Thursday, February 29, 2024

The Fujifilm X100 VI (SIX) Launch Party in Sydney - and my shots with the X100 V (Five).

 Launch parties are great. So great, that I am only recently beginning to appreciate how fortunate I've been over the last decade and a half to have been part of so many launches! Regardless of how much fun they may be, they can also be a little strange. Not due to some innate weirdness but due to the constraints of getting what a business needs to be done, done. I think a camera launch must be one of the trickiest launches of all. It's probably going to be night, so you can get everyone you need to attended after their day at work. And photographers are a notoriously picky bunch, they like this, they don't like that, they can be cliquey - they do like beer, and they love photography! But photography is predominantly a daylight activity, so how do you show off a camera at night!

Vivienne - White Caviar Life, at the Fujifilm X100 VI Launch Party in Sydney
Vivienne - White Caviar Life, at the Fujifilm X100 VI Launch Party in Sydney 

The solution Fujifilm came up with for this event is to have their Brand Ambassadors put the new model through it's paces in the lead up to the launch, and share the results with those fortunate enough to receive an invite to the event. The X100 VI Ambassadors for Australia are Chloe Hayden and Leslie Liu. So after the informative speeches from the top people at Fujifilm, it was on to the photographers and showcasing the camera and we had a slide show. Or, as we no longer have actual slides, a talk with video and then stills projected - and it's a good solution to a tricky problem. Then after the talks, there were Fujifilm people with the actual camera, so you could give a X100 VI a try. I considered this a bit of a strange really. Nice, but what can I do in a bar at night? The lighting is a bit crazy, there's all this green in it, or blue. What can I do in a bar, nice as it is, at night?  Well there was a solution to that too. In line with Ambassador Leslie Liu's Burlesque showgirl photography theme.

Showgirls by photographer Leslie Liu Shot with the Fujifilm X100 VI at 8000 ISO 125th F 2.0
Showgirls by photographer Leslie Liu Shot with the Fujifilm X100 VI at 8000 ISO 125th F 2.0

There are two performers suspended in large hoops, (not the showgirls or the bar above BTW) one each side of the stage twirling around, kind of backlit, its nice and it is interesting. There is also a live 3 piece band doing great covers in an original way. So I ignore all of this completely - see I'm a fussy horror story of a photographer! But, but, it's a new X100 and I'm in camera lust of course like pretty much everyone at the launch, so I do get my hands on one, and pretty soon I'm wandering around the very nice luxury event space at Beta Bar snapping a few shots off, hoping I don't drop it - I'm sober but I always use a strap, no strap - realise the ISO is (still) a pull-up on the shutter dial, crank it up a bit (800?), not too much, and make some pretty nice pictures. If only I'd brought my own card! Or swapped it out of my XT1.  That would have worked. Anyway, the thing I noticed first was that the back of the camera is very streamlined, seemed to have fewer buttons than I remembered from the X100 V and the joy-stick joggle/moving of the focus spot was 'automatic' (no prelim action required) very quick and precise, I liked it. A lot.

Man holding a camera, Kent finding the ISO on the X 100 IV (same as the V...) Photo by Vivienne She
Kent finding the ISO on the X 100 IV (same as the V...) Photo by Vivienne She

From reviewing on the back of the camera I see the stabilisation - or my miraculously stable hands, gave me a sharp in focus portrait of Viv (lost to the hosts memory cards of events and time) at (I think) 1/8th of a second wide open. Factor in 40 megapixels, more pixels makes hand holding even harder, and you have a magic picture right there. I prefer lower ISO. Stuff happens at higher ISO that is not always what you want to see in an image file. So if I can get away with a lower ISO and a lower shutter speed then its a huge win for me. There were sample images at 8000 & 5000 ISO in the media package - full size out-of-camera, and while these shots look good for screen use (which is everything these days, just-about) I would have tried avoid going up to 8K ISO and some of the effects that are apparent viewing at 100%.  It looked like a few 'test' pictures were made in nightclub situations - the kind of place I call 'photography black holes' - and the pictures are good! No flash, and a very good picture, vs no picture at all, that's definitely a win. I've done shots in similar situations with no-flash and the pixels look like they are golf balls and the noise is from the Milky Way - so it's important to keep some perspective - a very good, clean clear shot at 8000 ISO is actually an amazing accomplishment.

