Captured #16: June 2025

Aloha!

May was a quiet photography month for me, but I started to get my mojo back in June – mainly because I took a couple of trips abroad. There’s nothing like a change of scenery to reinvigorate those creative juices!

All this galavanting means I now have a backlog of over 1000 images to edit. I’ll be trying to get through the mountain this month, but I’ve shared a few early edits below.

Nice

I’d never been to the Côte d’Azur before and, now having done so, it seems almost criminal to have travelled all over the world but never visited this part of France. It’s absolutely beautiful.

This wasn’t a photography trip, but I managed to get some shots when out and about thanks to my trusty, carry everywhere X100VI. I can see myself returning for a photography trip, although I’ve heard that people in France are not keen on street photographers taking candid shots.

The law isn’t quite so open as it is in the UK – you technically need the consent of people, although there have been legal cases where it’s deemed to be okay for artistic purposes. YMMV as they say. Much of my photography hides people’s identities, so I’d probably stick with that style personally.

Prague

I also had a few days in Prague on a photography-specific trip. I had been before nearly 30 years ago (!) and to be honest, I didn’t remember anything about it other than Charles Bridge. I was blessed with beautiful weather and did 30,000+ steps a day wandering around different districts, taking photos. Quite the treat.

Prague isn’t huge but there’s certainly enough to keep street photographers occupied for a few days. The central tourist areas are rammed, but I tried to use this to my advantage and took close-up candid photos in these places which was pretty good fun!

Czechia also has strict public photography rules, but I didn’t come across any issues. I wasn’t really in people’s faces and I think a lot of people in my photos were tourists.

I don’t have too many photos to share just yet, but hopefully by next month. I’m also planning to write a blog post (maybe even an eBook?) about photographing the city. We’ll see. Here are a few taster shots…

Revamped Website and Blog Posts

I spent a bit of time giving my website home page a lick of paint. It still needs work, but I’ve put everything on a single page and added some gratuitous animation to my portfolio gallery. See what you think!

I’ve also written a couple of blog posts you might want to check out:

• My photo is on the front cover of Edinburgh Life magazine again
• The Fujifilm X100VI is the perfect travel camera

🌐 Interweb finds

Some interesting photography-related things I’ve found on the web recently:

• YASHICA FX-D: Your First Digital Film Simulation Camera by YASHICA. This is completely nuts. The Yashica brand seems to have been resurrected and they’ve run a successful crowdfunding to bring back a digital version of their classic FX series, with film simulations and a “film advance” lever. This is very Fujifilm isn’t it? I’ve written about my Yashica FX-D before and I love that camera, but I’m not sure I’ll be in the market for one of these.
• Speaking of legacy brands, Kodak has also reinvented itself. They’ve licensed the brand and you can buy Kodak-branded clothing, including shorts, T-shirts, baseball caps, book bags, sundresses and sandals. Apparently it’s cool right now. Kodak, Once the Picture of a Dying Brand, Is Having a Moment.
• 72sekund is a Norwegian photojournalist and documentary photographer. Big fan of his photos.
• If you’re (extremely) technical and would like to ditch Big Tech for your photography, you can take a look at Immich – a self-hosted, AI-powered photo and video management tool. Think of it as an open source Google Photos that you host yourself. Very cool, but only for the brave.
• Mike Chudley is turning his email newsletter into a brand that makes camera straps. Very cool, gotta say. Maybe I should do this with Captured? 😆 The Focal Point.
• There’s a second edition of Woofer Magazine coming. You can back it on Kickstarter.
• It seems to have been around for a while but I came across Really Nice Images which have a variety of film presets for Lightroom/Capture One, and also a fun-looking iPhone app.

📺 YouTube gawping

Not a lot grabbed me this month, just these three:

• The Photography of Andrew McEnaney: 3 Days in Small Towns, NYC & Toronto, a Walkie Talkie from Paulie B, was excellent.
• Medium Format Film Photography at the Seaside from Framelines, featuring Ian Howorth was good. I love Ian’s work.
• Alan Schaller tells you to forget learning the photography ropes in the classroom, just get out there and learn it on the job. He makes a fair point. Don’t Go To Photography School: Watch This Instead.

Listening Party 🔈

On the pods this month.

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See you in a few weeks 👋