BACK TO THE ROOTS
X-T2 | XF23mm F1.4
FISHEYE MAGAZINE
The doubt …
It is often present in my head. He always has been. I doubt what I'm doing with photography, with this website, this blog. And more generally with my life.
When I see the dozen talented photographers that I discover on the Internet every week, I regularly wonder what this website is for.
I know I am doing this for myself. It’s a passion and I don’t make a living with my images. I don't have to pay attention to what people think about it as long as I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
But receiving a compliment, a little comment, is always reassuring. So we know that a few people are touched with our photos. Even if their number fits on the fingers of a hand or two.
So when Fisheye Magazine sent me this email to be featured in this week's “favorites”, the doubt subsided. I know it's just a few lines that speak of you in the endless vastness of the web. But these few lines are good, and motivate to continue.
So I'm leaving boosted for a few more months ;)
Here is the link to this article from the Fisheye Magazine website that I recommend if you do not know it yet.
Le doute …
Il est souvent présent dans ma tête. Il l’a toujours été. Le doute de ce que je fais avec la photographie, avec ce site, ce blog. Et plus généralement avec ma vie.
Quand je vois la dizaine de photographes talentueux que je découvre sur Internet chaque semaine, je me demande régulièrement à quoi sert ce site.
Je sais que je fais cela pour moi. C’est une passion et je ne gagne pas à ma vie avec mes images. Je ne dois pas faire attention à ce qu’en pensent les gens tant que je prends du plaisir dans ce que je fais.
Mais le fait de recevoir un compliment, un petit commentaire, est toujours rassurant. Ainsi, nous savons que l’on touche quelques personnes avec nos photos. Même si leur nombre tient sur les doigts d’une main ou deux.
Alors quand le magazine Fisheye m’a envoyé ce mail pour être publié dans les “coups de coeur” de la semaine, le doute s’est absenté. Je sais que c’est juste quelques lignes qui parlent de vous dans l’immensité infinie du web. Mais ces quelques lignes font du bien, et motivent à continuer.
Je repars donc boosté pour quelques mois de plus ;)
Voici le lien vers cet article du site Fisheye Magazine que je vous recommande si vous ne le connaissez pas encore.
WINTER WONDERLAND
The children's smiles light up when these snowflakes start to fall. Cold season.
Now is the time to get out between isolation. To get in the car and drive up there.
Then the world around us turns white.
The snow is here this year. Nature is frozen, as is freedom.
And melancholy does not leave me alone ...
Give us back life now !
Les sourires des enfants s’illuminent quand ces flocons commencent à tomber. Froide saison.
C’est le moment de sortir entre deux isolements. De prendre la voiture et de rouler vers là-haut.
Alors le monde autour de nous devient blanc.
La neige est là cette année. La nature est gelée, tout comme la liberté.
Et la mélancolie ne me fiche pas la paix …
Rendez-nous la vie maintenant !
X-T2 | XF23mm F1.4
TRACE TA ROUTE
… but in which direction ?
X-T2 | XF23mm F1.4
FUJICOLOR SUPERIA
In 2019, with the release of the X-Pro3, Fujifilm introduced a new film situation in its cameras: the Classic Negative.
This "Classic Negative" reproduces the behavior of a color negative film from Fuji which is quite “go-anywhere”: the Fujicolor Superia.
I am very fond of the Classic Chrome simulation. But the vintage renderings photographers get with the Classic Negative appeal to me enormously. And even if the marketing argument to promote the new devices which are generally the only ones to receive the new simulations bothers me a little, I can't wait to be able to test this novelty which is no longer a novelty.
While waiting to be able to test it, here are the results obtained with the Fujicolor Superia film mounted in my Canon A1 camera and developed by the brilliant film lab Camencita Film Lab based in Spain.
Best wishes to you all !
En 2019, avec la sortie du X-Pro3, Fujifilm a introduit une nouvelle situation de film dans ses appareils : le Classic Negative.