Guests documenting the X100 VI, you can see how clean the back of the camera is. Photo by Vienne She
Guests documenting the X100 VI, you can see how clean the back of the camera is.
Photo by Vienne She

My journey with Fujifilm began in 2012 with he fantastic X Pro 1, right here on Street Fashion Sydney. Read my first review of that camera here - for a little nostalgia... I've put my hand up for the a two week loan of an X100 VI - and should that dream come true there will be another blog or two or three or more. There is no substitute for using a camera yourself, as no two photographers use and handle equipment the same way. So no matter the results one photographer gets, it is always nice to see what you get with a camera. 

The new Fujifilm X100 VI (six) with lens shade - as it should be! Image supplied.
The new Fujifilm X100 VI (six) with lens shade - as it should be! Image supplied.

Important new info about the new camera (as supplied).

"20 digital Film Simulations for stunning results straight out of camera"
NEW TO X100 VI is 40.2MP BSI XTRANSTM CMOS 5 HR for accurate & reliable image quality (previously 26.1MP so almost double)
NEW TO X100 VI is the X Processor 5 for precision & speed
NEW TO X100 VI is AI subject detect AF with eye tracking for capturing moving subjects
NEW TO X100 VI is 6.2K/30P, 4K/60P video recording to extend your creative vision
NEW TO X100 6 stops IBIS for stable hand-held shooting - Stress free connection and sharing with smartphones & transfer of images to NEW Fujifilm X App & frame.io

Available in 3 colours; Black, Silver & NEW Grey

NOW - Back in 2019 I was lent the X 100 V to document the Head On Photography Festival in Sydney - Read and see pictures Here And that loan was extended a couple of weeks so I could shoot more stuff, try the camera on other subject matter, primarily VIVID Sydney. Yet most of those pictures have been just snoozing on my hard drive and have never been. So while we wait to give the new X100 a proper spin; I think it's a good time to show some pictures I love, that made me think the X100 V was every bit as good as the hype surrounding it, and that was there even before it went Tic Tok crazy and you couldn't get one at all.

Vivid by Day 2019 (Light Rail Nearly Ready to Roll) X100 V
Vivid by Day 2019 (Light Rail Nearly Ready to Roll) X100 V

VIVID Sydney by day. Well that is completely wrong - its pretty lights at night. So I've been documenting it for quite a while, by day - here are some done with the X100 V. Click pictures to View Larger!

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (post in Photoshop)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (out of camera)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (out of camera)

This series began a few years earlier in protest to all the barricades - everywhere - but then evolved into a documentation of the installation hardware as artworks in their own right. Click pictures to View Larger!

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (out of camera)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (out of camera)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (out of camera)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (out of camera)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (out of camera)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 V (post in Photoshop)

And I went out at night too.

VIVID by Night 2019 X100 V (post in Photoshop)

VIVID by Night 2019 X100 V (out of camera)


VIVID by Night 2019 X100 V (out of camera)

VIVID by Night 2019 X100 V (post in Photoshop)


Previous X100 V (Five) posts from 2019 - I carried the camera everywhere.



A huge Event for Tissot

A huge thank you to Fujifilm Australia and Campaign Lab. https://fujifilm-houseofphotography.com.au/

PS
Love these hand held night shots! Post done in Photoshop. Fujifilm X100 V
Street Lamp & Bricks Hand held night shot - Darlinghurst Sydney 1/30th F 2.0 Fujifilm X100 V
Street Lamp & Bricks Hand held night shot - Darlinghurst Sydney 1/30th F 2.0

Bridge & Moon - Hand held night shot - Darlinghurst Sydney 1/8th F 2.0 Fujifilm X100 V
Bridge & Moon - Hand held night shot - Darlinghurst Sydney 1/8th F 2.0

Cloud & Moon - Hand held night shot - Darlinghurst Sydney 1/8th F 2.0 Fujifilm X100 V
Cloud & Moon - Hand held night shot - Darlinghurst Sydney 1/8th F 2.0



Telling Stories in Pictures all over..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863

