The Fujifilm X-T2, Street Photography and Being Inspired

I'd never really considered doing street photography before. I've definitely enjoyed looking at street photography much in the same way that I like and appreciate many different genres of photography. However, actually going out and doing a bit of street photography didn't really seem like my kind of thing.

Recently though I've been coming around to the idea that street photography might indeed be something I’d want to try. I think most of this new found motivation has come from watching street photography videos from my good friend, photographer and fellow vlogger Gareth Danks. The more I watched his videos the more I wanted to give this genre of photography a try.

When I mentioned this Gareth he very kindly offered to take me out and help me capture some street photographs. As fortune would have it we were both spending a couple of days at The Photography Show a few weeks back so we decided that we should hit the streets of Birmingham on the Saturday evening. I was really excited about the prospect of trying something new with my photography.

As I was going to try something new with my photography, I thought I also needed a new camera for the job. But what camera should I get for street photography? Well, there was only one camera I was really considering and that was a Fujifilm. So I got myself a Fujifilm X-T2 and hit the streets with my Fujifilm camera and street photography guru, Gareth.

Can I Capture that Decisive Moment?

So how did I get on? Did I manage to get some good street photographs? Let's find out…

Learning Photography All Over Again

As you'll have seen in the video I didn't find street photography easy. To be honest though, I didn't think I would. It was actually a bit like learning photography all over again. Plus I had the added challenge of learning a new camera system. However, despite all that I really, really enjoyed it. I was lucky to not only have Gareth to help with composition, camera setup, but to also to video it for me. I don't think I would have been able to manage my vlogging camera along with everything else.

All that aside, I liked the challenge of finding and capturing compositions. In some respects, it’s the same as landscape photography. You find a good composition and you wait for the right moment, but in a city environment, you need to have your eyes trained in a different way. Gareth was just wondering about picking out compositions and at first, I was just walking by everything. Step by step though, I started getting into the flow. Yes, it was a challenge, but a fun challenge.

Rent or Buy

It's worth pointing out that while I did use a Fujifilm X-T2 for this shoot, I did not buy this camera. I've always wanted to try a Fujifilm camera so for this street photography shoot I decided to rent one for the weekend. I got my rental through WEX Rental. Service was fast and efficient and I got the whole weekend rental for the cost of just one day's normal rental. I also paid for delivery and collection service so it was delivered and collected from my house on Friday and Monday respectively. Great service!

Birmingham Street Photography

I'm certainly not going to claim that my photographs are amazing. Like any genre of photography, it's going to require a lot of practice to ever get even remotely good. However, I very much enjoyed the experience so I'm keen to do more and see how my street photography progresses.

Have you done any street photography before? Got any street photography tips? What is your favourite location? Let me know in the comments below.

Finally, here are some of the photos I captured.