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‹ Photo Notes · 25 ledna, 2014
Because today a proper winter finally arrived in Prague, Růžek could think of nothing better than to go out and shoot. The phone display warned me of -8°C, but the sun was shining outside and in the distance a pleasant haze was visible, so I put on the 35mm (the basic glass of every street photographer) and set out into the streets.
It must be noted right at the start that I am not, probably never will be and in fact don’t want to be a street photographer. I can’t do it and have no ambitions in this field, but I wanted to try a new lens outdoors, and to drag a model out in such weather …
Far from thought to deed
It has happened to me many a time that I stood at the window and said to myself „how beautifully it’s raining/snowing/shining today“ etc. and thought about a photo walk through Prague. I made a coffee, looked at that beauty, thought again, and before I managed to reach a decision, the light was gone, the rain had stopped or the snow had melted.
Today it nearly turned out similarly. In the end I did drag myself out, and had it not been for the delay of the tens and sixteens, I’d have arrived at the place as planned. When I got to the embankment, the sun was already lower, but it wasn’t bad, just different.
A tourist by the river
I made myself about a two-hour walk along the Vltava embankment, more precisely from Palackého náměstí to Palachovo náměstí – from tram 10 to metro A.
Without gloves, because I decided that a camera is poorly controlled in gloves. Perhaps it would be controlled better than with frostbitten fingers. The cold was about 35mm. Before I reached the National Theatre I wasn’t even able to think, and what saved me from frostbite was a flat battery (one of the cases where it pays to forget to charge it and where I’m not cross with the Fuji that its batteries don’t last as long as in the Nikon).
Although I had a 14mm lens with me (21mm equivalent on FF), I didn’t use it. There were two reasons – in that cold I had no desire to do anything at all, let alone change lenses, and above all I told myself I could manage the whole thing with the fifty-five-ish – as if I had a choice.
I took a few photos. Shot with the Fuji X-E1 and 23mm/F1.4 (35mm equivalent on 35mm film) to jpg with the PRO Neg. Hi preset – it is one of the Fuji film simulations and, not only in my judgement, makes the most natural photos of all the simulations. Aperture across the whole range from 1.4 up to 16 with direct sun in the frame, times from 1/60 to 1/4000, ISO between 200 and 800. ISO 800 actually arose through my mistake right at the beginning; I wrote that the cold had slowed even my brain. Anyone who wants to examine the EXIF data in detail will find it preserved in the photos. The photos are unedited, only some are cropped.
I think that for this winter I can tick off shooting in the streets, and now back into the warmth to the girls; there I’m surer after all, and it obviously interests you more too 🙂
Have a nice evening…
Fujifilm cameras can be bought e.g. at Fujifoto.cz or Megapixel.cz.