I don’t NEED another camera. I really don’t, and I keep telling myself that, but it never seems to work! When the Fujifilm X-T50 mirrorless digital camera came along in June 2024, it just tugged at my heartstrings so much, I knew that one day my resolve would weaken… So, I’ve got one, despite the fact that I’ve already got an X-T3 and an X-T5. (And of course, a half dozen or more film cameras). Overkill, some might say. My self-justification for the purchase, and I suppose, my excuse to finally yield to the temptation came when the price of a new X-T50 camera body dropped from £1299 to £1149.
Fujifilm X-T50, fitted with an 18-135 f/3.5 – f/5.6 Fujinon lens, and a leather half-case for protection.
This project was about evangelicalism in Northern Ireland. Up to this point, I had been looking at how the secularisation of society had impacted on evangelical beliefs, practices and worship styles, in the evident decline of the mission-hall culture in the province. But how are the evangelicals striking back? There are a number of different answers to that question, but at least in Northern Ireland, one of the most visible ‘attacks’ on secularism, historically and consistently used by evangelicals and fundamentalists is the strange practice of nailing messages to trees throughout the countryside. A number of these placards had been erected around the Ards Peninsula.
It must have been around 2005 when I visited the home of Belfast artist Denis Johnston and viewed some of his paintings. Denis lives in Belfast and was a member of the same church as me at that time, and so I would have visited him on occasions, but on this particular visit he showed me some of the art he had showed on display in an exhibition. The imagery was stunning, with amazing technique and beautiful scenery. Yet my eye was continually drawn to one particular painting, and I couldn’t resist expressing my admiration for it. It wasn’t a beautiful landscape or an amazing sunset or mists rolling across a lake, – it was a small section of Regent Street in Newtownards, with a pedestrian crossing and a big dark shadow, and some old, and entirely unremarkable buildings. Thousands of people must walk past it every week. Yet I couldn’t take my eyes off it! Why? Just because it made me feel that I was right there! It had a ‘sense of place!’ It told me about the place, gave me a sense of ‘belonging’ to it, drew my mind visually into the picture.
My Nikon FM2 film camera has no meter, for the battery connection is broken and I can’t find anyone willing to fix it. “It’s too old, – it’s not worth it…’ etc etc. But I bought this great camera back in 1987, and it’s been like an old friend. I can’t just throw it away. I’d tried using it with a Sekonic analogue meter attached, but the numbers are too small now, for me to see them!
But there may be a solution, the TT ARTISAN LIGHTMETER.
Another example from my weird collection of cameras and photographic bits and pieces gathered up from friends, relatives and charity shops. This little film compact camera is the Ricoh XF-30. Mine is black – but I’ve seen a few nice red examples on the second hand market.
On Thursday evening, 27th July 2022, Janette and me went down to the West Strand at Portrush to watch the sunset – how romantic is that! But we shared the experience with the Fujifilm X-T4 Camera, and about 100 other people who were gathered there! Here’s what the camera saw…
This week in Northern Ireland saw yet another political agenda being promoted and furthered by the skilful use of photography. To say that ‘the camera never lies‘ is no longer true in the age of digital manipulation, but was it ever? The simple shifting of the photographer’s position can change the perspective of the viewer, flatten distance, and be used to make a political point.
In Northern Ireland, the building of a bonfire, and the lighting of the fire on the 11th July is a tradition, long held among certain sections of the Unionist or Loyalist community. It is an expression of loyalist culture. When I was a boy, back the 60s and 70s, little bonfires were made in each street, no more than little piles of planks and scrap. But the local authorities tried to regulate the tradition. The street bonfires left a mess that needed to be cleaned up, and sometimes caused damage to properties. Often the materials that were burned were far from helpful in controlling pollution; tyres were often burned, pouring out toxic smoke into the air. To solve these problems, some councils began to offer grants to buy pallets, which would burn more cleanly, on condition that the street bonfires were replaced with centralised pyres, and pollutants excluded. This led to pyres like this one in Newtownards:
Fujifilm X-T4, F=25mm, f/14 @ 1/125th Sec on ISO250
It was this massive bonfire that became the subject of a media scam, fuelled by deceptive photography. Apparently this bonfire in Newtownards was built RIGHT BESIDE THE LOCAL FIRE STATION! An image was produced to prove the point, The media picked up on the story immediately, – radio programmes, a Twitter storm, newspaper articles, with the collective might of the left lining up to demand that the bonfire be dismantled and removed.
On 9th July 2021 I reproduced the photograph which caused the ‘offence’ – an image showing the ‘alleged’ juxtaposition of the pyre and the fire station.
Fujifilm X-T4, F=33mm, f/13 @ 1/125th sec, on ISO250
It looks authentic. There’s no Photoshop manipulation, the image is ‘as shot.’ But what has happened is that camera position is flattening the distance between the bonfire and the Fire Station. It is deliberately deceptive, and it set the local news agenda for a whole morning, before some locals pointed out that the distance between the fire and the station is considerable, with a stretch of waste ground and a four lane road between! Still, the Left got a whole morning of free publicity and a chance to pour more odium on the working class loyalist community of the town.
I’ve no idea who Luke is, but his name is on a string of beads, tiny little beads, at Kiltonga Wildlife Reserve near Newtownards. I photographed this with the new 70-300mm Fujifilm lens, with the lens extended to 300mm (420mm on full frame equivalent) and from a distance of just 3 feet. The lens, technically is not a macro lens, but its close focussing is pretty impressive.
Fujifilm X-T4 F=300mm, f/5.6, at 1/60th sec on ISO100, Provia film simulation.
The Fujifilm X-T4 – A Lot of Praise but One Big Niggle.
I’ve been shooting with Fujifilm X-Series cameras since 2017 when I bought my first Fujifilm X-T2. I was immediately smitten. I’d been a Nikon user all my photographic life, completely loyal to the products of the Japanese giant. I’d begun in the ‘80’s with the FM2, and progressed through the Nikon D2x to the D750. I thought it would ever be so. But when I made my first few images with the Fuji X-T2 I was quickly convinced. It was the photographic equivalent of a Damascus road conversion. Since then I’ve been shooting (professionally and for fun) with the X-T2, X-T30 and X-T3. Everyone of them has been great. But when the X-T2 began to wobble a bit, I decided it was time for a change. I kept the X-T3, sold the X-T2 and X-T30 and with the equity, invested in the new X-T4.
The Fujifilm X-T4, with leather half-case.
So, what’s special about the X-T4? It’s just a little chunkier than its predecessors, and I’ve encased mine in a leather half-case, more for appearance than practicality, but it’s still an easy camera to hold, much more ‘grippable’ than the X-T2, and that’s important when you are clamouring in and out of vehicles.
In the Pod today, playing with a small green screen set-up, to see how the light works best. I’ve set a small Coalport Lady Figurine on a table, with a green-screen background. There’s a D-Lite just behind my right shoulder and natural light coming from the left of the figure. The D-Lite is set low, not to be a key-light, but to simply reduce any shadow cast by the Coalport figure.
I’m using the Fujifilm X-T2, with a Nikon 50mm manual focus lens and the camera set for focus peaking. F=50mm, f/5.6 @ 1/60th sec on ISO200.
Portraits2Go.co.uk 