Workshop review - Cambodia September 2012

BEHIND THE SCENES - Shooting in Cambodia

Our small group workshop was a resounding success, some of the images produced were simply outstanding, for some photographers who attended, having either never shot 'people photography' before, or having little experience in engaging their subjects, I was honestly amazed at the work they were able to produce over the course of 3 days.

(The Motley Crew - Andrew, Ian, Susan, Terese, Steve & Gary)

The training each day was long, sometimes 12-14 hours of constant photography, editing and review sessions, but being away from their home countries allowed the participants to focus on the tasks without any distractions and this I believe is a key element to fast track learning.  That coupled with a photographically rich environment allows for some great work to be produced.

We concentrated on exposing the group to a variety of different locations and subjects, encouraging them to shoot 'people' and use their different lenses, all the while being there to assist with any technical or composition questions and guide where necessary.  We spent a small amount of time each day focussing on developing/editing using Adobe Lightroom 4 back at the hotel and then a good hour and a half session every night reviewing/critiquing eachothers best images of the day as a group.  This was a really useful part of the training for everyone and we all learnt a lot during these feedback sessions.  The group also learnt other features in Lightroom 4 including how to correcty export images for various formats (email/web/print) and to utilise the slideshow feature in Lightroom to produce a finished portfolio of images set to music at the end of the workshop.

Here are a few images from 'behind the scenes' at the workshop, showing the photographers going about their daily shooting rituals in a variety of locations in and around Phnom Penh.

(Rain or shine, we were up and out, smiling, with cameras in hand, shooting all day long)

(1-1 therapy from Gary....(we thought he was the one who needs therapy?!)

(The locals love the OMD as much as us....and Sam (right) setting up to take the group shot on the Contax G2)

(Just interacting with the locals was half the fun of the workshop)

(Showing Terese some XPro1 tips (left) and Susan (right) gets me to pose with her new found friend - a newborn kitten!)

 (During some downtime, Ian buys some Cambodia scarfs, as modelled by Gary (right), an essential purchase in Cambodia)

(The girls pose, closely followed by Andrew and Gary striking a pose in the Tuk Tuk)

(Learning to use a diffuser and reflectors is essential for portraits in the harsh light)

(Sam (Tuk Tuk Driver) and Terese (right).  Thats what we like to see, smiley happy people)

(We await our transport across the Mekong river whilst Andrew cleverly waits in the shade, it was a long day that one...)

Some of the participants from the workshop have kindly found time to produce some guest blog posts on our site, they can be seen by clicking below, well worth a look, some outstanding imagery they produced over the 3 days:

STEVE (ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR) BLOG POST

ANDREWS GUEST BLOG POST

SUSANS GUEST BLOG POST

As I spent much of the time in country either teaching, watching or assisting our clients with their shooting, I didn't get much time to shoot myself during the workshop.  Here are a few of the images that I managed to capture in between events whilst we were out and about.

All the below images shot with Olympus OMD, processed using VSCO film presets in Adobe Lightroom 4.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page or on the ‘LIKE’ box to the right side of this blog.  You can share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below or on the left side of this blog.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below or on the right of this post.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

GUEST POST: Steve - Cambodia Workshop (Asst Instructor)

Note:  This post is written and all photos by Steve Porte (less portraits of Steve) who travelled to Cambodia with us as assistant instructor.  Steve shot with a combination of Canon 1D Mk IV and 5D Mk III throughout.  These are his thoughts on the workshop:

(Steve is always having a laugh and a joke, enjoying life - here we were setting up a lesson in 'off camera lighting')

Last week, I traveled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia with F8 Photography owner Gary Tyson and four other photographers.  Unlike our casual visit in July (described in a previous post that can be seen here) this trip was to host a formal photography workshop in and around Phnom Penh.  The group consisted of four participants, Gary and myself.   Here are my thoughts on that trip...

(The motley crew - Andrew, Ian, Susan, Terese, Steve & Gary)

On our last visit, we had great weather and beautiful light.  This time, there were daily rain showers - but the rain had little effect on our daily routine.  Both during and after the rains, we were bathed in the same soft light we have come to expect in Cambodia, and the rain actually became an interesting element in several of our images.  Just like our last visit, the combination of colourful infrastructure, verdant landscape, warm and friendly people, and the soft light, made for a wonderful photographic experience.

(5D3, 85mm, f/1.2, ISO 200)

(1D4, 27mm, f/3.5, ISO 200)

(1D4, 16mm, f/6.3, ISO 200)

(1D4, 34mm, f/3.2, ISO 200)

The biggest surprise for me this trip was the quality of work produced by the workshop participants.  The four arrived ranging in experience from first-day-with-a-new-point & shoot, to an experienced nature photographer.  Although this was billed as a basic-skills workshop, each participant produced some very good images on day one.  After four very long days of shooting, group and individual tutoring, and nightly post processing lessons, each participant was putting up some very strong images, with a much-improved keeper rate.  Very impressive.

(Steve (top right) tutoring Ian (left) whilst Terese (front) studies her images captured so far)

As always, the real treat shooting in Cambodia was interacting with the local people.  We met some well to do folks, and some less fortunate - but regardless of their situation, all were warm, genuine, and displayed the winning Cambodian smile.  The warm welcome we received from everyone made the trip wonderful, even without raising a camera.

(Steve engaging some subjects with his infectious smile)

 (5D3, 85mm, f/2.2, ISO 200)

(5D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 200)

(5D3, 85mm, f/1.2, ISO 200)

(1D4, 35mm, f/6.3, ISO 200)

This trip, as usual, we delivered portraits taken on the previous trip (and some shot early this visit).  Every person to whom we delivered prints beamed at seeing their own images.  I’m not sure who was happier - the subjects at receiving the prints, or us at seeing their reaction.  A true win-win situation.

(1D4, 22mm, f/5.6, ISO 200)

(1D4, 35mm, f/2.8, ISO 200)

In my last F8 guest post, I mentioned that Cambodia is a wonderful place to visit, to shoot, and to use as an effective teaching venue.  The atmosphere is relaxed, there is abundant local and international food cuisine, the light is beautiful, and the people are wonderful.  I’m happy to report that nothing has changed.  For me, it doesn’t get any better than this - even in the rain....

(5D3, 85mm, f/1.4, ISO 400)

Note from Gary from F8 Photography:  Just want to say a special thank you to Steve for joining the workshop in this capacity.  His assistance, experience, humour and character were a great addition to the workshop, helping everything along smoothly and all the participants have expressed their thanks already.  The workshop was a much more fruitful experience for all with his participation.  Cheers Steve.

More of Steve's photography can be seen via this weblink.

(Steve quietly ponders which flavour milkshake to try next at the Riverside bar and grill, Sisowath Quay, Phnom Penh :-))

We have other posts from the workshop attendees as well as behind the scenes shots and video coming soon.  Please stay tuned for that, you can now ‘search’ the blog on the left side of this post to find subject posts easily, try typing ‘cambodia’ to find all our posts from there if you wish to read more.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page or on the ‘LIKE’ box to the right side of this blog.  You can share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below or on the left side of this blog.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below or on the right of this post.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

GUEST POST: Susan - Cambodia Photography Workshop

Note:  This post is written and all photos by Susan Lim (less portraits of Susan) who travelled to Cambodia with us.  Susan shot with the Olympus OMD throughout the workshop.  This is her story. (Susan became 'at one' with her OMD shooting sometimes 12 hours a day, practice, practice, practice)

(Susan loved interacting with the kids and shooting in the rain with her new shooting buddy, Terese (far left)

When I first registered for the Cambodia workshop I told Gary that I wanted to explore this part of Cambodia, learn their cultures and practice my basic photography skills using my recently acquired Olympus OMD.

I was given a lot of opportunities to take photos in different locations such as Wat Phnom (Buddhist temple area in the city), the silk weaving villages on Mekong Island,  rice fields outside the city, street photography and environmental portraiture inside Pagodas and around other parts of Phnom Penh and the last day we visited an old temple complex about an hour away from Phnom Penh with some old ruins, great for landscape images and portraiture of the elderly temple minders.

(Inside a Pagoda, Olympus OMD, 20mm)

(Little girl on Mekong Island, Olympus OMD, 20mm)

(Monks at the Pagoda, Olympus OMD, 20mm)

(Intense portrait, Olympus 20mm)

In each location, people are willing to have their photographs taken and they were all full of smiles. I did notice a lot of poverty in Cambodia, which sometimes upset me as I am not used to seeing these things having travelled from Hong Kong. The results of my photographs are highly impacted by my emotions.

My thoughts on the the workshop training:

The workshop was very well organised, Gary from F8 Photography is a brilliant photographer.  He is knowledgable and well experienced. Without his guidance, I would never have learnt so much about how to see and take images in a way I had never done before.

I also benefited a lot from the other participants who are all highly motivated and engaging, Steve, Andrew, Ian and Terese.  Each of our session ended with critiques of photos which includes great suggestions for improving our photographs. I also learned to see results of different camera brands and the photography style of each participants.  I would highly recommend F8’s Cambodia workshop to anyone.

Note from Gary from F8 Photography:  Susan had a great workshop with outstanding results.  She had recently purchased the Olympus OMD and wanted to immerse herself somewhere away from the distractions of Hong Kong life to fast track her learning experience.  I think she did this without question, and anyone viewing her images here will agree I am quite sure.  For someone who has only been shooting a few months, her results were excellent, I was in fact quite envious of some the shots she 'saw' that I didn't see myself :-).  On this type of workshop the instructor always learns just as much from the clients I think, I love to see how others interpret a scene, I can always learn from that.  Susan was affected by some of the poverty she saw during the workshop, this is not a bad thing, this is a reality, we all react differently to what we see, and it is reflected in some images in her portfolio.  This reminded me of my early visits to Cambodia, it is easy to get overwhelmed by some of the sights, but I also think this makes us stronger photographers as being emotional about our work is a good thing, it means we care about what we are trying to say.  Good work Susan, well done.

