Thoughts on Engineering, Photography, and Design.

One of the things that took me a while to learn was the impact photos can have when represented as a pair. I’m generally not one to talk about “story telling” with photography (even though I believe in it), but when it comes to pairing photos, I think the story can be laid out so much better.

Take the pair of photos above, for example. Individually, they’re pretty “meh”. You get the idea, there was some nice light making shadows. But with two photos? Now you start to see the full “story”. At least I do. I can visualize this light coming through every window of the house, making shadowed shapes all over the place. The impact is double for me.

Again, another set where the individual photos are solid, but together have greater impact. Haystack Rock is massive, it’s right on the beach and everyone has seen so many photos of it from that perspective. But there’s something about showing buildings and houses that tell the full “story”. When you see one of these, maybe it’s just an anomaly. But when you see two? Then it’s like, okay, this rock is literally right in front of all these houses. At least, that’s how I think about it.

In this last example, these photos don’t even really make sense. I don’t know if there’s any “story” here at all. But that’s kind of my point: sometimes a pair of photos just look better, together. I personally really like these two, but mostly because they’re next to one another. Maybe it’s the colors? I don’t know, Portra is magical. But I do know that I like them a lot less when I see them in isolation.

So there you go. Pair your photos, it’s another trick in the bag to get more out of your photography.

I knew when I finally started shooting film that 35mm would just be the gateway drug into something else. But I didn’t expect to find what I found, and I didn’t expect to love it as much as I do.

The Mamiya C330 is a medium format film camera that shoots 120 (6x6) film. It’s a twin-lens reflex design, where the top lens is used for focusing, and the bottom lens takes the photo. It focuses via bellows extension and can get almost macro-level close. You turn the knobs on the sides to move the bellows in and out.

The top of the camera flips open and you look down at a viewfinder to focus the scene. There’s also a magnifying glass built-in that’s optional, but when you enable that, you can really dial in your focus. This all sounds kind of nuts, I get it, but it actually works really well. The Rolleiflex is one of the more well-known TLR cameras, but it’s expensive. Additionally, it doesn’t allow swapping lenses, which you can do on the C330. I only have one lens (a 105mm), and don’t plan to buy another, but I could.

For a camera that’s 55 years old (at the time of this writing), the photos I’m able to get out of it just blow me away. I bought this camera on eBay for about $300 (including the lens).

It’s heavy, awkward, and extremely slow to use (fully mechanical, no light meter), but it has given me a new perspective on photography. When I flip through photobooks that were made using large format cameras, for example, I now have a greater appreciation for the work that went into each frame. And while it’s so different from digital, and in many ways, “not worth it”, there’s no greater feeling than composing a scene, pressing the release cable, and finding out that you made a perfect exposure. It’s a very rewarding experience, end-to-end.

There was a time when I simply could not understand what the appeal was when it came to film photography. It always intrigued me, but I was never certain that I had the patience for it and the overall process just felt so… pointless? But here I am. Years later, I have a different perspective. I recently picked up a 20+ year old, used film camera.

Right off, this camera is beautiful! And if you know me, I can’t dare use a camera that doesn’t align with my aesthetic tastes.

I’m not a product review kinda guy, but it’s worth noting a few things that make this camera special:

• The largest framelines are 35mm, which is what I plan on shooting with this camera.
• I shoot aperture priority, which this camera has! (along with +/- 2 stop exposure compensation)
• The rangefinder patch is excellent, despite the camera being old-ish.
• It’s a M-mount, so I can use my existing VM lenses.

There’s a bit of anxiety that comes along with shooting film, but it does seem to make you hone in on what you’re doing because you can’t make “test exposures” to verify anything. If you over expose a scene on purpose, you won’t know if you blew those highlights until you get the film back. You’re forced to understand how different films react to light and be a lot more intentional up front, which I (so far) am enjoying.

Another thing I didn’t really think about: you sort of choose your “edit” up front. Sure, you can make small adjustments to the scans in post-processing, but for the most part, you’re choosing your colors, contrast, and overall feel up front before you head out with your camera. That’s kinda cool and very different for me.

