Calgary
The months are speeding by, with October being no exception it seems. along with the new house renovation kicking off and a very special wedding in Canterbury, I also apparently found the time to go on a work trip to the Algarve and another jaunt up-to London as well.
The Fujifilm X100V was pretty much by my side throughout the whole month as it always seems to be these days, ready to capture some of the interesting things I come across along the way.
ALGARVE
Starting things off strongly with a whistle stop trip over to Portugal. There wasn’t much time to explore the surrounding area, so when the opportunity did arrive, I had to try and get some images as quickly as I could without holding anyone up which was a challenge in itself. Colours and potential street photo opportunities were springing up at every turn so trying to get some half decent images of them as I went was the order of the day.
A trip into the very colourful port town of Albufeira was a feast for the eyes, with its crazy colourful apartment blocks hugging the portside. Designed by I assume a toddler high on sugar who was given access to some Duplo.
I was practically bursting to get off the bus at the sight of them came into view as we pulled into the town. I immediately set about trying to capture some of these buildings colours and shapes in the 5 minutes we were near them, before heading down to the port itself.
The final image I took on the trip turned out to be a favorite of mine from 2022. As walked back to the hotel the sun was setting, I noticed a weird pink fire hydrant thing in front of some apartments which amazingly fitted in perfectly with the pink sky of the sky behind. I took this one shot as I walked past which luckily came out perfectly.
CANTERBURY
Canterbury is a place I knew little about other than it being in a book written by some little known bloke called Chaucer, so it was to my pleasant surprise that the city itself is very picturesque, and a nice place to walk around, so I picked up the trusty X100V and set about taking a few shots of its streets on a very autumnal late october day.
LONDON
My final trip this month was up-to my old home town of London for a concert. Being back here is always fun, especially now I have the smaller Fujifilm X100V with me. I sometimes think about my time here in London and kick myself for not having this sort of camera long ago to get out and about in this way more often, rather than only having the DSLR cameras with their big obvious lenses screaming IM PROFESSIONAL LOOKING AND I’M TAKING A PHOTO!!!! which I would never have used in the same way as I can use the Fujifilm X100V, Oh well c’est la vie and all that I guess, you live and you learn. Luckily my mindset on photography cameras has changed over the years, with the idea of it being bigger and more ‘professional looking’ it must be better not stuck in my head like it was when I first started out.
I have found a new freedom to explore and take photos with the smaller cameras than I ever did with the larger DSLR set-up I replaced this year, with the 35mm focal range being used more often than any other due to the small fixed lens on the Fujifilm X100V.
I keep remembering a trip I took a good few years ago now, to the natural history museum with my old Canon 5D MKIII and Canon 70-200mm F4 lens (which stuck out like a sore thumb). I was taking some photos, minding my own business when a couple of security guards came up to me and asked who I was working for, and to see my photos. I was then asked to leave if I didn’t put my professional camera equipment away. This experience stuck with me, and for a long while put me off street style photography. Luckily this experience has faded into memory, and with the new, smaller mirrorless systems I have been able to capture the shots I wish I could have taken all those years ago. Maybe another trip back to the Natural History Museum is in order to test this theory out.
FIN