(Rainy day, first shots...this was one of Gary's favourites that Susan produced on Day 1, Olympus OMD, 20mm)

(Cheeky children, Olympus OMD, 45mm)

We have other posts from the workshop attendees as well as behind the scenes shots and video coming soon.  Please stay tuned for that, you can now ‘search’ the blog on the left side of this post to find subject posts easily, try typing ‘cambodia’ to find all our posts from there if you wish to read more.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page or on the ‘LIKE’ box to the right side of this blog.  You can share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below or on the left side of this blog.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below or on the right of this post.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

GUEST POST: Andrew - Cambodia Photography Workshop

Note:  This post is written and all photos by Andrew Hardacre (less portraits of Andrew) who travelled to Cambodia with us.  Andrew shot with a combination of Leica M9 and Fuji X100 for this trip.  This is his story.

Photography biorhythms was a new concept to me. Rise at 5.30am, bed at midnight. Flat out. All day, every day.

Gary warned us that we would burn out if we tried to do this. I didn't listen.

The evidence however is in the catalogue. A few gems taken in a burst, followed by long interludes of the mundane. Devoid of inspiration, no spark. Fortunately I did listen to everything else he taught us. I can't promise I can put everything into practice at once. I do however have a much better understanding of the importance of colour, how to engage a subject and the value of a tight frame.

I was already a black and white junky but although I still think B&W first, I can now see why in the past my colour images often failed. I need to go and seek out colours that work and be more selective in what I shoot.

And the really big lesson is then selecting what to keep and what to trash. Forced ranking the day's files down to 20, then 15, then 10....... that was interesting.

(Andrew scouting for new subjects from the Tuk Tuk)

On day 1 and 2 the challenge was to decide which 20 to put up for critique. By the end of day 4 the problem was the other way round. Can I find 10 worth showing out of the hundreds I have taken.

I compared this in my blog to doing a language immersion course and I guess that is pretty close - this is an immersion course in the language of light. Me definitely Leica :-)

Note from Gary from F8 Photography:  Andrew produced an excellent body of work during the 3 day workshop.  Andrew was one of the most self critical members of the workshop - this is something I consider to be a great asset as a photographer, you MUST be able to criticise your own work and be open to constructive criticism in order to grow.  Another point from me was that Andrew explained to me before the workshop that he had spent little time photographing 'people' as he is a big fan of nature and landscape photography, and he wanted to expand his portfolio with 'people'.

(Andrew and Gary chilling out whilst waiting for the boat to ferry them across the River Mekong)

I think it is very evident in this short showcase that Andrew easily achieved his goals and produced some fantastic environmental portraits and close up character studies.  It was a real pleasure having Andrew with us on the workshop and we very much look forward to spending time shooting with him again in the future.  In the meantime, here are a few more images of Andrews from the workshop and some links below to his blog:

Andrew has his own blog that showcases more of his images from Cambodia and his other photography interests also, please take time to go have a look, heres the link below:

ANDREWS PERSONAL BLOG

We will have other posts from the workshop attendees as well as behind the scenes shots and video coming soon.  Please stay tuned for that, you can now 'search' the blog on the left side of this post to find subject posts easily, try typing 'cambodia' to find all our posts from there if you wish to read more.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page or on the 'LIKE' box to the right side of this blog.  You can share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below or on the left side of this blog.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below or on the right of this post.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Smile! you're on camera in Cambodia!

Now our Phnom Penh photography workshop is complete and we have returned to Hong Kong I will start to prepare some blog posts from each of the clients so we can share their point of view on the workshop and on Cambodia. Whilst I am doing that I would just like to share a few 'behind the scenes' headshots of our participants and some of our subjects and the underlying memory I have of Phnom Penh which is….happiness….even though the country may be poor, there are few other places I have visited that I have seen so many genuine smiles.

I walk around Hong Kong and the general vibe is very very different to Cambodia, of course these two places cannot be compared, but the reality for me is that whenever I am in countries that have more money and affluent lifestyle…..there always seems to be a lot less smiling going on…..

I hope by viewing a few of these images it can make you smile and give you a very small insight into the vibrant and colourful faces of Cambodia.

We will have lots of blog posts from the clients and behind the scenes footage coming shortly, stay tuned...and keep smiling :-)

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Interviewed on Eric Kim's Street Photography Blog

In March 2012 we ran a street photography workshop with Eric Kim from Los Angeles in Hong Kong, it was a great success with 24 very happy clients over the course of the weekend.  Eric recently asked me if I could do a quick interview for his blog, so I'm just re-posting it here for anyone who wishes to view it: CLICK HERE TO SEE THE INTERVIEW WITH F8 PHOTOGRAPHY ON ERIC KIM'S WEBSITE

When Eric was in Hong Kong I also interviewed him on video, you can see that video below (if doesnt appear immediately, just refresh the page)....

Eric Kim interview in Hong Kong from F8 Photography Ltd on Vimeo.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Pembo - Photographers Paradise

(Welcome to Pembo, OMD - 25mm)

Welcome to Pembo...my new favourite part of Manila.  I have to say that ANY photographer visiting Manila simply MUST take the time out to visit this area.  Its an amazing little district full of intertwining streets and an extremely vibrant street life culture.  This place is exactly how I imagined Manila to be in my mind before I visited, full of smiley faces, great colour and amazing characters - even the cats look cool in this part of town!

(Coca Cola Cat, OMD - 25mm)

I'll start off this post with just a few images from the first 10 minutes of walking into Pembo....this should give you a view into the place, from chaotic traffic, variety of characters, smells of street life (check out the pig photo!) the place was like a circus of life, and I must yet again thank my new friend Kurt Kamka for showing me this place.

(It's all about family - OMD - 25mm)

(Hanging out on the street, OMD - 25mm)

(A local form of transport - the trike - OMD - 45mm)

(Bacon sandwich anyone...OMD - 45mm)

(Peek-a-boo, OMD - 25mm)

As I wandered down the street in Pembo (I was only here for 2 hours), I couldn't decide which lens to use on my camera (this is one reason why I usually just take 1 lens with me whilst out on the street....to minimise confusion and help me concentrate on one focal length)....There was so much to see here, I wanted to shoot wide angle environmental shots, then shoot close up portraits of the same people....luckily the Olympus OMD lenses are all very small and light, which enables me to carry 4 primes, which all together weigh less and take up less room than just one of my Canon 'L' lenses.  I switched frantically between my wide, medium and longer lenses (12,25, 45, 75) throughout the walk to enable me to capture as much as I could of this place.

(Harsh light, works for me!, OMD - 45mm)

(A sneak peak into someones living room, OMD - 25mm)

(A proud man, OMD - 25mm)

(More than happy to pose, great character, OMD - 25mm) 

Something myself and Kurt discussed on our walk was how everyone just can't help smiling in the Phillipines.  Its a great 'de-stress' exercise to just go for a walk around Manila, its infectious and by the time we had finished our shoot, we felt we had a very fulfilling afternoon and pleasant experience, and I feel lucky to be able to just walk around and engage with these people, my life is enriched by meeting them and I am very grateful that they allow me a few seconds of their time to capture their vibrant smiles and laughter.

(Laughing girl, OMD - 45mm)

(Brotherhood , OMD - 25mm)

(Shy at first...OMD - 75mm)

(...then strike a pose...OMD - 75mm)

The light was very harsh and the weather hot as we walked the streets, but as the whole area is made up of small streets and alleyways there is plenty of opportunities to use the shade and dappled light to get some nice shots, even in harsh light, I don't worry too much, there is always a way to shoot...i love shooting into the light as much as anything, so I am always on the lookout for interesting light to use to my advantage when the weather is like this.

(Full of character, OMD - 25mm)

(Hello stranger, OMD - 45mm)

(I LOVE the colours of the buildings - OMD - 75mm)

(Shy boy, OMD - 75mm)

(Mini-Gangsta, OMD - 25mm)

(shooting into harsh light works well with natural diffusers, OMD - 25mm)

We were lucky enough to stumble onto a basketball match between some locals also and  they allowed us to shoot them for a while, this was a welcome break for us from the harsh sun outside as we hung out in their indoor court for 20 minutes and a good chance for me to test the high speed 9 frames per second framerate of the Olympus OMD, as I had not used it for sports photography yet, worked pretty well i thought.

(Olympus OMD had no problem with fast moving sports, OMD - 75mm)

(A national past-time in the Phillipines, OMD - 12mm)

I know this blog post is quite a long one with plenty of images, I hope that doesn't bore anyone, I really couldn't make my selection any smaller to show this place, its so interesting for me, I just wanted to share the beauty of this place, and as I said earlier, I strongly encourage anyone visiting Manila to take the time to visit this locale.  Here are a few more images of some of the great people we met along the way.

(Family life is everywhere , OMD - 75mm)

(One of my few black and white images from this trip, OMD - 25mm)

(Eating 'Balut', a fertilized duck embryo complete with feathers....yummy....OMD -25m)

(Local musicians in Pembo, OMD, 75mm)

(Friendly waves goodbye as we left Pembo, OMD - 25mm)

(We will be back for sure!, OMD - 45mm) 

All images here are shot on the Olympus OMD with various prime lenses and all processed with 1-click presets fromVSCO film presets, still by far my favourite film simulation filters that work directly as a preset within Lightroom 4.

