Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR

Landscape photography

I started out as a landscape photographer, and I enjoyed it for years, but then got a bit fed up with it, since I'm not living in a super exciting part of the world and kind of got bored with the possibilities in my area. Possibilities which actually are pretty much endless, but still. I got bored.

If I could travel on and on to exciting and beautiful places, I really would, but because of my regular job with on call duty and the limited days of vacation every year, it's not possible. It's not a matter of money, not that I am rich in any way, but it's free time that is my limitation. I enjoy shooting portraits and models a lot at the moment and I have to travel for that as well, since the amount of models are quite limited around where I live. 

But still, I have found inspiration again to take up landscape photography. I've invested in the most over priced piece of aluminium one can buy (I think), the $190 (plus taxes and shipping) Really Right Stuff BXT2 L-bracket for Fujifilm X-T2 w/ battery grip. It looks nice and I'm sure it'll work perfectly fine for a long time, and it's more or less a must while shooting a lot on a tripod. But damn, it's ridiculously over priced. Not to talk about how much it costs in Sweden. I paid around 2600 SEK for it when I ordered it directly from RRS (including shipping and taxes) and if I'd like to buy it in Sweden, I'd have to pay nearly 4000 SEK. And it probably costs 50 SEK to make. So it's ridiculously overpriced. 

I've also just received a pretty full set of Lee Filters Seven5 series of filters for my Fujifilm cameras and I tested it out a bit this weekend. 
Weather here where I live is usually different kind of white/grey skies, with different amount of rain and wind. If it stops raining and the sun comes out, usually all the clouds disappear as well. So it's either all white, no texture shitty skies, or blue with no clouds shitty skies. The weekend when I had set off to try this new stuff had first the blue skies with no clouds and then it completely turned to white and rain. So it kinda sucked. I tried the Really Right Stuff L-bracket, which worked fine and I tried the Little, Big and Super Stopper (6, 10 and 15 step ND filters), but the outcome wasn't spectacular since there was no interest in the skies. But it'll be fine. The Super Stopper renders crazy long exposures, but where I tried it, the ground wasn't stable enough for that type of exposures, so they didn't turn out sharp, but it doesn't really matter since the sky was so boring. 

I will try them out more when the weather is more suitable and I will post some photos of the gear and the outcome and write more about using them.

 

London July/August 2016 Day 8

Went on my last model shoot for this visit yesterday, with the lovely Lauren. 

This was the first time we shot together, but it went rather well and we might be able to do it again on my next visit which I don't know when it will be, maybe in the spring of 2017. 

Lauren is a nice and easy going person and I had a nice afternoon/evening and while two of our locations didn't work out pretty much because they were so overcrowded with people, it was still good. 

As with my other shoots, I'm gonna post process the shots while I'm back home, but here is one test shot though.

New model shoot

Had the pleasure of meeting a nice, bubbly and gorgeous woman this Sunday by the name of Susan. We met for a "fika" (as we say in Sweden, which pretty much means a cup of coffee), chatted for a while and then had a test shoot in the small city of Helsingborg. 

Susan hadn't been photographed "seriously" before, but I find her to be very natural, fun and easy to work with even if she wasn't experienced as a model. I think it went really well and I'm definitely gonna shoot with her again, next time with more of a theme of some sort. 

For now, I've put some shots in my portraits section. 

London Day 7

Today I had booked a shoot with Beth. Beth was the third and final model I had booked shoots with and like the other two, she was a total delight to work with, really nice very positive. 

With a walk from Liverpool Street Station it took us to Brick Lane and Shoreditch where we shot quite a bit. From there, a tube ride and walk to British Museum, where the main middle area has a roof which acts as a giant softbox and really softens the light. 

After a quick lunch we went to Westminster for one of the walks along the Thames. She shot a few shots there, but it was too crowded and the light was really harsh, so we ended the last model shoot for this trip. I've been lucky though, to have booked three very different but all lovely models which I would like to work with again, next time I'm here. 

Here's a sample from inside British Museum, with Beth. The rest will be processed when I'm back in Sweden in a couple of days. And they will also end up in my portraits section. 

London Day 4

This day (Monday 2/5) I didn't have a model shoot planned, not from the beginning. Then it turned into a short session which turned into be a much longer than planned one. 

But that didn't matter since it was with Chloe again, who is a real pleasure to work with. We had a great day in Hyde Park and shot so many photos which I will post in my portrait section when I have processed them back in Sweden. 

But here's a test of one of the shots from this session, not the final image,

London Day 3

I had a model shoot planned for yesterday, with a very special young woman, the super cute, nice and professional Chloe. 

It went really well and we had an awesome Sunday afternoon, which started under Waterloo Station in the Leake Street Tunnel, on to a skate park in South Bank and ending up in Camden Town. I'm really impressed with her and I'm totally baffled since she told me about how few photographers that wants to work with her. Yes, she's got a different style and sure maybe it doesn't suit every kind of shoot, but look at her, her look is awesome! And she's so nice and good to work with and I really don't get it. Are photographers of today really that small minded and backwards? I guess you are, and fuck you if you're one of them. 

But again, I really like her and out of the blue we arranged another shoot today (in a few hours from now) for some shooting in Hyde Park. It's gonna be super fun and I'm really looking forward to it. 

