Liquid Tests

June 19, 2013 Patrick La Roque

I'm busy finishing off a few projects, tying off loose ends before leaving for Cuba next week for a personal matter. I'll be there eight days and I'm hoping to get at least one story out of it, although I have no idea how mobile I'll actually be over there.

I've also been busy working on a revamp of the Kage Collective website with the guys. Visual changes will be part of it but our motivation is mostly about backend functionality and an easier way to each manage our own material. The goal is to be able to publish more stories, more frequently and without as much overhead. We'll be launching with a spectacular new essay from Flemming Bo Jensen and Derek Clark is on fire these days with fantastic stories waiting in the wings.

Last week Fujifilm Canada organized a phone conference with canadian X Photographers. I'm hoping we'll eventually get to be in the same room together but it was nice to hear everyone's ideas, get a chance to learn a bit more about each other. Fuji has done a great job assembling a roster of seriously talented photographers with very distinct personalities, something that could perhaps eventually lead to common projects.

I had planned to finally blog about a couple of shoots this week but frankly, I just don't have the time. So I'll just leave you with some experimental stuff I've been working on involving water, submersed speedlights and radio triggers. These are basically tests for an eventual project.

Later.

4 x 5 | A weekend with the Fujinon 55-200mm

June 10, 2013 Patrick La Roque

This weekend we fled to the country, trying to escape another dreary, drizzle/cloud fest. Don’t get me started… I sometimes feel this blog is becoming some sort of weather watch (!). I brought the X-Pro1 and X100 with me but spent most of my time shooting the Pro with the Fujinon 55–200mm zoom. In fact it pretty much stayed glued to the camera. This is still the same pre-production unit Fujifilm sent me a few weeks ago, but I feel perfectly confident in its abilities to provide great image quality so I’m not at all concerned about using it.

No stories today, no semi-poetics… Just four sequences, each one comprised of five images. Four sequences to illustrate four moments. All shot with the 55–200 zoom.

Later

Plenty

May 28, 2013 Patrick La Roque

En Mai, fait ce qu’il te plaît.

Not so much. The rollercoaster season continues and the temperatures have plummeted… Again. The in-laws call and there’s snow on the ground in the townships. Snow…
This is mall weather. Grocery shopping weather. Time to escape the rain and lose ourselves in the aisles of plenty.

Shot with the X-Pro1 and Fujinon XF 14mm F2.8R.

Weekend Portraits | + thoughts on bokeh, tools and silliness.

May 21, 2013 Patrick La Roque

We’re back from our great nondescript long weekend: Victoria/Fête de la Reine/First People/Patriotes/Dollard des Ormeaux Day… No disrespect but I don’t quite know why we don’t get rid of all this political/historical hogwash and just call it Summer Kickoff Day — it’s what everyone celebrates anyway. Fire up the BBQ, get some rays, hit the flower beds; that whole naming situation is getting ridiculous. But I digress ;)

Bit of a lack of updates lately and I apologize. I’ve shot stuff I’m very happy with these past weeks and will be sharing some of it in the near future. I’m getting a little backlogged over here.

My initial thoughts on the pre-production 55–200mm Fuji lens seems to have created a bit of a stir in the online community. In fact I found myself debating its merits in a forum discussion, something I should steer clear of given the passions these tend to inflame. The big issue? That most dreaded of words: bokeh.

Here’s the thing about bokeh: discussions around this subject can quickly devolve into silliness. A little like wine tasting. There are certainly objective factors at play and certain visible technical issues that can be identified… But there’s also a heck of a lot that depends on what was shot and how it was shot. And beyond all the mumbo jumbo, my take on any tool remains the same: use it to your advantage. Use it’s so-called "faults" creatively and they can turn into qualities. It’s all subjective as hell anyway, no matter what pixel peepers like to think. Photography isn’t just about formulas.

Coincidentally, while I was in the middle of this I read David Hobby’s BTS post on Soprano Rebecca Hargrove. In the comments someone mentioned not being crazy about bottom catchlights, to which David responded pretty eloquently. But I think the last part of his answer bears repeating: “In 33 years of shooting seriously, I have never heard a non-photographer even bring it up. I haven’t even heard a photo editor bring it up in literally thousands of picture editing sessions. Ditto the word ”bokeh,“ while we are at it.”

Yup.

Maybe I’m a technical moron. Maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. But I look at the images I’m getting from the very little time I’m managing to spend with this pre-production lens… And I can’t think of a single client telling me there’s a problem with subject separation on my differential focus. Or nissen rings.

Images below from that aforementioned nondescript weekend…
Later.

IMAGES SHOT WITH A PRE-PRODUCTION FUJINON XF 55-2OOMM F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

Fujinon 55-200mm Zoom | Pre-Production Unit

May 6, 2013 Patrick La Roque

At some point Fuji is going to disappoint me. They'll have to let me down, I just know they will. Everything follows this basic, unforgiving law of averages right? But at the risk of coming off as some sort of fanboi, that day hasn't come and I’m again forced to swoon over an upcoming X-series product: the Fujinon XF 55–200mm F3.5–4.8 R LM OIS.

This lens isn’t out yet but Fujifilm Canada sent me a pre-production unit to test — with all the caveats this involves. A telephoto is the one thing I’ve been missing most on this system so I was eager to try it out. I had to install a new firmware version in order for the camera to recognize it but everything went without a hitch. I was warned by Billy (Luong, of the Fuji Guys) that there were still improvements being made (the zoom itself is way too stiff but this won’t be in the final version), and Tokyo has put an embargo on any full size images until everything has been ironed out. But I’ll tell you this: if this is the level of image quality in the pre-production unit… Man, we’re in for a serious treat. The contrast, sharpness and highlight rendition is right up there with the 35mm f/1.4. My initial feeling is that it even surpasses it. The OIS feels like a Steady-Cam; Manual focussing follows in the footsteps of the 14mm and 18–55mm and keeps me eating my own words about fly by wire. And when mounted on my X-Pro1 the entire kit feels like it’s at least half the weight of my old Nikon 70–200 2.8 on its own.

I can’t wait to shoot portraits with this lens but for now, a few images from my backyard (moments after the lens got here and a few after dinner) just to give you an idea of what it looks like wide open — which of course will vary based on focal length. Make sure you hover over the lightbox images to get the exif data.

One more detail: minimum focussing distance seems to be a little over 3 feet, a bit more on the long end. Enabling macro mode on the camera doesn’t seem to do anything.

First steps — More to come.