I bought my first proper camera two years ago when I broke up my my ex wife. I called up a friend who was into photography and asked for advice. He recommended one of the Fujifilm X-series cameras and that is what I got. I used to do travel and street photography back then. As an amateur photographer, I found the ISO and shutter speed dials, as well as the aperture rings on the lens extremely intuitive, particularly for someone like me who was getting used to shooting in manual mode. Even though I am now leaving Fujifilm, I am sure I am going to miss my X-T3 camera, as well as the kit lens (XF 18-55mm) and the XF 35mm F2 for travel photography due to the extremely compact size of the camera plus lenses combo. But things have changed.

I have never done any fashion or lifestyle photography at all before December 2020. It all happened by chance. One afternoon I went to central London with the X-T3 and the 35mm with the view of doing some street photography. In fairness, the inspiration wasn’t there. Then I bumped into my friend Joe and a bunch of other people who were doing a flashmob.

I spent the following lockdown learning the technique on You Tube. As restrictions were about to be dropped, I invited my friend Johnny to my place and turned my living room into a studio and I started practicing.

The following weeks gave me the opportunity to practice every Saturday at Pierre Garroudi’s flashmob. I met some cool people thanks to the flashmob who helped me in taking my photography to the next level. As now I am opening a collaborative network with another photographer and a group of models, I felt the limitations of my 24-megapixel Fujifilm, particularly after back to back testing with the X-T3’s cropped APSC mirrorless sensor, Nikon’s d810 full frame and Fujifilm’s GFX medium format cameras.

Obviously good cameras and good lenses don’t come cheap. I decided to sell my Fujifilm set-up (X-T3, XF 18-55mm, XF 35mm f2, Viltrox 56mm f1.4, Viltrox 85mm 1.8) and move to Nikon. I got myself a D850, a 46-megapixel full frame camera, and a 70-200mm zoom lens. I haven’t had the chance to test the new camera at length but the first impressions are good. The dynamic range is amazing and the lens, which I tested previously with the D810, is very sharp. Over the next few months I will buy a couple of other lenses (a wider lens, for travel photography and the 85mm for portraits).

In any case, I am happy I lived the ‘Fujifilm experience’. I am extremely grateful to Fujifilm for the support given, as well as awarding the picture below 2nd place in their ‘best picture taken in June 2021’ competition.