Through a Photographer’s Eye: Rhys Tattersall

Welcome to the Second Series of Through a Photographer’s Eye. In this series, we continue to learn about Australian photographers and how they use X Series Cameras to photograph their world around them. Our first interview in Series Two is with Sydney based photographer, Rhys Tattersall.

Rhys, tell us about you and what you most like about photography and video?

I am 22 years old and currently working retail. What I like most about photography and video is it allows me to be creative, it’s a means of expression when I’m not at work or home, I love being able to tell a story through my work.

You recently visited Japan with the Fujifilm X-Pro2, XF56mmF1.2 and XF16-55mmF2.8, was the gear well suited for travelling?

What lens did mainly use for photography and how did the camera perform in the snow?

Yeah, it was a great trip, and the gear worked superbly! The overall weight of the X-Pro2 body with the two lenses was great. The gear was very light, and it easily fit into my camera bag, which made it easy to do full day trips, I was thankful I didn’t get a sore back. I had the XF16-55mmF2.8 on most of the time because it was a versatile focal length for video and those split decision moments for a photo opportunity. The weather sealed body and lenses acted perfectly when it was snowing and raining.

What are your impressions on Fujifilm as a brand compared to others you may have used previously?

Fujifilm is a great brand that makes affordable products of a high quality. Although, I feel with great products they offer they could advertise and reach out to customers a lot better than they are doing so. Their social media is growing which is a great sign, but I feel they aren’t doing everything they can be to show off the amazing products they have on hand.

What’s been the most engaged photo you captured using the Fujifilm X-Pro2? Can you tell us the story behind the image?

At this point, it would be the photo I took of my mate walking ahead of me in a snow storm at Nozawa Onsen. We were on our way back from town to our Ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), and it was lightly snowing at the time of leaving the restaurant. A few minutes later, the snow began to come down sideways – there was lots of it! Adrian happened to be walking ahead of me, and I wanted to capture the snow falling, so I switched to manual focus and pulled it back until I saw the most snow in focus. I was using the XF16-55mmF2.8 and shot the photo at 1/250 shutter speed combined with an aperture of F2.8 at ISO 200.

If you have some advice for someone starting out in photography what would it be?

Don’t get caught up on the gear side of things. I learned using film and an old analogue camera. Photography being an art in a sense means there is no wrong way of doing things, only how you perceive it and portray it. Don’t be a copycat, find your own style.

We noticed you used the Fujifilm X-Pro2 to film a video in Tokyo. What video settings, pre and post processing, did you use to achieve the look?

The video settings I used were 1080p at 60fps (frames per second) which is Full HD. Although in saying that, when recording video, you want to make sure your shutter speed is close to as possible to double the fps (in this case, 60fps means I will want to keep my shutter speed at 1/120). Doing this will keep the video nice and smooth and allow for great slow motion in post. Post processing wise, I used Premiere Pro and edited with sequence settings at 24fps, which helped create smooth, realistic slow motion.

Have you used the Fujifilm X-Pro2 at night? How did it perform and was there any noticeable noise or artefacts in the photos?

Yes, Particularly with fireworks in Nozawa Onsen and the street lights of Tokyo! The Fujifilm X-Pro2 was great, its low light capabilities were very surprising and showed little to no noise artefacts. I was able to still get photos at a decent shutter speed when hand holding in low light scenarios.

What improvements would you like to see on a future X Series camera?

That’s a hard one, as settings seem to differ in each model. I think if the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and the Fujifilm X-T2 had the same software it would enable the X-Pro2 specifically to become more versatile. I think we are coming into an age where it’s common to have so many features in one product, opposed to having many different products with roughly the same features. If Fujifilm allowed the software and some hardware components to be utilised across all X Series Cameras, I feel it would be a good improvement to a future model.

To view more of Rhys’s work visit his Instagram profile or subscribe to his YouTube channel.