A LIFE LONG LOVE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Horst Friedrichs, his new book on London’s cycle tribes
Horst Friedrichs new book on Londons cycle scene
Just putting the lounge back together at the weekend after a start on the decorating and I came across a copy of the ‘Evening Standard’ from a week or two ago, so why did I bring that home I wonder, oh yes Horst Friedrichs new book of course! He’s quite well known for his dark and beautiful images of the classic motor bike scene in the UK, in particular the re-emergence of the whole ‘café racer’ scene. Well his latest book is about the emergence of the diverse cycle scene in London, the spread in the ‘Standard’ a taster of what looks to be a good book, so I thought I’d try and find out more, because yes I love bikes, but also I love the way how fashion is defining these new ‘tribes’ – the photographer Horst Friedrichs new book on London’s cycle tribes
Posted by Brent Meheux - 10/05/12 - Tags - Horst friedrichs, cycle fashion
A day out in Bristol with the family and my Fujifilm x100
The new Ferris wheel in Bristol, amazing colours from the Fuji x100 in the late evening light
Popped up to see Mark in Bristol, a great day and night out in this vibrant city, wondering around the lanes and checking out the street art, Fujifilm x100 in hand. Still getting to know this great little camera, but as always I’m amazed by it’s vibrant colours and the cracking low light capabilities – click here to see the rest of the days shoot
Posted by Brent Meheux - 8/04/12 - Tags - Fujifilm x100, Bristol street art
I'LL BE DAMMED IF I'M GOING TO PAY THAT FOR A FANCY CAMERA STRAP, I KNOW I'LL MAKE ONE
A braided camera strap that I made for my Fujifilm X100
On Steve Huff’s website I’d seen a really nice camera strap he’d used on his Leica, and after a hunt around on the web I found the make, ‘ARTISAN & ARTIST’, mind you for nice price as well, over £85. Bugger that I thought, well that was until I spotted a women’s belt in ‘H&M’ for only £3.99, I know I’ll make one – click here to see how I indeed did make one for my Fujifilm X100
Posted by Brent Meheux - 19/02/12 - Tags - Braided camera strap, Fujifilm X100 camera strap
SAM & BARBARA, A DAY OUT IN EXETER WITH MY FUJIFILM X100
Sam and Barbara in the garden, F2 with my Fujifilm X100, by Brent Meheux
A little impromptu photo trip into Exeter today with Sam, Barbara and my new Fujifilm X100, just love this camera such a great camera in low light and no sound at all - click here to see the full shoot
Posted by Brent Meheux - 12/02/12 - Tags - Fujifilm X100, Gatsby flat cap, Gatsby hat, Jasper Conran
Olympus OM2sp, a users review
Over the years I’ve owned most of the OM range of cameras by Olympus, from the OM1 to the OM4, with the exception of the OM3. After a ten-year break I decided to get back into film Photography and so started a hunt for a new OM, not just any though, no I was hooked on the OM2sp, and here is why – click here to read my review of using the OM2sp
Posted by Brent Meheux - 25/1/12 - Tags -olympus OM2sp
Photography blog by Thorsten Overgaard
As a keen photographer I find myself drawn to certain photographers, and Thorsten Overgaard is definitely one of them. Almost every day I find myself clicking onto his site, moving through his archived articles. As a widely published photo-journalist his work is interesting enough, but add to this his sites amazing reviews on all things Leica and you have a blog well worth visiting – click here to read my review of Thorsten Overgaard’s blog
Steve Huff, camera reviews you can understand, use, and trust
There are hundreds of very well respected websites out there reviewing just about every new camera model brought out, my problem is that the vast majority are written by geeks for geeks. Frankly I can’t understand a word that is on them, and more to the point I in no way find them helpful when it comes to choosing a new camera, and that is where Steve Huff comes in. Here we have reviews about how the camera is to ‘use’, how it makes you feel; written in plain English. Click here to read my full review of Steve’s blog
Every route you take begins with the first few steps, I was lucky enough to have some amazing people to support me until I finally ditched the stabilizers.
