A walk with Flisher photography

Flisher Photography

This is the latest instalment of the series. This time it’s a walk with Flisher Photography.

Luke is the man behind the brand and predominately a wedding photographer (from Lincolnshire).

The meet

We agreed to meet in Lincoln so Luke could borrow my old Nikon 28-70mm f2.8 pro lens. Sure it’s well used (it was previously owned by a press photographer). But it is capable of lovely results, but you have to watch the autofocus.

walk with flisher photography — Cafe shot (developed & scanned on film by Phlogger)

Luke’s a nice bloke and cool looking guy (he won’t mind that) so spotting him amongst the busy Saturday traffic was easy.

Street photography

Today was a chance for Luke to see a little of the Phlogger’s world – street photography. We touched on what makes a good picture and handed him the Nikon lens to try out. Sure this lens is not designed for this stuff but it offered Luke a chance to understand the limitations of the old equipment.

Meeting near the train station offered us the chance to get involved in a busy area and see how Luke coped. After all, this is a very different environment to organised weddings.

flisher photography — Lincoln Train station (taken on Nikon d750)

After suggesting to Luke to try using vanishing points in the street, he quickly went to the ground and achieved this shot. It was clear he was trying to capture movement too.

People

What strikes you most about Luke’s character is that he’s an extrovert, but in a nice way. Although we discussed street photography and working candidly, Luke is much better talking to people. He used any opportunity to engage with people, especially dog owners. This is probably why people ask Luke to cover their wedding, he’s got a great personality.

It was that time of year for love, so after spotting a suitable frame Luke went off approaching the public to pose for him. Watching him perform street portraiture was rewarding. Life is about challenges and he coped with this easily.

Film photography

You may notice this article has taken a long time to be published considering the meet up was in February. This was because I shot 35mm film all afternoon.

It was important to show Luke what all the fuss was about and why it’s important to the Phlogger. Having picked up a film camera for the first time Luke asked the important and simple questions. Like how to focus and change the shutter sort of thing. Once he looked through and could see the metering, it was clear how simple it was to take a shot.

Once we were on the move through Lincoln, you would notice Luke trying different compositions against walls etc. I explained to Luke how easy and fast you can be with manual focus. There were 2 things, already meter and set your shutter ready according to the light. The next was pre-focus to near infinity so anything 8 foot onwards would be crisp. As a digital user you would not know this and when Luke saw this through the Olympus, he realised how fast I could work.

The challenge

After speaking with Luke he was keen to try my challenge. This was to shoot a person on the opposite side of the train crossing. But here was the tricky part – you had to shoot through the gap in carriages!

This was only ever a fun thing to try to you could see me laughing at how hard it was. Luke tried and tried, to be fair to him he has not shot in this environment before, so full credit to him.

Just don’t tell Luke this was the only shot I took which hopefully you can see is in focus and not bad for 1/500th shutter on a film camera.

Animals

There seemed to be an abundance of dog walkers that day. These provided a chance to strike up a conversation. One such couple were with their parents and children, who allowed Luke a few shots of their pet. Talking to these people provided you with a chance to engage, maybe provide a business card. The other element was to practise shooting something that moves quickly.

We also practised this with a few pigeons too, Luke must have been a snake charmer in a previous life! With my street experience, we chose the low angle technique. After thinking about this, you turn around and Luke is on the floor with his camera! Taking really unusual and artistic shots of those feathery friends.

Luke's pigeon street — Luke’s pigeon street (shot on Nikon d750)

Projects

Luke was keen to start a few projects too and he discussed a 1st/3rd person scenario. To show you how Luke’s brain works, the next second we were in a second-hand clothes shop buying shades.

He explained the idea of shooting into the reflection the shades and capturing people. So he offered me his fancy all singing and dancing Nikon d750. Within 2 shoots the Phlogger produced a shot which is now his profile. This type of camera is very special, the colours are lovely. Then, with a 50mm 1.4 lens attached. it is bokeh time baby!

Conclusion

It was really nice to spend a few hours with Luke to get to know him. We both learned things about each other (Luke has a bad back and loves gadgets). He tried the Nikon lens and was shocked how bad the autofocus was, but helped him anyway.

Please look at Luke’s site and consider him for your next wedding. He originally started by offering a special type of photo booth, which he brands the magic mirror. This work was so successful he knows shoots weddings and offers the magic mirror as an extra.

Luke’s work can be found on Instagram – @flisherphotography

Luke’s website is – flisherphotography.co.uk

We aim to meet up again in the future. Consider this as an idea for yourself, go meet up with someone new. You will meet some cool people and who knows what the future will offer?

Thanks for reading

Phlogger