We’ll see how this whole thing plays out. I’m still a digital shooter at heart (if nothing else because of the cost of film, sheesh), but I will say, the feeling I get when cranking the film advance after every shot is pretty addicting.

Anyway, I find that hobbies—including photography—require you to “keep it fresh” to stay motivated and inspired. Right now, for me, that’s the Bessa R2A. Wish me luck!

Let’s get to it: When you’re shooting something big, think of ways to show its scale. Scale is a powerful composition trick that adds impact to a photo. When properly done, the viewer can feel like they’re in the scene vs looking at the scene.

There’s nothing special about this photo, but I intentionally waited for this gliding bird to be in the scene solely because of scale. I think having that tiny bird in there shows how large the cloud actually is, as well as the rainbow.

Now, this is just a photo of some random clouds, so perhaps it’s a poor example. But imagine if this were a massive waterfall? Or a mountain? By itself, it would be a nice photo, but the viewer may not be able to comprehend actually being there. Now, if at the base of that waterfall or mountain were a tiny car, or person, or tree, or… you get the idea. The photo would feel completely different. And overall, isn’t that the goal? Make the viewer feel something (good or bad)?

Next time you’re out shooting, keep this in mind: for grandiose scenes, the impact and drama of your photography can be greatly improved if you’re considering scale.

It seems like it should be really easy to photograph the moon, right? And I guess it is, but there are a few things to be aware of for a frustration-free experience.

Reach!

Depending on what you’re after, it helps to have a long lens so you can do one of two things: fill the frame and/or take advantage of compression against a foreground subject. Have you ever seen those photos that look fake, where the moon is gigantic behind a… lighthouse, for example? Yeah, that’s what telephoto compression does.

A 100-400mm is a great lens to have for a lot of reasons, but can work well for moon photography.

No IBIS

Given you’re at such a long focal length, you’re probably going to need a tripod. And when you’re on a tripod, IBIS can actually have the opposite affect on your photo and cause camera shake. Although, if it’s windy, you can (maybe) consider keeping it on. The point here is to be aware that this is definitely something to think about.

Fast Shutter

Believe it or not, the moon moves very fast! Even a 10s shutter speed could result in soft images due to movement. Additionally, the moon is very bright, so you want to be careful to not blow out the highlights to the point of no recovery. I typically start with 1/250 and adjust from there.

Manual Mode

You want full control over your camera when photographing the moon. This means controlling aperture, ISO, shutter, and focus! It seems like you should be able to autofocus on the moon, and sometimes you can, but the dynamic range is often so extreme that your camera could get confused. It’s just easier to give in and go full manual.

Keep It Simple

It’s very easy to forget things in the moment when on location, so a simple rule that can get you close is to match your shutter speed with your ISO. If you shoot 1/250 then use an ISO of 250. If you shoot 1/1000 then use an ISO of 1000. It’s not always perfect, but it gets you in the ballpark where you can properly tweak from there.

Plan!

Buy PhotoPills. If you do any kind of landscape photography consistently, you will want this app. You can easily see when the moon rises, where it’ll be, what time you need to be where, etc (plus it has sunrise/sunset, milky way, AR mapping, and so much more).

Epic shots require a little thought ahead of time, so don’t ignore this step.

And finally, have fun!

I recently had the sensor in my old Fujifilm X-T3 converted to infrared (720nm). I used Kolari Vision for this, which involved sending the camera off for a few weeks. The result is exactly what I had hoped for!

The cheaper alternative is to use lens filters to do this on top of a normal sensor, but they knock out 6-10 stops of light, which means you can forget hand-held shooting. Everything must be stood up on a tripod, which is fine, but kind of limiting. So I opted for the full, permanent conversion.

It’s been a blast so far! Seeing the world through infrared opens up a ton of new photographic opportunities. It’s tough dedicating a camera to this permanently, but since that affords me normal shutter speeds and accurate autofocus, I have no regrets.

