X100 Goes to Ubud Market

I had the chance last weekend of a quick trip to Bali with bargain flights on Qatar airlines and naturally jumped at the chance to take the X100 to this exotic setting. I have been to Bali many times but never flown with Qatar before, the main benefit of this airline for a weekend break is that its possible to get a Friday afternoon flight and return late on the Monday evening thereby giving a nice long weekend break by only using one days holiday - great stuff. I decided that for this trip, given how short it was, I would base myself in one location only and avoid traveling around the island as I would normally do. I settled on Ubud and I managed to get a good deal on Agoda for the very nice Puri Garden hotel which is at the bottom end of town on the road from the airport.

Ubud itself is a the cultural centre of Bali and, while reasonably modern, retains the basic Balinese cultural heritage and actually manages this blend pretty well. There are no shortage of interesting sites and subjects and the whole place lends itself beautifully to drifting around X100 at the ready. I wont patronize by reminding how good the X100 is for this kind of trip but I really did find it refreshing to sling it over my shoulder and head off early to get the best light. I found that Ubud market (the real local one, as opposed to the art market next door) was a great location for discrete street style shooting. The market opens at 4 a.m. and closes between 9 and 10. I would advise to get there between 6 and 7 to get the best light outside and the shafts of low light that begin to break through between the stalls.

Have a look at the above three shots which are my personal faves and you can see the possibilities that exist. I set the X100 on auto ISO with a shutter lower limit of 1/100 th as I new there would have been a lot of people and movement. It would be possible to go as low as 1/15 with the X100 and its delicious, soft and quiet, non-mirror slapping action but inevitably you will lose sharpness as people move around. I found the ISO 1600 ceiling and 1/100 combo ideal for the low, but contrasty light.

Despite the low light, with careful positioning the X100 performed great. Only occasionally did I run into any focusing issues and although you could never describe the X100 as a speed demon, it was fast enough for thoughtful use.

One good option in these generally cramped and crowded markets is to find a good location and wait for the right subject to come along. Having positioned myself at the top of this grungy staircase I simply had to wait for an interesting person to come into my pre-focused view. It does need a little patience but usually the right combination eventually shows up . 

I found that most of my best shots came in the darker corners of the market but its also well worth exploring outside and above for interesting subjects and the X100's 35mm field of view is spot on for these kind of contextual shots.


I do hope this gives a little flavor of a small corner of Balinese life and hopefully whets the X100 enthusiasts interest for Ubud itself. I will follow up this post with some other aspects of Ubud and the some of the other uses that I put the X100 to including some nice macro style flower shots.


Happy X100 shooting,


Steel

X100 Camera in Action - Let's Go

Hey Fellow Fuji shooters, this is a new blog that I wanted to put together that is dedicated solely to the Fuji X100 (in action). This is not a review site as there are loads of those around anyway, and for me they don't get at the heart and soul of the camera at all. This is because they look at the camera technically as opposed to artistically and therefore they judge on technical merits, menus, buttons, ISO comparisons and so on instead of the creative capability of the camera and the versatility of it or otherwise.


Not only is it a very handsome camera (especially when tarted up for me by the guys at Chiif Cameras) but it is a very capable one too, with exceptional IQ, soft & silent shutter and great high ISO results.

I recommend adding a soft release like this lovely red one. You wont believe the difference this makes to being able to squeeze a gentle shutter release. I don't know why the manufacturers can't design this in.

Anyway, what I wanted to explore with these posts is the ultimate versatility of the X100 camera and how it is possible, with some thought and practice, to produce startling results in almost any artistic situation. It is my intention to gather tips and information, share my experiences and push the boundaries of this wonderful little camera.


I want to show how it can be used for:


Travel

This is a bit of a no-brainer to be honest as this is where I think the X100 excels (for anyone interested see my phototravelasia blog for some articles on the X100 as a travel cam) The above sunrise shot was taken on Gili Meno near Lombok in Indonesia. The X100 was held at wave level and I used the back screen to compose and level (to avoid wastage in cropping) and exposed for the sky. It's wise to keep a lens cloth in you shirt pocket as inevitably there will be some splashes on the lens.


Style

Here is one from Raffles arcade in Singapore. I had to overexpose to accommodate all of the white light around. It's also shot at wide aperture to emphasize the model and make the background interesting. Many people would be reaching for a telephoto for this kind of shot but there is no question that you can get much more impact, context and intimacy in the image by using the 35mm focal length equivalent of the X100. I often put models in the corners of frames and this is not a problem with the X100's gorgeous lens.

Portrait

Again, I find the X100 35 mm lens to be great for this kind of work as it forces you to go close and in the process the subject has more impact and immediacy. Note that the flare was deliberate but extremely difficult to produce as the lens appears very flare resistant with the hood on. The hood has some little slots in the side and if you are careful about positioning you can get some nice little slivers of light.


Strobe & Lighting

This is a favorite shot of mine with the X100 and exemplifies two very favorable characteristics of the camera. Firstly, with the fast lens and lack of mirror to slap around, you can handhold and shoot at extremely low shutter speeds such as this one which I seem to recall was at around 1/15. Secondly, and relatedly, the ISO ability of the camera is a wonderful low light asset that combines with the fast lens and no mirror to create an amazing low light shooter.


Long Exposure

The X100 is an easy camera to make stable and it also has a nifty ND filter built in. So, all you have to do is get the camera stable, set the ND to on, enable the self-timer, shut the lens down to F16 and off you go.


I could go on with this but I think you get the point, this is one very versatile camera. Now that I have got things rolling with this, its important to me that you X100 loving folks out there feedback what you like, don't understand and want to see explored, so please leave comments or mail me.


Upcoming


Over the next few weeks I am going to try a few new things with the X100 and they will include taking it into a fully equipped studio, trying it out with some Lightroom presets that I downloaded, and a look at what accessories are available for the camera - stay tuned !!!


To close each week I also intend to have a bit of fun and will dish out an assignment for those interested and we will post to this flickr group


Here's my first effort. I often wake up on a Sunday morning with no idea about what to do for the day and for some strange reason I find that if I take some photos around the house I get some inspiration for the day and get motivated to shoot more. Assignment 1 is to take 3 shots of your fave T, have fun and post on Flickr asap.


My Sunday Morning 1 - Gap T-shirt


Incidentally guys, the first and third shots in this sequence were PP'd in Lightroom using some cool free presets I found. I will explore this fully in a future blog.

Hope you X100 lovers found this a little helpful and maybe even stimulating. Get out and shoot, I read a great saying by Bruce Lee that he had no fear of someone who had learned 10,000 kicks once but feared the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times !!! Stick to the X100 and push it to the limits. Thanks to the great and very inspirational guys at Invisiblephotographer for this quote (here's the full article - read it now...Bruce Lee )


Until next time - keep the shutter clicking (silently on the x100 of course)




Steel