The Hunt for Resolution

Coming from those far-off days when bigger meant better, well, higher resolution and having used 35mm/120/5×4 to get effects or absolute quality, the digital age for me was liberating.

I remember watching a presentation at the cinematographic institute for the launch of Kodak Ektar and associated movie film and being astonished by the quality of a color negative film which could be frowned upon in the hallowed halls of commercial photography and was considered suitable for weddings and snaps.

Kodak projected images, one of which was a portrait of a girl displayed as a 48-sheet poster in Times Square, New York.

Those days are long gone, and whilst film is still widely used, even the super format of IMAX has a digital version.

Around 2002-2005, Olympus stated that 5MP was high enough resolution, but since we have broken the 100MP barrier and even have Gigapixel, which can take the small and make it very large.

So where do I go with this story? The other day I found myself reading about the upcoming Fuji X-T6 and for a millisecond thought, hmm, then looked at an image full screen on a large monitor of the moon taken on an X-H1 with the 75-300mm and thought, wow, there is no need for more.
<09.jpeg> Tamanho grande

The vast majority of images are destined for the internet and social media these days. I print to A2 and produce books. I do not need MORE. Okay, there are many other improvements, but I need to keep my feet in the concrete of reality, and compared to a 5×4 camera and all the associated periphery plus time spent processing, then using unsharp mask in a drum scanner, I am in a much better place.

Now I find myself suffering from the opposite of GAS. I now have GDS, ‘gear disposal syndrome’. I start to feel I have too much and crave simplicity, maybe even one camera, one lens.

Being a grand old age and having achieved nearly everything I ever wanted to achieve with a camera, I feel an air of freedom and release around me.

I had a lightning bolt moment the other day when I realised what I like about photography, or should I say one of the many things I like about photography is that you can capture time, you can freeze it, blur it, merge it and much more.

It is obvious, but sometimes the obvious gets lost in the detail, certainly by me.

65 years ago I took several images and later joined the prints to make a panorama, which is what my field of vision saw. 55 years ago I stood in front of a waterfall with a camera on a tripod to capture the movement of the water.

Now I can create panoramas on my mobile and take shots with water blurred on it as well.

Photos using camera movement or the passage of time are everywhere, and there is something impressionistic in them and other images capturing seconds, minutes or even many hours of time on one photo.

Well maybe now I have my new or is it old direction so the big question what will go what will stay in equipment, I think I need another lifetime.

I have amassed 7 Fuji bodies and 7 lenses I could KIS, keep it simple – but keep everything, just limit my equipment when I go to make images.

Photography was part of the graphic design course at art school and very quickly stole my heart and became the major player in my life game.

After college I began a learning journey which was exciting and through photography magazines I was accompanied by Sam Haskins and Terrance Donavan who introduced me to the Pentax 6×7, John Claridge who showed me catadioptric lenses and Gaf 500, Don McCullin and Eve Arnold showing me the Olympus OM-1, Cartier Bresson and RAX (Ragnar Axelson) introduced me to the Leica, Hansel Adams, David Bailey and Patrick Lichfield explained Hasselblad and 5×4 plus plus, they all of course are unaware of the lessons they gave me.

I am self-taught basically but have been lucky enough to do the kind of work I dreamt of as a boy, plus be paid for it and have a lot of fun.

One of the features I like about Fuji X cameras are simulations but being inherently lazy have never gone beyond the basics BUT I confess I am interested in finding a colour simulation that is a bit Saul Leiter but with punch, I like my blacks to be black and colours to be saturated.

In black and white, I like ‘black and white ’, not a sea of grey.

So have I found the ultimate in resolution? Well, the answer is we all have our own ‘ultimate’ in an exhibition in 24, alongside 1.2 meter wide prints from Fuji X, were around 10 x 2 meter prints from iPhones.

We are all on a journey, and I feel privileged to be amongst a tribe of special people for whom Fuji is our path of exploration.

I admit at times I become obsessed by themes or images, so to accompany the words, I include some of my many images of windmills. Some people hate windmills, or should I say wind turbines, but I am fascinated by them partly because I am a character from Cervantes in my heart and because the incredible skies here provide a wonderful setting.