This is the third part of my story with the XF16.
You can read parts one and two by clicking on the links here and here
But as a quick recap, Fujifilm were going to (and eventually did) lend me the XF23 and XF50 WR Primes, but due to a mix up I had to take the XF56APD and the XF16 instead.
Hey no complaints! That’s exceedingly generous of them and I was very grateful.
The catch was… I’m not really a wide angle lens guy.
So this has been my story of how I had to force myself to see in a wider way.
To begin with, I started out by just shooting wide.
But I found that I didn’t have the eye for those types of compositions.
Next I tried to hammer and bend the 16 into my usual style.
That didn’t work out well either.
Then finally, I started to understand the lens in a way that worked for what I liked.
Eventually I got the idea that I wanted to fill the space with something.
And if that something was geometric then it had to tie together in some way
Predictably enough… My first attempts at this were standard fare
But I was pleased, pleased that I was starting to find ways to fill the frame
I was starting to develop an extremely rudimentary eye for wider angle composition
I started to look for large shapes to tie together
Then I realised that, I could also tie together many little shapes
Obviously, YMMV – but the more I used the XF16, the more I started to look for scenes that I thought worked with it. Or put another way – I was enjoying shooting with itĀ š
But what of my preferred subjects, what of people?
You may remember that the second part of this story had not one, but two cat pictures (yeah sorry about that) Well it was yet another cat that got me thinking about shooting people
The XF16 is wide (no s**t Adam!!) so for me (YMMV) people can work in the frame, but with the caveat of context
I needed to tie the people into the world in which I was observing them
It was by observing people in this wider setting that, for my usage, meant that the XF16 finally started to work for me
I mean don’t get me wrong…. I’m still happier doing my (so YMMV) usual street stuff with the XF23 or XF35 or even the XF56, but by the end of my time with the XF16, I was quite happy with my way of working with it.
Do I recommend the XF16? A resounding yes – you’ll no doubt know if this is a focal length that you’ll enjoy using and the 16 is (as ever with Fuji’s expensive primes) a damn fine piece of glass
Would I buy one? Tougher… If money was no object, sure – but it is. I’ll be honest, the 16 isn’t at the top of my Christmas list.
Now I know some of you will skim read this, and scream at me erroneously for daring to not like the 16. (I like it, it’s just not my favourite)
No doubt others of you will yo! bum rush the show on my Facebook threads with links to your own work loudly proclaiming your brilliance and adroit photo technique… and I have to be honest, it wouldn’t be hard for you to have a better eye for a wide angle than I do
But for me… I was lent the 16 by way of consolation, I wasn’t expecting it and I wasn’t ready for it. But I was glad of it… because in the brief time we were together, I saw a whole wider world – and that’s never a bad thing to see
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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.
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Thank You Very Much!
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The X-Pro Series Content: Referenced and All In One Place
The X-Pro Series Content: A Contents Page with Page Numbers and a Brief Description
Adam Bonn Fotografia 
Bravo Adam youāve cracked it!
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Thanks very much Mike
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