For other posts I have written recently with images of the new Olympus OMD in Manila please see the links below:

LINK TO BLOG POST: Shooting the back streets of Makati

LINK TO BLOG POST: Residents of Makati Catholic Cemetery

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD goes to Manila (first trip in July 2012)

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD shooting in Ulingan, Tondo, Manila

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Makati, Makati, Makati

(Kurt Kamka on the prowl on the back streets of Makati, OMD - 25mm)

Some will know Makati as the business district of Manila in the Phillipines....some may know it for another reason - an infamous red light district.....you will find neither of those places featured in this blog post.

Today's post is about two guys just going for a walk down a few streets of Makati, well away from the business zone and suits and well away from the red lights.  I see both those things in Hong Kong on a day to day basis whilst moving around town and I have no desire to feature either of them here, so I wanted to simply show a few images from taking a walk down some completely normal streets just off the tourist map in Makati with my new shooting buddy Kurt Kamka.

I was lucky enough to hook up with Kurt Kamka on this trip who was my trusty guide throughout my few days shooting.  He does some outstanding photography on the streets of Manila and his work can be see at the following links:

1.  Kurt Kamka Blog

2.  Kurt Kamka Tumbr site

Something I have mentioned a few times before and will continue to do so is about using the Olympus OMD camera for this type of photography - in my mind its perfect....simple as that.....both me and Kurt shoot in a similar fashion with this camera, fully utilising the rear tiltable screen as a viewfinder and one touch  shutter release of the screen...it works wonders.  Ironically both of us previously shot with Leica M series cameras but are both finding the Olympus to be well up to the job on the streets (Kurt also still shoots with a Leica S2 camera).

(Brothers, OMD - 75mm)

We had earlier been shooting some people that live at the Catholic Cemetery in Manila (blog post on that featured here) then grabbed some water and headed for another hours walk round some back streets.  These are the images that we captured on that walk.  I am still mesmerised by the colours of the Phillipines, I actually find it hard to shoot in black and white here, as everything has a beautiful 1970s pastel colour tone to it (in my mind at least), which I just want to record all the time with my camera.  Even this little girls blue Ukalele seen below was exactly that, from the clothes to the Jeepneys, the colours just scream out at me.

(Perhaps the warmest smile of the day - OMD - 75mm)

We came across these kids sat in the street playing musical instruments and having a great time together, I stopped to take some photos, help them practice a little bit of English and then scare them with my terrible Ukalele skills...lol.

(Image by Kurt Kamka - The kids weren't familiar with my Beatles and Rolling Stones renditions...lol)

I have never seen so many smiling kids as I have seen here during this trip, a lot of people call Thailand 'The land of smiles'....I'm quite sure the Phillipines could easily win this title also.

(Land of smiles, OMD - 75mm)

There were also plenty of animals to be found along these back streets, I saw a lot of cockerels tied to doorways, and Kurt explained to me that these were used for 'cockfighting', a viscious sport I imagine which seems to be very popular here and in many other parts of Asia.  I also encountered a vicious dog or two, luckily tied to a post, and probably the skinniest cat I have ever seen!

(Who let the dogs out?, OMD, 25mm)

('Ma-Cat-i' in Makati, OMD - 25mm)

As well as the young kids in the street we met plenty of elder folk who were equally as nice and pleased to meet and interact with us as we wandered through their neighbourhood.  Of course we had a few funny looks at first, but with big smiles and friendly gestures, every single person we met was more than happy to be photographed.

(Friendly gentlemen in Makati, OMD - 75mm)

On our way out of the back streets we came across a building site, where some workers were hanging around outside on a break, they stopped us in our tracks and insisted that we photograph them.  The Fillipinos just seem to LOVE being photographed at every opportunity.

(Pinoy smiling builders, OMD - 75mm)

As we finished our walk the heavens opened and poured down, so it was time to jump in a cab and head back for a coffee and some editing.  A succesful day was had by both of us and a great first meeting.  On the way back to my hotel I was reminded of the poverty that of course exists here as beggars tapped on the taxi window asking for money, I am never sure what is best in this situation, does giving them money keep them on the streets...i guess so...but its always a hard call for me...

(Begging at the roadside - OMD - 12mm)

The following day I found a photography paradise in a part of town called 'Pembo'.  I am currently editing my images from that location and will do my next blog post on that once I arrive back to Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon.  Please be sure to come back for a look as there are some great characters featured in those images and if anyone reading this has any desire to photograph life in the phillipines, I strongly recommend visiting that place.

All images here are shot on the Olympus OMD with various prime lenses and all processed with 1-click presets fromVSCO film presets, still by far my favourite film simulation filters that work directly as a preset within Lightroom 4.

For other posts I have written recently with images of the new Olympus OMD in Manila please see the links below:

LINK TO BLOG POST: Residents of Makati Catholic Cemetery

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD goes to Manila (first trip in July 2012)

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD shooting in Ulingan, Tondo, Manila

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Life beyond the graves in Manila

(Entrance to Makati Catholic Cemetery - OMD, 25mm)

Along the backstreets of Makati in the heart of Manila lies an old Catholic Cemetery, seemingly abandoned, but on looking inside it has a lot of residents, who are quite alive.....living in the tombs that remain within.  It always amazes me the places that people can turn into quite homely communities....this was yet another one of them, full of smiling faces and vibrant colours.

(Graveyard kids - OMD, 25mm)

During my short trip to Manila I hooked up withKurt Kamka who I have met through our Hong Kong Street Photography group on Facebook (feel free to visit our group and join in if you like shooting street, linked here).  This was the first time we had met in person, so we grabbed lunch together and had a chat about cameras and life and it was good to see that we were both shooting with the Olympus OMD today.  Another interesting observation from shooting together was that I was preferring to shoot in colour and Kurt shoots mostly in black and white.  I also usually shoot this kind of scene in black and white, however, I am finding all the colours of the phillipines impossible to resist, so am still personally hooked on colour for almost all my shooting in Manila at present and also I am loving the VSCO colour film presets that I'm using in Lightroom 4 that allow me '1 click' presets to get me to retro film looks from my OMD RAW files with ease.

Some links to Kurt's work can be found below at his blog and Tumblr sites:

1.  Kurt Kamka Blog

2.  Kurt Kamka Tumbr site

Kurt suggested we visit the old catholic cemetery as it was very close by.  Of course I thought this was a great idea and opportunity to visit a location that I'm quite sure I would never have found on my own - you can't beat local knowledge when travelling somewhere unfamiliar.

(Kurt Kamka (left) and myself outside the cemetery (Kurts websites are linked above this image)

Inside the cemetery, we were greeted by lots of different people, each and every one of them very happy, and quite surprised to see us.  I'm guessing they probably don't get many visitors there, and especially not westerners, but like most of the other places I've visited in Manila, we were welcomed by friendly faces and open arms, some of the elderely ladies took a liking to us and insisted on having their photographs taken with us, which was fun and very humbling to be hugged by these people, they really are very genuine people and truly great characters.

(Kurt sharing the love with a friendly lady in the cemetery - OMD, 25mm)

(Great character, full of smiles! - OMD, 25mm)

(Smoke break at the crematorium - OMD, 25mm)

The children we met followed us round for an hour or so and they were more than happy to hang out with us, take some pics and practice their English language skills, I think almost everybody I have met in the phillipines speaks pretty much perfect English, from the youngest child to the eldest of folk, so it makes communication very easy.

(Children living in the graveyard - OMD 12/25mm)

Lots of people were resting in the midday sun whilst we were at the cemetery, so we were careful not to wake them whilst we were wandering around shooting our images, they seemed to be quite content in their hammocks which were usually strung up  between two large gravestones.

(Rest in Peace - OMD, 12mm)

The children here have turned certain areas of the graveyard into their playground, a few of the young boys were keen to demonstrate their acrobatic skills springing from tomb to gravestone like some military obstacle course.....I took a few images of this, but was trying to discourage one young boy as he kept looking to me for approval every time he jumped, and I couldn't help thinking that if he missed his landing spot, he was going to be seriously injured!

(The jumper - OMD, 12mm)

(Graveyard girl - OMD, 45mm)

Some areas of the cemetery had dogs roaming around, some of the residents warned us that the dogs could be aggressive, so we kept a few yards from them in most cases, I think they were most likely just hungry dogs so that would make them grumpy and aggitated for sure.  I noticed some tombs had dogs tied to the stones, I'm not sure if they were supposed to be guarding that particular tomb, as one man told us the stories of the grave robbers who regularly come at night, digging out graves and taking anything and everything that could be used to make money (gold teeth...metals...etc).

(Graveyard dogs - OMD, 25mm)

It certainly was a unique place to visit, with a vibrant and interesting mix of people living within the cemetery.  Again I must say, its always such a humbling experience in these kind of places, always greeted with big smiles, hugs, asking nothing in return.

(Old and young residents of Makati Catholic Cemetery - OMD, 25mm)

I will be shooting again with Kurt Kamka during this short trip to Manila, and will be posting more images from our adventures around the city in the coming day or two, so please check back to see more from this amazing city.  In the meantime, here are the links to Kurts sites again, please take a look as he has been living in Manila almost a year now and has an extensive portfolio of images from the city.

1.  Kurt Kamka Blog

2.  Kurt Kamka Tumbr site

All images here are shot on the Olympus OMD with various prime lenses and all processed with 1-click presets from VSCO film presets, still by far my favourite film simulation filters that work directly as a preset within Lightroom 4.

