Artist Interviews: Nick Mayo

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Artist Interviews: Nick Mayo

In this week's Artist Interview I got to talk to Nick Mayo, one of the most visible faces in the film photography community. You might know him as Nick Exposed, the title of his YouTube channel.

Nick is not only a brilliant photographer, but he also helps and inspires a whole community of people with his videos and messages.

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How I made these Star Trail images

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It's been a long summer here in NW Spain. It feels like we've had nothing but sunny and clear skies for the last two months. I'm more than ready for some fall weather but hey, if life gives you sun and blue skies, you play with star trails.

This is what I wanted to show you in this video. If you've never shot the night sky, then this can be good to get you started. I talk about the gear you will need, and the software.

Hope you enjoy it!

Zeiss ZX1: the future of photography (sort of)

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These past weeks have been pretty exciting. There are plenty of new cameras coming out soon, and even if you have no plans to get any of them (like me), I'm sure we can still agree that new camera gear is always interesting.

Most camera companies are giving their new cameras incremental updates. Yes, Canon, Nikon and Panasonic just announced their first full-frame mirrorless cameras, but they are -at best- just small improvements over what we already have now.

Even Fujifilm and its new medium format cameras are about polishing and making stuff that was already here, a bit better.

I wanted to mention one company who has gone a slightly different way, though: Zeiss and its first full-frame camera, the ZX1.

What's different about this camera has little to do with the hardware and everything to do with the software. The ZX1 looks like someone took an Android phone and attached a full-frame sensor to it. This makes me wonder about the booting up times.

Built-in Lightroom, smartphone-like features like the gallery and sharing capabilities, built-in battery (ouch) and ZERO SD card slots (it comes with a whopping 512GB of internal storage). The experience of using this camera will be very different from using other cameras we are more used to.

Most of the software features in this camera look a little gimmicky: who's going to edit images in the camera? Keep in mind: that will use battery, that you can't change since it's built-in.

This is why the title of this post has a "sort of" at the end.

I look at the ZX1 as a hint of what the future might bring, though. Computational photography is going to play a big role in the near future as modern phones have been showing us for years, but we are yet to see it making its way into "real" cameras.

If the iPhone XS can do what it can do with that tiny sensor and lens, just imagine what a full frame camera could do in the future.

Seeing Lightroom in a camera also reminds me of the attempt made by Sony to bring apps to their cameras. Now abandoned, it was a brilliant idea that got a poor implementation. I'd love to see apps making a come back into cameras - that'd open a whole new world of innovation.

Anyway, just my two cents on the Zeiss ZX1 and the future of photography.

Artist Interviews: François Madelin

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Artist Interviews: François Madelin

It's Friday, it's Artist Interviews time!

This week, I had the pleasure to talk to François, a film photographer from Paris, France. He shoots mostly black and white, both 35mm and medium format. And he has a very interesting (and unique) way to give his images a title.

All images in this post were made by François Madelin.

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Still here: update from Picos de Europa National Park

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The adventure has begun, and I'm realizing now how hard it is to keep creating daily content while on the road. I'm still here, though!

While I try to find a balance (probably sitting down one or two days a week to create enough content to schedule for several days in advance), let me give you an update from the beautiful mountains of Picos de Europa National Park, in Asturias, Spain.

I am back in my hotel room now, after spending a night in a shelter at the base of Urriellu Peak (also known as Naranjo de Bulnes), one of the most beautiful peaks in Spain. Someone referred to it as the "Spanish Dolomites" yesterday, and I think it's very appropriate.

I'm taking it easy today because I'm afraid one of the tires in the car has a leak. I got the "pressure loss" warning yesterday while driving down on a dirt road, and while the pressure hasn't gone down more than a couple PSI (could even have been me after checking the pressure a few times), it reminds me of a similar situation I experienced with the Jeep in California a couple years ago. That time ended with a flat tire in the middle of a snowstorm on Christmas Eve. Not fun. Hopefully this time is different and I can still get to explore more of this stunning place.

These are some snapshots I took on my way up and down Urriellu, and during my time at 2,000m (6,500 feet).

How to get my new eBook for free: "Long Exposure Photography"

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"Long Exposure Photography: How to make stunning images that defy time" is my upcoming new eBook. It will be released this Sunday, September 30th.

It will be a free eBook but only the current newsletter subscribers will get a copy, at least initially -it will be publicly available a few weeks later.

A good chance to join the newsletter club! Stay up to date with my work and receive free educational material like this one, for free.

And remember, you also get a free copy of "Examples of the PNW" when you sign up.

Join now and get your free copy on Sunday, September 30th!

Consistency: the gate to Greatness

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I don't know where I got this quote from. I even had to Google the name to confirm he was The Rock.

“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”
— Dwayne Johnson

I believe in this.

Don't sit and wait.

Study, improve, work, put yourself out there.

Little by little, every day, get closer to where you want to be.

Don't stop.

Nothing is guaranteed in this life, but consistency is our best shot at getting what we want.