I’ve always loved the look of old photos from the 70s and 80s, there’s something eerie and yet incredibly soothing about them. However, I’ve never been able to quite replicate that old film style on my phone. The iPhone 15 Pro Max might well be the best cameraphone I have ever owned, but it has never quite scratched my photography itch.

Enter the Fujifilm X100VI, the most hyped camera in the world at the moment. With a trip to New York City on the horizon, I decided it was time to finally take a leap and purchase my very first camera — and what better way to give photography a go than with the camera that so many people are dreaming of getting their hands on?

Now after owning Fujifilm‘s popular camera for a few months and with a belly full of the best pizza NYC has to offer, I’m ready to talk about why the X100VI might be my favorite tech purchase in a long time and five ways it has taught me far more about photography than my iPhone ever could.

1. I’m a more thoughtful photographer now

I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m a terrible photographer, or at least I’ve spent the last 29 years of my life believing I was. For as long as I’ve owned a smartphone, my photography workflow has involved pulling my iPhone out of my pocket, lining up a quick shot, and tapping the shutter button. No real thought into the process, no further editing, essentially pure point-and-shoot.

But the X100VI has completely changed my whole thought process when it comes to photography, I’ve done a total 180 and now look for the right shot rather than quickly snapping a pic for the sake of saying “I was there”. There’s something so mindful about owning a dedicated device for capturing memories, it made my time in New York feel like I was exploring the world in a whole new light, despite the fact I’ve been there many times before. 

In the same way my iPhone will never replace the dedicated gaming experience of my Steam Deck because there’s purpose in the decision to play a game, the X100VI opened my eyes to intentionality in photography, which is something I had never experienced before when using my smartphone as my camera.

2. I can get the film look, without the cost of actual film

I’ve always wanted to take photos that look retro but the thought of wasting film because I’m not skilled enough always put me off trying. Last year, I went to Berlin with a disposable film camera and while I loved the experience, I missed the ability to view my shots and take multiple photos to find the perfect one. The Fujifilm X100VI is everything I wanted in a first camera, and Fujifilm’s film simulations are the main reason for it.

Fujifilm has decades of experience making film and purpose-built hardware for it which means the company knows everything there is to know about creating color filters for a digital camera.

On my X100VI, I quickly found different film simulations (essentially filters you can use directly on the camera) that helped replicate the old film look, and the best bit is you can take photos and save them directly to JPEG with no editing required — the point-and-shoot of my iPhone, but better.

I then stumbled into the world of film recipes, online communities with talented photographers who create filters you can use directly on your Fujifilm camera to capture different looks that aren’t on your camera by default. The best one I’ve found yet is called 1970s Summer by Fuji X Weekly, and it has helped me capture photos I could only ever dream of just a few months ago, like this 70s-style shot of a bodega in Brooklyn or a moody shot of the subway (see above).

3. I’m learning to take manual control of exposure

Before purchasing the X100VI, my photography knowledge was fairly limited. I knew about the exposure triangle but I had seldom put it to good use as my iPhone’s camera did all the work for me.

At first, all of the dials on the X100VI felt very overwhelming but learning about the exposure triangle: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, has not only made me feel more in control of my photography but also enjoy the art of taking a photo. 

The tactile feedback of the dials on the X100VI adds to the fun learning process, and while I’m still trying to find my feet, every so often I get a eureka moment that makes using an actual camera feel far more rewarding than my smartphone ever could be.

4. Screw on lens filters are cool

I know, I know, you can use lens filters with an iPhone. But, no adaptor kit that protrudes from the side of your smartphone can compete with the magical feeling of screwing on a lens filter for the first time. 

I purchased the Tiffen Glimmer Glass, and have barely taken it off since first putting it on. The lens filter adds bloom to lighting in my photos, which helped massively in NYC to create a sort of melancholic vibe that I never thought I’d be able to achieve.

While I only own one filter at the moment, I can see myself getting hooked on purchasing lens filters, something I would never have thought about if I stuck to taking photos on my iPhone.

5. Uploading photos isn’t that complicated

I can only speak for the X100VI, but my fear of photography has always focused on the complexity of exporting from the device and editing photos. 

