I just emailed out the very last issue of FXW Zine.
In case this is news to you, I have ended the Fuji X Weekly Creative Collective. Everyone who was a subscriber at the very end was emailed a link to Issue 28. If that was you, check your email; if it’s not there, check your spam folder. I’ve already received several deliver failures, so reach out to me if yours did not come, and I’ll resend.
Thanks so much everyone!
I have to apologize to you. Unfortunately, and sadly, I’m cancelling the Fuji X Weekly Creative Collective. Sorry.
Why?
To begin with, it’s been plagued by technical issues since the beginning, and WordPress has not been very helpful with that. More recently, a new problem arose: some of those who have canceled their Creative Collective subscriptions are still getting charged each month. I’ve spent many hours trying to get this fixed, but WordPress and Stripe (which is who handles the payments) are not taking responsibility or providing a solution. It seems that the only way to fix the issue is to end the Creative Collective altogether.
I started the Creative Collective on November 9th, 2021, with the intent of publishing bonus content that was in addition to the regular articles. It was a way to support this website and get a little extra content in return. During that time I published 64 Creative Collective articles, which included 27 issues of FXW Zine, an eZine extension of this website. I hope that you all who were Creative Collective subscribers enjoyed it, and found it useful, inspiring, or at least entertaining.
For everyone who was a Creative Collective subscriber, I really appreciate your support! You mean a lot to me, so it’s with a heavy heart that I’m doing this. I’m working on one last FXW Zine that I will email out to all the current Creative Collective subscribers, probably in the first week of March. All of the current Creative Collective content will eventually become free for everyone, but it will take some time to get through all of it.
Once again, I’m really sorry for this announcement.
The February issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
In Issue 27, I give you a sneak peek of a secret project that I’ve been working on. There are 16 pictures (including the cover) over 12 pages. Enjoy!
Almost two years ago, I stayed at a house in Hammond, Oregon, right off of the Columbia River near where it meets the Pacific Ocean. Even though it’s a river, it is an estuary—a mix of salt and fresh water. At high tide, the river swells several feet higher than low tide. I spent some time on the rocks along the shore, and watched the tide come in and out.
Photographic life is like the Columbia River estuary.
Happy New Year!
The January issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
In Issue 26, I discuss 24 Film Simulation Recipes that I anticipate using often in 2024. There are 77 pictures (including the cover) over 54 pages. Enjoy!
When I first started making Film Simulation Recipes for Fujifilm cameras and discovered that I didn’t need to shoot RAW anymore, I spent over a year strictly being a JPEG-only photographer. After awhile I figured out that it is a lot easier to create new Recipes when you have a RAW file that can be reprocessed in-camera, so I switched to RAW+JPEG. In the years that have passed since, the RAW files always stay on the SD Card in the camera, and it’s the camera-made JPEGs that are transferred to my phone and then to online storage.
Since I have a RAW file, I have the option to reprocess the exposure to other Recipes if I want (it can be done in-camera or via X RAW Studio… I always do it in-camera, personally), but that is something I don’t often do (except for when creating new Recipes). My preferred method is to shoot with a Recipe, and the results are whatever they are (that’s half the fun of it). I try to pick the right Recipe for the given situation; occasionally, though, if I like a particular picture but I shot it with the wrong Recipe, I’ll reprocess it using a more appropriate one. That’s the story of this article.
The December issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
Issue 25, which begins year-three of the publication—has four articles that feature three Film Simulation Recipes. There are 33 pictures (including the cover) over 24 pages. Enjoy!
Have you ever accidentally taken a picture? You had a camera in your hand, and it was powered on, but you didn’t mean to activate the shutter and capture an image. I’ve done this more times than I’d like to admit. Most often these accidental pictures are just deleted, but occasionally I will keep them because they’re interesting in some way, or at least more interesting than they should be. Let’s take a look!
The November issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
Issue 24—yes, the 24th issue!—has two articles. The first is about fall foliage photography, with its brilliant displays of color. The second is a brief look back at the previous 23 issues of FXW Zine. There are 34 pictures (including the cover) over 24 pages. Enjoy!
Colors are closely tied to mood and emotion. One picture can produce various reactions simply by changing the color cast. Since Film Simulation Recipes have various color casts, you can use them to make your pictures convey certain feelings. Let’s take a closer look at what exactly that means.
The October issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
Issue 23 explores the unexpected diversity of Arizona’s landscapes. There are 31 pictures (including the cover) over 24 pages. Enjoy!
Most people don’t use ultra-high ISOs like 25600 on their Fujifilm cameras. But maybe it’s underutilized? Perhaps it’s not appreciated nearly as much as it should be. While I have utilized ISO 25600 and higher on purpose in the past, a couple of recent accidental uses of this ultra-high ISO has made me pause and reconsider if I should be using it more often than I do.
So let’s take a look at some ultra-high ISOs!
Dramatic photographs are statement pieces that grab the viewer’s attention. There are several techniques that you could employ to capture dramatic pictures, including light, subject matter, and composition/point-of-view. In this article I will discuss a particular piece of gear that often delivers dramatic results: the ultra-wide lens.
The August issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
Issue 21 takes a look at five budget-friendly Fujifilm cameras that are fairly inexpensive on the used market. If you are considering adding another camera but don’t have a lot to spend, or if you are looking for a good-yet-cheap first Fujifilm model—maybe for your kid or a friend—then the August issue is for you!
July 4th is an American holiday, often celebrated with family, fireworks, watermelon, and barbecues. I chose to document the day with my Fujifilm X100V loaded with seven Film Simulation Recipes, each picked for a specific reason. I made a point to try all seven throughout the day, and especially during the fireworks show. Let’s take a look at how that worked out!
The July issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
In Issue 20 I describe how I used my Fujifilm X100V to replicate the aesthetic of small Kodak negatives. It includes 26 pictures (including the cover) spread across 20 pages.
Note: This was a Creative Collective article, but it is now available to everyone.
Click the link below to open the .pdf. Once open, to save the file to your computer depends on the browser you are using—look for the save icon, or you might have to select “File” at the top (each browser is different).
I love to be creative, and to challenge myself to occasionally use curious techniques. While on the Central Coast of California tour earlier this month, one method I infrequently employed was a slow shutter speed handheld to purposefully achieve blurred images. When doing this, it’s possible to get an impressionist or abstract image that might be more interesting—or, at least, more unique—than if a quicker shutter or tripod had been used. I wouldn’t want to do this with every photograph, but when used sporadically (or maybe for a particular project), the results can be intriguing.
Keep reading to learn more!
The June issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
In this month’s publication I suggest seven different Film Simulation Recipes that are excellent for a day at the beach. If you’ll be heading to the coast this summer, you’ll want to check out this issue!
I recently came across on article on PetaPixel by Chris Kuhn entitled Shooting Color and Black and White Film …At the Same Time. It was an interesting read and experiment, but I thought that it would be much easier to do something similar on a Fujifilm camera. And so I did. You can, too! Read on to find out how….
The May issue of FXW Zine is out now! Creative Collective subscribers can download it today. Not a Creative Collective subscriber? Join to gain access to this issue plus all pervious issues of FXW Zine and the many bonus articles.
What’s in this month’s publication? We take a look at revisiting subjects or locations in hopes of getting a better—or at least different—photograph.