Capturing Now

Introduction
I’m Nicolas from Berlin, Germany, a place I’ve been calling home for the last 14 years. Ever since I’ve moved here, the artsy and creative side of the city has been something that I truly enjoy and that also provides constant inspiration for my creative endeavors. Besides working in tech sales, enjoying great music and events, my love for reading and cooking, one of my biggest passions, is very much traveling. It gives me the greatest joy to explore new countries and cultures, get to know people from different walks of life, and share these stories with others.

Traveling the world, as for many others, was the reason to embark on this journey of telling stories through a camera and starting to share my work online. Just about two years ago, I decided to pick up a mirrorless camera, a Fujifilm X-S20 to be exact. The main reason I decided to go with this model as a beginner was its portability, Fujifilm’s color science, shooting JPEGs, and the great video capabilities this camera offers.

Since I’m still far from a professional, please don’t expect this article to be overly technical or gear-related. I’ll focus on the way I go about capturing these moments, what I look for in my shots, and how Fujifilm helps my creative workflow.

I consider my work to be influenced by both street and travel photography. I very much enjoy the spontaneity, the unplanned, and immediate feel of street photography combined with travel photography that transports the essence and history of a place. While I enjoy perfect travel pictures that make you want to book a flight the next minute, I ultimately try to focus on giving viewers a reason to reminisce, create an awareness for a place or a situation, and generally spark an interest in the world and the life of others.

In a perfect world, I will call this passion of mine my full-time job someday.

Inspired By The Daily Life
Within the last 18 months, I was fortunate to travel to countries like Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the UK, the US, and Japan. As different as these countries are, I always find it extremely interesting to discover the similarities between all these different cultures and places. One thing I was always drawn to is submerging myself into the day-to-day life of people as much as I can to get a feel for the pace and the atmosphere of that specific place.

My ultimate goal when taking pictures is to look for the kind of situations that are both extraordinary and relatable at the same time. Most of the time, these situations are very much part of the everyday life of people: a stroll through the city, a visit to the local market, the metro, and so on. The true beauty of street photography is the regular moment, maybe on the other side of the globe, that makes people think, reminisce, and be inspired even.

Most of the time, I’m not trying to plan too much ahead and just dive into the scenes and capture moments as pure as possible. The portability of the Fujifilm X-S20 is something I highly value in this regard. With the many steps and miles you obtain whilst out and about, to me, it’s incredibly important not having to carry too much weight that might even hinder you from going out and shooting in the first place. Having a smaller setup but not sacrificing on any features was a big selling point for me.

I want my photos to be as spontaneous and natural as possible. I’m trying not to overthink the shot too much and capture a moment in its essence and transport the experience of being part of that exact moment. That kind of photography is something that caught my eye way before picking up a camera myself. I always admired photographers being able to seemingly freeze time and transport feelings and thoughts through an image. A big part of this is obviously the colors and tones that the camera produces.

Which brings me to another thing I absolutely love about Fujifilm’s cameras: their colors and film simulations.

It is such a blessing to be able to shoot JPEGs and not have to spend hours in post-editing RAWs if you don’t have to. This frees my mind of the thought of having to go through thousands of shots and edit them in order for these pictures to be usable. On top of that, I must admit I’m not a huge fan of overly processed images myself. I’m more drawn to a subtle and natural look. That’s exactly what the Fujifilm film simulations provide me: the ability to choose a certain look for a certain scene on the fly is just incredible. What I love most about the Fujifilm film simulations is the nostalgic feel of shooting film and the ability to customize the settings for each recipe.

I just love these more warm and less digitalized look tones that these cameras produce. For one, their aesthetics match my liking, and for me, they help “romanticize” the moment even more. Being able to see the final results right in my camera’s display gives me confidence and freedom while taking pictures that I learned to enjoy greatly.  But having the option to at the same time shoot both in JPEG and RAW is extremely helpful if you decide to post-process images more or change the initial look.

Between Two Worlds
Street photography often focuses on day-to-day situations and the interactions of humans. I try to incorporate the essence of travel photography in my approach as well. My intent is to tell a story about a place and its history, with a spontaneous feel, also not limiting myself in the genre of street photography by only focusing on people and urban environments. Since this would only show one side of a destination and wouldn’t necessarily tell the whole story of a place. To me, that’s a very interesting intersection of two photography genres, and I find it to be extremely fun to find a spot between the two. You’re able to tell a different kind of story and provide a different sort of insight when incorporating both. It’s almost like giving your viewers a chance to be part of that exact moment and not only deliver a stunning, clean photo under the best circumstances, like you would get in a magazine or else.

Obviously, it’s crucial to have a good set of lenses to match your needs in the field you’re working in. For me specifically, I appreciate wide lenses, like my Viltrox 13mm f1.4, for urban settings and the times I want to showcase the scale of a scene. Other times I need a bit more reach to zoom in in order to create the intimacy and highlight details in a shot. For those times, I truly love my Fujinon XF18-120mm F4. It does come with a bigger form factor and compromises when it comes to the aperture. But only taking one lens on a trip and having this incredible range in focal lengths is extremely handy. I also do use the Fujinon 18-55mm kit lens, while most kit lenses aren’t the best in regards to image quality and features, this lens is well capable and has such a small form factor.

Another very important part of my creative work, besides shooting stills, is creating video content. The X-S20 provides amazing features. Having the ability to shoot in 6.2k Open Gate, 4:2:2 10-bit colors, IBIS, and many more is just absolutely amazing. Since I create for almost all the social platforms and all the various formats, this has been extremely valuable.

Besides all the specs and the numbers around cameras, to me, it’s all about enjoying the art and the process of creating and capturing moments. Exploring the world around you, learning to pay attention to details and situations, is what excites me most. To me, a camera is a tool that provides you with exactly that. It does change the way you approach a moment and see the world around you differently.

Ultimately, I wish my work to reach more people and inspire others to go out and create themselves. Ideally, with a Fujifilm, of course!

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