Oh, and a bonus: infrared photography works best in mid-day, blue sky, full sun situations (which is otherwise a photographer’s nightmare). So now I’m able to shoot 24/7, no excuses!

I’ve had a cinebloom diffusion filter (10%) on my X100V for about a year now. If you’re not sure what a diffusion filter does, Moment’s site says it best:

The CineBloom Diffusion Filter takes the edge off your digital sensor. It not only catches and blooms light, but softens hard edges and has a smoothing effect on skin tones, making wrinkles less noticeable. Escape the clinical, ultra-sharp look of digital with this specialty glass.

While I’m someone who thrives on sharp images, for the 10% filter at least, I haven’t noticed a sacrifice in sharpness. Here’s a sample with (right) and without (left) this filter:

It’s subtle, but it’s there.

This filter pairs really well with the output of the X100V, straight out of camera. Here’s another photo looking straight into the sun while my dog, Penny, is racing back and forth between my wife and I.

Again, the X100 series already produces stunning photos… but if you’re itching to mix it up a little bit, a cinebloom filter might be just the thing.

The ViewCatcher is a tiny little tool that is really useful for determining compositions when out in the field. It’s a plastic “card” that slides open to represent the view your camera would see. Here’s what it looks like:

This thing may seem silly at first. But if you’re a photographer who walks around searching for compositions, I’m sure you’ve done one of the following two things:

1. Stop to set up your tripod and mount your camera, only to find yourself continuing to move all over the area with your tripod fully extended searching for the best composition.
2. You keep your camera out in your hand instead of your bag, repeatedly holding it to your eye to see if there’s a photograph to be made.

Both of those approaches are fine. But they drain battery, take time, expose your gear more, and can be annoying to deal with. With this little card, you can pull it out of your pocket as needed and focus your eye on a potential scene.

If you’ve seen an old film director make a square with his hands and close one eye to look through it, this is that very concept. By filtering out the noise you can make better compositional decisions.

There are multiple popular aspect ratios supported (it has little marks indicating how far to slide it open):

• 8x10
• 8x12
• 9x12
• 11x14
• 12x16

It’s quite handy!

Glass is a stunning application built for photographers. As soon as I found it, I knew it was what I’d been looking for. There are only a couple of brand new, subscription-based services that I’ve immediately signed up with, but Glass was one of them. Zero hesitation, zero regrets.

And as someone who’s into product development (if you care about that sort of thing), I can confirm for you that it has a brilliant design with an even better UX. It’s a pleasure to use and is currently my favorite app. Oh, and it’s pretty great in a browser, too.

Aside from it being a fantastic application on its own merit, the people behind it seem just as fantastic. I really love their creativity, ideas, blog posts, approach to feedback, and even their Twitter account — I’m happy to support them.

Since Instagram is no longer a good place for photographers these days (as it’s all about video, stories, and “the algorithm”), it’s a wonderful time to try something new. There are lots of alternatives out there, but for me, the clear winner is Glass, hands down.

Highly recommended.

When you do a thing that produces a ton of files, requiring some level of organization and backup, you need a plan. For me, it’s photography. I’ve been through many variations of file storage, but I think I’ve cracked it. When I got serious about photography, trying to find out what fellow photographers did wasn’t as easy as you might think, so I’m writing this post for the Google index, in case you’re also wondering.

Conventions

Before getting into the details, here are the conventions that I use. To start, I keep everyting in a Photography folder and utilize two top-level folders inside of that:

• Captures — This is where all photos land off the SD card (deselects) before culling.
• Photos — This is where all keeper photos (selects) are moved to for eventual post-processing.

