X-T30ii The first photos

The weekend after my new camera arrived we nipped into Leeds to see what jumped out at me. I mostly stuck with the standard Fujifilm Provia film recipe for these as I wanted to get the hang of the settings and configure the buttons to how I wanted them. And I had the best time!

The best thing about this swap for me is that photography is photography - I watched some videos on manual settings before taking this camera out, but the basics are the same, aperture, shutter speed and ISO. So mainly, this little jaunt was figuring out how much flexibility, tolerance and depth of field this camera/lens combo can produce.

Camera: Fujifilm X-T30ii
Film Recipe: Fujifilm Provia Standard
Location: Leeds City Centre

Hello there!

Hey lovely people! Once again I have abandoned my little space on the internet for much longer than I intended - however I am back and I am enthusiastic. This last couple of months have been a bit of a revelation for me in that I finally accepted that film photography wasn’t a hobby that I could sustain anymore.

Let me tell you, I have been resisting that final conclusion for a looong time.

I tried getting a new to me LC-A, I tried taking my Superheadz camera around with me, I tried a Kodak half frame camera… But despite having smaller, lighter film cameras, I just didn’t love the results as much as I love the photos from my film SLR cameras. So although I was using film cameras, it just wasn’t the film photography I loved anymore. And once I accepted that, everything changed. Because the one thing I did know, was that I still very much wanted to take photos of lovely light and little details.

So… I started to look at other photography options. I didn’t love the results from my mobile phone straight out of the box (other than photos of my cats obviously) and I didn’t want to have to spend ages editing photos once I had taken them. Eventually we settled on FujFilm cameras purely for their film recipe simulations and of the range of FujiFilm cameras, the X-T30ii is the smallest and lightest option - and well, that was that. I have a new camera and three months in I love it. Its easy to carry around, its light and user friendly, and most importantly, I love the photos I’ve taken with it so far.

I’m still hoping to pick up my film cameras when I have the energy and I still have many film photos I havent shared here too, so this isn’t going to be a fully digital photography blog - just more of a hybrid one. And if it means I’m taking photos again, I'm happy with that.

Camera: FujiFilm X-T30ii
Film recipe: FujiFilm Provia Standard

A new camera, a new perspective

Nope, not a new film camera but a new phone with a fancy new camera in it. Sure its digital - but hurray, a new camera to play with! And boy have a I played with it a lot in the last 24 hours - I'm actually really surprised by that - but in just 24 hours, my photography love has burst into life again and I LOVE all these photos! 

I've had a bit of a weird week this week anyway - for the past two years I've been relearning everything that I do - which sounds dramatic - and I guess it kind of is... but yes - relearning.  CBT helped with that a lot - essentially in teaching me that I had to relearn things and showing me how and that it's ok to have to learn but now that's its been a while and I've been through the cycle of relearning, forgetting - trying the same old ways without realising - failing and then finally remembering that I have to do things differently - its started to sink in and actually stick. I've noticed the sticking more this week. I've loved myself a little bit more this week.

When I say everything it really does feel like everything - its hard and a little heartbreaking sometimes - the letting go. But yesterday, in using a new camera and HAVING to do things a bit different,  I realised that I've been trying to apply the same old tricks to photography - using the cameras I used to love, using the films I used to love - and instead of trying something new to reignite my passion - I've been pushing the same old ideas hoping they will work like they used to. A bit like a toddler trying to push a rectangle block into a square hole - the shapes almost there but not quite right.

(I can honestly say that I never realised I was this stubborn about things - a little stubborn sure - who isn't? But this stubborn?!)

So, now that I have a new digital camera to play with - I'm thinking its time that I got a new film camera to play with too - something that's a square fitting into the square hole - does anyone have any recommendations? I'd love some help with finding a new camera as I have no idea where to start!! Tell me your favourite camera and what you love about it - I want to hear all about it.

p.s. You may have realised I've started writing more recently - I don't really know why - but I'm really pleased - I've missed this.

Some phone photos from the last few days

I was hoping to share more photos from Croatia today, but I've accidentally locked myself out of my Flickr account - urgh it is such a fuss, I can't remember my new ID  as I had to change it because BT were deleting their Yahoo emails, but now they're not - so who knows what's going on there - but either way no Flickr for Rhianne at the moment, boo! I'm hoping to sort that out ASAP.

So... instead, here are some pretty photos that I've taken on my phone from the weekend and couple of days walking to work. The Autumn sunshine has been rather lovely (in between the rain of course) and I'm loving the golden colours everywhere at the moment. In fact I took 3 rolls of film over the weekend too, I can't wait to drop those in to be developed.