Alessio Michelini Photography

I used to like him, I did really like his first couple of albums and I thought he was cool, but then scientology first, and the photo release down here completely flipped my opinion about this artists.
Don't go to photograph his gigs, stay at home and watch a movie instead, much better.

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 myself, my lovely gf, and two good friends, we all went to Denmark with the main excuse to go to find a friend of us who recently moved to Copenhagen. And that’s the reason we sell to our parents, relatives, and not so close friends.
The reality is that we did go there, yes of course to see the beauties of that country, but mostly to go to Legoland. I can’t hide to you guys, I’m a big Lego fan. I have billions of Lego bricks, even if our house is not that big, and I seriously I have no idea where to put all those Legos, I keep buying them. So, as all of us already visited Copenhagen, we all decided to do a two day trip to Billund, which is exactly at the opposite direction of the danish capital.
It sounds like very far away, but in fact Denmark is not that huge, and at the end you can get there in less than 3 hours (roughly 250km), if you are not a photographer that wants to stop every 5 minutes, if you are a photographer it takes at the very least the double of that time, and you are a photographer as well, you know it’s true.

As I'm trying to use my sparkling new Fuji X-T1 as my main camera for when I travel, I'm trying to test it to use it in various scenarios, and one of the them is long exposures. So last week I bought from my trusty shop (Connscameras btw), the 67mm adaptor ring, so I could mount my Lee Big Stopper on the tiny Samyang 12mm f/2 lens (which I reviewed a while ago and I think it's a little great lens), the only landscape lens I have for the moment for the Fuji X System, I tried this weeked to go out and take photos, but the outcome hasn't been great, not because of the gear, but because I had shi... awful light and the place wasn't that great either.
Btw, in that occasion I did try again my other ND filter, the Light Craft Workshop Fader ND Mk II (and part 2), which is great if you only shoot from 35mm and over, but completely crap under 35mm. I wanted to give him a second chance, I thought that maybe with a smaller lens that uses a smaller section it filter, it might work.
No, it doesn't, it's still a piece of crap, don't buy it if you want to use it with ultra wide lenses.

Anyway, so I got the lens adaptor, and the only thing I miss now is a remote for long exposures beyond the 30 seconds limit. I thought I could use the iPhone app for that, but unfortunately even in bulb mode, the app has a limit of 30 seconds. I guess it's kinda tricky to have a stable connection for long times and it might be buggy, but it would be a very nice feature to have on what otherwise would be a very eccellent app.

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?

I wanted to do this trip from a good couple of years, but as Scotland is not that far from here, just about an hour of flight from Dublin to Edinburgh, I always skipped this trip in favour to other places, like Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Iceland. And also because visiting these capitals it takes only a weekend, so no need to use days off from work, while Iceland has to be well planned and would be stupid if you go there for the first time only for a few days. But last Christmas myself and my lovely girlfriend decided to do this trip finally, so we booked the flight, and by using the bank holiday in March (St. Patrick), we did a 5 days trip in the Scottish Highlands.

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!

When it comes to pick a gig to photograph, the gig must have one of these two requisites:

1. It’s a band that I really like and I really want to see them live
2. It’s a band that I don’t care much but I know it’s gonna be great to photograph

Well, Europe probably don’t fall in the first option, even though I really liked “The Final Countdown”, which is probably the most hated song by the band itself, but the only one I know of this swedish band (I’m sorry Joey Tempest). I don’t know any other songs by them, just that one, and I know that’s the only song they are NOT going to play at their gigs. But it’s definitely a band that fall in the second area, and when it comes to bands from the 80s, you never fail.
They love lights, they love to play it loud, they love to act as superstars on stage, and Joey Tempest is definitely a master on that. I think he could write a book of how to act on stage, which poses to do, which facial expressions to do, his performances are extremely theatrical, and that’s exactly what a music photographer wants from a rock star.
That’s what I was expecting before the gig started, and that’s exactly what I got on stage, possibly even more than what I was expecting, and obviously the resulting photographs are absolutely brilliant, and I really like the shots I took that night.
Don't take it wrong, I'm not saying that Europe are just good at acting, they are actually a cracking band to see on stage, even if like me, you know only one song of them, totally worth it to see them live if you really want to see a good rock'n roll show as they used to do back in the 80s.
So, as I said, you never fail with 80s rock bands.
As usual down here there are some of the best shots, while here you can find the full set :-)

 

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 :-)