Ce « Classic Negative » reproduit le comportement d’une pellicule négative couleur de chez Fuji qui est assez “passe partout” : la Fujicolor Superia.
Je suis très attaché à la simulation Classic Chrome. Mais les rendus vintage obtenus par les photographes avec le Classic Negative m’attirent énormément. Et même si l’argument marketing pour promouvoir les nouveaux appareils qui sont généralement les seuls à recevoir les nouvelles simulations m’agace un petit peu, il me tarde de pouvoir tester cette nouveauté qui n’en est plus une.
En attendant de pouvoir la tester, voilà les résultats obtenus avec la pellicule Fujicolor Superia montée dans mon boitier Canon A1 et développée par le génialissime labo argentique Camencita Film Lab basé en Espagne.
Meilleurs voeux à tous !
CANON A1 | Fujicolor Superia X-tra 400 | Canon nFD 50mm f1.4 | Sigma FD Mini-Wide 28mm f2.8
WIDER
December…
Going back to my Lightroom library, I found a few photos that I had left out.
After a 2.33:1 crop to give that “cinematic” aspect; converting to black and white and some tweaking, I figured these images deserved this little post.
Décembre…
En faisant un petit retour en arrière dans ma bibliothèque Lightroom, j’ai retrouvé quelques photos que j’avais laissé de côté.
Après un recadrage en 2.33:1 pour donner cet aspect “cinéma”; une conversion en noir et blanc et quelques ajustements, je me suis dit que ces images méritaient cette petite publication.
X-T2 | XF23mm F1.4
PIRENEUS | LAC DU PORTILLON
ISOLATED
FOLLOW THE MOON
X-T2 | XF35mm F2
A WEEK BEFORE
It was the week before, during preparations.
In the meantime, there have been these government announcements and quite a few complicated times for them to manage. But they got there. They are now married. After a wonderful weekend.
Be happy. Be happy bro.
C’était la semaine d’avant, pendant les préparatifs.
Entre temps, il y a eu ces annonces du gouvernement et pas mal de moments compliqués à gérer pour eux. Mais ils y sont arrivés. Ils sont aujourd’hui mariés. Après un magnifique weekend.
Soyez heureux. Sois heureux fréro.
X-T2 | XF35mm F2
BREATHE
PETIT TONNERRE
We did this shooting in the forest two years ago. And we were already talking about doing this other session at her home.
After a few exchanges of images and ideas, here we are two years later …
Nous avions fait ce shooting dans la forêt il y a deux ans. Et nous parlions déjà de faire cette autre séance chez elle.
Après quelques échanges d’images et d’idées, nous voilà donc deux ans après …
X-T2 | XF23mm F1.4 | XF35mm F2 | Canon FD 50mm F1.4
WHERE IS MY MIND
The posts that will follow in this journal will probably have little or no text. They will just be a succession of images.
Creativity is absent, concentration is absent, envy too.
So I try to force myself, I work on it.
And it will come back one day …
Les articles qui suivront dans ce journal n’auront sans doute pas de texte, ou très peu. Ils seront juste une succession d’images.
La créativité est absente, la concentration est absente, l’envie aussi.
Alors j’essaye de me forcer, j’y travaille.
Et ça reviendra, un jour …
X-T2 | XF23mm F1.4
THE BEAUTY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
In June I was interviewed by FujiXPassion magazine about a series of photos I had taken during the lockdown period.
With their kind permission, I share this interview on this journal.
The Beauty of Everyday Life - Interview with Yoann Buetas
Thank you, Yoann, for opening the doors of your home ! Could you start by introducing yourself to our readers.
My name is Yoann Buetas, I’m 38 years old, I live in a small town in the south of France near the Pyrenees.
I have 2 daughters, 8 and 14 years old.
Photography is not my main job and I thank those around me for giving me so much time for this passion.
I started this practice seriously in 2016 with the acquisition of an X-T10.
How did photography come into your life, and what role does it play ?
Even though I always liked the photo and the image in general, I remember a very precise moment when the "click" was made.