I’m also assuming that you shoot in RAW and plan to post-process your photos in some fashion. The base file structure for both Captures and Photos looks like this:

 Captures
   [YEAR]
     [MONTH].[DAY]
       [CAMERA]
 
 Photos
   [YEAR]
     [MONTH].[DAY]
       [CAMERA]

• The [YEAR] is in four-digit format, and the [MONTH].[DAY] should always be in two-digit format (so 01.08 for January 8th, instead of 1.8).
• The [CAMERA] is optional, but if you shoot with multiple cameras, or suspect you might at some point, I recommend getting in this habit. Putting the [CAMERA] folder inside of the [MONTH].[DAY] folder ensures that you can continue to browse photos by date (independent of the camera that made them).

Here’s an real example taken from my MacBook:

Personal or Professional?

There are differing levels of “serious” here. If it’s a hobby, you need organization and some type of passive backup (optional). If it’s a career, and you have clients, you need organization and some type of aggressive backup (required).

I’ll break down some ideas for both.

Personal Workflow

STEP 1: Create the necessary [MONTH].[DAY] folders in the Captures and Photos directories.

STEP 2: Under each of the [MONTH].[DAY] folders, create a sub-folder for the camera that made the photos.

STEP 3: Insert your SD card and copy all of the files to the Captures folder, ensuring that they’re organized by date and camera per the first two steps above.

STEP 4: Culling! This means going through all of your captured photos and choosing the selects that you want to post-process. For this, I use Photo Mechanic. It’s the fastest media browser for large RAW files I’ve ever used. I’m sure there are others, but that’s a good one.

From here, I go through the photos and flag the ones I want to keep with a 1 Star rating. I mapped a keyboard shortcut to the number 1 key, which helps speed things up. Also, the z key zooms in/out which helps you verify focus.

STEP 5: Once you’re finished culling, you need to move the selects to the Photos directory, following the same date and camera sub-folder organization applied to the Captures folder.

I do this inside of Photo Mechanic. Once I have all of my selects flagged with a 1 Star rating, I filter the list to hide 0 star photos which leaves me with all of the photos I want to post-process. From here, I select all and drag them to their proper home in the Photos directory.

STEP 6: Importing! I use Capture One Pro as my post-processing app of choice. I spent years in Lightroom Classic, and while it’s a great app, it doesn’t process X-Trans (Fujifilm) RAW files as good as Capture One.

This part may vary, depending on which application you use, but the idea here is to import all of the selects from the Photos folder. Remember, you never import from the Captures folder. Oh, and for Capture One users: I prefer the “Add to Catalog” option so that it keeps the file system and my organization intact.

STEP 7: Exporting! I no longer export my edits unless I’m doing something with them (printing, making a book, sharing on social media, etc).

That said, if you like or need to export, I recommend creating an Exports folder inside of your [MONTH].[DAY] folder. For exports, I don’t think the extra [CAMERA] organization is necessary. You could even take things a step further importing the exports into Apple Photos so you’d have backed up copies in iCloud.

Speaking of backups…

Yes! Backups.

As mentioned above, photography is just a hobby for me so I have a relaxed solution to backups. Given that, I’ll highlight two things:

• I do all of this file organization on my MacBook’s native SSD drive. When the drive starts filling up, I will offload several entire [YEAR] folders onto external SSD drives, freeing up my MacBook’s drive storage.
• I’ve been a customer of Backblaze for many years, and I rely on it. I use a CalDigit hub that connects all of my external SSDs through a single thunderbolt cable, and I include those as part of my backups in the Backblaze config.

This isn’t a fool-proof system by any means, but it satisfies my personal tolerance for risk of data loss.

Professional Workflow

I’m not a professional photographer, but I can anticipate how I might do things a little differently if I were. For that advice, I’ll inject what-would-be additional steps into the “Personal Workflow”.

PREREQUISITES: A couple of things I’d recommend first and foremost:

• I would shoot with a camera that had dual card slots, and I would dedicate one slot as file backup.
• I would store files on external SSD drives instead of your computer’s drive. I would have equivalent drives: one to work off of and one purely as a backup.

STEP 0: Connect both external SSD drives. “Drive A” will be the working drive, “Drive B” will be the backup.

STEP 1 (modified): Create the necessary [MONTH].[DAY] folders in the Captures and Photos directories, but add suffix descriptions to the folder to identify the type of shoot and the client.

