Continuing the blog serialisation of my popular X-Pro Series lust/hate/love story:
Part 48: The X-Pro2 Review: The End of the Year Spent with…
…A X-Pro Camera
Well folks, today is new year’s day* (not on every calendar I realise)
(*As the header says – this is a blog serialisation of my main X-Pro content, so I originally wrote this for NY, I realise that if you’re following this via the blog then it’s actually spring now!!)
I hope you’ve all had a good year?
It’s been a tough year to be honest… Obviously many events and deaths on the world stage, but on a more personal level as well.
But let’s not linger on the past, except to say, for me this year – if it could of gone a bit wrong it has !!!
In fact on that very note – my computer developed a problem only yesterday, that’s making writing this kinda awkward!! Has to be now huh? During a weekend of closed stores and with a postal backlog to delay the part I need to procure !!
One thing that has gone well this year, has been this website! Many people have visited it and a surprising number of you have taken the time to contact me with kind words and flattering comments.
That’s really special to me. Thank you one and all.
Sometimes I wonder about the attraction of my site/blog.. I’d also like to think it’s wise not to overthink that!
I suspect it’s the writing, not saying it’s great or anything – sincerely it’s hardly text book prose – but my writing seems to gather more comments than my pictures!
So if that’s your view point – then you may not like this week’s post, as it’ll be rather pictorial!
I started the year with a X-Pro1, I’m ending the year a X-Pro2 (although there’s still time to somehow break it before midnight – I’m writing this on 31/12/2016 and it’s been that kinda year)
This year I completed a 2016:52 photo challenge (a picture a week for 52 weeks)
I think it’s a good place to end the year on.
You can see all them here by clicking the picture below:
A couple are older shots that I revisited with 2016 editing (that’s well worth doing by the way, PP software is forever getting better and our personal skills and tastes changing)
If you want to read (a few) lines around each shot – then you can pick up the links from this site, using the link below:
But I thought I’d end the year, with a pick of some of my favourites, I was going to do 12, but I suspect 7 is a better number 🙂
For 2016 I took the decision to look into a Street/Reportage/Documentary style of photography and I think this way of ‘seeing’ will be with me for a while! This was one of my first attempts.
2016 was also the year that I committed 100% to living in Porto… Hey things change, maybe it won’t last.. but this was the year I (in my head) stopped being a tourist on a perpetual holiday and started looking for the world that this wonderful city’s residents inhabit
2016 never missed an opportunity to tell me that life can be colourful, but colour is not always the messenger of good news.
2016 also saw me embark on various personal projects (and participate on larger ones with other photographers – both things I’m aiming to continue) one of these projects was Street Art/Graffiti.
Although this is actually a 2015 shot, I used it in 2016 (for the first time, it was a ‘meh’ shot at the time of capture) to test a new direction I was taking with post processing. This one was popular on social media, but serves to remind me that it’s worth re-visiting old shots and to periodically re-evaluate the way I work
After several months of pursuing a “street/doc/rep” style of shooting I had become far more confident in pointing the camera are strangers
So for the final shot in this series…
It’s one taken a few days ago, and part of a project I’ve set myself to document people via ‘Street Portraits’ I’m not planning to quit the more ‘in situ’ way of capturing the world around me, but equally I’m always interested in expanding the human elements in some styles of shots I take and this seems a logical next step.
I’m still as passionate about the X-Pro series as I ever was. For me at least, these are cameras that work very much in harmony with what I like to shoot, the way I like to shoot and to capture the things I see.
I was scared that my upgrade to the X-Pro2 (which is not an inexpensive camera) would be not really needed and that the list of improvements would be largely wasted on me.. But I haven’t regretted it for a moment, that said of course the X-Pro1 remains a solid choice, still competitive in terms of IQ and really rather pure in terms of user experience when compared to the more modern and feature rich cameras.
Yes, it’s been a good year for me photographically, there’s been a little bit of commercial success, some attention on my work, a direct relationship with Fujifilm and a evolution to my output that all together I’m very pleased with.
But the people I’ve met, spoken too and engaged with – both online and in real life (as a direct result of this website &/or my photography) have been by far the biggest feel good story! That some of you have wanted to meet up with me, let me take you on photo walks or vice versa, or spoken with me about your inspiration and techniques has been truly humbling.
So overall maybe I should thank 2016… but equally it can sod off now and bring in 2017 – which I already know will be difficult, but I’m determined to keep growth and good vibes going 🙂
So I’ll be back next week (as ever) and hopefully I’ll have sorted by computer so that I’m not sitting cross legged on the floor using the TV as a monitor to write the next instalment 🙂
Muito Obrigardo / Thank you
Try not to drink too much tonight, oh yeah right – you’ll be reading this after NYE. Well I hope the headache’s not too bad… personally I find cereal helps.
======================================
A lot of time and effort goes into this site.. Hopefully it’s helped you? Perhaps you’d consider helping me?
One way you could help me is if you want to buy from Amazon, if you do so using the links below, then I will receive a small percentage of your expenditure, and you will pay NO MORE than you would have paid anyway.
Shop at Amazon USA
Fujifilm X-Pro2
Shop at Amazon UK
Fujifilm X-Pro2
If there’s a different product you’re considering, then perhaps you’d drop me a line and I can send you an associate link for it?
Another way you could help, is by making a donation. The donate button can be found on the link below
Thank You Very Much!
======================================
Adam Bonn Fotografia 
Great article and as always great images.
LikeLike
Thank you very, very much Elliot
LikeLike