FujiFilm GFX Workshop: Photography & Mindfulness with Paul Sanders
Here’s a selection of images taken during this workshop, which took place in London yesterday, on a walk from the FujiFilm House of Photography.
A few words follow after the photographs.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day for many reasons.
I wasn’t aware of Paul Sanders and his work prior to booking this workshop - but I don’t really follow who’s who in photography - I tend to follow family and friends and other ‘normal’ people I’ve discovered online. The title of Photography and Mindfulness intrigued me - as well as having a chance to have a go with the FujiFilm GFX cameras and lenses.
It was great weather for a walk around London, and I clocked up about 11 miles during the day - although part of that was walking from King’s Cross to Covent Garden and back (about an hour) - the rest of the day was walking during the workshop. We also had a morning and lunch session at the FujiFilm building and they were enlightening.
I’m not going to repeat any of it here, but Paul has a philosophy page on his website that is a concise summary.
I realised a number of things about my own photography overlapped with Paul’s approach - but the chats also inspired me to be more open-minded about taking photographs - for instance - there’s nothing inherently disappointing about a location, the weather or the light anywhere. We may have favourites, but everything is an opportunity to create photographs out of whatever we find.
The GFX equipment
The camera I got to borrow was a GFX 50S Mk 2. I had a 23mm lens in the morning and a 110mm lens in the afternoon. The camera is amazing. The level of detail captured was incredible and the black and white images just brought me joy! ISO choice seems to be a case of anything goes.
The 110mm lens was especially lovely!
These things are bigger and heavier than what I’m used to - but, small and light given what they’re capable of. My first impression of the 50s Mk 2 was ‘That’s small!”. I think I was imagining medium format cameras to be monsters!
They’re also very expensive compared to what I’m used to. As tempting as these things are, I really enjoy small and light cameras and it’s possible to have fun taking photographs with anything.
Some personal realisations
I don’t worry about things out of my control, I try and get the best out of the situation I’m in now and I photograph for my own enjoyment. I share photographs that I took for myself. I like being out taking photographs - even if I don’t take any photographs I like on any given outing.
I also used to love very wide-angle lenses but in recent years I’ve gravitated towards 35-90mm on ASP-C.
I used to love 3x2 crops but have gravitated towards 1x1 and 5x4 (tall). I think this started due to phone screens and being able to see a photo clearly on a phone screen, but it’s stuck as a habit and I really like these ratios.
Strange manual crops with funny ratios jar me and look wrong to me.
I love black and white, but I also love colour.
I definitely want to have a go are more deliberate black and white photography though.
References
I found this video online which features Paul talking about his approach and how he arrived at it:
Up next
I’ve done a number of workshops this year - and I have some more planned later this year and into next year.
I’m not restricting myself as I’m enjoying the variety and learning things from people who do things differently from me.
Currently booked over the next 6 months:
Light trails and night photography in Sheffield
Urbex at a castle in Derbyshire
Creative composition in Nottingham