My Mac has a pretty small SSD, so I wanted to make sure I could use the camera with my 2TB M2 iPad Pro, and the whole process has been an absolute breeze. I can simply plug the X100VI directly into the USB-C port on my iPad and import my shots.

I can then edit photos directly on iPadOS 17 using Adobe Lightroom Mobile with the Apple Pencil, although, because of film simulations and the ability to save to JPEG or HEIF, the editing process is often complete as soon as I press the shutter button. 

If you’ve wanted to give photography a proper shot, but are scared of editing, Fujifilm’s X100 series may be the perfect entry point.

Am I a photographer now?

Image 1 of 4

Who am I kidding? Most of the photos I take with the X100VI are mediocre at best. But there’s something so incredibly rewarding about snapping a good one that I’ve never quite experienced on a smartphone camera. Yes, it’s not ideal to carry a camera around with you when you can just pull your iPhone from your pocket, but the X100VI is small enough to swing over your shoulder and never look back.

This is only the beginning of my photography journey but the Fujifilm X100VI is an absolute pleasure to use and the perfect companion to take with me on my adventures. 

Using a camera has given me a new creative opportunities, allowing me to create without overthinking, and opening my eyes to a hobby that I’m learning to love. At $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,899 the X100VI may be expensive, but purchasing one has given me a new lease of life that makes every time I leave the house exciting again.

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BANFF – Hovering over peaks and mountain ranges, the open doors of the floating helicopter leave Paul Zizka unprotected against the elements.

The wind is howling way up there and everything and everyone is bouncing around inside the compact metal box with swirling blades. 

Zizka, meanwhile, sits attached to a harness that’s clipped into an anchor in the middle of the helicopter. He points a camera out and shoots the landscape below while trying not to think about whatever people avoid thinking about when they’re more or less hanging around thousands of feet up in the air.

“Whenever my mind wanders to how exposed we are and how vulnerable it feels to be up there, I just kind of get my mind into the photography world again,” said Zizka. 

“I sort of try to focus on the task at hand and that kind of allows me to really focus on what I’m doing … and making sure you get the image that you need kind of helps with that, but it’s always exhilarating, for sure.”

The renowned mountain and landscape photographer from Banff has gained international recognition for capturing iconic shots in the Canadian Rockies. However, that’s mostly been when both of his feet are firmly planted on the ground where he gets last say on the photograph. For aerial photography, at the mercy of other factors including a changing weather pattern, it’s a chance for Zizka to see the world he’s immersed in much differently. 

It also means the public gets that rare opportunity, too.

The award-winning photographer’s book Aloft: Canadian Rockies Aerial Photography, published through Rocky Mountain Books, is available on paperback for the first time. It offers a bird’s-eye view of summits, lakes, glaciers and valley bottoms in locations such as Canmore and Banff and Jasper national parks in all seasons.

The inspiration for capturing the Rockies from a unique angle came while Zizka was hiking Castle Mountain in Banff National Park in 2009. His hiking partner suffered an unfortunate leg injury, which forced the pair to call for help and be heli-rescued. 

When everyone was safe and secured and the helicopter went airborne, the adventure photographer quickly realized how differently the famous mountain appeared from how he was used to seeing it. New angles, characteristics, shadows and the vast diversity were suddenly seen in a new light.

“Flying over the mountains is always so memorable,” said Zizka. “Living in a place that is so dynamic, you never know what you’re gonna get, and you have to make the best of it.”

Captured over a six-year span between 2013 and 2019, Zizka and a small team with keen eyes, including his wife and writer Meghan J. Ward, started out with thousands of photographs to look over, but only 135 made the cut for Aloft.

About half of the photos in the book were taken while he was shooting commercially. For the other half, Zizka arranged to be taken up in the sky to fill in the gaps of areas he missed shooting.

“There’s definitely something to be said for when you put in the physical work to get an image,” said Zizka. “You’re forced to put more intention into what you do and you’re less likely to cut corners, you’re more likely to do it right, I think, and just really try to capitalize on what Mother Nature sort of hands out to you.”

For more on Aloft and Zizka, visit www.zizka.ca.