I had just received my new iPhone 6 and I had created an account on Instagram and VSCO. During a family mountain walk, in a winter atmosphere, I focused for the first time on the composition to feed my new social networks. I started editing some shots with VSCO. Seeing the result, I quickly created a blog on this application and started looking for cameras on the internet.
A few months later, I bought my first Fujifilm camera.
Today, I found a kind of second language in photography. It allows me to show what I see and feel. To express feelings. It is a kind of therapy for me. It is my outlet.
This series of photographs that you're presenting today has a very well-defined reason, a particular time-window and place for being. Could you explain ?
In France, we were confined for almost two months. And even though my work never really closed, I stayed home for about a month with my children.
I was finishing a small photo project when the lockdown started : 50/50 project (50 pictures for 50 days with a 50mm focal length) that I published on my website. This series of photos on lockdown came quite naturally thanks to this 50/50 project. I continued to take pictures every day like I did during the 50 days. I continued this naturally because a sort of routine had been set up.
Was capturing life at home during the lockdown a way of maintaining contact with Photography, or does it serve a higher purpose, of recording such an unprecedented event for future memory ? Or a bit of both ?
Usually, I take a lot of photos of my daily life. I am constantly looking for subjects or stories to feed my journal.
When we were confined, the subject seemed obvious to me.
I just had to figure out how I was going to present this series on the blog.
I also felt a need to document this very special period. A kind of mission, a little work to be done every day so as not to lose touch with reality.
I also said to myself that the pictures of this strange "break" in our lives will remain engraved for my daughters when they grow up if their memories fade a little.
Today, this series has turned into an interview in your magazine and I hope that people will recognize themselves in these photos and this atmosphere.
A substantial part of your photos represents candid moments of everyday life during the lockdown. How were you able to become "invisible" and capture these unstaged, genuine moments of your loved ones ?
I am a fairly discreet person. I like to go unnoticed. My entourage is now used to seeing me with a camera always around my neck or in my hand.
The people around me no longer pay too much attention to this or to me when they see me with this object. They go back to their activity right away and it allows me to take this kind of moments of intimacy without them realizing it and without it disturbing them.
I don't particularly like to make them pose and, to be honest, they don't like it either. Sometimes my daughters can hide a little bit when they see the camera. I quickly understand that this is not the right time and I do not insist.
I also turned to mirrorless for this sort of thing. Their small size compared to an SLR allows them to be more discreet, less intrusive.
And their lightness means that I always have it with me, in my bag. It accompanies me in everyday life.
To develop this documentary project, did you have a camera and lens setup that was always ready to use, or were the focal lengths selected according to the mood of the moment, or the subject to be photographed ?
The first photos in this series were taken with the XF35f2 because my project with the 50mm was not finished. Then, I set it aside to continue with a 35mm.
I wanted to change my vision after seeing the world at 50mm during the 50 days of my previous series.
The XF23f1.4 is ideal for those moments in my apartment in low light.
This lens allows me to have a little more perspective to recover the atmosphere and the decor in this fairly small space.
When I needed a little more privacy on the images, I mounted the 50mm on my X-T2.
I bought this device two years after the X-T10.
Even if the X-T10 and the series that followed (X-T20, X-T30) are perfect devices to start the practice, small projects made that I wanted and needed to move to the model a little more "Pro".
After having hesitated for a long time between the X-T2 and the X-Pro2, I chose the X-T series two years ago.
I also occasionally use a Canon FD 50mmf1.4.
For this series and my indoor photos in general, my settings are almost always the same. The aperture is set between 1.4 and 2 to properly highlight the subject. Automatic speed with a limit of 1/125 as my minimum shunter speed. I also let the X-T2 manage the ISO. They can vary between 200 and 3200 during the day, and in the evening from 200 to 6400.
The XF23 and XF35 complement each other quite well, but if you had to choose just one lens, which one would it be and why ?
I always come back to the 50mm very quickly. For me, this is the ideal focal length and the one that suits me the most. The most versatile for my photographic style. It allows me to capture the moments of intimacy, the details.
