Blog — Andy Mumford Photography

ICELAND PART 1: THE COAST & WATERFALLS

ICELAND PART 1: THE COAST & WATERFALLS

Iceland is one of those countries that must be near the top of most Photographer’s bucket list, it has such a diverse range of incredible landscapes that it’s just a pleasure to go there to shoot. On my first visit about 5 years ago I tried to get around as much of the country as possible, spending a couple of days in the highlands, in the southeast, in the north and in the westfjords. It was a great trip, but Iceland has incredible changeable weather and for large parts of the trip I never saw the sun or had any decent light.

A FEW DAYS IN TUSCANY

A FEW DAYS IN TUSCANY

Tuscany is one of those iconic landscape locations I’d longed to photograph since I first saw pictures of it in the first photography books I ever bought. It was one of the first photography trips I ever made back in 2009 and I immediately fell in love with the area. It’s a beautiful rural landscape, all gentle rolling hills, vineyards and medieval hilltop towns, and so I was excited to be heading back there again this spring with two good friends and fantastic photographers Konstantinos Vasilakis and Kostas Petrakis. We’ll be running a workshop there next year, so our plan for this trip was to finalise all the practicalities and ensure that everything we needed was in place, but of course we also intended to do plenty of photography.

FUJI GFX 50S LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW

FUJI GFX 50S LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW

The Fujifilm GFX 50S really is a game changer for Fuji. A medium format mirrorless camera, it combines the company’s heritage of classic medium format film cameras like the G690, GS645 and G617 with their retro mirrorless digitalX Series. It’s a fascinating combination and makes sense for a company like Fuji to fuse their decades of experience of medium format film systems with their brilliant mirrorless digital cameras to create a large mirrorless medium camera system that targets users of professional full frame systems like the Nikon D810, the Canon 5DR and the Sony A7R2.

Equipment, Fujifilm, Landscapes, Reviews, Travel, VideoAndy MumfordJune 4, 2017fuji review, fuji x series, fuji GFX 50S, medium format, italy, tuscany, cinque terreComment

DJI MAVIC PRO - BEST SETTINGS

DJI MAVIC PRO - BEST SETTINGS

I've been playing around with the Mavic Pro for about 3 months now, getting more confident with flying it and trying to get the best out of the drone. I've experimented with both the camera and gimbal settings to try to get the footage looking as smooth as possible, and last week headed out to the forests of Sintra at sunrise to make a short video about what I've found works best.

The camera is sensitive to sharpening. Reduce it too much and the Mavics noise reduction turns shadows into mush, removing detail that's impossible to put back in editing, but have the sharpening too high and it produces a lot of artefacts and moiré in repeated detail.

aerial photography, drones, Equipment, Portugal, VideoAndy MumfordApril 16, 2017drones, mavic, dji mavic pro, mavic pro settings, aerial photography, dji, video, cinematic footage, sintra, forests, tutorials Comments

LISBON STREET PHOTOGRAPHY - A FILM FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET

LISBON STREET PHOTOGRAPHY - A FILM FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET

Back in February, Hugo and Mauricio from Fuji X Passion joined me for a day of street photography in Lisbon. The plan was to spend a day, from sunrise to sunset recording a film while exploring and photographing in this beautiful city.

I wanted the film to show what an amazing place Lisbon is with its atmospheric neighbourhoods, winding streets, steeps hills and views across the river, so I planned out a day where we would see as much as possible, starting with sunrise looking out across the rooftops towards the river, and finishing with a sunset, again above the river, but this time next to the beautiful modern architecture of MAAT.

Fujifilm, Portugal, Street Photography, Video, WorkshopsAndy MumfordMarch 30, 2017xt2, lisbon, street photography, lisboa, fuji, fuji x series, fuji x passion, alfama, baixaComment

FUJIFILM X-T2 REVIEW

FUJIFILM X-T2 REVIEW

First off, this isn’t really a review, it’s more an overview of how I feel about the camera after using it since it arrived in November. After 4 months I feel I’ve got to know the camera pretty well, but like my blogs about the X-T1 and X-T10 when I first switched to Fuji, this is in no way meant to be a technical review or a full look at every one of it’s features. There are plenty of those already on the internet, DPreview has probably the best in depth technical review of the camera and all it’s features. Instead I’ll focus on the improvements over the X-T2 that I’ve found particularly useful, and how the camera feels to use for landscape and travel photography.

