Black and white story telling my favourite story, you captured some great shots I particularly liked the one with the flower that to me said it all! Well done JP always an inspiration to me. As I said before I only wish I could be as creative as you with my Fuji As you can tell I am still here. Treatment is going well I hope. Sending a hug Mike. 🙏
Every time I watch your videos I just wish I could see potential photos like you do, you take some incredible shots. One thing I've found that has helped me is putting my camera into black and white mode before I start shooting, I think it really simplifies things for me, even if I then change them back to colour in post. Great work as always James!
I just got back to my room after a night of street photography on the Sunday Night Walking Street in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, and BING! Up came this latest video from you! Excellent timing and definitely worthwhile watching before reviewing the night’s captures
They’re ALL bangers, LOL! But seriously, I was accompanying a photogenic quick study with a wonderfully expressive face who seemed surprised and flattered that someone wanted to photograph her shopping at the night markets. With some on-the-spot coaching (thankfully some of the first shots were encouraging) she got over her initial camera-shyness and gave me plenty of good photo opportunities. All I had to do was get the exposure and basic composition right, she did the rest. I doubt the camera or my photography skills really mattered. You know those persistent dogs that keep dropping a ball at your feet? My X100V was like holding one of those dogs in my hand all night: shoot again, shoot again, shoot again. It didn’t want to stop…
ahahah that is the beeesssstttt analogy i've heard lol. That is exactly how the X100v feels! Great to hear you found someone to photograph. Always a special moment when that happens!
Relevant and timely reminder as we enter the autumn and perhaps an ideal moment to do more monochrome work . Some of us have preprogrammed sections on our cameras to switch directly to this feature and benefit from seeing our images in black and white on our screens . How I wish I had that option when was a student . If you have the option to set up your camera to produce BW images then this is likely to be better than just adapting from a colour image . To get good monochrome shots you need to think differently to the world of colour around us. Sometimes an image works well on either , but that will not work for every shot . Great reminder . After all these years I still need a nudge for the experiences to tumble back .
It’s honestly a game changer to have a black and white EVF, I sometimes forget how lucky I am to have one. Your insights are absolutely spot on, couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you for sharing 🙌
I think a lot of it is practice and getting the reps in. But in all honesty. i've not found anything that I would say is particularly helpful, and so I am creating the Street Tools Vol 1 photobook (found here www.backdrop.community/street-tools-vol-1) that will hopefully teach everything I know about photography in a condensed and interesting way!
Thank you dude - Glad you found it so helpful. What type of settings would you be interested in? I've got a whole video dedicated to the settings on the X100V that I use :)
Many thanks James for your time. Isn't it difficult to take people's emotions right next to them, specially during a ceremony like this ? I understand there must have been thousands of cameras out there that day, but generally speaking it's quite different approaching people to get their emotions, rather than just shooting people walking on the street. Using also a short lens like the X100V needs you to get close ! Not sure if you've touched this subject in another video but thanks for your advice.
I realized that a while ago, b&w photos are different, they are good straight out of camera. second thing is that they can have high ISO or blur and it's OK.
FACTS. I love being able to reeeeeeeeaaaalllllyyyy push black and white images and not feel worried that it's gonna fall apart. Most of my images are super cropped and grainy but I love it ahaha
Another great vid James. In a world where we move beyond past technology, formats etc so quickly B&W is still going strong. I sometimes wonder if Maybe it’s partly because of the emotion and human interest that it is capable of…
I completely agree with you - B&W if anything is making a come back. Yeah it's got to be the emotion and human interest as well as the simplicity. Black and white feels less chaotic which is complimentary to our hectic lifestyles in the modern world. But maybe we are over thinking it and black and white just looks cool ahaha
I was listening until your trick-or-treat background sound track became overbearing. You are asking us to listen to what you have to say, listen to your music, look at your photos and feel something. Good luck. Maybe it's generational, but I've never attended a class that has a music loop playing in the background in an effort to enhance the learning. Have you? If you think that what you have to say needs noise to be heard, then maybe you should be saying something else. I appreciate your work, but only when I pause the video to view it. Slapping a sound track over everything and machine gunning the verbiage is the equivalent of displaying a photo with nothing but noise.
Sorry you feel this way about my work - It's not for everyone. I personally like setting the mood with music, since I've always studied with music and it helps me concentrate. Hope there are other creators that resonate with your preferred style of content consumption and best of luck with your photography! JP
Thanks for your opinion Steve. Do you not think its important to set the parameters and context around my opinions , rather than just showing you my best Black and white images?
