flow of our human existence fades into nothing. Deep stuff right? Still working out the technical kinks, such as when the best time of day is to shoot. I thought a dull gray morning like today would be perfect, but I'm not loving all the headlights. Each exposure is 8 mins long thanks to my +10 stop ND filter but I think I'll try to double that exposure time next go around and see what kind of ghosting I can get to appear. Not perfect, but it's shaping up to be an interesting series.

Rose

Morning

Hannah