For other posts I have written recently with images of the new Olympus OMD in Manila and other parts of Asia please see the links below:

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD goes to Manila (first trip in July 2012)

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD shooting in Ulingan, Tondo, Manila

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD goes to Cosplay event in Hong Kong

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD goes to Cambodia

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and photography and video training workshops, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

OMD goes to Manila

(street scene in Manila) NOTE ABOUT PROCESSING:  All images here are shot on the Olympus OMD with various prime lenses.  They were then all processed in Lightroom 4 with 1 click presets from 'VSCO film 02' using only their Fuji Superia 800 for colour or Fuji Neopan 1600 settings for black and white.  These are my favourite film simulators and make any digital camera RAW files sing instantly with 1 click.  More information can be found here at the VSCO website on these presets.

So, after a successful trip to Cambodia using the Olympus OMD  the previous week, I decided another trip was in order, this time the other direction from Hong Kong, heading South East to test the EM-5 on the streets of Manila in the Phillipines.

Now some things must be mentioned about Manila for any budding photographers wishing to travel there.....BE CAREFUL.  As much as I liked the city, for sure there is a lot of things that could easily go wrong here....some of the poorer parts of the city are for sure totally unsafe for westerners to venture into alone, and carrying expensive camera gear around is only going to attract unwanted attention.  Like many other places I have visited you must stay streetwise, don't flash expensive gear, leave your nice watch at home and most of all use common sense.  Walking around at 2am in a poor neighbourhood in Manila is going to end in tears for sure....

(Traffic wardens in Manila....ummm whats the point...)

The first thing I noticed when walking around various parts of Manila was the traffic.....it seemed there was complete chaos on the roads, not dissimilar to Hong Kong at rush hour, only here it seemed to be the same all day long....so i chose the best options of transport, my own two feet :-)

When I did travel between districts I used the famous 'Jeepney' buses that can be found everywhere, they are great fun to drive around in, extremely cheap and provide good photo opportunities from the back door, open windows and even of the people inside.

The first day I was in Manila I was lucky with the weather, the light was great, it was hot, just a nice afternoon for strolling around exploring the city.  Lunchtime is clearly siesta time in Manila with people strewn all over the place getting an afternoon nap, kind of reminded me of my parents place in Spain where the same thing happens every day.

(siesta time in Manila, its sleep, read or relax...)

The few people that weren't asleep were having an easy time playing board games in the street.  This kind of place was helping me relax a lot even after a few hours, as I always compare with Hong Kong, which seems to be really non-stop (part of the reason I love to escape as often as I can), you really don't see this kind of lifestyle in Hong Kong, despite the heat, people are running around at full pace 24/7, at least in the inner city where I work and live, so its really nice to see people taking time out and 'smiling'!!!

(A lovely lady who was more than happy to pose for photographs in the street)

Like most asian cities, the streets were full of children playing and kids always make great subjects for me, they are innocent yet their faces tell a thousand stories, something i noticed recently when shooting a scene in Hong Kong was that everyone in the scene was just going about their business apart from 3 kids in the scence, all of them were looking directly at me....maybe kids would make the best street photographers...as they are very very aware of their surroundings and dont miss a trick :-)

(happy kids (and dogs) playing in the street in Manila)

Of course some people view photographers a little more suspiciously, but despite that, a big smile and a handshake go a long way, and as usual, everyone I met and befriended were absolutely fine being photographed.  Even the gangster looking dudes who try to look 'tough' guy tend to break a big smile when I show them their photo and tell them they look like 'James Bond'....flattery gets you everwhere...

(locals in Binondo district, Manila)

The variety of people and colour around the city really attracted me, it really is a bustling metropolis and a great photography location.  As I mentioned earlier discretion is the better method with camera gear (as is pretty much anywhere in my experience), so using the little Olympus OMD was actually perfect (yet again), as it allowed me to shoot discreetly from the hip using the touchscreen with its super fast autofocus.  This is the 2nd time I have used it travelling in a month, and it didn't skip a beat at all, ultra reliable....I thought I would miss my Leica M9...but if I'm honest, this thing is far more functional, never ever stutters like the Leicas do (thats a simple fact that sometimes the M9 just won't react when you press the button...) and the image quality is amazing, of course not superior to a full frame camera...but most of our work is going on the internet or medium sized prints, I am quite positive to 99% of people, there is no visible difference in image quality, and those that think they can tell a difference on a processed image (especially at web size images)....well their name is Pinnochio I'm afraid....

(diverse characters around town, security, driver, and the oldest paperboy!)

A quick note again on the presets that I have used to process these images, they are from VSCO, and are the simplest and most powerful presets you can get in my opinion for Lightroom, ACR or Aperture.  They really do emulate the film looks well....how do i know this....because I shoot a fair bit of these exact films on my Mamiya 7ii and my Contax G2 and scanned files have very similar tones and characteristics to these digital files once processed.....so if you are looking for a filmic simulator that takes seconds to process your RAW files, these are worth a look for sure.

(Processed with VSCO Fuji Neopan 1600 or Fuji Superior 800 settings)

Whilst I was in Manila, I did some shooting in a very poor area called Ulingan in Tondo, probably the roughest and most dangerous area of Manila, the reason being I want to work with a charity there called Project Pearls, and I will be heading back to Manila now that they have made contact in a few weeks to do some video work with them.  You can see the blog post and video of the images shot there last time at this link, its really quite amazing to see the resilience of these people who live and work there.

For other posts I have written recently with images of the OMD please see the links below:

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD shooting in Ulingan, Tondo, Manila

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD goes to Cosplay event in Hong Kong

LINK TO BLOG POST: OMD goes to Cambodia

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Me and my Mamiya 7ii

(50mm,(25mm equiv) - I turned to see this girl who was watching what I was doing)

On my crusade to find the perfect medium format camera over recent months, I think I may just have found the holy grail - The Mamiya 7ii.

Until recently, I had only been shooting film on the Leica M6 and a Rolleiflex for medium format.  Now I REALLY love my Rollei, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I struggle with the square format, I just find it difficult to 'see' in 6x6 format, therefore the search started for something a little more traditional format, but as usual I wanted a super lightweight camera (like the M6) that could deliver outstanding image quality...

As I am no expert on film cameras as have been purely digital for many years, I was unaware of all the options available, then I started to learn about the Mamiya 7ii, a rangefinder....lightweight, with 6x7 format....hmmmm....this sounds too good to be true, so I started doing some more research, and it seems this camera is very highly regarded amongst those that use it.

The winner factor for me is size...its half the weight of a hasselblad, but has a bigger negative (6x7 as opposed to 6x6), and for me a more useable format.  The lenses are second to none in optical quality, they make my Leica lenses all look soft in comparison.  Granted, they are only F4 lenses, but this is not an issue with such a big negative size, and you cannot compare an F4 lens for this format to a 35mm format, as depth of field is not comparable.  In effect, your focal lengths of each lens are halved, i.e. an 80mm lens is approx a 40mm lens in 35mm format, therefore an F4 lens can give you a depth of field not too disimilar to F2 (hope this makes sense...)....This is one of the reasons they don't need to make faster lenses, if you had an F1.4 lens on this format, depth of field would be so slight that you would struggle to ever get anything in focus.

The lenses I use on this system are 50mm (25mm equivalent), 80mm (standard lens, 40mm equivalent) and 150mm (75mm equivalent), which I think covers all bases, wide angle and architecture, standard lens and 3/4 portrait/headshot lens.  All of this kit fits easily into a small 'Think Tank Retrospective 5' shoulder bag (the same bag I carry a 4/3 system in), and I am quite sure there is no other interchangeable medium format kit on the planet that can take up so little room and produce such big results.

Also worth noting are that the lenses use leaf shutters, which means near silent operation, and minimal vibration when shooting, hence handheld shots at lower shutter speeds are much more useable than with a DSLR rig.

(My friend Bernhard shooting inside Man Mo Temple - 7ii light meter coped easily with this scene)

I have read on some other blogs whilst researching that the Mamiya 7ii light meter is not the best, and not always accurate.  I can only speak from my own experience and that is the light meter has been spot on for me every time I used it.  I went and bought a separate light meter as I expected to get inconsistent results, however, after shooting a few films in different lighting, I can say that the meter is as good as any camera meter I have used before on any other system and gives me no reason to use an external meter in any situation I have been in thus far.

I shoot a lot on digital as I said before, and I spend a fair bit of time tweaking images with black and white conversions to get just the right look for that particular image in Lightroom 4 and Silver Efex Pro 2.  Thats fine and thats all very necessary with digital RAW files, however, something I love about using different films is they all have a very different aesthetic to them, and all the images you see here on this blog post are unprocessed, just scanned in on my Epson V700 using Vuescan software.  So these are as they appear on the negatives, which is what gets me excited, I strive to get similar looks to this with digital, and the truth is it just isn't posible to replicate it exactly.  For one, the dynamic range of film is far superior, keeping highlight details on film is simple compared to digital, which allows for far greater range in lighting in scenes, something i had forgotten about until my return to film, I really hadn't taken much notice of how much I was losing with digital images.  On a recent trip to Cambodia, a friend of mine shot a very similar image to the one below, he was using 5DIII, and the highlights on the metal roof were blown away if he exposed for the man.....the difference was quite apparent how much more dynamic range the film could handle in this light.

(Highlights were retained on the reflective roof)

(Another example of how highlight and shadow details are easily retained, and how sharp the 50mm lens is...)