For many people, the 35mm is more versatile. Of course, I also like this focal length for photographing in somewhat "closed" places, for taking the environment around the subject but my eyes see life in 50mm.
I have the XF35f2 model and I have been thinking about replacing or completing it with the XF35f1.4 model for quite some time. Some people would say that this idea is a little "weird" but I find that these 2 lenses are complementary. The f1.4 for its very particular rendering and for the photos in low light and the f2 for its weather sealing and speed.
What software do you use to edit your photos, and what is your usual workflow ?
I have been a Lightroom user since the start of my practice. I have been trying Capture One for some time, but I do not have enough time to know this software. It’s quite complicated to change your work habits when you have a little mastery of a tool and you don’t have time to change it.
I shoot all the time in RAW + JPEG and I use JPEG on more than 90% of my work.
I basically use three profiles with the X-T2. ClassicChrome for color, Acros + Yellow when I'm indoors and Acros + Red when I’m outdoors for black and white. I directly modify the light and shadow on the device according to the light conditions.
After importing the photos into Lightroom, I often select a series of photos to which I try to apply more or less the same tones and settings so that the series is consistent in color and mood.
Finally, you will certainly agree that inspiration can come from observing the work of others, be it the great classics, or contemporary photographers. If you had to identify the photographer who most influenced your work, who would it be ?
A photographer counted a lot and inspired me enormously at the very beginning of my practice. I continue to follow his work and his blog regularly. Patrick LaRoque showed me that you can take beautiful and very interesting photos in everyday life. That our daily life and our intimacy could add captivating elements to the images.
I didn’t dare to buy a camera too much for fear of not finding exciting subjects to photograph. When I discovered him, I realized it was just the opposite. Magnificent photos can be found there, right under our noses, in these mundane moments and in our routine.
His blog is full of wonders, and it’s true that I envy him a bit about his ability to tell stories and write. An entire artist.
Finally, I would like to thank you very much for this interview and for giving me the opportunity to present this particular series.
OBLIVION
“The best camera is the one that’s with you”
My Canon A1 has ben collecting dust for far too long. I had decided to take him with me that day. With two Fuji Superia 400 films.
It was when I got there that I realized that the device’s battery was empty and it was unusable…
Yet there was everything I love. The mood, the ambiance. A rather heavy sky, fog. It was all there.
So I grabbed my iPhone…
Mon Canon A1 prenait la poussière depuis bien trop longtemps. J’avais décidé de le prendre avec moi ce jour-là. Avec deux pellicules Fuji Supéria 400.
C’est une fois arrivé sur place que je me suis rendu compte que la pile de l’appareil état vide et qu’il était inutilisable…
Il y avait pourtant tout ce que j’aime. L’atmosphère, l’ambiance. Un ciel assez chargé, du brouillard. Tout était là.
Alors j’ai attrapé mon iPhone…
iPhone XR
MEMORIES OF THAILAND
For my second collaboration with FujiXPassion magazine, I came back to my trip to Thailand. We had gone there as a family in April 2018 for three weeks.
The first collaboration had taken the form of an interview. This is an article posted at the end of June on the website.
The photos were selected by the two authors of the site Hugo and Mauricio. I thank them once again for this collaboration.
You can find this article here.
Pour ma deuxième collaboration avec le magazine FujiXPassion, je suis revenu sur mon voyage en Thaïlande. Nous y étions partis en famille en avril 2018 pendant trois semaines.
La première collaboration avait pris la forme d’une interview. Celle-ci est un article posté fin juin sur le site web.
Les photos ont été sélectionnées par les deux auteurs du site Hugo et Mauricio. Je les remercie encore une fois pour cette collaboration.
Vous pouvez retrouver cet article ici.
OUTDOORS III
It was the end of the lockdown. It was already three months…
After weeks of feeling locked in, the girls needed space, light, green.
So we got out of this little town and we drove towards nature.