Instead of 01.24 you might have 01.24_Wedding-Smith or 01.24_Fashion-Jones, for example.

STEP 3a: Once everything is copied off of the SD card and into the Captures folder on Drive A, do an additional copy of that entire folder onto Drive B. Now you instantly have 2 copies of the files.

BONUS: If you use Capture One for post-processing, I would consider using its session-based catalogs instead of keeping all photos in a single catalog. This has many advantages for client-based photography, but I’ll leave that research up to you.

Conclusion

It’s been over five years since I’ve used some other means of file organization — this approach has served me well. I’m certain there are ways I could improve, but for me and my needs, it strikes a good balance of cost, risk, and convenience.

Hopefully this was helpful, and good luck :-)

I’m only one episode deep into this series, but I can already tell it’ll be good. Ever since I picked up Cape Light (my first Joel Meyerowitz book) I was a fan.

I’m infatuated with Iceland, but I mean… how can you not be. If you’re into photography, I’m sure you understand. Peter McKinnon recently took a trip there and put together a short video primarily from his drone footage, but it’s so well done.

Oh, and Matti Haapoja was on the trip, too, and has an equally impressive video (bringing back his “travel feels” series):

• TRAVEL FEELS ICELAND

While I’m not into creating video content myself, I’m glad there are talented people who are.

My first digital camera was a Fujifilm A210 which had a whopping 3.2 MP. It was a little brick and I loved it. Eventually, I wanted to get “serious” about photography and have the ability to swap lenses. After some reasearch (plus budget limitations) I opted for a Nikon D80, and off I went.

Over the years the novelty of a shiny new DSLR wore off. It was clunky, an impossible daily carry, and caused me to stop making photos altogether. I only used it during events and missed out on everything else.

It was a sad time.

I’d been loosely following Fujifilm’s X-line for a bit, and with that old A210 in the back of my mind, I decided to take a real look at their current offerings.

In 2012-13 I pre-ordered the X100S. That camera single-handedly revived my love, desire, and attitude toward photography. Fujifilm had struck again. The size, fixed ~35mm lens, design/build quality, and image output made photography fun again. For the next five years, that’s the only camera I’d used to make photos.

Fast forward to today… My current set of bodies include:

• X-T5: landscape
• X-Pro3: family, portraits, and street
• X100V: every day life, always with me

I’m all-in on Fujifilm and its X-system, let’s go over some reasons why.

APS-C vs Full-Frame

I’m going to get this out of the way… it’s always part of the argument. It’s a subjective choice to prioritize a full-frame sensor above other things, and I completely understand why one would. But speaking from experience, the X-Trans sensors are wildly good. They have great dynamic range, high-ISO performance, and plenty of resolution for most needs. Plus, the 1.5x crop factor has advantages, too (way more telephoto reach).

Full-frame sensors do out-perform APS-C in many ways, but you almost need 1:1 comparisons through pixel-peeping software to notice. I’m here to tell you that the delta is extremely small. I’ve been producing very sharp, high quality photos with Fujifilm cameras for years now.

Obviously, you don’t have to choose Fujifilm X, just be hesitant to blame APS-C as the reason.

Design

I struggle with a thing that functions great but has horrible form. I need both. Take Canon, for example; their cameras are SO ugly to me! I could never own one, even though I’m fully aware of how amazing the image output can be.

But Fujifilm? Wow. They definitely speak my language. To hold one of their cameras is both inspiring and motivating, specially the X100V and X-Pro3. These cameras will stay with me forever, purely on aesthetics. The only camera system I’ve seen who can top Fujifilm in both design, chosen materials, and build quality, is Leica.

Design matters, and Fujifilm continually nails it.

Film Simulations

I love the idea of film, with its limitations and uniqueness, but there’s no way I could deal with the post-processing of it all. Fujifilm, of course, has a long-standing history with film, and they’ve capitalized on that in the digital world through their film simulations.

