As 2019 starts I wanted to take the time to look back at some of my favourite photos from 2018. In this blog, I will be showing my favourite monochrome photos and in the next blog, I’ll be looking back at my colour (Classic chrome) photos.
Unlike the previous years since I’ve been shooting with Fujifilm, I spent a good part of this year shooting in monochrome R with my Fujifilm X-Pro 1 (the one I lost on the streets) and in Acros R with my Fujifilm X-E3. I’ve mostly been shooting this way in Cambridge on bright sunny days, when there’s a good amount of blue sky, I love turning the sky black (why I shoot using the red filter in the Fujifilm monochrome film simulations) it really makes both the people and buildings stand out more.
I’ve been shooting using the red filter in my monochrome photography since my school days, I was and I guess I still am heavily influenced by the landscape photographer Ansel Adams, the look he achieved shooting monochrome is very powerful, the mountains he photographed looked menacing against the black sky and this is something I like to do with people and its the reason I sit on the floor shooting upwards.
When I photograph like this I like everything to be in focus, this is why I will set the range focus to 1.5 meters, set the F-stop to F8 and then just control my shutter speed as I need to, which isn’t that much. This then allows me to concentrate on capturing the perfect moment and I don’t have to worry about the camera.
I did buy a replacement X-Pro 1 the reason behind this was the monochrome, out of all, the Fujifilm X cameras it has the best-looking monochrome by a long way. The photos look amazing straight out of the camera, the monochrome is so beautiful, once you’ve shot with the X-Pro 1 it’s hard to let it go and it’s no wonder these cameras still sell for over £300 used.
For me the perfect pair would be the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 and the 23mm F2 WR lens, I never use the X-Pro 1 for colour photos, I leave this job to my beloved X-E3.
Anyway time for some photos