C’était la fin du confinement. C’était il y a déjà trois mois…
Après avoir eu ce sentiment d’enfermement pendant des semaines, les filles avaient besoin d’espace, de lumière, de vert.
Alors nous sommes sortis de cette petite ville et nous avons roulé vers la nature.
X-T2 | XF23mm F1.4
LOCKDOWN
I have not been too active in recent weeks here ...
There are several reasons for this.
Lockdown took up quite a bit of space in my head. The opposite happened to what should have happened. When I had more time in front of me to do things I love, I just wanted to wait for time and life to pass, and do nothing. Of course I continued to take my camera and take pictures. But they remained on the SD card. I didn't feel like the whole process that comes after the shot. Transfer to iMac or iPad, edit, write ...
I also collaborated with a photo magazine that I buy regularly. Writing an article for their website and an interview took up a lot of my time.
The magazine with which this collaboration was made is called Fuji X Passion. It’s a magazine specializing in this brand that I love so much. There are many reports and interviews there. There are many photo documentary and interviews there. The quality of the images and the photographers I discover there very often leaves me in awe. And I personally find a lot of inspiration there.
We got in touch with a photo I took during lockdown, which I posted on their website as a comment.
With the many photos I took during this period, I was thinking of creating an article or two for my blog. And then these articles turned into an interview that you can find today in this magazine accompanied by my photos.
I’m not hiding from you that it’s a great pleasure to see my name on the cover of a magazine.
Below are some photos accompanying this article.
You can get this edition by following this link.
Je n’ai pas été trop actif ces dernières semaines sur ce journal…
Il y a plusieurs raisons à cela.
Le confinement a pris pas mal de place dans ma tête. Il s’est passé le contraire de ce qui aurait dû se produire. Alors que j’avais plus de temps devant moi pour faire des choses que j’aime, j’ai juste eu envie de regarder le temps et la vie passer, de ne rien faire. J’ai bien sûr continué de prendre mon appareil et de faire des photos. Mais elles restaient sur la carte SD. Je n’avais pas l’envie de tout le processus qui vient après la prise de vue. Le transfert sur l’iMac ou sur l’iPad, la retouche, l’écriture…
J’ai aussi collaboré avec un magazine photos que j’achète régulièrement. La rédaction d’un article pour leur site web et d’une interview a pris le pas sur la tenue de mon blog.
Le magazine avec lequel cette collaboration s’est faite s’appelle Fuji X Passion. C’est un magazine spécialisé autour de cette marque que j’affectionne tant. On y trouve beaucoup de reportages et d’interviews. La qualité des images et les photographes que j’y découvre me laisse très souvent admiratif. Et j’y trouve personnellement beaucoup d’inspiration.
Nous sommes entrés en contact grâce à une photo que j’avais prise pendant le confinement, et que j’avais posté en commentaire sur leur site internet.
Avec les nombreuses photos que j’ai fait durant cette période, je pensais créer un article ou deux pour mon journal. Et puis ces articles se sont transformés en interview que vous pouvez retrouver aujourd’hui dans ce magazine accompagnée de mes photos.
Je ne vous cache pas que c’est un grand plaisir de voir mon nom en page de couverture d’un magazine.
Ci-dessus quelques photos qui accompagnent cet article…
Vous pouvez vous procurer cette édition en suivant ce lien.
X-T2 | XF23mm F1.4
50/50 PROJECT | BONUS
During the fifty days of the project, I accumulated quite a few images. There are days when I just took "two or three" photos, and there were days when I shot a lot before finding and posting "photo of the day".
After finishing the sorting, I kept some photos that I like and I let you discover them here …
Durant les cinquante jours du projet, j’ai accumulé pas mal d’images. Il y a des jours où j’ai juste fait “deux ou trois” photos, et d’autres où j’ai beaucoup shooté avant de trouver puis de poster “la photo du jour”.
Après avoir terminé le tri, j’en ai gardé quelques unes qui me plaisent et que je vous laisse découvrir ici …
X-T2 | XF35mm F2