In addition to their out-of-the-box simultations, you can easily create your own or adopt those created by others. Fuji X Weekly has some amazing recipes ready to go. If you’re interested in film, but don’t want the hassle of scanning and developing, shooting Fujifilm in JPEG mode with film simulations gives the film experience, digitally. It’s pretty fun, I must say. And their JPEGs out of camera are second-to-none.

One Sensor, Multiple Bodies

The way Fujifilm delivers its cameras to users is unlike other brands, and I love it. They really focus and prioritize the experience above all else.

When a new sensor comes out, that new sensor goes into all of the camera/body variations in the pipeline, so you’re never sacrificing on image quality. You just have to choose the ergonomics and design that speaks to you.

My X-T4, X-Pro3, and X100V all have the exact same X-Trans sensor, for example. Now, maybe the processor has more power on one camera versus the other (for example, not every camera can be built for sports). But in terms of quality, there’s no sacrifice. No matter the body, your images will be consistently incredible.

Firmware Updates

This may sound silly, but it’s actually a big deal. Fujifilm listens to its customers, and on top of that, regularly updates its firmware to bring new features to its cameras. Sometimes it’s for bugs or new hardware compatability, but quite often it’s for brand new features.

I haven’t seen many other brands take firmware that seriously, but Fujifilm releases useful firmware on a regular basis.

Lens Quality

Lastly, it’s probably worth mentioning the lens lineup. Without getting into the details, I’ve owned/used 20+ Fujinon lenses over the years and have yet to come across a bad one. They’re incredibly sharp and have a lot of character. There’s a lens for every use case, with more and more released on a yearly cadence (see the roadmap).

On top of that, many of the 3rd party lenses that are made for the X-system are stunning. My latest one is the Viltrox 13mm f1.4 and it’s one of the sharpest wide angle lenses I’ve ever used. The price? $429! I’m not suggesting to only buy 3rd party lenses, just that the X-system provides you with options you won’t find on other systems.

Conclusion

There’s magic in Fujifilm and I’m completely invested in the X-system. I really do love everything about it.

At the end of the day, though, cameras are just tools for creative output. The important thing is that you find a tool that you love to capture the moments you believe to be worthwhile. For me, that happens to be Fujifilm.

If you’ve made it this far and have specific questions, feel free to email me (ryan at rpheath dot com) and we can chat some more! Happy shooting!

I’ve never been to Yosemite, yet it feels like one of my favorite places on Earth. Whatever sense that makes, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the countless photography, books, videos, documentaries that have made me feel (or at least be made aware of) the experiences.

Here’s something. If I were forced to come up with a 20 year photography project, it would be based around Yosemite. I would take seasonal trips every year for 20 years, and at the end of that span, I would choose the best of the best from my collected photos and make a book. Ansel Adams has already been crowned the “King of Yosemite” (not officially, but c’mon). And Alex Honnold will forever be known as the crazy dude who free solo’d El Capitan. But this 20 year project wouldn’t be about competition, or making a name. It would be about experiencing nature in its finest form, at its finest place.

Now, a 20 year photography project isn’t super realistic. But, I’ll visit Yosemite at some point, and multiple times at that.

Until then, enjoy this little video I stumbled across showcasing why Yosemite stands out in the crowd as one of the world’s most amazing places. I can’t wait to go.

So excited about the latest addition to my gear, the Fujifilm X-T3. It was released about 1 year ago, it just takes me forever to pull the trigger on something. Plus, Fujifilm has a different philosophy on photography and it took some time to determine if I was fully on board (spoiler: I am).

Attached is a 56mm (~85mm equivalent) f/1.2. It’s, I believe, the fastest prime lens I’ve owned.

Anyway, I’m thrilled to be able to add this gem to my bag.

Amazing footage/short film from Peter McKinnon (as always). Worth watching if you’re into photography (or just the general beauty of landscapes). Hard to believe places like this actually exist.

Also, all photos in the film were shot with an iPhone 11 Pro! Pretty incredible, honestly.