Alessio Michelini Photography

Hyped by the news that finally Adobe fixed the years old issue with Fujifilm X-Trans sensor demosaicing that was generating artefacts with complex textures, like grass, rocks etc…, an issue that I’ve seen since my first Fuji X-E1 bought 5 years ago, I’ve updated my copy of LightRoom as soon I got home, and gave it a try with a few shots I took a couple of months ago. 
And it was… disappointing.
Not because the process didn’t fix the issue, actually it did, or at least in the areas that wasn’t affected by the new artefacts generated by the engine.

So recently I decided to give another try to my passion in photography, and decided to refresh some of my gear in get rid of some other I didn't use it anymore. So I got myself a brand new Fujifilm X-T3, just before my trip to Spain, and it's clear that what once was considered just "a camera to carry around" more or less like a compact camera, after the X-E1 and the X-T1, it's now my main system that I use for (almost) everything, to a point where my Canon 6D has been sitting on a shelf for so long that 4 of the 5 batteries I had for it died. And while the X-T1 served me well in the past 3 years, it was time to retire it and get something new. 
After I returned to Spain I also get a brand new Fujinon 23mm f/2 R WR, which is a tiny fantastic lens that it's sharp enough even at full aperture, and I also got a Fujinon 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 L RM OIS, as a travel tele lens to cover those few times I need a long lens, as it was clear to me that while the vintage lens I use, a Canon FD 50mm f/1.4, is decent enough, it's just not long enough some times.
So, lots of money gone, even taking advantage of the Fujifilm cashback, and I needed some way to cover at least a part of these expenses, and I did what I wanted to do for a long time (but I didn't simply because for some reasons, I get attached to things, and I'm also the king of procrastination in some cases): I sold the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM and the Canon EF 135mm f/2 L USM, as they were lenses I didn't use that much anymore, as the Fujinon 10-24mm f/4 simply replaced the Canon one for landscapes. The Fuji ultrawide lens is just way sharper, corner to corner, much lighter, and it's also stabilized, which is not that vital as most of the times I use a tripod, but it's handy to have it in some cases. So I didn't really miss that lens. 
Don't get me wrong, I took some great photos with it, but because of the points above, I don't miss it.
For the Canon EF 135mm it's another story...

I’m breaking the silence with this post, almost a year later from the previous one, just to let you know that I’m alive guys.
What happened? Well, a few things.
Firstly, I decided to retire from music photography, not sure if it’s forever, as you never know that I might find to be interested on it again, but I don’t think I’m going to shoot any more gig any time soon, and to be fair, my last gig was more than one year ago, which was even awful, so awful I didn’t even consider to write about it.
And after many years of shooting at gigs, my love to music photography started to fade away, to a point where when I went to a gig, I was regretting to have asked for a pass the moment I entered the venue. I wasn’t even interested in the music or the artist anymore, I was going there to take good photos, but after 500+ gigs, they started to look all the same to me.
Then you add the fact that nobody pays you (yeah, if you think that you can make a living with music photography, think twice, it’s very hard, and I know only a few people who did it), photo releases to sign, piles of bullshits from artists, their management, promoters, pr, etc… I started to question myself why I was doing it.
And I decided that it wasn’t worth it anymore.
I was so disgusted, that I even stopped taking pictures in general, in fact I couldn’t even do the monthly post I did for months, the one where I post random photos, because I didn’t have any random photos. I didn’t touch my cameras for months, I just had enough.
Only events like travels, forced me to take photos again, landscapes and a bit of street, that’s it.
And this brings another problem, when you stop being a music photographer, but your domain name is musicphotographer.eu, you  start to think “what do I do now?”. Do I keep talking about other things and not to talk about music photography anymore, even if the domain name says the opposite? Do I change the domain name to something else (which creates more problems). Do I close everything down and just forget about it?
All those questions placed me in a limbo of “I’m not sure what to do anymore”, and the only reaction I had was to stop writing about anything, put my blog on hiatus until I finally decided what to do, and almost after one year I’m still not sure what to do.
And I know myself well, if I don’t make any move, I’ll just let everything die, which is a shame, because I have things to say, I have travels to share with you, dear reader, so I decided to start to write again on this blog, write about the travels I made, and the places I’ve photographed. Force myself to write more reviews, and to create more content, even if I’m not sure what it’s gonna be about.
About the domain, I’m still not sure, but probably I’m going to move everything to my other domain, alessiomichelini.com, and perhaps talk about other things that have nothing to do with photography, but that’s not for the near future, for now I’ll just write, if you don’t mind, dear reader.

 

I don't have much to show for last month, or at least nothing of spectacular, simply because the weather on July was simply shite.
It was so bad that it killed my excitement I had when I bought my brand new Fujifilm X-T1. I've also bought a new lens, the Fujinon 10-24mm f/4 R OIS, but I had to wait a week before I could test it because of the weather. So don't expect any great shots in this post, I did my best, but I was really depressed.

The only real highlight of last month was the AC/DC's gig, and the review I wrote about the Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA Carl Zeiss Sonnar T*, that's pretty much it.

