Kage Collective Issue 9 & Mitchell Library

Our 9th monthly issue of Kage Collective is now up and is a little different this month. Each issue tends to have a theme picked from suggestions from the eight of us. This month we went with Patrick's (La Roque) slightly odd idea of 'The Silence'. It's odd for a couple of reasons. 1). There had to be no accompanying text with the pictures. 2). Pitrick is the biggest wordsmith in our collective.

The Quiet Room at Mitchell Library - You can hear a moth flap it's wing!

The Quiet Room at Mitchell Library - You can hear a moth flap it's wing!

I paid a visit the Michell Library in Glasgow. I sat at the back of the quiet room, a place people go to study and read in silence. I shot a few pictures there and around other parts of the library, but I wasn't getting what I wanted or needed. I spoke to a security guard to try to gain access behind the scenes and although he did open a couple of doors for me, he also said there was a chance to go behind closed doors if I came back the following day. Once a year for the past twenty seven years, Glasgow has an open door month long event, where the public can go behind the scenes of some famous buildings.

So I returned the following day and captured the pictures you see here, plus the ones found over at Kage Collective under the title of 'Books Speak Volumes'. Michel library used to be a reference only library up until ten years ago. Members of the public would search for titles and then fill out the paperwork required. A member of staff would then be dispatched to go into the many floors of books and find the one that had been requested. Only 10% of books at the Mitchell are on display to the public these days, so it was fantastic to be able to wander through the many floors and rows of bookshelves, taking in the amazing smell of extremely vintage and rare works.

Fuji In-Camera Miniatures : Montserrat, Spain

All of these pictures are straight out of camera JPEG's from the X-Pro2 using the Toy Camera feature. I don't dip into these filters much, but the Toy Camera one is definitely my favourite and I think it does a pretty good job of a tilt shift effect!

Harry Benson : Seeing America

The Harry Benson exhibition 'Seeing American' is on at The Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh (Scotland) between August 12th and December 3rd (2016) and it's absolutely free. So if you're in Edinburgh during this time I highly recommend dropping in and seeing these amazing iconic photographs printed and framed, the way pictures should be seen. The print quality is stunning and the choice of shots is almost perfect. Some of them I didn't even realise were by Harry Benson.

My Jazzwise Cover Shot

I'm pleased to have one of my pictures on the front cover of Jazzwise magazine this month. It's the September issue (on sale from August 18th) and features a shot of Tommy Smith to promote his latest CD 'Modern Jacobite' which he recorded with The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

I also have another six pictures inside the magazine. Three on a full page add (above) for the CD and three that sit alongside an interview with Tommy.

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Turin Brakes

A few pictures of Turin Brakes performing at Belladrum (Tartan Heart) Festival, near Inverness, Scotland last weekend. I didn't even know the band were on the bill until just before their set, but they were fantastic! It's hard to believe that such a powerful sound comes from just a four piece band of two guitars, bass, drums.

shot with the X100T and the X-Pro2 with the 35mm f2 or 56mm f1.2

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The 53mm Interview

Five more members of The Kage Collective have taken over the 53mm website this month with a host of interviews on how we use our Fuji 35/1.4 and 35/2 lenses (53mm in full frame terms). Kevin Mullins had already completed the interview previously, but this month Patrick La Roque, Bert Stefani, Robert Catto, Vincent Baldensperger and myself have tackled Iain Palmer's list of questions and I hope you find our answers quite diverse.

So make yourself a coffee, stick on some background music and have a Kagefest on us at www.fiftythreemm.com.

Jazzwise Magazine Ad For Modern Jacobite

I picked up the latest Jazzwise magazine today and started flicking through the pages. I was drawn to the cover because it featured two jazz artists that I have shot before, Branford Marsalis and Kurt Elling. Then I got a nice, but unexpected surprise when I came across a full page ad for Tommy Smith's latest CD with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (which I shot all the pictures for). It's strange, but it took a moment to realise they were my pictures.

The September edition of Jazzwise will be out in a couple of weeks and will feature an interview with Tommy on the Modern Jacobite recording. Should be well worth a read!

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10 Travel Tips for Photographers

X100T with the WCL-X100

Sorry if the title for this post sounds a bit too much like click-bait, but it's exactly what it says on the tin, 10 quick tips for traveling. Some for photographers and some about travelling in general. It's not the definitive list by any means, but it's what I've found on my travels.

1. Plastic Belts designed for air travel are available from Amazon for very little money. They usually consist of a plastic buckle and a webbing material for the main part of the belt. This means you don't have to remove your belt at airport security.

2. Plastic bags are provided at airports for small bottles of liquid. Use one of these bags to place all your coins and then put it inside your camera bag.

3. Buy a camera bag with a sleeve at the rear to slide over the handle on rolling suitcases. Don't carry when you can wheel.