A little background to start: It’s been about a year an a half since my switch from Nikon to Fuji, and over those 18 months I’ve been constantly impressed by pretty much everything about the Fuji X System and Fujifilms approach to their cameras and lenses.

Equipment, Fujifilm, ReviewsAndy MumfordMarch 21, 2017fuji xt2, fuji review, fuji x series, fuji, fujifilm, CAMERA REVIEWComment

LEARNING TO FLY A DRONE PART 2: STILL IMAGE QUALITY

LEARNING TO FLY A DRONE PART 2: STILL IMAGE QUALITY

Since I got hold of the DJI Mavic Pro last month I've been slowly trying to get to grips with flying and filming with drones, as well as filming and editing in general. While I principally bought the drone for shooting video I am also interesting in it's capabilities for still photography, particularly as I'll be in Iceland later this year and I'd like to have a go at some abstract aerial images of glaciers and rivers. So I decided to experiment with the RAW images on the Mavic and create a video review for my Youtube channel while I was doing it.

I headed out to shoot a sunrise at Portinho da Arrabida, but it was really windy which limited how much drone flying I could do...still, I did manage to get a few photographs that I could experiment with in Lightroom.

aerial photography, drones, Equipment, Video, WorkshopsAndy MumfordMarch 9, 2017dji magic pro, drones, arrabida, portinho, ouriçal, flying a drone, aerial photographyComment

LEARNING TO FLY A DRONE WITH THE DJI MAVIC PRO

LEARNING TO FLY A DRONE WITH THE DJI MAVIC PRO

I've been fascinated by drones for a number of years and tempted to get one. The thing that has always put me off is how big and bulky they are. Even a smaller drone like the DJI Phantom is a cumbersome object that fills it's own backpack. There's no way I could see being able to incorporate a drone like that into my shooting kit, which I like to keep as small and lightweight as possible. I knew that what would happen with a drone like that would be that it would get left behind more often than not as taking it with me would mean leaving other things behind or carrying very large and bulky bag.

So when DJI announced the Mavic Pro back in October I was really intrigued. After reading the first reviews, I ordered one and then waited for it to arrive. And waited...

Equipment, Video, drones, aerial photographyAndy MumfordFebruary 10, 2017mavic, drone, dji, dji magic pro, quadcopters, video Comments

CARRASQUEIRA AT LOW TIDE

CARRASQUEIRA AT LOW TIDE

Carrasqueira is a location I've photographed many times, but not for a couple of years and not since I'd made the switch to Fuji. With the skies looking interesting I made the hour and a half drive down to the estuary of the Sado river hoping that even though the tide was going to be quite low, there would still be enough water to shoot long exposures.

As it turned out I was disappointed, the water had receded revealing the mud that the piers stand in. I'd also hoped to shoot some video, but the wind was so strong that it proved impossible, even with a microphone. The sky, however, was lovely and I passed the time there looking for alternative compositions and attempting to shoot the location in different ways to how I had done previously. It's always great to be out with the camera, particularly in such a peaceful place with a sunset like this, and while the images won't make it into my portfolio it was still a worthwhile trip.

Fujifilm, Landscapes, PortugalAndy MumfordFebruary 7, 2017Portugal, porto da palafita, cais palafitas, landscapes, paisagems, fuji xt2, sunsetComment

SHOOTING STARS ON LISBON'S WEST COAST - VIDEO

SHOOTING STARS ON LISBON'S WEST COAST - VIDEO

One of the things I’m most excited about doing in 2017 is learning how to use video more. There’s such a massive potential now with so many really portable high quality video cameras on the market, as well as the fact that Fujifilm have well and truly nailed video in their new cameras.

Of course this means learning a whole host of new skills, from shooting video and capturing good audio, to editing the footage and cutting music in. Then there are screen recordings, time lapses, there’s just a lot to learn and it’s going to take a long time till I’ll feel remotely competent.

Video, Workshops, Portugal, Landscapes, FujifilmAndy MumfordJanuary 17, 2017star photography, videos, stars, portugal, west coast, tutorials, cabo da roca, ouriçalComment

LISBON'S WILD COAST

LISBON'S WILD COAST

Since I switched to Fuji last summer my passion for just going out and taking pictures again has been completely rekindled. When I first started photography around 10 years ago my first inspiration and images came from the coastline around where I lived.