I think there is room in all our camera arsenals to shoot both digital and film, digital will always be my standard method these days, for sure, but I like the way film images look, the different characteristics of each film, and perhaps the most important thing for me is the way I actually shoot when I use film....it slows me down, right down.  With 120 film on the Mamiya you only get 10 frames per roll....thats not a lot....so you cannot shoot the same way as digital, you have to think much more about each frame, slowing yourself down, and that is always a good thing in my mind.  The other thing I love about shooting this is after I go home or back to the hotel if abroad, I put the camera and films away and relax....I don't then sit down in front of a laptop and start phase 2 of several hours of picking, rejecting, editing, uploading......it isnt possible until the films are developed and scanned....so I get some of my own personal time back too....its a win win situation.

(I shoot much slower with the Mamiya....thats a good thing....slowing myself down :-)

I have re-learned to develop my own film at home in the kitchen, which again adds an element of fun to the whole process...I probably trashed 25% of the first films i shot as I had some 'issues' loading films in a change bag, but this all adds to the experience, and just gives a very different feeling to the final images.

I had some prints made a few weeks back from the 6x7 negatives, and the results are nothing short of spectacular, the resolution, detail and sharpness I can see in these images cannot be compared to any digital 35mm system, its far superior in many ways.  Now I haven't used medium format digital so I can't speak for that, but one thing I know for sure is the cost alone of getting into medium format digital is no joke, and out of reach for many (myself included).

Here are some more samples from this amazing camera system, all scanned on the Epson V700 with no other corrections.

I have recently discovered the Contax G2 also.....another amazing little camera, this could be the 35mm rival to the Mamiya in terms of quality.  My thoughts are that if you are a photographer currently shooting digital and what to broaden your horizons, then take a serious look at a small film camera.  You will approach your shooting in a different way, which can only enhance your experience.

Happy shooting!

(Fuji colour slide...love it)

(Behind the scenes on recent Cambodia expedition)

(Very slow shutter speed in low light - no problem for leaf shutters)

(The 50mm lens - 25 equivalent, perfect for interiors or close up wide shots)

(The 150mm lens - 75mm equivalent, ideal portrait lens on the Mamiya 7ii)

(Temple complex close to Phnom Penh - Cambodia)

(The Mamiya 7ii - the perfect rangefinder camera?)

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

OMD goes to Cosplay

(Olympus 75mm 1.8, 1/200 @ f3.2, ISO 200) (This image above is the only one from the set that I have linked a full size version too, so any pixel counters who want to look at it full size click this link...this for me shows how good a 4/3 sensor can resolve detail).

So, after a few weeks of extensive travel photography around Cambodia and Manila in the Phillipines, we are back to Hong Kong and found out about the Cosplay exhibition held in Wanchai Exhibition Centre, so thought we'd put the Olympus OMD to more tests using slightly longer lenses than normal, focussing more on portraits, rather than street or environmental shots.

The lenses of choice for this shoot were the Panasonic 25mm 1.4, Olympus 45mm 1.8 and Olympus 75mm 1.8.  Remember all focal lengths are doubled for their 35mm equivalent value.

All I can say about using this camera for portraiture is 'wow', it keeps on surprising me, no matter what I use it for....I wasn't sure what to expect with tight portraits, how much detail would the 4/3 sensor resolve...all I can say is that the sensor is simply amazing, especially when combined with these high quality (but reasonably priced) prime lenses.

(Olympus 75mm 1.8, 1/500 @f1.8, ISO 320)

Another thing that the Olympus OMD seems to do well is 'colour', and I thought the Cosplay event would be a great place to showcase this with all the variety of coloured outfits and wigs, and for sure, I hope these sample images I have posted here show that.  They have all had minor contrast and levels adjustments only in Lightroom 4, no other editing was required and in 99.9% of the images, white balance was not changed at all, so this shows the RAW files coming out of the OMD have already great white balance.  Of course with RAW files this wouldn't be an issue as all white balances are embedded so its a 1-click change to fix any issues, but not having the issue in the first place is always reassuring.

(Olympus 75mm 1.8, 1/200 @f2, ISO 320)

(Olympus 45mm 1.8, 1/320 @f2.8, ISO 320)

Details captured in the eyes and hair when shots are tight portraits like these is truly great for a camera of such small size.  I know I keep blowing its trumpet talking about how good the camera is, but at this stage (1st August 2012) I can honestly say from all the cameras I have used and whats available on the market currently, there is no better choice if you are looking for a small system to replace or enhance a DSLR rig.  Its affordable, robust, has some of the best glass I've ever used on any system (including Leica), and is just above and beyond anything else available.  This is of course just my opinion formed by lots of usage of various rigs, I am in no way related or sponsored by Olympus or any other camera manufacturer, this is just a working photographers honest opinion at this current time.  I hope another camera is released that kicks its ass, good gear means the competition level has to rise and other manufacturers need to produce the goods to stay in the running.....and for sure this time all the others in this category (and many categories above 4/3 better be opening their eyes and looking very hard at what Olympus has got so right).

(Panasonic summilux 25mm 1.4, 1/2000@f1.4, ISO 320)

(Panasonic summilux 25mm 1.4, 1/400@f2, ISO 640)

Here are some more images, all captioned with the relevant lens from the event....I still have no idea what Cosplay is...I'm guessing its some tribute to Japanese cartoons, excuse my ignorance.  Regardless of that, its a great subject full of interesting characters who were all more than willing to be photographed.  Apparently this Cosplay stuff can be found in abundance in Japan.....next stop Tokyo :-)

(Panasonic summilux 25mm 1.4, 1/320@f2.8, ISO 320)

(Olympus 75mm 1.8, 1/640 @f2, ISO 400)

Unusually for me, I hardly used the wide lenses when shooting around this event, there were a lot of messy backgrounds as the place was packed full of people, which made it difficult to isolate subjects with any wide lenses, I think these were the only 2 shots that I liked with the wide lenses, one indoor and one outdoor.

(Olympus 12mm 2.0, 1/200 @f2, ISO 800)

(Panasonic summilux 25mm 1.4, 1/40@f2, ISO 640)

(Olympus 75mm 1.8, 1/1000 @f2.8, ISO 320)

(Olympus 75mm 1.8, 1/800 @f2, ISO 320)

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Ulingan Charcoal Factory, Tondo, Manila

This is a short video slideshow of stills images and sound that I shot last week at probably one of the visually worst slums I have ever visited in my life. I suggest to view it, you click the box at bottom of the video and change to 720 HD and then click fullscreen to view it in best quality, crank up the volume, hear the sounds of the place with the music.

All of these images are shot on the Olympus OMD.

(If the video doesn't appear first time here, just refresh the page and it will appear).

I became aware of this place in Tondo, Manila after seeing some footage on a website which I have copied below, if you feel you want to get involved, please visit their site, as they for sure are trying to do great things for people in a very desparate situation.

The name of the charity is Project Pearls, and their website is below:

www.projectpearls.org

Guest post: Down under in Phnom Penh (Dave)

Note:  This post is written and all photos by Dave Grady who came from Australia for one of our Hong Kong workshops then travelled to Cambodia with us.  Dave shoots with a combination of Leica M9P, Sony NEX 7, Nikon V1 and Canon 5D Mk III rigs.  This is his story.

(Boat boy crossing the Mekong)

In July 2012 I was fortunate enough to attend F8 Photography's documentary photography workshop in Hong Kong.  Just prior to attending the workshop I was also invited to go along with Gary, Giles & Steve to Cambodia directly after the workshop to practice some new found skills, an offer I couldn't refuse.

After attending the documentary workshop which broadened my mind and the way one can approach photography (picking a theme and shooting a series of shots rather than just looking for  one shot), and then spending my last day in Hong Kong with Gary while he shot editorial work on a 1 million dollar yacht, I barely had time to pack and we made our way to Phnom Penh on the early morning flight direct from Hong Kong equipped with an Leica M9, Sony Nex 7 and  Nikon V1.

Having just been to remote areas of mainland China, some of the scenes I'm seeing are familiar but in general it's very different to what I'm used to seeing in Sydney.  The traffic is chaotic yet flowing at the same time, People walking all over the place carrying who knows what, families cramping up on one scooter (up to 6 people on 1 small scooter) and the little shops on the side of the road and the mobile street vendors all made for a very interesting drive to our hotel. It was evident very early in Phnom Penh that Cambodia is not a wealthy country but was amazed at how friendly and happy people were.

We arrived at our hotel that Gary had organised for us which was really nice, we dropped off our gear and jumped on a tuk tuk (my first tuk tuk experience) and made our way to the riverside bistro which became our regular watering hole for the rest of the trip, after a brief nap and swim at the hotel pool (which was great for mid/late afternoons after shooting all day) we made our way out for a walk along the riverside were we came across what i'm guessing is a daily ritual where people go to a small temple to pray with people around selling flowers, candles and birds which I believe are offerings to the Gods. This event made for good photography with lots of people around to shoot and lot's of stuff happening everywhere.   This was my first real chance to shoot in Cambodia and was really surprised and taken back by peoples willingness to have there photo's taken especially with kids which is a big no no in many western countries.

(Nikon V1, 10mm)

The next morning we met up with Gary's translator and our tour guide/tuk tuk driver Sammy (Samedy) and off we went to Mekong Island, after a short ferry ride across the Mekong river we arrived and stopped at a small shop to get supplies for the day and pick up a few Krama's (traditional Cambodian scarves).

(Dave modelling his new Camodian scarf on route to Mekong Island)

Mekong Island is a small remote area across the river from Phnom Penh, it's not an area tourists would normally visit and the same goes for Phnom Penh locals many hadn't even heard of the place let alone been there.  What I saw of Mekong Island consisted of 1 small dirt road with houses on 1 side and the Mekong river on the other, It was however full of photo opportunities.

