What’s the point?
SnapShots is a place for me to post some simple photos made with simple cameras — iPhone, Fujifilm X10, and Fujifilm Instax Evo cameras to be exact. I have a great collection of gear that, sadly, I almost never use (complete list here), and I’m trying to kick myself in the backside to make some more pictures. Hopefully, that will get me using my higher-end gear more as well. That’s it. No other explanation.
Who am I?
Geren Mortensen, A.K.A. GerenM. I’ve been a photographer, sometimes professional, almost my whole life.
The Pictures
The pictures here are, as noted above, made simply with minimal cameras and minimal editing, and will be categorized by camera and tagged with the software used to process them, if any, or tagged SOOC for “straight out of camera”. Some may also include some text about where the picture was made and maybe a little bit of a back story. Instax pictures, whether they be “printed” from the camera or processed on the computer will be “framed” to appear as if they’re a physical Instax print. This will be about the only editing that occurs outside of Apple Photos, since Photos doesn’t provide a method for adding a frame. I’ll add the frame either in Apple Keynote or Affinity Photo.
The Cameras
Fujifilm X10 — The little X10 was my first Fujifilm camera, which I picked up sometime in 2012 or 2013. I wanted to get a feel for their unique sensor design and their film simulation technology without spending a fortune. It’s reminiscent of old rangefinder cameras, and has an amazing feel. Some of the controls and menus are a little quirky, but the images can be quite beautiful. It features a 2/3-inch 12MP sensor with Fuji’s X-Trans technology, an excellent 28-112mm f/2-2.8 equivalent zoom lens, and a complete range of controls. It shoots raw and jpeg files, and the raws can be “re-processed” in camera. I’ve built a complete kit around it with a nice little matched flash and a few other small accessories. While not quite pocket-sized, I can carry everything easily in a very small messenger bag or belt pack.
iPhone 16 Pro — Not much to say here, except that iPhone 16 Pro cameras are great for snapshots and general documenation. They’re fairly high resolution and the cameras can do a decent job in low light. I almost always have my phone in my pocket, so it’s readily available (the best camera is the one you have with you, after all). And when I take pictures with the phone, they automatically transfer to my computer or iPad for editing. I can also edit on the phone, so I don’t have to wait for the synchronization to take place.
Fujifilm Instax Mini EVO — Fujifilm’s Instax cameras have intrigued me from the moment I first saw one. The EVO cameras are hybrid, coupling a digital camera with an Instax printer in one package. The camera itself has a 1/5-inch 5MP sensor and a fixed 28mm f/2 equivalent lens, and there are a variety of film simulations and lens effects that can be applied when taking a picture. Like many digital point-and-shoot cameras, there’s no viewfinder, so composition takes place on a fixed 3″ LCD screen on the back of the camera. The printer uses Instax Mini film, producing a credit card sized print. Being hybrid, you don’t have to print every exposure, which reduces waste — and you can print more than one copy if you want. Because the printer is inside the camera, it’s remarkably chunky. 45 images can be held in the camera’s built-in memory, and those images can be transferred to a smart phone using an app after they’ve been printed. You can also use a microSD card in the camera, and images stored there can be freely transferred to a computer.
Canon G7X Mark II — This is probably the “best” of the cameras I’m planning to use for this project. It was my father’s, and was the last camera he purchased before he died. He never used it. It uses a 1″ 20MP sensor and has a 4.2X image stabilized lens with a 24-100mm f/1.8-2.8 equivalence. It’s fast, sharp, and versatile, and is capable of producing excellent images, both color and monochrome. While there’s a pop-up flash that can be tilted back for “bounce” flash lighting, there’s no accessory shoe on the G7X.
Canon Powershot SX110 IS — Easily the oldest of the cameras so far selected for this project, this little camera is unique in a few ways. In an era of digicams requiring expensive and increasingly hard to find camera-specific battery packs, the SX110 IS uses a pair of common AA batteries for its primary power source, and its internal clock battery is a common watch battery. Other special qualities of this camera are its 9MP CCD sensor and a very nice 10X optical zoom lens, which renders images with definite film-like qualities.
The Software
I’m not planning to do a huge amount of photo editing for these images, at least, nothing more than can be done in Apple’s Photos app or within the camera itself. The app is decent enough on the iPhone and iPad, and is really pretty full-featured on the MacBook. About all it doesn’t do is layers and compositing, and that’s generally beyond the intent here (the single exception was noted above). The idea is that this is all supposed to be easy, quick, and fun.
Affinity Photo is an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. I switched to Affinity shortly after it was announced in response to Adobe’s expensive subscription-only SaaS scheme (essentially, software rental). As mentioned above, it will be used very sparingly here.
This Website
The website is running a rather vanilla WordPress installation, with a lightly customized “stock” template and very few plugins. Plugins are used to add basic protection from image stealing, mail list subscription, RSS feed formating, and the “Buy Me a Coffee” donation/membership connection.
This website is intended for viewing on a computer, or maybe an iPad. It is not “device reactive” and will look horrible on a smart phone. That’s on purpose. A phone screen is simply not large enough to view the images properly. That’s even true of the tiny Instax print images. So please, use a computer or a full-sized iPad when viewing this website. You’ll enjoy it more.