A 'shura' in Afghanistan on Herrick 11, taken with my Olympus Muji
My love affair with photography began in my days on ‘The Times’, access to great teachers, both the photographers and the darkroom staff, free film and developing all added up to a child in a sweet shop. Over the years I’ve used a great many 35mm cameras, but my camera of choice has always been an OM 2sp, a real thing of beauty. For me I can understand the whole Leica thing, but sorry I just prefer the OM, small, tactile and built like a tank. It’s funny really when it comes to digital cameras not one I have ever owned has ever come up to the OM’s standards in the case of build quality, or ergonomics, that is until the Fuji x100, but that’s a story for another day.
Over the years I’ve greatly admired many photographers, I love ‘Capa’, but not for his ‘war’ work so much as his reportage work, fantastic snapshots of Spain and France from the 30’s. Terrance Donavon is another, it’s not just the fact that he’s another keen Judo player, he’s got such a fantastic touch with light. And they both share the same thing; it’s their black and white work I’m drawn to the most. Even today although I shoot digital mostly I’m always looking for that great black and white shot. I was taught from day one that colour could deceive you, shoot in black and white and you have got to get your light and contrast right, the same is true of good graphic design.
The famous picture Capa took in the Spanish civil war
But this is the sort of pictures he did that I love, a bike race in France in the 30's, really clever
And then there are the portaits of famous people, here
Hemmingway with his son
When it came to the cameras themselves I suppose I owe a great deal to the staff photographers, in particular Mark Asplan and Alan, both always had the time to see how I was doing, answer question after question, and both were firm in their ideas about a first camera system for me, it had to be an Olympus OM 1. Now with Alan this was understandable as he was at that time the only professional I knew still using the system, everyone else had moved onto Nikon and Canon for their fast auto focus, including Mark.
As to film yes I used loads of colour film, but my real love from day one was black and white, which would bring me on to my next teacher, ‘Big Andy’. Imagine a cuddly teddy bear just under 7 foot tall with size 14 feet and you’ve got Andy, in all the time I knew him I never once saw him in anything other than a great mood, always chirpy, always there to help. Through Andy I learned to develop black and white film, and handprint from the negs, learned the subtle changes a second or so could make, and how to ‘dodge’ and ‘burn’ by hand rather than by ‘mouse’
Terrance Donovan, I just love his work, such a genius with light
It’s been over 12 years since I left the papers and to be honest for a great many of those years I’ve been a little lost when it comes to photography, for most of them I just worked for clients, took endless pictures of B&B’s; and studio shots of food. Over the years I ditched my OM’s in the mad chase for ‘pixels’, and haven’t hand printed at all, but just recently changes have been afoot. I was all ready to fly out to Afghanistan in 2009 on tour realizing that this would be the sort of once in a lifetime trip that I’d want to remember, and so I made sure I took a couple of cameras. The first was just a small ‘point and shoot’ I’d had for a couple of years, a small Olympus Muj, but last minute I decided to grab a 35mm to take as well, well I’m sure you can guess as to what that was, you’ve got it an OM 2sp.
Terrance Donovan again, this time a fantastic shot of Cindy Crawford
On the tour I ended up taking 100’s of pictures, as I say all mostly for myself, but the OC was keen to get as much publicity for the Coy as possible and so insisted I send my pictures along with everyone else’s to the media officer. As the tour went on more and more of my pictures ended up being used in the national press, all with the same credit mind you, MOD, but it didn’t bother me really, maybe I had some talent after all. When I got back I was determined to get back in to photography again, for me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to set up a darkroom at home, but I could use the one at the University. And there was always the digital, but which camera?