And here's a test of one of the shots from yesterday. When I'm back in Sweden I will post process the rest of the shots and put some in my Portrait section.

Models everywhere...

So, after a slow start with looking for new models and registering on sites like Modellbilder.se, ModelMayhem.com, PurplePort.com and writing to a bunch of people, now it finally has paid off a bit. Something loosened and now I'm starting to get in touch with interested and interesting models. Despite all the misery that is life, this might actually be a fun year.

So I might start booking new sessions in May, after I come back from my London trip. And sure I have been contacted by a few models and they have been interested in working together, at the same time this does not mean that I get to work with them all though, since people tend to change their minds, but still it looks promising. 

But probably will be shooting with my friend Hanna as the first one when I get back home again since we have quite a few different ideas to go through. And I did a shoot with her yesterday, and it was fun as always but it came to a very fast and abrupt ending since out of nowhere a heavy rain front came in and drenched us (pretty much). I had checked the weather since Friday but since neither DMI (Danish Meteorological Institute) or SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) said anything about it, it seemed fine from the beginning, but nope. 

There can't be any type of requirements to get a job working for a meteorological institute. I mean seriously? It must be the only job where you can constantly fuck things up, day after day after day.... without being fired. 

Anyhow, I think we still got a few shots that where pretty nice and I don't think we've ever been this effective before. It was fun, but still sucked because it could have been better. But still.

And once again I shot all with my Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 (at f/2 of course) and this lens is amazing. As long as I don't fuck things up, the photos are super sharp.

They can be found in my portraits section from now on. 

New model shoot

So I did another model shoot with my beautiful friend and model, Hanna. Fun as usual, cold as usual and we tried out the antlers I've had for a little while which were cool, but clashed a bit with her outfit. But still a few shots that I liked.

It was quite dark, so a couple of them are shot using the Rotolight NEO (continuos LED light), but all of them shot using my Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR. This lens is INSANE and easily my favourite Fujinon lens (at least for portraits).

Copenhagen Street Photography Part 26

First time in Copenhagen for probably 6 months or so. It nearly felt like there was a little bit of spring in the air and at times the temperature was not even that chilly and the sun was visible. 

I walked around for a few hours before heading back to Sweden again and got to experience what the poor bastards who commute back and forth over the sound everyday have to go through these days, the identity checkpoints at Kastrup (Copenhagen Airport). This sucks big time, BUT they are necessary because of the amount of refugees (actually they’re mostly non refugees) that Sweden has been over run with the last 6 months or so. 

What hit me (since it was a while since I was here last time) is that people don’t do much fun stuff, they mostly check their phones (which can be seen in a few shots) which is not that fun, but still it was nice to spend a few hours this Saturday.

Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR (again)

So, I did a new model shoot with my friend and favourite model today, using only the Fujinon 90mm f/2 R LM WR and never changed aperture from f/2 (I mean why should I). 

It is sharp, it really is and I really like this lens. It handles well on my Fujifilm X-T1 especially now when I’ve got the VG-XT1 battery grip on while doing portraits. It’s got a nice balance and for being Fujifilm, a pretty fast autofocus with only a little bit of hunting now and then (it still has a long way to go before coming anywhere near my Canon 5D MkIII). The aperture ring seems stiff enough, though I have only shot this lens at f/2, so haven’t played around with it. The focus ring is smooth and nice and there’s nothing to complain about there either.

But I think it’s a pretty easy lens to shoot with, with no problem to nail focus (if it’s not hunting which happens sometimes like I said before) which I’ve read others saying. Sure, you can obviously not use a shutter speed that is too slow for the focal length, but that’s just basic knowledge. The conclusion is that it’s an awesome lens.

I mean, I’ve already written a review, I guess this is just some added thoughts. All right, enough of this. 

That’s right, some new shots in my portrait section, with this lens.

Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR

I received this lovely lens this Thursday after ordering it on the day before (holy fuck ScandinavianPhoto, that was quick!). 

I’ve taken a couple of test shots with it and damn, this lens is sharp. And it’s got the fastest autofocus of the four Fujinon lenses that I own. It’s not a small lens and it’s kinda making this mirrorless setup not so small and light anymore. And it also kinda makes me want to buy a battery grip to get the second shutter button for example, and to make it balance better on the X-T1. That will definitely make it not so small and light anymore, though it would be for when I’m doing model shoots (which I tend to do often now, and is very awesome) and it’s easy to put on and take off. We’ll see about that. 

Anyhow, this is not a review of any sort since I haven’t really tried the lens yet. Today the weather is shit, but tomorrow I’m doing another shoot with my lovely friend and model Hanna, and I’ll probably be using the 90mm quite a lot. 

I’ll get back on how the lens handles. 

And here's my review of the lens.

Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR

The Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR is a lens that I'm really interested in and it will probably be my next purchase, maybe in early 2016. I don't do close to the amount of portrait shots that I'd like to, but still I'm really interested in getting this lens. 

I'm sure it would be great for street photography. It is nice to be able to get up and close to your subjects in street photography, though it might be hard or nearly impossible sometimes specially if you don't want to disturb your "target", so with a little bit longer focal length it would be nice. It's still not a tele lens and it's got a rather large aperture and is supposed to be the sharpest Fujinon lens to date. 

Will see.