As part of the launch of the insanely popular Fujifilm X100VI camera, Fujifilm US and Luminar Neo hosted a bunch of photo walks across the major cities in the US.

Coincidentally there was one organised in downtown Houston. And I jumped at the chance of meeting some Fujifilm enthusiasts as well as exploring the downtown area (which I’ve yet to explore myself).

The Kit For The Day

I kept my camera kit very simple for the photo walk.

I had the Fujifilm X-T4, the Fujinon 35mm f1.4 and Fujinon 23mm f2 in my trusty street photography bag, the Wandrd 6L sling (The original).

I enjoy shooting with prime lenses when I’m not travelling because I love the challenge of not being able to zoom, and the quality that comes out of Fujinon prime lenses is like no other.

The Photowalk

It was the first time I was out and about in Houston with a camera in hand.

Most of the photography I’ve done since moving to the US has been during our travels.

It felt great to get back to doing some street and urban documentary-style photography again! But as it was a weekend, downtown Houston was a bit of a ghost town.

Our group of 40+ photographers were probably the most people I saw the whole time!

The organisers also brought along a few models for photographers who want to do some environmental portraiture. I’m not much of a portrait photographer, but it was still fun to see how I could take more documentary-style photos of the model instead.

It was Houston Rodeo month… so cowboy hats were a thing in Houston! (more on that in a future blog post)

I focused on photographing the urban landscape and architecture of Houston. It’s truly a concrete jungle.

Thank you Adobe Lightroom for it’s powerful straightening editing tools!

For the 2 hour photo walk, we didn’t wander very far or to many locations downtown. We hung around the city hall area and then migrated to Bud Light Amphitheater area for a city skyline view closer to light fall.

When I was taking the photos at the time, I didn’t feel like I captured anything worth sharing.

But when I started digging through the 100+ images I took on the photowalk, it turned out there were 30+ images that I felt were keepers, that told the story of the day.

None of them are award-winning. But the two photographs above were my favourites for the day. It’s a shame I couldn’t easily remove the distracting person behind the model on the image on the right.

I’ve come to realise I enjoy taking urban and architectural photographs with a human element to it, without the human element as the focus of the image.

The Goodies

I’m not sure if it’s an American thing, but iron-on patches are really popular here in the States. I always see them in gift shops of museums, landmarks and other tourist attractions.

Even though I don’t personally use iron-on patches, I was super excited to get a couple of the Fujifilm Velvia patch that they were giving away, as a bit of a souvenir!

Do you have a favourite camera or lens kit when you head out to on a photo walk? I would love to hear in the comments below.

That’s all for now, happy shooting.

Your friend, J.