A shot through the sandbags of one of the 'Sangers' in the FOB, Herrick 11 2009/10 - Olympus OM2sp
God I hate looking for new cameras, with 35mm it’s always been easy and simple, Olympus OM, but with digital where do you start? Every week it seems a new digital camera is coming out, and most of them are crappy point and shoot efforts, or SLR’s aimed firmly at the amateur. So this is where the web comes into it’s own, thank god for camera review sites, but isn’t it hard to find ones that have an opinion you can understand. Don’t get me wrong I think Dpreview.com is great, but can you understand a world they say on the site? – I’m a photographer not a ‘geek’; and then there is the ‘lack’ of an opinion, what I want to know is how much the reviewer ‘enjoyed’ using the camera, not what function 7 does. Mind you looking at the comments on half the sites I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a rare beast, a buyer who wants to take pictures.
A lake in Canada taken in 2010 with my Olympus OM2sp
So in the hunt for good sound advice I’ve ended up finding a few blogs I like, written by photographers, not ‘pixel’ hunters. Now in looking at these sites again I realized something else, you are drawn to likeminded people, not always people you are like, let me explain. 2 very different people, from completely different backgrounds and countries, Denmark and America; write the main 2 sites I like and they are both mainly into their Leica’s, where as I’m not, but by god do they love their art. Now as I stated before I’m not really into Leica’s, but I can see totally why people are, things of beauty designed to last a lifetime, bit like an OM 2sp then, but very different, rangefinders where the OM’s are SLR’s, hand made in Germany where as the last OM was built in the 80’s. The common ground for the owners of both cameras is that they share a real love for photography, and this really comes across in their blogs.
So which camera did I end up with?
As I’ve said I love my Olympus OM2sp, and I already have a great digital SLR in my Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1, a highly underrated camera, but a bit of a brick. Trust me I love the camera and see no reason to ever get another SLR on my budget. I say my budget because the Panasonic was only £350 second hand, where as it’s now selling on Ebay for anything up to £650, to get anything that is a ‘lot’ better is going to cost me £1000’s. Why, well it’s all down to the lens, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 has a fantastic zoom lens from Leica, because Leica gave them the lens to get help with their first digital cameras, to get that these days you’d pay the earth. No the problem is in the hint about the size of the Panasonic, its just way to big to lug around all day long. What I was looking for was a compact-ish camera that I could have with me every day.
A simple shot of chains on the beach, Clovely in Devon, really shows the quality on the Leica lens on my Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1
All OK as there are simply 100’s of great compact cameras out there, but I have a major problem with 99.9% of them, no viewfinder. Now this not just a case of me being bloody mined, it’s really more to do with my eye sight, you see I need glasses for all computer screens, but for nothing else. So if I try to use a normal digital compact I have to constantly dig around for my glasses, and then take them off to see anything else, a real pain in the ass. And then there is the size of the sensors on compact cameras, on even good quality compacts such as the Canon G12 the sensor is still small, yes it may well be 12 meg, but small sensors equal a real lack of depth of field control.
A old elephant just crossing the road in Kenya, taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1
All in all I’ve been looking now for around 8 to 9 months, chatting to loads of people and every time I feel I’m onto something I then found it lacking in one way or another. All this time I kept on coming back to looking at Leica’s, I even spoke to the wife about it, would I really be happy until I bought one? Well as I was looking for as much information on the Leica M8 as I could dig up I came across a blog by Steve Huff. And here was a real Leica buff, only he was reviewing a brand new camera by Fujifilm, the Fujifilm X100, and I was hooked. The very next day I popped into town and tried one out in my local camera shop, brilliant, from the very first touch I was in love. Old-fashioned looks, simple controls, a fixed 35mm lens and a large sensor, perfect, and yes I bought it. Over the next few weeks as I get to know it I’ll put together a review, but in the meantime read Steve’s here, he really sells the camera to you as well as fairly pointing out it’s faults.
Fujifilm X100, my latest camera
Posted by Brent Meheux - 26/1/12 - Tags -photography
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