Saturday, February 24, 2024

The Photographic Print VS Instagram at Disorder Gallery

 Yesterday I was able to head down to Disorder Gallery for the Tony Potts gallery talk and discussion on his current (yes, on now) current exhibition, A Moment Of Intimacy, which features classic black and white photographs of women in sensual poses. Let me start again. All of the pictures in the exhibition were shot in the 1980s on film, of course, as that is what we had back then. They are one-on-one personal work by Tony, and as I said to a female friend of mine, 'they are pictures of women from when women were women and some men knew how to photograph them'. The pictures and the prints are beautiful. Most of the prints are of the digital type on fine art papers but there are also a couple of smaller original prints - wet bench prints - made at the time of the photo sessions, back in the 1980s.

Framed print by Tony Potts with the same image on Instagram - Same, not same. 

I was party to some of the preparations for this exhibition and curiously, while I liked the photograph above when viewing it on a computer screen. Along with other images proposed for the exhibition. Nothing prepared me for the impact of this shot - which is the first picture you see - when I walked into the gallery. It is mesmerising. And as Tony explained during his talk, the position of the hands, as seen in this image, were only there for a fleeting moment. Which is part of the raison d'ĂȘtre of this exhibition. Apparently there was not a lot of what I might call 'structural' posing going on, it was all a lot more natural, people who knew each other working together to make beautiful pictures. These days you hear the word collaboration a lot. Well, back in the day it was called working together. You may judge for yourself if the words are the only thing that has changed... Coming back to the picture above, it completely reinforced to me the importance of the print. Which is something that I have experienced repeatedly in the last few years. The print is not a decoding of data illuminated on a screen, it is not a different colour on every phone, computer, TV screen (have you ever watched the same show, footy game, on the different TVs at the pub? All different, the colour, one magenta, another green, none are the same). The print is the photograph as a physical object. When I walked into the gallery I stood before the picture. I was not looking down on a tiny screen on the bus, scrolling, scrolling. I see that because I do not scroll on the bus, but so many do, I watch them, just scroll and scroll! 

The print, this picture demands your attention! The print embraced me, not the other way around, and it felt like magic.

Portrait of Tony Potts during a talk at an art gallery discussion at Disorder Gallery,  24/02/2024 Sydney, Australia.
Tony Potts listening to a question about his work - Disorder Gallery, Sydney, Australia.

Although I interviewed Tony about his work in the Australia + Fashion Photography exhibition last year; and some of his photographic techniques were a revelation to me. There were more surprises instore during yesterdays floor talk - where Tony discussed the various affects of cameras and film-stock and post processing (making of the original silver prints) on the printed image. And of course, discussed the relationship of the sitter (subject/model) and the photographer. It was fun, Tony did a great job not letting the discussion go off onto other tangents and graciously shared some of the experiences, some not particularly flattering, that led him to make the huge leap he made to embrace the method of working that had him produce this body of work. You can see his pictures online here https://www.instagram.com/tonypottsphotography/ or if you are in Sydney and are quick, the show is on from until February 15 - March 2, 2024 at Disorder Gallery, East Sydney.


Tony Potts
A Moment Of Intimacy
February 15 - March 2, 2024
https://www.disordergallery.com/



Telling Stories in Pictures all over..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Bright Yellow Frames at Station Gallery W/ David Griggs

 Lets talk about these bright yellow, asymmetric-block frames filled with strange portraits, of aliens and monsters, or, are they simply some sort of shape-shifting selfies. I mean maybe he is, maybe David Griggs is an Alien. And why not, why wouldn't an Alien be an Artist and let the world know with a wall of Portraits? A rainbow of colourful portraits, during WORLD PRIDE, in Sydney... (I said to David, "I like your selfies" and he did not deny they were not, selfies!). So a perfect time, to OUT oneself as an Alien or maybe even, a Theosophist (lots of good colourist company there). But back to the frames. Some of my friends did not like them at all - I asked them. I loved them! I loved the frames and I really liked the portraits. The large very-colourful paintings are very nice too. What came first, the Alien, or the Alien EGG - so colourful. But I mostly liked the wall of portraits in unusually shaped, rectangular yellow frames. This sort of frame reminds me of DADA & Surrealist art works where the frame was subsumed into the image or was rendered in some unique, anti-bourgeois way (No florid carving or gold leaf thanks). If you are in Sydney it's certainly worth adding Station gallery and David's show to your Eastern Suburbs gallery loop.

