*Marble Arch*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + JCH 400
One of the amazing things with the xpan’s wide format shots is their cinematic quality. Scenes that would look bland in standard 2:3 format acquire a certain quality through the width alone. Case in point: the eye here is drawn to each individual because there are so many in this narrow strip.
*Amsterdark*
Fuji x100F
I hadn’t been to Amsterdam in a long time and if I’m honest I never managed to take shots of the city center I was truly happy with. Of course the weather was lousy, otherwise it’s no fun. Still, I suppose that’s Amsterdam too (I finally understood why Dutch men always wear a T-shirt under their shirt…) One of the big challenges in shooting the canals is that even with a wide angle there are only a few places where you’ll have enough space to properly shoot. I’m quite happy with this one. It was super windy, so the (light) x100f swayed even low on the ground, which means out of six shots this is the only one that’s sharp!
*Bonzes don’t jaywalk*
Fuji x100f
To be fair, few people jaywalk in Hong Kong anyway, but when I saw this Buddhist monk quietly waiting in front of the crossing, I had this funny notion about respecting the rules (or not).
*Missed Meeting*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Fuji Pro 400H
One of the limitations of the XPAN is that its widest aperture is f/4. That makes shooting at dusk tricky at best… But when it works, boy is it great !
*Night Pagoda*
Fuji XT3
Shooting the lanterns in long exposure at Senso-ji after dusk was comparatively easy (although I hadn’t realised that despite their size the lanterns would sway with the wind) but finding a way to shoot the pagoda was trickier. Thankfully I had my Platypod with me and was able to strap it to a tree. Shooting it through the branches, I thought would give it a different feel, and I’m really pleased with how it came out.
*Fox Shrine*
Fuji XT3
The Fushimi Inari shrine is an impressive place literally covered with massive orange shrines (and covered with tourists as well). When we went there, we half deliberately took a wrong turn and ended up walking a narrow dirt path into the woods for a couple of hours. In several places along the path were fantastic shrines to the fox protectors or Fushimi Inari. A multitude of small Torii with these male and female fox statues wearing red aprons. This is my best approximation of what these felt like.
*Castlefront*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Kodak Ultramax 400
Unsurprisingly, one of the things that’s great to shoot with the XPAN is wide buildings (when you can back enough, that is, 45mm is no wide angle…) This one was shot one dreary morning in Warsaw, I don’t even remember the place or where it was, but looking back on it, it’s a nice architectural horizontal, I think.
*The Colonel’s Parking*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Fuji Superia 400
Did you know that KFC was one of the most if not the most successful restaurant chain in China ? I could never eat the stuff, I find it vile, but the Chinese love their food fried… Anyway, I felt that beyond the parked bikes, the KFC made the shot.
Shinjuku’s red light district really has that « where the hell am I » vibe. It’s not so much that the kinky stuff is overt, it’s that everything is weird. There are robot shows advertised everywhere (not sure I want to know what that is) and some of the displays (like this one) are really strange… Talk about lost in translation…
*Senso-ji at Night*
Fuji XT3
Sneso-ji at night was all it was supposed to be and more. But I had to try this one over ten times to get a decent result : long exposures theoretically erase people in front of you from the picture… except when they stand still for minutes on end in front of you to take photos. I can’t blame them, I was doing the same !
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