(Leica M9P)

We met lot's of nice people alongside the road who were more than willing to have there picture taken, A little girl who waved at us even motioned for us to go into her families yard where we spoke to her mother and took photo's of them both. The one person who will stay with me for a long time was a blind man in a small shack who allowed us to take pictures of him, after which Steve got out a $20 note (usually we would give a $1 or $2) and gave it to him, after finding out the value through Sammy who translated for us just seeing his reaction was truly priceless he was so gracious and had many nice things to say.

(Blind villager)

(At the female monastery)

(Dave (right) and others from the team offering rice to the Nuns on our arrival)

Moving on we then arrived at a Women's monastery which was in the middle of nowhere and you would never know it was there unless you were with someone who knew about it. This place was very peaceful and had some amazing statues all throughout the monastery. We spent around an hour just wondering around just taking everything in and taking photos of the many statues and Monks who were more than happy to have there photo's taken. After we had all finished walking around it was mid afternoon and we were all hot and hungry so back we went to the hotel for a swim and lunch.

The next day we had a few different options but we decided on going to a temple complex about 45 minutes from Phnom Penh, It was quite a long ride on the tuk tuk and when we finally arrived.  As we walked around and looked at the temple you could easily be mistaken and think you were in Angkor Wat.

(Temple complex outside Phnom Penh)

This place made for some great landscape, texture and portrait shots, 1 old lady we found between the 4 of us we must have shot 3-4 rolls of film and a couple hundred digital shots, she just had this amazing face to shoot close up portraits, it had so much detail from all the wrinkles & damage from the sun over many years.

(102 year old Temple Minder)

This place was also very peaceful and was very nice just walking around taking a photo here and there.  While it was a long way out and back it was well worth it, everybody who I mentioned that I'm going to Cambodia all asked if I was going to Angkor Wat and everyone was shocked when I replied 'no', but at Angkor we would have been competing with thousands of other tourists to walk around and take photos whereas here it was just us and a few locals. It may not have been as grand as the temples at Angkor but it gave us a taste of what they are like and we were able to get shots we'd never get at Angkor.

On our final day we decided to visit a slum on the railway a place Gary has been before and suggested as a place to check out to get a real view of some of the poverty that exists here. When laying eyes on this place it hits you pretty quick how poor this place is, It's an old abandoned train yard with many old carriages just sitting there rotting and being used to dump trash and all sorts in.  Making matters worse this huge state of the art Cambodian government building can be seen right behind within 1km from this train yard. I was a little worried how people will react to us showing up there and taking photos, but everyone seemed really nice and friendly and it turned out to be a very interesting and humbling experience.

(The entrance to the railroad slum)

(The modern government buildings just a few hundred meters behind the slum...)

(Railroad families)

Hearing stories from the locals like the lady who was sewing making shirts and how she gets 2 cents for every shirt she makes and seeing the conditions that they lived in were really eye opening especially for myself who hasn't seen this sort of thing before, yet they all seemed happy and the kids were over the moon when Steve bought them all Ice blocks.

(Our team at Mekong Island (L to R: Steve, Gary (F8), Giles and myself) 

In conclusion I had an amazing time and it was a great experience. I was able to get some great photos which I'm very happy with. Phnom Penh was very much a culture shock for me, a lot of it I have touched on but the things that will really stick with me is how chaotic yet organised it is,  I was blown away by how friendly everyone is and there willingness to have there photo taken especially kids. Also just seeing people living in dire conditions yet seemed to be happy and got on with life. This especially hit me hard and really made me think about the way I live and work on certain ways to improve certain aspects of it.

 

(Me relaxing at our watering hole on the riverside)

 Lastly I'd like to thank Gary for organising the trip he got us a great hotel and took us to some great places, Steve & Giles it was a pleasure hanging out and shooting with you guys & Sammy and Kanja for taking us around and translating for us.

Final note from F8:

Gary, the Director of F8 has also written a blog post about his experience, that can be seen by clicking here.

Guest blog posts written by Steve who also came along can be seen here:

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Guest Post: Shooting in Cambodia with F8 (Steve)

Note:  This post is written and all photos by Steve Porte who recenly travelled to Cambodia with F8.  Steve shoots with a combination of Mamiya 7ii film camera and Canon DSLR rigs, this trip he used the Canon rigs, this is his story. - Gary Tyson, Director F8 Photography. 

(Steve with the friendly locals which make Cambodia such a great place to be)

Several weeks ago, I traveled to Cambodia with F8 Photograhy owner Gary Tyson and two other photographers.  The aim of our trip was to spend 4 days shooting in and around Phnom Penh.  Here are my thoughts on that trip...

Cambodia is a wonderful place to visit.  There are good connections from most regional cities.  The Cambodian e-Visa is a user-friendy, online system, that really makes the immigration process simple and inexpensive.  Accomodations, ground transportation, and food are very  reasonably priced, but there are plenty of up-market offerings for those so inclined.  But what makes Cambodia really special is the people.

(Kids were fascinated by the digital cameras)

Everyone we met - from service staff, to shop owners, to people on the street - was warm, friendly, and kind.  There is an inner tranquility about the people that translates into a vibrant but peaceful atmoshphere.  It only took us about three hours in country to unwind from the hectic pace of Hong Kong.

(Typical greeting, 5D Mk III, 100mm)

(Dignified villager, 5D Mk III, 100mm)

For photographers, it gets even better.  Everyone has their own particular criteria, of course, but most would agree that the two basic requirements for producing good images are good light and interesting subjects.  Cambodia has  both in abundance.  The air is clean, and the light is soft and beautiful.  Even at mid day, we found the light to be less harsh than in other locations.  The quality of light is hard to describe, but easy to see when you're there.

(Steve shooting with his trusty Canon rig)

(Quality of light at 11:30 am, 5D Mk III, 100mm)

(Quality of light at 1:10 pm, 5D Mk III, 100mm)

There is also an endless variety of subjects to shoot - pastoral countryside, vibrant city life, quiet villages, interesting infrastructure, and, of course, the people.  What I enjoy most is documenting daily life and local culture.  For me, Cambodia is as good as it gets.  The developing infrastructure offers a wide variety of interesting subjects, and glimpses of a life quickly disappearing in many regions.

(Traditional fishing, 5D Mk III, 100mm)

(Ferry traffic jam, 1D Mk IV, 25mm)

The local people were the highlight of the trip.  They were warm, good natured, camera-friendly, and, to me, beautiful.  Their warm and dignified character shone through - from the youngest child to the oldest villager.  Virtually everyone we met was happy to be photographed and met us with direct eye contact; usually happy, sometimes somber, but always engaged.

(Village girl, 1D Mk IV, 35mm)

(Temple minder, 5D Mk III, 100mm)

Cambodia is relaxed, and rich with photo opportunities.  The F8 crew travels well, and has a good working knowledge of local venues.  Gary is a highy skilled and experienced field photographer.  He has a knack both for capturing high quality images, and for helping others to develop their own photographic skills.  Cambodia would make a great classroom, but, workshop or not, I'll be returning soon....

Final note from F8:

Gary, the Director of F8 has also written a blog post about his experience, that can be seen by clicking here.

Guest blog posts written by Dave who also came along can be seen here:

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Olympus OMD goes to Cambodia

(Gary in the railroad village with the locals outside Phnom Penh with OMD and Mamiya 7ii)

So here we are again, back to the glorious backdrop of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, this time bringing a different camera system - The Olympus OMD for a 4 day field test.

This blog post is not an all out review of the camera system, I'm not a techno-phobe, this is a real world usage review and highlights of my thoughts on the camera system in a fast changing environment and for close up street and travel photography...you won't find any MTF charts or detailed lens analysis....just images that I shot and my thoughts on them :-)

The last time I visited Cambodia I shot only the Leica M9, as I had shot here several times with full Canon DSLR systems and wanted a smaller rig to shoot travel photography with, and the Leica was a perfect fit...albeit the seriously expensive option.

The Leica system is hard to beat (some say impossible), so the bar was set very high, I have achieved some fantastic results with my Leica M9, therefore I already had an unfair comparison level in my mind...but I thought if a camera is going to succeed in 2012 and beyond, it needs to raise the bar and match some of the already outstanding options available to us.

With this in mind, I wanted to test some other rigs out to replace my Leica rigs for street photography and lightweight travel photography.  I had tried the Fuji XPro-1 a few months ago, and have written some positive thoughts on that camera system, but after extended use I must admit I found the autofocus to be a little slow and inaccurate at times for my liking, even though the image quality was great.  Therefore that camera was moved on and I was back to using Leica again.

Anyway, the only remaining system that attracted me was the new Olympus OMD, with a selection of the already proven prime lenses available from Olympus and Panasonic.  So the day before we flew to Cambodia I picked up a kit, camera, grip, 12mm f2, 20mm 1.7 and 45mm 1.8.  I figured this should cover most of what I need, and I tend to shoot a lot very close up, so I assumed the 12mm lens (24mm equivalent) would be spending most of its time on the camera.

One of the features that I was initially unsure of with the Olympus OMD was the touchscreen for shooting....At first I thought this was a bit of a gimmick, as I'm a traditional style photographer who likes to look through a viewfinder (I don't care much for EVF either....), so I didn't think I would like the touchscreen feature, especially for shooting.

However, I am a changed man, the touchscreen shooting feature - the ability to compose, focus and shoot almost instantly using only the screen has completely revolutionised the way i shoot with this type of camera.

(using the touchscreen to shoot...image shot below)

I learned the cameras menu systems, and setup it all up how I wanted on the 2 hour flight from Hong Kong to Phnom Penh, without the manual (I never read manuals), so that was easy to do, this helped me warm to the camera once I had it all set up how I wanted, disabling a few features, and programming others to the function buttons to suit my needs.