A LONDON-BASED Irish photographer who was due to be part of the first ever civilian crew flying to the moon has been left devastated as the mission has been cancelled.

Cork native Rhiannon Adam was one of ten people selected to be part of the dearMoon crew – a planned private flight to the moon funded by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Elon Muck’s SpaceX rocket Starship.

Originally due to launch in 2023, the project, first announced in 2018, was delayed and had been postponed for a launch date expected this year.

An announcement regarding the current dearMoon flight status. https://t.co/8q4opnFVUz

— dearMoon (@dearmoonproject) November 9, 2023

However, Maezawa has now publicly confirmed that the mission will no longer go ahead.

“In 2018, Yusaku Maezawa announced dearMoon, the world’s first civilian circumlunar voyage aboard SpaceX’s space vehicle, Starship,” the statement said.

“The plan had included artists from around the world who would participate in the project to share the invaluable experience in space with the rest of the world. “Arrangements were being made with SpaceX to target the launch by the end of 2023,” it explained.

“Unfortunately, however, launch within 2023 became unfeasible, and without clear schedule certainty in the near-term, it is with a heavy heart that Maezawa made the unavoidable decision to cancel the project.”

It added: “To all who have supported this project and looked forward to this endeavor, we sincerely appreciate it and apologize for this outcome.

“Although dearMoon is cancelled, Maezawa and dearMoon crew members will continue to challenge themselves in their respective fields.

Rhiannon Adam was one of ten people selected to be part of the dearMoon crew (Pics: dearMoon)

“We will hold deep respect for SpaceX as they continue to venture into uncharted territories, while we ourselves will move on to the next challenge.”

Responding to the news, Ms Adam, a photographic artist who currently lives and works in London, said it was a “dream crushed”.

“DearMoon was a dream granted, and with it taken away, it is a dream crushed.”

She added: “My soul feels crushed, but as I lick my wounds, and try to imagine what I will do next, I’ll remain focused on what really matters.

“There’s a lot in this world to fix. I’ll continue to tell stories that shine a light on the darkest of places, and into the hidden cracks.”

DearMoon was a dream granted, and with it taken away, it is a dream crushed. I found this a while back – containing an application to go to the moon. Most of those who applied (in the 1950s) are now gone… we carried their dreams too, and theirs were never realised either… pic.twitter.com/SIi7gfWX6N

— Rhiannon Adam (@blackbirdsfly) June 1, 2024

Adam’s work is focused on research-based, long-form, social documentary projects that make use of analogue photographic processes and archive materials.

She has been shortlisted for and won numerous awards over the years, including the Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography.

The beauty of a sunrise has long been a source of inspiration for photographers worldwide – including 21-year-old Ben Pulletz, who has already won many international awards for his work. After discovering a passion for photography just five years ago, Ben has made it his mission to capture the magic of an early morning through his lens. 

“I believe in spending long hours researching locations, early mornings and a lot of dedication to capturing amazing pictures of nature – no giving up!” he says.

When Ben arrived at the location in Somerset, the first thing he noticed was the soft glow of the dawn sky. The sun had just begun to rise behind Glastonbury Tor and the warm light and golden hues were illuminating the landscape. “Just as the colours were starting to get vibrant, I saw the cows walking towards the gate, probably waiting for the farmer to arrive with some hay,” he says. 

Ben was attracted by these elements, which compelled him to capture the scene. “There are many pictures of Glastonbury Tor already out there, so I wanted something different from the usual sun behind the Tor,” he says. “The cows play a big part of the shot but the layering is what drew me in – the bulrushes in front of the mist and the early morning glow firing up the mist. All these elements make this shot come together.”

Despite the strong winds, Ben decided to take the shot handheld, leaning against a car to help avoid camera shake. “I didn’t want to miss that moment before the clouds in the distance had moved on,” he says. Ben captured multiple shots of the scene as the cows moved, ensuring he had an image with them ideally positioned in the frame.

Ben Pulletz

Ben Pulletz is a photographer from Somerset, UK. He loves nature and the outdoors, exploring and capturing the countryside and local woodlands. In 2021 Ben won his first international award as Category Winner in the Siena International Awards. 

