2020 has been shit.

2020 has been a shit year for me as a documentary wedding photographer, and obviously a shit year for couples who were planning on getting married in 2020, I feel sorry for all of us!

Spending ages planning a perfect wedding only to have to postpone, then re-postpone, all the while worrying about 'when it’s going to happen, yep that’s pretty shit.

Same for me, looking forward to shooting weddings, shit…only having weddings as a source of income, that’s sucked a lot. It’s been a rough old year that’s for sure.

Anyway, mini-moan over. I’ve kept myself busy, I still need to shoot to at the very least keep myself occupied, make sure I am ready come wedding season (whenever that may be). So I’ve been shooting a lot, more in fact more than I would have been had this pandemic not hit.

It’s kept me fresh, interested and motivated which is nice. I’ve even had my pictures featured in quite a few places I wasn’t expecting, CNN News did a feature, local papers picked up on my need to document the lockdown for my local community, I’ve been shortlisted for something on Sky Arts and quite a few other things too, so it’s not all doom and gloom - although I am really desperate to get back to shooting weddings.

Fujifilm xpro1 & 18mmf2 for documentary photography in 2020.

As I had so much newly found time on my hands and all the images I intended to take were for personal projects I thought it would be a good idea to dust off my XPRO1 camera and use it exclusively this year. Usually I’ll take the xpro1 along if I’m just out taking family snapshots, I like how it forces me to slow my photography down, it keeps me from relying on technology, makes me consider my pictures more carefully - in short it helps me see a lot better.

Coupled with the xpro1 was my trusty old 18mm f2 prime. I shoot all my work with this lens, the focal length being the main reason it’s how I see the world photographically from a framing perspective. There’s lots of talk about lenses all over the internet, so I won’t turn this into another ‘review’. Suffice to say I like the lens, much better than all the other Fuji lenses , so I use it exclusively for everything.

How viable is this combination in 2020? For me, very. Photography has nothing to do with kit, another hotly discussed topic on forums and photography group, for me it’s just about the pictures and these two are perfectly capable providing the operator knows how to use them properly.

Photography is seeing, that seeing must happen before a moment comes to light, otherwise you’re just reacting to something rather than anticipating…learn the art of anticipation instead of relying on your reaction to a moment, superfast focus and camera speed and your photography will thank you for it.

Anyway here are some excerpts from my year, I’ve a back catalogue of thousands of images I’m slowly categorising and working through, these are just the tip of the iceberg - snapshots of 2020, literally.

The fujifilm xpro1 for street photography in 2020…why?

I own faster Fujifilm cameras, ones with more megapixels, ones with better focus capability, better everything in fact. Why then do I insist on using the xpro1 for a lot of my personal stuff?

I like it, it’s slow, the evf lags like mad, the buffer is crap but I like it. Why you may ask? As a photographer relying on the latest and greatest technology to capture a moment makes you less of a photographer, if you have to lean on technology to get a picture you’re missing the point of photography.

For me it’s all about seeing the moment before I want to take a picture, photography is more about observation, people watching and vision than it is about who’s got the fastest autofocus and can take the most number of pictures per second.

Personally I’m a one shot per scene photographer, while my newer cameras would allow me to take hundreds of pictures a minute, that kind of spray and pray attitude isn’t going to improve my photography a single bit. I’m a big believer in shooting with intention, knowing what you want and seeking it rather than simply taking lots of pictures and hoping there’s something good in there somewhere.

The fujifilm 18mm f2 lens - why?

The Fuji 18mmf2 prime, the only lens I ever need! Anyone who knows anything about how I work will already know I’m a huge fan of fujifilm’s runt of the litter lens the 18mm f2.

I get a lot of questions as to why, given it’s ‘on paper’ shortfalls. It boils down to two main points:

1. I like the FOV (field of view).

2. It’s small and unobtrusive.

That’s it really. I’m not interested in sharpness or af speed or optics or micro contrast one bit. The field of view, photographically for me is the most important element, I can frame pictures in my mind before I’ve lifted my camera, when I’m shooting I don’t need to look at the viewfinder or rear lcd screen because I know exactly where things are going to be already. I guess that’s one of the advantages of focusing on one specific fov, it becomes second nature.

For me, being unobtrusive is key to the way I work, sure the Fuji 16mm is sharper and faster at focusing and gathers more light, but they aren’t as important to the way I photograph as size. The 16 is bigger and heavier and while for some photographers the other benefits are worthy compromises, they aren’t as high up the priority list for me. I mean jees I use an xpro 1 for my personal work ffs, if I wanted speed I’m certainly barking up toe wrong tree!

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