Portrait of David Griggs at STATION, Sydney in front of his wall of portraits in yellow frames.
David Griggs at STATION, Sydney

Selfies? (DAVID GRIGGS The sky is the safe place)

'The Mystic 1' by David Griggs

A man with long blonde hair viewd from behind at an art show in Sydney, Station Gallery, 2023.

Portrait of David Griggs (V sign) at STATION, Sydney in front of his wall of portraits in yellow frames.
David Griggs (V) at STATION, Sydney

Art crowd at Station Gallery,  Sydney for David Griggs, The sky is the safe place.
Art crowd at Station Gallery,  Sydney for David Griggs, The sky is the safe place.

 

DAVID GRIGGS
The sky is the safe place
17 February – 11 March 2023
STATION | SYDNEY
Suite 201, 20 Bayswater Road Potts Point

Telling Stories in Pictures all over..
Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863

Friday, January 10, 2020

Sydney Climate Rally - Signs and Wonderful People

Scomo must go - Students for Climate Justice - Fund the Firies, Rally and March from Sydney Town Hall.  So many people, a great turn out. So many I missed seeing most of my friends that also attended; but I'm seeing their pictures too on Facebook which is great. It's been terrible here in Australia for months now. I can't complain too much as I am relatively safe in the city, if you don't worry about the toxic air quality. There was such a wide variety of people, of all ages at this rally; it really gives one hope. The police seemed quite decent, though seeing the oft now mentioned black suited police presence, the Public Order & Riot Squad.. I mean Australians don't really riot so you have to wonder how far the political establishment intended to push us if they need to beef up so the policing so much! Anyway here are some of my shots from the rally and march, hope to see you at the next big one, there will unfortunately need to be more protest to bring about the change this planet needs - right now.  Click Images to View large
Sydney Climate Rally - 'Time Up' sign. Town Hall
Sydney Climate Rally 'Engadine' Poop sign
Sydney Climate Rally - 'NOPE' Placard, George Street
Sydney Climate Rally - 'This Home Say No Scomo'
Sydney Climate Rally - George St Crowd.
Sydney Climate Rally - 'Out 4 Six' Sign with cricket refrance.
Sydney Climate Rally - Sign with reference to Australian government campaign from 70s 80s
Sydney Climate Rally - it is all about saving the planet for future generations - Girl on parents shoulder holding save the planet sign.
Sydney Climate Rally - 'I Don't Want To Move To Mars'
Sydney Climate Rally - 'RIP Blinky Bill' the famous story book Koala
Sydney Climate Rally - three teens, Steve Irwin Would Be Disapointed'
Sydney Climate Rally -'Scomo Captain Cooked'
Sydney Climate Rally - Sign pointing to all other signs - 'What They Said'
Sydney Climate Rally - 'Living On Borrowed Time'
Sydney Climate Rally - Red costumed Extinction Rebellion performance during speech.
Sydney Climate Rally - 'How Dare You'
Sydney Climate Rally - A crowd of placards Town Hall Square
Sydney Climate Rally - 'Koala Killers'
Sydney Climate Rally - Hey Scomo Fk You We Deserve a Future'
Sydney Climate Rally -'My World Is On Fire What About Yours'
Sydney Climate Rally - NSW Mounted Police, George Street Town Hall
Sydney Climate Rally - 'Dump Coal'
Sydney Climate Rally - Street march ' THere's Blood On Your Hands'
Sydney Climate Rally - Mr S. Morie? Have not seen him for years! Did not get to speak.
Sydney Climate Rally - Vegans bringing up the rear of the march.
Sydney Climate Rally - Vegans bringing up the rear of the march.
Sydney Climate Rally - Koala sign, 'RIP 1-2 Billion Animals'

The march went up Park St along Elizabeth St to Bent Street , along O'connell, up Hunter to Macquarie where we all marched past NSW Parliament House with the march ending at the Hyde Park fountain. #ClimateEmergency  #Sydney #ClimateAction #ClimateChange #AustralianBushfireDisaster

Telling Stories in Pictures all over..
Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863