Here some of the "bests", while here you can find the full set.

As you can easily imagine, last month I had a lot of fun with my new baby, the Fujifilm X-T1, and I put it to the test to see if it could be my only camera for travels, and so far it seems a big yes. The only problem is maybe I should get a wide zoom lens, or maybe another fix prime, like the Fujinon 16mm f/1.4 or the Fujinon 23mm f/1.4, still not sure, but I'll probably buy before I go in holidays next month.
Anyway, this is the monthly post with my random photos, but if you are looking for the photos I took at the Dublin Pride 2015, there's a specific set for it right here, while the random photos of June are here.
Down here you can find some of the best :-)

In the past few days I put my brand new Fujifilm X-T1 to the test with long exposure landscapes, I bought an adaptor ring to use the Lee Big Stopper on the Samyang 12mm f/2 CS lens, put the camera on my trusty Manfrotto BeFree tripod, and did some photos at sunset. All good aside from one tiny, very annoying, issue. I’m stuck at maximum 30 seconds exposure, as the camera without a shutter release cable can go further than that, and to be honest I don’t know a single digital camera that allows you more than 30  seconds without the bulb mode.
The Fuijfilm iPhone apps works fine, but it has the same issue, you can’t go further than those 30 seconds.
I had a threaded cable, the one you screw in the button, which I used a couple of times on the X-E1, but the shutter button of the X-T1 doesn’t allow to use it.
I have a wireless remote trigger, but it’s for Canon and obviously you cannot connect it to the Fuji.
I’ve ordered a cheap remote on ebay from China, but if I’m lucky I’ll get it in a couple of weeks.
So the only solution is DIY, and to make an homemade, freshly baked, shutter release cable is easier than you think.

Last month it was quite productive, beside the photos I took in Denmark (which are not that many btw), I got excited with the brand new Fuji X-T1 and I took plenty of random photos, and the more I use it, the more I love that little camera. If I get some extra money in the next month or two I might spend some money and get a good ultra wide angle lens or maybe a good fast prime lens, and I'll leave the heavy duty Canon 6D at home when I travel.
And before I'll forget again (as I meant to say it on the previous post), good job Ireland with the win for the Yes for the marriage equality referendum!
Anyway, hopefully I'll have a couple of post in the next days, but for the moment take a look on some of the random photos I took last month, and if you want to see the full set, please click here.

Since last year, when Fujifilm lent me an X-T1 for a couple of weeks to review it, I wanted one for myself. The X-E1 was a great camera, I really had fun with it and I took many great shot with that camera, but the X-T1 is simply a (big) step above, the viewfinder is simply magnificent, the AF is very good (not as good as a DSLR, but very good for a mirrorless), and I simply loved the ergonimic of that camera, all those dials on the top, where I can set everything I need without going to any menu, it was just perfect.
But a mirrorless for me it's a second body, a camera that I don't want to spend millions on it, as I've already have a DSLR with plenty of good (and expensive) lenses. It's a camera I use when I want to have fun, or that I carry with me all the times, but when I need serious stuff I go back to my trusty Canon 6D. But in the past year I started to reconsider that concept. Is really that better a DSLR? Well, in some fields you can't really replace it, like for gigs or events, when I need a good focusing system and very good performances at High ISO, or even for portraits when those 4MP extra are handy and when you have a nice shallow depth of field that you cannot simply get on an APS-C sensor. But for other fields, like street photography or landscapes, when you don't need those top notch performances, is it really that better?

The reason why this post is so late this month is very simple: I didn't have time to develop the pictures I took last month, as I had to finish first the one I took during my trip in Scotland. But to be fair April wasn't a very productive month, actually I think it was one of the less, if not the most unproductive month in the past few years. But unfortunately my passion for photography is not as constant as I would, I have my highs and lows, and last month was a definitely a low. Anyway, thank to a nice day trip with some friends to the Wicklow Mountains, and few shots I took while I was going to work, I have a few nice shots to show you. Hopefully next month will be more productive!

Yeah I know, it’s been a while since my last post, but the past few weeks have been mad for me. First me and my lovely girlfriend went for a trip in Scotland for 5 days, where we travel across the scottish Highlands, Isle of Skye, Glencoe, and few other places, but I’ll write a post about it in the near (hopefully) future. Then after we came back we spent two weeks moving to a new home, and it was one of the most stressful things I’ve done in my life. I realized only then how much s**t I collected in the past 7 years, I sold some stuff, I left behind some other, and throw away a ton of stuff, but still I was left with a billion of boxes, and as the new place is much smaller than the previous house (but it’s all ours now), it was like to play a real life tetris to find a place for everything. Then it was quite stressful at work as well as we had s**t to deliver, plus other small things, and only now I have, finally for God’s sake, some spare time.
Anyway, apart Scotland, last month, as you can easily figure out, I didn’t really find that much time to spend in photography, but I have some photos to share anyway, not many and not my best ones, but better than nothing, right? As usual the full set is right here, while down here some of the best ones. Comments are always more than welcome :-)