Instagram banned hashtags
25th February 2021

Once again, I found that I had used one of the Instagram banned hashtag. Now, this has nothing to do with the infamous “shadowban” practice controversy. I noticed a slight decrease in engagement compared to previous posts, so I decided to investigate a little. It turns out that the hashtag #sunriselovers had been flagged for inappropriate content. Which meant that it was not generating any engagement because Instagram hidden my post. This...

Read More
Snow in London photowalk
3rd February 2021

First (and so far only) day of snow of 2021, so of course I had to go out for a Snow In London photowalk! I love the snow, maybe because it is always been so rare in every city I have lived in. In Florence, for example, people still talk about the snow of 1985… This rare! The river Arno also froze, and you could walk over it, so that's why the...

Read More
become a better photographer
22nd January 2021

If you ever want to become a better Photographer, there is one thing you need to start doing right now. Particularly when you're starting this new career, it's very easy to fall into traps. You buy a new camera because you saw all the great examples of what it can do in YouTube videos or Instagram posts , and you go straight out capturing everything you see. You find your photographer “role-models”...

Read More
full time Fujifilm photographer
14th January 2021

The two questions people ask me most frequently are why I shoot with Fujifilm cameras and how I decided to be a full-time Fujifilm photographer. Because of the lockdown, I'm spending more time in the studio now, so this is a chance for another talking head video and time to answer these recurring questions. It was probably always in the cards, as Fujifilm has been with me since the beginning. But it's...

Read More
Happy New Year London New Year fireworks
1st January 2021

Happy New Year, my friends! We are finally leaving 2020 behind us… Such a challenging year for the whole world! Exactly a year ago, I was fighting with the crowds to secure my spot at St.Paul’s Cathedral in London to get the sunset aligned with the London Eye. Something I achieved, as you can see in my latest Instagram post . Little did I know that fast forward twelve months, I’d be...

Read More
4 Weeks of Instagram content in just 30 minutes
20th December 2020

That's right: I created 4 weeks' worth of Instagram content walking in Central London for less than 30 minutes. It could even be more than 4 weeks, considering I'm a bit of a slow uploader on my main IG feed at @fabienb . But here are 20 photos I find worth sharing. At 5 a week, that's 4 weeks of Instagram content. All taken on a short 30-minute walk. A little of...

Read More
Fujifilm X-T4 problems
12th December 2020

Only a few days ago, I talked about avoiding problems with Fujifilm X-T4 by keeping it clean (and how to do it). Unfortunately, my camera had a few other problems that couldn't be solved by simply removing some dust. You probably watched many videos about its qualities, but not many cover the Fujifilm X-T4 problems. And I wish I didn't have to make this video either, but the issues have gone way...

Read More
London Fog Photography
20th November 2020

Today we're looking at fog photography in London. In particular, a lot of cityscape and some street “fog photography”. We all have in our hearts the sight of beautiful landscapes in a thick fog or a delicate mist. But this has become rarer and rarer in the city. In London, for example, we now only have 2-3 days of fog a year. And so far, only 1 morning of fog in 2020:...

Read More
Rain Photography in London
15th October 2020

Time for some rain photography! Street photography, to be exact. Most foreigners think it always rains in London, but in reality it's mostly cloudy or just drizzling (and we do have sunny days, harsh ones too). Now, coming from Italy, I don't really fancy going out when it's grey, let alone raining. But I do appreciate it's a very good opportunity for photography. And so I force myself to do it every...

Read More
Luminosity Masks in Photoshop
24th September 2020

I wrote about Luminosity Masks in Photoshop already on this blog. It's a very powerful technique I use in my landscape and cityscape photography. I find it much more efficacious than letting my camera or software randomly decide what a good HDR photo is. Yes, it may take a bit longer. But the results are far more satisfactory. When I first heard about Luminosity Masks, it seemed quite a complex concept to...

Read More
vlog mitakon lens for street photography
20th August 2020

I did ask myself if the Mitakon 35mm f/0.95 could indeed be the hardest lens for street photography. Despite the clickbait title, this was a genuine question I had. And so I decided to give it a good test. To this day, Fujifilm does not release blueprints for its lenses to other manufacturers. So you don't often see other brands produce lenses for the X-Mount. One brand that comes to mind is...

Read More
Fujifilm X100V hands-on and Vlogging with the X-T4
4th June 2020

As you may know, if you follow me on Instagram , I spent last weekend going out doing a full Fujifilm X100V hands-on test. And I vlogged with the X-T4 in the meantime. I'm actually excited because it is my first vlog on YouTube! Something I had procrastinated for soooooo long. I finally managed to launch my YouTube photography channel only a few weeks ago and now I published my first vlog!...

Read More