(First image I took on the OMD, 12mm)

This first shot above was the first time I had tested the touchscreen, which allows you to literally just press wherever in your composition you wish the camera to focus and then shoots....this happens almost instantly, so its a great way to capture a scene or a portrait without having to raise the camera to your eye...its kind of like shooting using zone focussing from the hip...except you take away all the problems that method has (misfocus, composition issues, etc), so in reality this could be the perfect street camera for me.

Because there are very few cameras with this technology currently, I believe that nobody at any stage during my trip there actually had any idea what I was doing when I was shooting in this way....even if I approached them and requested to take a picture, once I was done they would still stand there waiting for me to start....I like that, as then I can capture a more natural image with no barriers.

(local villagers on Silk Island, 45mm) (elderly lady on Silk Island, 45mm)

Using the longer lens (45mm - equivalent to 90mm) was also great fun, as I had the same control as with the wide lenses to capture tight portraits without having to raise the camera.  Another thing that has amazed me, having only used this system for 2 weeks now is how sharp the lenses are.  I am used to Canon gear for work, which is great...and Leica gear for travel/street which can be phenomenal if you get the right lenses....however...in all honesty for the price of these lenses (some as low as only a few hundred US dollars) their performance is amazing...I couldn't ask for sharper images, and that coupled with super fast and super accurate autofocus...i just love this camera more every time I pick it up.

(school kid hiding under a desk, 45mm)

(local school in Phnom Penh, with super friendly staff and kids, 45mm)

However, as mentioned earlier, I am happiest shooting close up with a wide lens (normally a 24 or 25mm lens, so the Olympus 12mm (equivalent to 24mm) was always going to my new best friend on this camera, and to be honest, this lens was the reason I bought the system in the first place...).

Below are a further selection of images I shot there over a 4 day period with the various lenses.  I think as this was the first week I had used the camera, I was more than happy with how it performed and the quality it produced.  The main thing is that I haven't missed using the Leica, despite it being my workhorse camera for the last several months....this tells me something....I'm not saying one is better than the other, as I still think the Leica M can produce amazing photographs, however if you want a system that can give you a lot of the portability and loads more technical gucci features than any Leica....and you don't want to remortgage your house to afford the system....then maybe the OMD is worth a very serious look.

(using touchscreen again and getting nice and close with the 12mm lens)

(on boat roof on way across the Mekong River, 12mm)

(children on Sisowath Quay, Phnom Penh, 12mm ISO 6400) (sleeping child, railroad slum, 12mm)

(railroad slum, Phnom Penh, 12mm)

(monks at the riverside, 12mm)

(Pagoda Boy, 12mm)

(Rush hour, early morning, 45mm)

(villagers on Silk Island, 20mm)

(102 year old female temple minder, 20mm)

(railroad slum kids, 20mm)

(railroad slum kids, 12mm)

(railroad slum kids, 12mm)

(railroad slum kids, 12mm)

(Our little gang of photographers, L to R: Giles, Steve, myself and Dave, 12mm)

Guest blog posts on this trip from Steve who accompanied us can be read here:

Guest blog posts written by Dave who also came along can be seen here:

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Tsim sha Tsui at 0.95 in low light

(The back alleyways on Chunking Mansions, great light always) Note: All shots on the Leica M9 with SLR Magic 50mm 0.95 hyperprime.  All processed with VSCO Film Presets in Lightroom 4.

Tsim sha Tsui is one of my favourite places to shoot in Hong Kong, you have the diversity of rich and poor all in a very tight community, with alleyways connecting the designer shop streets the the drug dens and everything in between.

I have been testing the SLR Magic 50mm 0.95 lens for a few weeks now, and am thoroughly enjoying the experience, and again this was my weapon of choice on the M9 for some nice grungy low light portraits and street images around this interesting part of Kowloon for a few hours last night as I tried to escape the mayhem and overspill from the Rugby 7s tournament on Hong Kong Island.

(A very friendly gentleman with his grandson)

The characters around this part of town range from the super rich, shopping along Canton road, laden with bags from Gucci, Dolce & Gabbanna and the likes...to the homeless and everything in between.  This is a normal reflection of Hong Kong life in most parts of the city actually, this diversity makes shooting on the street very appealing, I love how I can be shooting a model outside a store, then 10 seconds later I'm haggling with sinister looking characters in a back alleyway over whether they should allow their portrait to be taken (every time I do that, I have so far had no problems at all, I even take these guys prints back and they are actually very friendly towards me - like everything in life, its all about perception, if you act scared or threatened, generally people will react accordingly, reassure them and yourself that you are doing nothing untoward, and you won't go far wrong...just keep a friend close by to keep an eye on you ;-)).

(Becky and Rocco looking for images around Chunking Mansions)

(Practicing fast focus at 0.95 on a passing taxi...this is how I fine tune my focussing speed :-))

Anyway, more about the lens....I am using it almost daily now, and am finding that I can nail the focus even wide open most of the time, this comes about simply by shooting several hours a day, so I am getting plenty of practice, and am out shooting at every available opportunity with my M9.  I have noticed no focus shift on this lens whatsoever, at any aperture, and once stopped down past f2 it is way sharper than my summilux lens was before (i owned a non-asph version), which was sharp, but I cannot compare with the latest version.

(Gentleman in the alleyway doing boxing training, super friendly guy)

The only downside to this lens as people who have seen it will know is the weight, its a big piece of glass, but thats the compromise for 0.95, need a big hole to suck all that light in, and for me its no problem, I would rather carry this lens and have that option.

 (This giant of a man approached looking wary, after a quick chat, he became a new best friend)

These few pictures show how this lens comes into its own territory, shooting in dark alleyways with only the odd small streetlamp to work with, it just sucks up all the light and gives me fast shutter speeds even at low ISO and makes shooting in this low grungy light a simple task.  None of my other lenses even get close, the M9 is renowned for not having great high ISO quality, so for me this is the answer at night.

(Friendly character inside Chunking Mansions spent 10 minutes telling me the best places to shoot in Delhi!)

I have heard some people mention on my blog about 'purple fringing'....If the focus is off, then sure, you will get that with any lens when shooting into light with high contrast subjects around the edges, you can see from the colour samples here, I have done no 'fringe removals' of any kind, I have simply used '1 click' presets from VSCO film presets for lightroom 4 to give me the tones I desired from the M9 RAW files, I have not retouched the images in any other way.

(Nice chaps from Ghana, happy to pose for me inside Chunking Mansions)

Below is a portrait of Becky, one of my friends who was out shooting with us around the area, I just love the way this lens renders, to me it is a classic style, and it really copes well when shooting into the light and gives lovely lens flare effect that I do not find distracting at all, this is my opinion only of course, but from all the lenses I have shot, I really don't see any problem with this effect here.

(Becky posing with her trusty 5D II, her weapon of choice for photography)

The hub of activity around Tsim sha Tsui gives a photographer so many opportunities, I was actively looking for scenes like this one below last night, trying to find something quirky through glass, using the shallow depth of field to my advantage to help separate the subjects from the background and foreground.

(Shooting candids through the windows)

(Shooting candids through the windows)

Even late at night, all the restaurants are busy and full of activity around Hong Kong...I tend to shoot a lot of stuff at night, theres more shadow and contrasty light around, and usually easier to find interesting 'characters' to shoot around town.

(Chef on a break outside his restaurant - he cheered up immensely when I showed him the image)

After a couple of hours round the back alleys, I headed back to the Star Ferry along Nathan Road, which is always full of interesting characters aswell, whether its someone trying to sell you a copy watch or handbag, to the interesting characters just going about their lives, normally I have had no problem with shooting people in this area, just smile if they see you, and I almost always then engage them in conversation, exchange business cards and send them their photographs, makes getting out and shooting a very social and enjoyable experience, this is my therapy, it keeps me sane!

(Sitting on the fence - again, he grinned ear to ear once i showed him the image)

(Interesting outfit - passer by on Nathan Road)

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Street Photography with Fuji XPro1

NOTE:  All images shot on Fuji XPro1 and Fujinon 35mm 1.4 lens with autofocus only.

We've had our hands on the Fuji XPro1 for about a week now, and starting to get used to it and its nuances. Yesterday myself and a few friends met up in Soho and headed over to Temple Street in Kowloon which is a great little area for street photography with vibrant buzzing markets and even more vibrant characters around the place.

After a short trip on the ferry across the harbour, we walked up Canton Road, which has a lot of the big brand shops and is always full of characters, a great area to warm up before hitting the markets further into Kowloon.  You can always be sure to see hundreds of mainland tourists spending their fortunes around here on designer brands.

This was the first full day of shooting the XPro1 in this environement for me, and using only the 35mm 1.4 Fujinon lens in full autofocus mode (I believe the manual focus with the fuji lenses is totally useless as its fly by wire only), which means there is no tactile connection between you and camera/lens...its way too slow.  If using manual focus with other lenses such as the Leica lenses, its brilliant, I don't know why they insists on developing a fly by wire manual focus system, it really is completely unusable in my opinion unless you use it exclusively for 'zone focussing'.

So, I decided to shoot everything with autofocus.  There has been much debate about the AF capabilities of this camera in light of the X100 problems.  I can say this....yes, its not perfect, however, it is pretty fast (if the camera is kept awake) and it nailed 95 percent of my shots without a problem.

I shoot very fast when in the streets, so normally i use zone focussing, so using AF was almost a step back for me, however, I think this environment was the perfect test for this camera, as I believe many people are looking at the Fuji as a viable street photography/travel photography replacement for their DSLR or even as an alternative to the Leica M system such as M8/M9.

