Portraits

Such nice light coming in from the window and what a nice window, tall and letting light in from above. And a pale, neutral colour on the wall. What is not to like as a setup?

This is the Fuji X-T50 with 35mm f2 lens, and I grew to like it as the holiday wore on because I started to like what came out of the camera. To begin with I was shooting big scenes that were too far away to really show what the camera can do. Then as I was reviewing the shots in the camera I began to see what was working.

I got the camera specifically as a carry-around and travel camera. I couldn’t put up with using my GRIII for everything because without a viewfinder I am shooting blind – or at least with less certainty.

In terms of image quality the X-T50 is of course ‘better’ than the GRIII because it has more pixels. But really it is just different. Except I have to give it to the Fuji. For the shots that work, I like it more and already after just a few weeks I have developed a good feeling for it and am becoming attached to it as a tool.

I am putting this in the ‘street’ category because the man did not pose but was unaware I was taking his photo.

My wife is tickled by the fact that I have a new friend whose name is Michelangelo. But it is and we went on a photowalk. 

Outside the Tate Modern, this woman – Tasha Tarusova – was singing. I thought she had a voice that could carry the 4 Non Blondes song ‘What’s Up’ and she offered to sing it and I photographed her.

He is one of the Covent Garden street performers and from what I heard from his fellow performers, he is from Iran and has been in the UK for years.

He told me it was getting more difficult to connect with audiences because a twenty-five year old doesn’t know who Charlie Chaplin is. In the 1980s and 90s Charlie Chaplin films were on TV, and they knew the character he was playing, but now they think he is Hitler, he said.

Steph the ventriloquist was performing in the Square, extricating herself from a straitjacket while joking with the large crowd. Charlie said how much easier it was for a performer to get a large audience when they talk to the audience. Charlie mimes instructions in character to the volunteers he co-opts into his act.

When I showed him the photos in the viewfinder he said he had to watch his skin because it is dark and he had to keep out of the sun.