‘The Lesser Known’

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Its always good to get out of your comfort zone. It just lets you know how good or bad you actually doing. Its true with any aspect of life and in my case, like always, I am pointing at photography. 

Recently, Fujifilm Middle East were kind enough to offer me their brand new X-series camera – Fuji X-E1. Was asked to play around and shoot anything I wished to. The moment I had the cam in my hand I knew this camera was a street photographers delight. Its one of those cameras which could give orgasm to a street photographer :P. I was no different and knew right then that streets was the way to go. This blog is dedicated to Fujifilm Middle East who have been very kind and supportive in encouraging local photography talents and groups. 

Initially had a tough time getting out of NIKON comfort zone. Though had this Fuji with me during every single shoot, somehow just couldn’t get going with it. Only way to shoot with Fuji was to leave Nikon home and that’s exactly what I did during a recent photowalk at Dubai fish market. 

It was a beautiful Saturday evening, a very busy day at the fish market. A perfect setting for good walk with the beautiful Ms.Fuji. For a change, felt like I wasn’t carrying any camera, X-E1 is feather light – A big turn on for a street photographer. Nikon D800 almost cracks my back after a long street walk ( Though I don’t mind that at all, may be I am just used to it ). Went spinning around looking for frames for 5 long hours. During my first round around the market, was bombarded with fish merchants trying to sell fish to me ( Big fish, small fish, red fish, blue fish, black fish, ugly fish so on and so forth. You name it , you get it 😛 ). One excuse that I came up at that very moment was “I am a vegetarian” which I repeated over and over again. It did work wonders. During my second round, no one had any further queries. They ignored me with a smile, that’s exactly what I wished for 🙂 

Here’s a video compilation of the photographs taken during the 5 hour long photowalk. 5 hours and 39 photos. Its good to be selective when shooting, Atleast that’s my way. Idea was to create a photo essay about the life in the market. People, Streets, Life – That’s my Genre. It was a perfect place for all that. 

‘The Lesser Known’ – Street Photography from subodh shetty on Vimeo.

It’s always such a pleasure to mingle with these lesser known people who are usually ignored. People need them for serving their purpose, afterall someone has to do the dirty job but the interaction with these people are usually restricted to the given business. No wishes, no smiles – pure business. I don’t transform their world with my photographs but atleast I spend quality time with them talking, chatting and bringing smiles on their faces as I shoot and share the picture with them. For instance, met a guy who works at the fish market and supposedly only guy with an email ID (and an iPhone – Chinese version :P). When I took his picture he asked me to mail it to him. I agreed and made a deal to send across all the photographs I take during the walk and asked him to further share it with his people working there. He was more than happy to do that. Atleast now I know these photographs are now not restricted to just my archives but actually reaching them too. Every person I clicked was informed to collect the pic from this ‘Guy-With-An-Email-ID’ (who was pretty famous right away). Tiny little pleasures of life 🙂

Speaking of fuji X-E1, I wont be reviewing the X-E1 like “THE REVIEWERS” do. I would just put my point of view about the camera, here we go…

Fuji X-E1 is truly an incredible camera. Its one of those which has created a segment of its own in the Nikon-Canon universe. It doesn’t compete with DSLR’s but rather has made its own space in the hearts of photographers. Its light, it looks vintage, feels great to handle, makes absolutely no noise when shutter clicks, got right amount of pixels, has excellent electronic view finder, produces stunning colors, has enough lens to back it up and so on. One of the best aspect of the camera is ISO performance. Most shots in the slide show, especially within the fish market were shot at about ISO 3000+ and the files were still crisp. 

But it does have its share of flaws (like every other camera has).  

Shutter Dial should have been in place where exposure compensation dial lies, would have been much easier to control the shutter when on Manual mode ( where aperture and shutter needs to be changed in a blink)

Focus was supposed to be the biggest problem of Fuji X series cameras. Though focus is not as quick as DLSR’s but its pretty much spot on most often, especially in good light. So not much to complain about. 

Changing the focus point is a hassle. Fuji should have sorted it out better. 

Camera goes into stand by mode and almost mimics my sleep, Just-Doesn’t-Wake-Up 😛 Switch off and switch on and its back to normal. 

Thats about few negatives, which are pretty much ignoreable. 

X-E1 is clearly a winner because its running a race in its own league. Its even better than its bigger brother X-Pro 1 in terms of its size and ergonomics. 

After all these good words about X-E1, just hope and wish I get a call from Fujifilm Middle East offering me a free X-E1. Would be more than glad to have one 😉 

That’s about it for this V’log,

Click and spread smiles.