I shot everything in RAW, converted via the Fuji software supplied with the camera, then edited in Lightroom 4 using VSCO film presets set to Kodak Portra 400 for all images other than the black and white conversion using Niksoft Silver Efex Pro 2.

A quick note on the VSCO film presets - If you are looking for a good film emulation preset for lightroom, then look no further, these really are good, I have hundreds of presets and I keep going back to these ones, I believe they are the most realistc set available, and I am eagerly awaiting a specialist set from the for Leica and who knows maybe a Fuji specific set also, as they tweak camera calibration settings in RAW also, not just basic adjustments, they have camera specific versions for Canon and Nikon already, as well as a generic set for other cameras for now, and they have promised to release Leica specific profiles, which I hope to get my hands on as soon as possible.

The markets around Temple street - as you can see from these pictures have a diverse mix of characters.  Although its probably classed as a 'tourist friendly' area, there are still a lot of things going on behind the scenes here, with triad activity and in particular prostitution clearly visible on the streets even in the middle of the day.  Any photographer visiting this area should be aware that most of these girls will react quite adversely if photographed....some are friendly of course and don't seem to mind....however, if unsure, then my advice would be just stay well away from shooting anyone you think may react negatively.

I noticed many muslim girls around the markets when we were shooting, so approached them to ask permission to take their picture as they were wearing some great colours.  All of them were more than happy to be photographed.

The Autofocus on the Fuji had no problem at any stage with shooting a diverse mix of subjects, and as the image below shows, shooting into the sun, (sometimes difficult for autofocus), there was again no problems with the performance.

Two of the young ladies accompanying us on this 'photo walk' were Becky and Cheryl, both previous attendees of the street photography workshop, Becky was keen on shooting her 5DII using zone focussing to get her shots, whilst Cheryl preferred to use her new Canon S100 (I think that's what it was), for speedy and discreet street shooting.

This gentleman below was a great subject I thought, he was just squatted on the road, laughing continuously, and was more than happy to be photographed.  I noticed on closer look that he had a cigarrete in one hand and 3 spares in the other!!! Thats what I call chain smoking!.

The only lens that I used during this trip was the Fujinon 35mm 1.4, which so far I must say is a great lens (as long as not using manual focus - way too slow), normally I shoot much wider for street photography and closer to my subjects, but this seemed to work well on this day for me.   I keep emphasising about the autofocus - and again you can see from the image above, quicky focussing on the cigarretes on the bottom left corner of the frame, it had no problem locking on and giving me the desired focus point.

The total time we were in the markets was only about 2 hours, and I found the camera consistently delivered the results I needed.  I have tried this camera with a Leica M mount adaptor and the 35mm F2 ASPH lens also, and the results were quite spectacular, very clean and sharp images, very easy to focus using the EVF its really great with an M mount lens for this, my wish would be that it had 'focus peaking' similar to the NEX-7, then there would be no need for me to zoom in to fine tune focus using the rear dial, especially with wide lenses as its a bit harder to fine tune the focus than with a longer focal length lens.

This fantastic gentleman was more than happy to let me take his portrait and yet again the fast performance of the Fuji XPro1 had no issues nailing the shot for me.  Something else I have noticed is that the metering system of the camera seems to overexpose about half a stop most of the time...I consistently left the camera set to -1 or -2/3 to get more accurate exposures, but this is not a problem for me, I just think it takes a little bit of practice, figure out where all the buttons are (there are a lot on this camera that are easy to press by accident...) then it will be fine.  It's just like any other camera tool, we need a bit of time learning our way round it, and then there won't be any issues.

Overall I am very pleased with this camera when using it for street photography.  Being a similar size to my Leica M9, the feel was quite similar and I believe its a perfect size for this style of photography.  People aren't really intimidated by a camera this size compared to a DSLR with a big zoom lens, its ultra light (maybe feels even a little too light for me - again i'm comparing the the tank like construction of the Leica which many won't like).

So my final thoughts are as follows:

Recommended for street photography - A BIG YES.

Recommended to switch if you already have a Leica M9 - personally NO, but I think many will....

Recommended for manual focus with Fuji lenses - NO WAY!

Recommended for manual focus with M lenses - YES, REALLY WORKS GREAT.

Recommended for anyone wishing to switch from DSLR or looking for travel photography camera - YES YES YES.

So, I won't be swapping it for my Leica just yet....but I can still highly recommend the camera, its ergonomically great, looks the part, and I personally haven't had any serious issues with autofocus.

I have another blog post using this camera at night with a 50mm 0.85 lens from SLR Magic, if interested to see the image from that, please click here.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

SLR Magic 50mm 0.95 on M9 daylight samples

(Leica M9,  1/750th, F0.95 @ ISO 400) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

So, I've been using the SLR Magic 50mm 0.95 lens for about a week now, mostly in low light situations in with plenty of neon and street light, and it performed really well so far, however, I wanted to try it out in daylight also to see how it looks.

The weather in Hong Kong has been pretty bland the last week, so i didn't need to use an ND filter with this lens, even wide open during the day (its really that dark here!), so I could shoot at ISO 160 or 200 during the middle of the day without a problem and still get 0.95 at around 1/1000 or 1/2000th of a second.

(Leica M9,  1/200th, F0.95 @ ISO 400) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

I have posted links to larger size files below the images this time (as I've just figured out how to do it on wordpress), so feel free to click the links and download a higher resolution file to check out the details if you so desire.

Again, as stressed in my other posts, I don't care for technical details, when I use any lens or camera I just care what the files look like coming out the other end, and in this case, I can honestly say, I have a new found love for bokeh!....I haven't used a Noctilux 50mm, but I know several people who have and who own them and we have compared some of the files, and in my opinion, for the price that this lens will sell for, there is ZERO competition, this thing just performs, plain and simple.  I am not sponsored by SLR Magic, nor am I paid to say these things, I will tell you how it is, good or bad.  I have used the Voigtlander 50mm 1.1 lens, and as nice as it can be for the price, the way it renders out of focus areas is not comparable to this lens, it looks like paintbrush bokeh, where as this looks like 'cream'!

(Leica M9,  1/4000th, F0.95 @ ISO 200 - no adjustments whatsoever to this image, straight from RAW) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

I have noticed shooting at night a few issues with colour fringing when shooting directly into artificial light, in my experience, this is completely normal for a fast lens, and I had worse issues with my Canon 85mm 1.2 lens wide open.  I have noticed more issues on the Fuji XPro1 with this lens than with the Leica M9, the M9 has been quite minimal, and these daytime shots show that there is no problem, the above shot was taken around midday, and this one in particular I was really lucky enough to nail the focus bang on, if you look at the full size file, this has been untouched, just exported from RAW to full size JPEG, and really it shows the capability of this lens well in my opinion.

I have also put a few lower light shots from either inside a shop or at dusk so you can really see that fringing is not a big problem at all with this lens, again these images have had no manipulation.

(Leica M9,  1/1500th, F0.95 @ ISO 400 - no adjustments whatsoever to this image, straight from RAW) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

(Leica M9,  1/350th, F0.95 @ ISO 400 - no adjustments whatsoever to this image, straight from RAW) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

(Leica M9,  1/180th, F0.95 @ ISO 600 - no adjustments whatsoever to this image, straight from RAW) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

Shooting directly into the sun at the 'golden hour' can be a problem with any lens, so i thought I would try that also with this one and see how it performed, the following 2 files were shot that way, were very hard to focus for me due to using a rangefinder shooting into the light, but these particular 2 were pretty much there i thought, i love the combination of this lens and the M9...the colour rendition was superb and especially in the light at this time of the day, they looked great to me straight from camera.

(Leica M9, shooting directly into backlit sun, 1/2000, F0.95 @ ISO 400) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

(Leica M9, shooting directly into backlit sun, 1/1500, F0.95 @ ISO 200) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

The remainder of shots here were shot just before the sun went down, so there was a great light around the area I was shooting.

(Leica M9, 1/1500, F0.95 @ ISO 640) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

(Leica M9, 1/2000, F0.95 @ ISO 400) (click here to open large size image, or right click 'save as' to download)

Of course the focussing is very difficult to get right every time with such a fast lens, but I feel I am well practiced with a rangefinder so I am not struggling too much with it so far and have had no backfocus or front focus issues as yet to speak of.  All I can say if you are considering this lens, especially if you intend to use it on an M9, then download the large size images, I think they speak for themselves, its really a great piece of kit that I am very much enjoying, and looking forward to more shooting with it, no matter how little light is available!

We did an initial review on this lens last week, the link to that is here.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, if you like our blog and website, please ‘like’ us on our public Facebook page and share this story with your friends with the Facebook and twitter links below.  You can also subscribe to our blog via the RSS link below.

F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.

Eric Kim Street Photographer - Hong Kong (VIDEO)

Eric Kim was recently in Hong Kong running a street photography workshop in partnership with F8 Photography.  After the workshop we had a few days to go around town shooting and on the last night we decided to catch Eric's thoughts in a short interview to get his opinion on how the workshop went and also ask a few other questions about his views on street photography in general.  There is footage of the workshop and shooting in Hong Kong mixed in with the interview.

F8 Photography continues to run photography workshops and training in Hong Kong and Cambodia and lots of student reviews and workshop information is available on the website and our blog which can all be seen via this link.

Special thanks again to Will Gell for supplying the background music, and to Nate Roberts for asking the questions and Trevor Smith as 'soundman'.

Here is the video: (can watch in HD on Vimeo).

http://vimeo.com/38560897

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F8 Photography provides commercial photography and training across Asia, with workshops on Street Photography and other photography and video training courses, more details can be found via the ‘courses and workshops’ link and upcoming events via the front page of our website.