Last week (click here if you missed it) I shared ten of my monochrome street shots and ended the piece by saying that for this week’s post I was going to share a few of my Fujifilm colour street shots, that have all be shot with the X-Pro1 and X-Pro2
So, man of my word, here we go 🙂
I’ve often stated that my personal preference is for colour photography. That said I’ve been working a lot in black and white lately.
I’m sure there’s a whole debate around colour and monochrome 🙂 which we’re not going to have today!
Why?
Well because frankly, there’s no right or wrong answer. If you’re personally drawn so much to one, that for you it excludes the other, that’s great. If not, then shoot both. Roll out all of the Ted Grant, Ansel Adams, HCB or even Georgia O’Keeffe quotes you want if it helps you decide 🙂
That said.. There’s perhaps a purity to monochrome, a purer expression of light, tone and form.
Colour perhaps is more attention grabbing, more true to the world we see.
Me? I like both. My preference for colour is a personal thing, but I couldn’t only ever shoot colour.
Last week I mentioned just how adroit I found the X-Pro range to be for street and documentary tasks.
That doesn’t change just because we’re using a colour profile, so rather than rehash all of that, let’s talk briefly about just how many colour “film” profiles that Fuji gives us.
Perhaps you have a go-to for everything? Perhaps you mooch between (say) Velvia and Classic Chrome.
Perhaps you treat the Fuji film sims as baselines for your own take on colours.
Again, no right or wrong.
But what we end up with, on our Fujis, is a file that has a good tolerance for colour and I think that can only be applauded and utilised as we see fit.
OK, let’s have the pictures. If you’d like to see a whole Flickr album of my favourite street shots, click here
Last week I mentioned ‘street at the beach‘ and that I was a big fan! Not entirely sure why this might be… perhaps because I’ve spent over 80% of my life living no where near the sea. Perhaps because I’m scared of water and I can feel a big edgy when I’m near it… but I suspect it’s because I find it a very interesting location to people watch. There’s something about people on the beach… they seem to relax, to play and conduct themselves in a way that they don’t in a shopping centre.
Although I’ve shot ‘beach-street’ in black and white, it’s one area where for me, if I think I can make colour work, then I use it.
The sun on your face. The great expanse of blue see. A Tranquil calm. No wonder you don’t notice when someone’s shooting your picture
Story telling within photography is a much used phrase. Personally I think it’s hard to tell a story with just one image. Even baby books have more than one page. But we can hint at a story, or we can give the viewer the base of a story. The story here is that these guys who work hard in the building trade are checking their lottery tickets… I wonder if any of them came up lucky?
I never for a moment considered this in monochrome. Finding a backdrop and getting an idea for a shot and then letting it unfold. A bit like cooking perhaps (ingredients/idea/prep/cook/eat)
Fujifilm PT lent me the XF16mm. I can’t really do wide! But I stuck with it and eventually found some ways to get what I thought worked. I like this for all of the pointy shapes and the mystery of the figures!
Porto is a beautiful and charming city. And I hope no one considers me rude when I say that part of that charm is the dilapidation and wabi sabi. From ruin comes growth and this art seller has set up his store in one of the most beautiful yet ruined locations I know of.
Now this is one which you might of thought; Hmmmm surely this should of been black and white well firstly, it’s Adam, not Shirley* 🙂 and secondly, there’s just something about the sickly brown fecal coloured tunnel and the subject’s haste at reaching the light that I just didn’t want to loose with black and white
(*Yes, The Airplane Movie called – they want their joke back)
Perhaps this is more ‘documentary’ than street? I’m both impressed and pleased with many of the elements it took to get this shot! I’m pleased I made a decent zone focus (at F2.8) on the XF56. I’m pleased I caught the jump at it’s highest arc (thank you OVF), I’m impressed at the skill of the skateboarder, and I was impressed because when I went to chat to them afterwards… well let’s just say that jumps weren’t the only thing they were doing to get high 🙂
I’m sure this needs no explanation about why it’s in colour. Usually I look for shots, but this one found me and I’m glad I was ready for it
As I’ve mentioned, I love beach street. The draw is not only people who are more relaxed than they are in the highstreet, but, for me, I find it offers the chance to make layered scenes as some people are stationary and others are moving.
We’ll finish as we started, with calm. We all like to take a moment for ourselves, away from the hustle and as much as people raging in phoneboxes or jumping on skateboards makes for visual excitement, let’s not forget that it’s equally humanistic to be calm and content.
That was ten colour street shots. A variety of styles and locations, and all shot with either the X-Pro1 or X-Pro2. I hope you enjoyed them.
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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 