It was photographing the local coastline that I learned about using a tripod, about long exposures, and about using filters. I loved the energy of the sea, and would head out to the beaches around Lisbon with my first dSLR and try to capture the water moving around rocks. It's a wonderful place for landscape photography, although some of the locations here can be a little challenging to get to. At Cabo da Roca, mainland Europe's most westerly point, a lighthouse sits atop 100 meter high cliffs that are constantly battered by the wind and waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

BLURRED LANDSCAPE IMAGES - INSPIRED BY DAVID BURDENY

BLURRED LANDSCAPE IMAGES - INSPIRED BY DAVID BURDENY

Years ago, before I was even seriously interested photography, I came across David Burdeny's Drift series of images and they really caught my imagination. Back then I didn't even realise they were photographs, I wasn't sure what they were to be honest, I just loved the simplicity and colour. There was a clarity and minimalism about them that really appealed to me.

I came across them again years later when I was learning more and more about photography and was fascinated by long exposures of water, another of David Burdeny's specialities. This time I looked at them with a photographers eye and realised that they were blurred images, and an attempt to capture the essence of a the landscape in as minimal way as possible...just the colour and light with the removal of form.

Landscapes, AbstractAndy MumfordJanuary 2, 2017abstract, blur, panning Comments

SHOOTING A FILM WITH FUJI X PASSION

SHOOTING A FILM WITH FUJI X PASSION

Back in October I got together with Hugo and Mauricio of Fuji X Passion to make a film about shooting landscapes on the coast of Portugal. We wanted to make a film that captured the spirit of photography, as well as covering all the practices in the field as well as post processing.

Despite being pretty unlucky with the weather, which is usually interesting in October, we had a lot of fun shooting at one of my favourite locations, the beach of Praia d'Ouriçal at Portugal's westernmost tip of Cabo da Roca. It's a tricky beach to access and carrying numerous cameras, a drone, heavy video tripods and 5 or 6 bags down to the beach was a lot of fun, but it's the kind of place that when you arrive it always feels worth the effort.

We shot the ocean here, looking at how to capture movement in the water and composition, and despite having heavy cloud and little direct light, it's still an atmospheric and fascinating location to shoot.

Landscapes, Lisbon, Portugal, Video, WorkshopsAndy MumfordJanuary 1, 2017lisbon, coast, ouriçal, workshops, tutorials, videos, films, vasco da gama, fujiComment

PRAIA DO GIRIBETO

PRAIA DO GIRIBETO

Over the course of this year I've been to some incredible beaches on Portugal's coast. While researching and shooting with my friend Rob for the Alem Lisboa guide book and hiking project we've been working on we've headed out to some pretty off-the-beaten-path locations, and Praia do Giribeto is certainly one of them. Located at the foot of what at first seem to be sheer cliffs, the beach is described on a local website like this:

"The access is via a dirt path by the villages of Assafora and Magoito that ends in a high difficulty trail on the cliff top, towards the sand. It's advisable to access the beach by sea."

On closer observation however there is a clear path going down which the fishermen use, and in the particularly steep places there's a rope to hold on to. So access isn't super easy, but it's not as tricky as beaches like Ouriçal and Aroeira further down the coast.

Alem Lisboa, Fujifilm, Video, PortugalAndy MumfordDecember 15, 2016giribeto, portugal, magoito, alem lisboa, dji osmoComment

MAAT - LISBON'S MUSEUM OF ART ARCHITECTURE & TECHNOLOGY

MAAT - LISBON'S MUSEUM OF ART ARCHITECTURE & TECHNOLOGY

Lisbon's newest museum opened recently and I've been there a couple of times now to photograph it and see how it would work as a location for street workshops. I've walked and cycled past the site many times since it's been under construction and it always looked as though it was going to be a fascinating building. The sweeping curve of the roof, and it's location right next to the Tejo river within sight of the 25 April bridge really are perfect for photography, and facing south it works both as a sunrise and sunset location.

It gets pretty busy, so it's a great place to photograph people, but also it works well for long exposures with moving clouds, or to do close up architectural abstracts. It's a great place to shoot, and somewhere I'll be returning to in future

Portugal, Street Photography, Lisbon, ArchitectureAndy MumfordNovember 10, 2016lisbon, maat, museum of art architecture and technology, alges, tejo, architectureComment

MY X-T2 HAS ARRIVED!

MY X-T2 HAS ARRIVED!

I got a great parcel in the post today! Fuji sent me an X-T2!