4. Remove everything you need from your hand luggage that you will need during the flight (book, iPad, magazine, reading glasses, sweets...etc) and stow away your bag in the overhead bins for the rest of your flight.

5. Invest in a quality pair of noise cancelling headphones, preferably over the ear ones. I use Bose, they're a bit spendy, but well worth the money.

6. Travel as light as possible, you don't need to take every lens you own. On my latest trip I packed an X100T plus the Wide conversion lens (35mm & 28mm in FF), the X-Pro2 with the 35mm f2 and the 18-55mm f3.5-f4 (27-83mm in FF). Maybe when the 50/2 comes out I take that instead of the zoom, but the 56mm is heavy and bulky (in mirrorless terms).

The Cooper 13 Slim camera bag by Tenba (back), Rob by Millican and the X100T + WCL-X100

7. Pack a smaller camera bag in your luggage just big enough for one camera and one or two lenses. I take Rob by Millican because it can be packed really flat and it doesn't look like a camera bag and if anything looks old and worn. Put all non essentials in your hotel room safe and use the smaller bag to travel light. I tend to wear one camera and have another one plus two lenses in the Millican bag.

8. Camera bags are an easy target for thieves and pick pockets. Wear your bag in front of your body if possible, or turn it so that the opening side is against your body and if possible, use a luggage strap around it to make life harder for thieves.

9. Hotel room power outlets can be a bit sparse sometimes. Take a multi socket adaptor from your home country and you will be able to charge 4 or 5 pieces of equipment from one outlet.

10. With so many devices using USB to charge these days, it's worthwhile taking a couple of of double USB chargers. I use an international version that has interchangeable adaptors for UK, US, Asia & Europe. This can charge a phone, tablet, power bank and even cameras like the X100T at the same time.

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Fujifilm X-T2, EF-X500 Flash and X-Pro2 Firmware

There's a few new releases today from Fuji. There's nothing mind blowing, like medium format, but as I shoot with a pair of X-T1's a lot, I'm obviously interested in the X-T2. Not a lot has changed on the outside (a good thing), but like the X-Pro2, the difference on the inside is huge.

A lot of people have been waiting for a decent dedicated flash too, and the EF-X500 looks like the first serious effort. What seems to be missing though, is a dedicated commander unit (transmitter) to be able to use these in a multiple flash situation. As I use six flashes, I don't think I'll be rushing out to replace my Yongnuo 560 IV's, not at 499 (UK pounds) a pop.

X-T2 coming Sept 2016 £1399

  • 30min 4K Video
  • New style Tilting Screen
  • 24.3 MP 
  • AF-C Custom Setting
  • Focus Joystick (like the X-Pro2)
  • Dual UHS-2 Card Slots
  • Acros Film Simulation

*The detail of the firmware is subject to change.

NEW Lens Roadmap

  • 23mm f2 (2016)
  • 50mm f2 (2017)
  • 80mm f2.8 OIS Macro (2017)

EF-X500 TTL Flash £449

  • TTL Flash
  • Guide Number of 50 (aprox)
  • High Speed Sync
  • Weather Resistant

X-Pro2 Firmware v2. coming October 2016

With the firmware update, the FUJIFILM X-Pro2 and the new FUJIFILM X-T2 will stand side-by-side as double flagship X Series cameras.

Detail of the update includes:

The new autofocus algorithm* that is implemented on the new FUJIFILM X-T2 to produce faster and more accurate autofocus will also be implemented on the FUJIFILM X-Pro2.
* Excludes the new AF-C Custom Settings functions.

Compatibility with the new hot-shoe mount flash EF-X500. The camera will now be enabled with high-speed flash sync and multi-flash lighting.

AUTO POWER OFF will now have 15 sec, 30 sec, and 1 min. options, allowing more customisable power management.

The parallax correction function will be improved to provide a more accurate and easier-to-use Optical Viewfinder.

Wordpress. Ashes. Phoenix. Squarespace

Today (1st July 2016) I'm launching the new improved derekclarkphotography.com. This wasn't a planned website overhaul, but my old Wordpress site got hacked and it showed me just how much damage can be inflickted on that platform and prompted my decician to move over to Squarespace.

So this is the new digs and I hope you like what I've done with the place so far. A lot has changed in the few years since my last total revamp and with that in mind, this new site should reflect those changes. The biggest of these is probably the jazz section. I've been documenting the jazz scene for three years now and I'm proud of the body of work I have so far (and it's growing all the time). If you know anything about jazz, you will see what an impressive list of well known players I have in the JAZZ section.

I have used Wordpress for many years and really like the platform, but it's time for a change and hopefully one that will make me want to blog more often as there is less back-end work to do on Squarespace. I've still got some work to do on this, so the site might change a little more in the next couple of weeks. Plus I'll be working backwards to fix all the pictures and galleries in previous blog posts.