In close

I thought I'd try my 35 for a change in town today. As a rule I find it either too short or too long on the crop sensor. But I like to think I can work with what I've got. Why some people are obsessed with having perfect framing by using zooms is something I can't grasp. So much so that I'm getting a strong urge to cop for a Fuji X100 - despite the pixel-peepers finding fault without having used one. I read one comment saying it does the important things well but is let down by other things. Sounds okay to me. On the street all you need to do is set shutter speed or aperture. Most of the time you can live with a fixed ISO - like when using film. Judging by the real world samples from the camera that I have seen it manages damned well at ISO 2000. Ian Berry's shots in the June issue of Professional Photographer look good enough to me. It seems like a nice unobtrusive camera that does a simple job, simply. Very tempting, and it has a shutter release screw to use with a cable or bulb release - so it would be handy to take fishing. Time to offload some gear!

The thing with DSLRs is that, even small ones, are large. My old Pentax ME film camera is much less obvious. Even so one thing I discovered today is that the closer you are to people the less likely they are to assume you are taking their photo. Not many worked as well as I'd hoped but despite, or maybe because of, the cropping in the shot below I think it captures a mood. The B+W conversion keeps it simple, but the colour version works too. Mono has a timeless feel while colour is more contemporary. Even so digital still seems more clinical than film, which is why I boost the contrast in mono to slightly degrade the image. Suits me.

I like this second shot for inexplicable reasons. It's a 'nothing' image yet I think it has an atmosphere to it completely different to the youthful energy in the first photo, and the straps at either side give it a graphic element.

I like this sort of photography because there's always something to look for. If I hadn't just snapped up a used all-singing-all-dancing DSLR I think I'd be tracking down an X100. For the mean time the 24mm is going back on the D90 and the 35mm is going up for sale. Or maybe not...

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