Tech details

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

Lens: Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

Aperture: f/5

Shutter speed: 1/100 sec

ISO: 800

If you missed the recent show from the aurora borealis (or northern lights, as they’re known in the northern hemisphere), fear not – we could be on the cusp of a repeat during the week starting June 3. 

Although there are absolutely no guarantees, the part of the sun that caused a G5 geomagnetic storm (the strongest since 2003) last month has returned to face Earth. And the good news is that it’s still active.

According to NASA, the sunspot AR3697 (formerly known as AR3664) let rip an X-class solar flare, rated at X1.4, on May 29. Aurora is caused by the solar wind accelerating down the field lines of our planet’s magnetosphere – which is Earth’s armor against charged particles spewed into space by the sun.

The solar wind and the aurora are caused by what astronomers call coronal mass ejections (CMEs), clouds of charged particles that can be shot into space from the sun in the wake of a solar flare. 

However, when an active region faces Earth, a window of opportunity for aurora opens. The sun rotates every 27 days, so June 6 is exactly one sun cycle since May 10’s display. As luck would have it, that’s the date of the new moon, which means dark skies at night.

This means that, weather permitting, there could be opportunities to see and shoot the northern lights a few days either side of that date. Here’s how to stay up to date on the potential opportunities and prepare to photograph them with a camera or phone…  

5 steps for planning Northern Lights photos

1. Check the conditions

Who do you rely on to tell you that there’s about to be a massive geomagnetic storm? It’s social media – but you have to be so very careful. There’s a lot of misinformation and cult-like social media accounts surrounding the aurora.

If you hear the words “kill shot” or any chat about the weakness of Earth’s magnetic field, run a mile. Rely only on solar physicists and expert aurora hunters who do this as a career and a passion. 

Here are the best websites and X (formerly Twitter) feeds to follow for up-to-the-minute information about incoming space weather: 

The best websites and apps

The best social media accounts to follow

• Dr. Ryan French (@RyanJFrench): British Solar Astrophysicist at the National Solar Observatory and author of The Sun: Beginner’s Guide to Our Local Star.
• Sara Housseal (@SNHWx), Operational Space Wx Forecaster & Meteorologist at Johns Hopkins University and a Master’s Student at Millersville University. 
• Vincent Ledvina (@Vincent_Ledvina): “The Aurora Guy,” a northern lights photographer in Alaska and a Space Physics PhD student at the UAF Geophysical Institute.

A well as a reliable warning about incoming space weather, you’ll also need a clear sky. If there are clouds, it makes no difference how strong the geomagnetic storm is – you’ll see nothing. So consult the best travel and weather apps, such as Windy, for the latest guidance.

2. Find the right location

Although hours of darkness are few at northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere, it’s wise to have somewhere in mind to drive to for midnight just in case a strong display of aurora is forecast. 

A great place to consult before any other is the Find A Dark Place on the DarkSky website, which details all the certified International Dark Sky Places. These are protected land and night skies in 22 countries on six continents, from Arches National Park in Utah and Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania to Aoraki Mackenzie in New Zealand and Elan Valley in mid-Wales.

However, you don’t need to go somewhere with protected sky – anywhere about 40 miles from a city should have a reasonably dark sky. A light pollution map and GoStargazing are both useful for locating pockets of darkness. 

Remember that it doesn’t get dark until about midnight at mid-northern latitudes in June. That will make a difference by narrowing the window of opportunity nightly. For example, the aurora was spotted before midnight on May 10 in the UK. If a powerful geomagnetic storm strikes again this week in early June, it’s going to be after midnight that the aurora becomes visible.

3. Plan your shot

When the aurora appears in the skies above, it’s tempting just to take a shot. Any shot, just to prove you saw it. That’s completely understandable, but it’s not how to take a memorable image of the aurora. Go look at any news articles about the aurora, and you’ll find that most of them include landscapes or people. Or both. 

If you have the luxury of time to think about where you might want to photograph the aurora, try to get something interesting in the foreground – such as the silhouette of a gnarly tree, a building or a lake (for reflections), or crowds of people watching the aurora.