In the middle of last year when I made the switch from Nikon to Fuji, it was apparent that Fuji were on the edge of releasing their "second generation" of X Series cameras as the X100, X Pro1 and X-T1 had all been around a while. Earlier this year we got the X Pro 2, and playing with it at the launch I was blown away by the sensor, however I never expected Fuji to release the X-T2 so soon after the X Pro 2, and I certainly didn't expect them to pack it full of so many features that elevated it above the X Pro 2! Obviously it shares the same beautiful 24mp sensor, but it also has an improved AF system and shoots 4k video. Added to that it has so many tiny improvements over the X-T1, a camera I really love, that it already looks like the X-T2 might be my perfect camera.

Things like the dual SD card slots, the tilt screen which now tilts out in portrait mode, the lockable ISO dial and much better integrated video are all features which will really improve the camera for me, especially as I'm keen to start shooting a lot more video.

I'll put together a review over the coming weeks and months as I put the camera through it's paces.

Equipment, FujifilmAndy MumfordNovember 9, 2016fuji, fuji fujifilm, fuji x series, xt2Comment

FUJIFILM 2017 CALENDAR

FUJIFILM 2017 CALENDAR

I've been so busy with projects recently that I haven't been updating the blog...I haven't even finished editing the Azores photos. There's lots happening though, quite a few projects that will be coming to fruition throughout next year that need all the seeds planting now.

In the meantime though, I've just received my official Fujifilm calendar for 2016 from Fuji. It's a massive honour to see my image from Bali on there. They selected 6 landscape images from all their X Photographers for the A2 sized calendar and mine was chosen for November/December.

Lots more images and news coming soon.

Travel, Fujifilm, Indonesia, LandscapesAndy MumfordNovember 6, 2016calendarX fujiX fuji x photographer fuji x series fujifilm Landscape neutral density filters paisagems, fuji, fujifilm, fuji x series, landscapes, bali, pemteranComment

AZORES PART 4: CORVO

AZORES PART 4: CORVO

Corvo, oh Corvo. Population 468, the most isolated and small of all the Azores, and a place I'd wanted to see with my own eyes ever since I first saw images of it. Getting there though is not always straightforward. There aren't daily flights to its tiny airport, and the two boats that go there each day are often cancelled or late due to be weather. Our boat was a due to leave at 16h30, so we arrived at the harbour a little early only to be waiting until almost 19h before we left. I did mange to capture some shots and portraits of this gentleman who'd been an inhabitant of Corvo all his life.

Azores, Landscapes, Portugal, TravelAndy MumfordOctober 13, 2016corvo, azores, açores, portugal, caldeira, volcano, islands, sunsetComment

AZORES PART 3: FLORES

AZORES PART 3: FLORES

The island of Flores is about as far west as you can go and still be in Europe, although technically it's on the American continental plate and moving 2cm further away from the European mainland each year. We landed in lovely sunshine, picked up the rental car and headed across the island to the cottage we'd booked in Faja Grande on the western side of he island. Flores is basically a large plateau, so going anywhere involves driving up and across the top. The road up has some fantastically dramatic scenery, but sadly once we reached the top we couldn't see anything as the cloud had descended so low that visibility was little me then 50 meters. When we reached the other side however we started to descend and as we dropped out of the clouds the views were magnificent. The cliffs are covered in lush vegetation and waterfalls tumbling down to the faja, the flat piece of land between the sea and the foot of the cliffs. It was late in the day and he sun had passed beneath the cloud and was saturating the cliffs in light and colour.

Azores, Fujifilm, Landscapes, Portugal, TravelAndy MumfordOctober 12, 2016flores, portugal, açores, azores, laja grande, waterfalls, sunrise Comments

AZORES PART 2: FAIAL

AZORES PART 2: FAIAL

On our trip around the Azores we'd planned three nights in Faial, mostly because I was fascinated with the view it had of neighboring Pico and its mountain, but we soon realized that it was a beautiful island in its own right.

On our first day there we drove over to Almoxarife, a small village on the coast on the other side of a headland from the capital Horta. It's a reall pretty little town and we spent a large part of the afternoon diving into the sea from the concrete piers with the the locals. The beaches here are all pretty steep and rocky, and there's something incredibly enjoyable about leaping into the ocean like that. The water in the Azores is much warmer than in mainland Portugal and in such a hot and humid place it was great to jump in.

Fujifilm, Landscapes, Portugal, AzoresAndy MumfordOctober 11, 2016AÇORES, azores, islands, faial, pico, fuji fujifilm, filters, capalinhos, almoxarife, Portugal, sunrise, sunsetComment