Captured #15: May 2025

May has been something of a fallow period for my photography. I haven’t been able to prioritise getting out with my camera because of work and life and whatnot, and despite this bothering me at first I think it’s actually been a good thing. Putting the photography aside for a month or two can mean a period of creative recovery. I definitely feel the energy and enthusiasm returning, and I’m particularly looking forward to a few upcoming trips abroad which I’m hoping will also feature warmth and sun – something we sadly lack at 56°N! ☀️

Leica Q3 43

I took a free test drive of the Leica M11 Monocrom back in March to see what all the fuss was about. I thought it might be the camera of my dreams and I’d sell all my Fuji gear (and a kidney) to buy one, but it wasn’t for me. I liked it, of course, but it could never be the digital workhorse that I need. It would be a wonderful film camera to own for sure (M6 or MP one day?), but I’m only talking about digital here.

I didn’t want to give up on Leica that easily, so I did another free test drive – this time with the Q3 43. The Q series is a modern mirrorless camera with all the photography and video capabilities you’d expect in 2025. It looks a bit like the M system, but it doesn’t have the heritage, and it comes with a fixed lens. I won’t go into details here because I wrote it all up in a blog post, but suffice to say this Leica wasn’t for me either.

That leaves only the Leica SL series to try, but I doubt these are for me either so I’m not even going to try. If I was going down the full frame mirrorless SLR route, I’m pretty sure I’d go with a Sony. Sony cameras are cheaper (although to be fair, not by that much) and the G Master lenses are truly incredible. To be honest, if I was to move to using a big chunky camera and lens there’s a good chance I’d skip full frame and go straight to the Fujifilm GFX medium format series. Not for now, but maybe one day!

Street Portraits

Last weekend I was lucky to get a place on a street portrait workshop run by Kavi Pujara. This was organised by the excellent Stills Centre for Photography in Edinburgh (you should consider joining Stills). Kavi’s brilliant portraits featured in Stills’ recent exhibition After The End Of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024, so I was surprised someone of his notability was running an in-person workshop – I signed up immediately!

I take a lot of photos of people on the street but most of these are taken candidly, without permission. Often the people in my photographs are unrecognisable – perhaps they’re silhouettes, or not facing the camera – but occasionally I do take pictures closer up, and sometimes (not always) I don’t feel great about doing this despite liking the resulting photo. It’s a tricky balance. If you want to capture a natural photo of someone, you have to take it candidly – it’s the only way. Dawn Eagleton’s wonderful window photos are a perfect example of this.

If you’re not being sneaky, I think it’s totally fine to take candid photos. What I mean by this is if you’ve raised your camera and it’s super-obvious that you’re taking a photo, it’s fine. The problem is, many street photographers do take sneaky photos a lot of the time. I’ve taken a few myself, of course, but I pretty much always feel bad about it when I do.

During the workshop, Kavi told me he’d felt the same thing. He was taking candid photos around Leicester and it didn’t feel right to him. It was enough for him to ditch his X100 and buy a large format film camera and tripod which he started lugging around Leicester, asking people on the street if he could take their portraits.

It was a massive shift. In Kavi’s words, it now felt like he was giving by taking people’s photos, not stealing. I love this! It resonates so much.

As part of the workshop we spent a couple of hours lugging our cameras and tripods around Cockburn Street, approaching people and asking if they’d like their portrait taken. It sounds nerve-wracking, and it is a bit especially when people decline, but the thing is that most people were generally delighted to be asked! I had two sisters say it made their day, and another workshopper had someone cry because they’d never had their portrait taken!

Giving, not stealing.

I’m hoping this marks a shift-change in my photography, but it’s going to be a slow burner because it’s hard work and I wouldn’t want to do it every day. Asking people for portraits is relatively easy, but running a 5-10 minute portrait session on the fly in the middle of a street with a complete stranger is hard. I’ve no doubt it would get a little easier over time, but I did struggle a lot with positioning people and coming up with ideas in the moment.

I’m not that pleased with the actual photos from an artistic point of view (that wasn’t the point for this workshop), but I really like the one of the chef on the steps (he’s from Rome, 20 years in Edinburgh). Here’s a selection.

A few more photos from May

Videos and websites

Listening Party 🔈

On the pods this month.

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See you in a few weeks 👋