Saturday 12th of January, London was calling and boy did I answer. I hadn’t been to London since the end of October (2018) and anyone that knows me will know I never go that long without visiting this amazing city. I’d decided to be in London by 5am, why so early you might be asking, well, I was hoping to catch the deliveries in Chinatown. I’ve been wanting to get there nice and early for ages and I always seem to arrive too late, but not this time.
I spent the day shooting with a student, who ended up having a good day and I hope he learnt lots, as I said above we started in Chinatown, but if I’m honest I didn’t really get anything I was happy with, the few photos I was kind of happy with are here:
I didn’t feel as if Chinatown was a total bust, just watching the guys unloading the vans was fun, I couldn’t believe how fast they work. After spending 2 hours walking around there we decided to have a walk to Oxford Street, London is so different at 6am, the only people about are the cleaners and a few workers arriving early.
We found ourselves back in Chinatown by 11:30 and this is where I meet up with my good friend Nick (@nickpetrides on instagram), I was lucky enough that Nick was happy to let me shoot with the new Fujifilm GFX 50R, Fujifilm's new medium format camera, his lens of choice the 45mm. First thing I noticed about this camera was its weight, it wasn’t as heavy as it first looks, a bonus for me. I decided to shoot the camera fast, I wasn’t going to stop and take my time, I wanted to see what the camera could do and if it could keep up with me, it didn’t disappoint. Of course I shot wide open (F2.8 if I’m correct), I was told that if I shot the GFX wide open I’d be lucky to get anything in focus, well, here are some of the photos and I think I did ok:
I had a lot of fun shooting with this camera, but I was so happy to get my Fujifilm X-T2 and 56mm back in my hand, mind you, it felt so small after using the GFX. If you get the chance to shoot with Fujifilm’s medium format cameras grab it with both hands, you’ll have a great time I promise.
I finally had a rest and chance to grab a coffee at Starbucks at 3pm, I’d been shooting consistently since I’d arrived in London and this was the first time I had taken a break. By the time I’d arrived at Starbucks I was dead on my feet, but I couldn't wait to get back onto the streets. 30 minutes later and I was back at it, but not with the Fujifilm. Nick offered to let me loose with the Leica M4 a 35mm rangefinder camera, I was shooting this with the Voigtlander 35mm F1.4 sc. I shot 2 rolls of Ilford HP5 film and yes I went through 2 rolls in about 2 and half hours, crazy right.
I haven’t had so much fun with a camera in ages, I loved shooting film again and being back in the position of not knowing what I was getting. Even as I write this blog I don’t know what I caught with that camera and of course, I will report back once I get the photos.
All in all, I had one of the best days of street photography in ages, I got so many wonderful photos and below is just a small selection, Enjoy
