Day One

My first photo taken with my Fujifilm X-M5, of an X-E5.

I’d been a keen smartphone photographer for a long time. With the advent of computational photography, phones became significantly more capable cameras and continued evolving for several years — better HDR algorithms, better noise reduction, larger sensors, additional lenses. But I’ve found smartphones — despite snapping higher and higher quality photos for sharper memories — boring, of late.

That’s when I decided to dive into the world of “real” photography. My friend bought a new Fujifilm X-E5 (shot above) to replace his X-M5. I figured it would be the perfect starter camera; it was cheap (for a modern camera), compact, had good connectivity (Wi-Fi enabled transfer to my phone), and possessed those enviable film simulations. I loved that you could get artsy JPEGs straight out of camera. It felt like the gateway to a new world of image capture.

Obviously, my first photos we rubbish! I may have an eye for composition, but had zero technical skills with a camera. I was accustomed to the point-and-shoot lifestyle of my phone, rarely messing with the overwhelming variety of settings I now had to understand. But it’s important to know where you began, to see how far you’ve come.