Mar 31

Mar 31 Gasoline

Bird Photography, Bristol, Drone Photography, Film Simulation, Street Photography, wildlife photography

As expected the world woke up in March with the days feeling a little longer, and the opportunities to get out with the camera more numerous. March of course is a month where the world likes to play silly bollocks, so of course Putin had by this time decided this was a great time to invade Ukraine, putting my Photography tours to Chernobyl in September and October into the proverbial bin which is really frustrating. Instead of dwelling on this, I took my FujiFilm XT-4 with the new Fujinon 35mm F/2, and joined one of the many anti war protests to document the opposition to the war Mr Putin had just started.

Ukraine anti war march
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

The 35mm lens was a great option to get just that little bit closer to the action without having to invade anyone’s personal space so was perfect for me in this instance.

The trend of using both the X-T4 and X100V for street photography continued this month with trips to Bath, walks in Bristol and a trip down to Cornwall, where I was able to mix and match both options.

Bath Sweet Shop
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Perfume sniffing
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Car
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Bus wanker
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Barbers at night
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

The Hatchett (oldest pub in Bristol)
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Balloons
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

M Shed
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

boat propeller
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Boat colours
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Inkie Street Art
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Banksy ‘girl with the pearl ear’ (now behind bars)
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

John Doh street art
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

CORNWALL

A short trip down to Cornwall also gave me a chance to use some more of my extended gear, with the Drone finally making an appearance on the blog for 2022 after quite some time not being used due to bad weather.

St Ives was the perfect location to capture a real mix of images, with the harbourside giving me the opportunity to get some interesting drone images, while the 100-400mm lens was on hand to capture the local wildlife that lived alongside the locals here. As well as this, the side streets around the town was great for street photography, with even the local public toilets bringing some unexpected colour to the show.

St Ives - Toilet Doors
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

St Ives - Cinema
Camera - Fujifilm X100V

St Ives - Harbour
Camera - Fujifilm X100V

St Ives - Boats
Drone - DJI Mavic Pro II

St Ives - Harbour view
Drone - DJI Mavic Pro II

St Ives - Top Down Harbour view
Drone - DJI Mavic Pro II

St Ives - Lighthouse view
Drone - DJI Mavic Pro II

Ruddy Turnstone
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - XF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR Lens

St Ives - Fishing gear
Camera - Fujifilm X100V

St Ives - Post Box
Camera - Fujifilm X100V

St Ives - Cottage
Camera - Fujifilm X100V

St Ives - harbour wall
Camera - Fujifilm X100V

St Ives - Street washing
Camera - Fujifilm X100V

Man
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - Fujinon 35mm F/2

Sleeping bus driver
Camera - Fujifilm X100V

Sunglasses Kid
Camera - Fujifilm X-T4
Lens - XF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR Lens

Finally a little run down of wildlife photographer of the year awards which, for anyone who knows me, it’s a love hate relationship. I went along for my annual pilgrimage to see this years offerings with some interesting choices on display but a marked improvement on previous years camera trap heavy winners.

Life and death underwater - Image by Laurent Ballesta
Wildlife Photographer of the year 2021 - Grand jury winner

There was a shift this year to underwater images which usually don’t resonate with me that well due to the need for crazy expensive underwater housing for your camera, let alone the diving gear and strobes required. This meant the grand jury winner was a great image, but for me not up there as the best choice amongst the other contenders on display. Nikon and Canon still dominate in the equipment stakes, with the odd Sony thrown in here and there. Fuji on the other hand only managed one entry which was disappointing. There was however a lot more Drone images making their way into the competition, with my DJI Mavic Pro II being used for most of these entries which was good to see.

The two I selected as my personal favourites were of a fox (standard wildlife photographer of the year entry), and the image of a spider. I loved the mood and simplicity of the fox image, and the optical illusion the false perspective gives of the spider is fantastic, and not seen very often in these competitions.

The children’s competition does still annoy me to some degree, but I have come to terms with daddy taking the photo with his insanely expensive camera and letting little Timmy get the credit for it. Overall though I was not blown away by any images this year, but at the same time not too annoyed at who were selected so I will chalk it down as a good year and an improvement on years gone by.

Storm Fox
Wildlife photographer of the year 2021.

The spider Room
Wildlife photographer of the year 2021

And that about does it for the month of March. The Fuji cameras and lenses are really starting to come into their own now, with some great images taken across the month as I slowly adapt to life away from the DSLR completely. Here is hoping April brings more spring sunshine, and with a couple of trips away coming up, lots of chances to get out and about. Lets just hope Putin doesn’t fuck it up any more than he already has….

FIN

Mar 31 Gasoline

Apr 30 Wait A Minute!

Feb 28 The Good Part

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