It’s wise to think about the direction of the aurora. Typically, they appear in an oval around the Arctic or Antarctic circles. If a geomagnetic storm is particularly strong, that oval stretches to more southerly latitudes in the northern hemisphere and two more northerly latitudes in the southern hemisphere. 

That means the northern lights are typically seen in the northern sky, and the southern lights are in the southern sky. It’s something to remember when planning a shot – and this is where planning apps like PhotoPills, The Photographer’s Ephemeris and Planit Pro come in handy. However, the fact is that May 10’s geomagnetic storm was so strong that the aurora was visible to the south in the northern parts of the U.K.

Dark skies aren’t everything. Aurora are captured using long exposures of a few seconds or more – depending on their brightness – so it is possible to image them in cities. May’s displays proved that. It’s also true that post-production can be used to remove the unwanted effects of too much sky glare. 

It may be that you actively want to photography the aurora in an unexpected place, such as a city. However, it’s best to keep away from bright light sources, such as street lights, security lights and the always-on office lights of city centers. And that can be hard to do. 

4. Gather your equipment

Yes, you can shoot the northern lights using a smartphone. They’re ideal for making sure that what you can see is, in fact, an aurora and not a cloud. The fabulous reds and greens you see in images from May 10 look far more vibrant to a camera than to the human eye, which sees mostly grey. 

A handheld smartphone will do in a pinch, and it’s useful for checking that Aurora is present. But for a good, memorable shot, you still ideally need a tripod. That applies to both a smartphone and a manual mirrorless or DSLR camera.

For the latter, use a wide-angle lens with as wide an aperture as possible (for example, a 14mm lens and an aperture of around f/2.8). A spare battery or two and a small head torch will also be useful. 

5. Prep the best settings

The best settings for the aurora will depend not only sky conditions but also on what time of night they appear and how bright they are. However, you’re looking at a long exposure of at least a few seconds and maybe as long as 20 seconds. Hence, the tripod.

Set the lens to infinity focus, shoot in raw and use a white balance of about 3500K to 4000K. Benchmark settings to begin your experiments would be ISO 800, a shutter speed of somewhere between 5 and 20 seconds (for a bright-dim aurora), at an aperture of f/2.8. Shoot in raw and post-process to bring out the color, though be wary of making the greens and reds too vibrant. 

For smartphones, ‘night mode’ is the best choice. If you can control the exposure, experiment with a few to 10 seconds. It’s worth considering using one of the best camera apps like Halide or a dedicated astrophotography mode, like the one on Google Pixel phones. 

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Vicky Roboyna

‘Follow your heart’

Vicky Roboyna

‘It was amazing’

Family handout

I’m not aware of a Highland Games prize for the neatest hair bun, but if there were one, this row of contenders would take on all-comers. The picture is included in Robbie Lawrence’s Long Walk Home, a double volume of photographs that are the result of five years of travels in Scotland and Scottish outposts in the US in search of the true tartan spirit of Highland gatherings. “Every event I photographed,” Lawrence writes by way of introduction, “whether on a dusty sports field in Denver, or at the local park in Burntisland, is at its core a coming together of friends and family to enjoy sports, dance and music.”

To begin with, on this quest, Lawrence hoped to strip away the myth-making, to look beneath the kilt of the games, to capture something like their authentic nature. He abandoned that idea, however. Instead, his pictures of grunting caber tossers and spry country dancers, and pipe bands emerging from dreich summer weather, became an attempt “to engage with the myriad of fabricated ideas surrounding the modern Highland Games”, the ways in which those rooted in glens by daily fact or inherited memory find joy in their Scottishness.

The poet John Burnside provides an essay for the second book of Long Walk Home, alongside artful studio portraits of Games legends and hopefuls, lit like Old Masters. Burnside recalls his own version of the West Fife diaspora, relocated in 1965 to Corby New Town, evoking memories of childhood drums and bagpipes “that seemed to rise up out of the earth itself to claim me physically, spiritually… a call to something I did not need to understand”. Scottishness as presented at the Games may well be “as much myth as it is history” Burnside writes, but that only means “we must guard it carefully, retell it beautifully and, more than anything else, love it wisely”.

• Long Walk Home is published at the end of the month by Stanley/Barker (£75 for a double volume)