During our trip to Boucan, there was a bit of a swell when we laid our things out on the sand, and I could see the lifeguards busy at work with the nets. Since the shark crisis, which happened over 10 years ago, swimming has only been permitted within designated swimming areas marked out by floating nets. The area is quite large, providing a safe zone. It also makes the lifeguards’ job easier as they monitor the swimming area. Some say it was better before, without the nets… Admittedly, I remember trips to Boucan where we could swim as we pleased and marvelled at the stingrays just a few metres from the shore. But that was before the shark crisis…

For many years, people have been accustomed to swimming within these famous nets. It was also strictly forbidden to swim anywhere else, with the exception of the lagoon, which was protected by the coral reef. In recent months, the regulations have changed slightly. The last shark attack was in 2019, and the Prefect has decided to relax the rules by allowing people to swim anywhere, provided they do so wearing a mask and flippers! Basically, you’re being asked to take responsibility by keeping a watchful eye on your surroundings and watching out for sharks!

Well, I might as well tell you that we’re already seeing things getting out of hand, and very few people have flippers and masks. Since we can’t put a police officer behind every swimmer, I’m just waiting to see when the next shark attack will happen! They’re still out there! Reports of shark sightings are frequent, even near the nets. Every morning, before allowing swimming, the nets are checked (for holes!) and the area is also combed through. In fact, this summer, on two occasions, swimming areas within the nets were closed to the public because a juvenile shark was spotted inside the nets! In heavy swell, swimming is also prohibited because, with large waves, the nets don’t really fulfil their purpose and swimming can also be very dangerous.

That was certainly the case on that lovely sunny day in March. I went to check with the lifeguard and was told that swimming in the open sea was prohibited that very day. The only option left for a dip was the Boucan swimming pool! The pool was packed with young people there to have fun. It’s a place I really love for taking photos. Up until now, I’d take my children there and take photos of them. Naturally, I’d make the most of it to snap away happily and do a bit of beach photography. But the problem is that my two boys have reached a stage in their lives where all that matters is their bloody smartphone. You even have to drag them to the beach, and they’re bored stiff and can’t wait to get back to flop onto the bed and scroll through loads of rubbish on their smartphones… The only way for them to have fun at the beach would be to be with their mates. But then again, we’re not going to rent a 120m² house just so they can bring their mates along!

So there I was, sitting on a rock by the pool, taking photos of half-naked teenagers without the slightest pretence that I was simply documenting my children’s holiday! Gwen, who was splashing about in the pool, even told me I looked a bit odd taking photos and that all I needed was a trench coat to complete my pervert’s outfit. Anyway, we street photographers are generally seen as weird and dodgy types. Let’s just say that at the beach, with all those naked bodies, the setting doesn’t exactly work in our favour.

But whether at the beach or elsewhere, I always go about it the same way. When I spot a scene with potential, I stay there trying to figure out how to make it interesting by adding elements, or taking some away… As you well know, it’s called: working the scene. I know some people find it lacks spontaneity and don’t like it. Personally, I don’t do it all the time. But sometimes, I have to wait for that moment that will give me THE photo.

A few weeks ago, I took a short series of photos in the town of Saint-Denis. I didn’t spend much time there, but just long enough for the elements to fall into place and give me this photo.

The other photos aren’t great, but they helped me get to the shot I wanted.

At Boucan Canot beach, it was the same story. There was a lot going on. It was almost too much. Things were moving too fast and it was chaos, with people walking into the frame and overlapping with others. It was difficult to get a clear, clean shot. I had the idea of photographing someone falling or jumping into the water. I wanted to capture that precise moment when they entered the water. Why? Simply to capture that moment of extreme tension and also to add movement to the photo. Of course, without using burst mode. I know that quite a few street photographers use this mode so they can then boast about having captured ‘the moment’! I find that ridiculous; you haven’t captured anything at all, you’ve just fired off a burst and picked out what interested you… You might as well film the street in 4K and extract images from it. The following photos are forgettable. They do, however, give you a sense of the chaos that reigned at the swimming pool.

But they served as preparatory work for the one I managed to capture in the end. Once I’d taken that one, I packed up my gear because I knew I’d got the photo I’d be looking for.

All the photos were taken with the Ricoh GR3 | Crop 35mm.

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December was actually a very productive month for photography. Usually, it’s a fairly quiet month for street photography, because of the end-of-year celebrations and, naturally, I’m less productive. This year was different because we had planned to go to the Madagascan island of Nosy Bé with the family for Christmas. When I say family, I mean we went with my parents, my father-in-law, my sister and her little family. So we were a group of 10 people, including 3 seniors: my 82-year-old father, my 80-year-old mother and my 76-year-old father-in-law. You don’t travel in the same way with elderly people. There was no question of moving around during the stay. We rented a typical Madagascan wooden house overlooking the beautiful Madirokely beach. It was a little haven of peace at the end of the beach, far from the noisy bars and restaurants. The house rental included domestic staff who took great care of us. Four young women and one young man. So they took care of everything: cleaning, cooking, security.

When I said we didn’t move, I was talking about the holiday destination! I wasn’t sure how the trip would go. I wondered if everyone would be OK with the various possible excursions, and I thought that a villa by the sea with a beautiful beach right in front would be ideal in case some people didn’t want to go out sightseeing. And I think I made the right decision because during the holiday, we had two cases of traveller’s diarrhoea. My nephew was out of action for two days with vomiting and diarrhoea in the middle of the holiday, and my father had the same problem. Except that he had trouble coping with the dehydration and was very weak. You cope with traveller’s diarrhoea differently when you’re 82… He gave us a bit of a scare and we had to call a doctor who gave him two IVs of sugar, minerals, vitamins and potassium because he didn’t want to eat anything. We were able to get him back on his feet so he could fly home at the end of the holiday. I can assure you that he is fine. He is still a little weak (it’s harder to recover at 82…), but he is eating normally and has gained weight since the episode.

It was a bit of a rock “n” roll holiday, but we had to adapt and organise our outings according to everyone’s availability. We went swimming with turtles and visited the island. We also visited a protected nature reserve where we saw lemurs, a Madagascar boa and the smallest chameleon in the world. Gwen and the kids even went to a paradise island. Actually, two islands connected by a 2 km strip of sand at low tide! Nosy Iranja. I wasn’t there for this last outing because I stayed behind to look after the doctor at the villa. Anyway, I was feeling a bit groggy in the morning and didn’t fancy a two-hour speedboat ride to get there…

In short, apart from the two cases of traveller’s diarrhoea we had, the stay was very pleasant and we have already planned to return because it is very exotic and still very wild. I think that in a few years, mass tourism will have transformed the place and unfortunately, it will lose its authenticity.

I didn’t know if I would be able to do much street photography. It wasn’t just the four of us travelling, but the larger group required more organisation and we were also 40 minutes away from Hell-Ville, a place I had always fantasised about! I had popped in there on the first day to do some quick shopping and was amazed by this vibrant city. I didn’t know where to look first. It was a real whirlwind, even though it was Sunday! They could have left me there in the middle of the hustle and bustle and I would have been the happiest person alive, even though I was completely exhausted from the journey, which had forced us to wake up at 3 a.m. But the excitement made me forget my fatigue and I told myself I would come back because this city was truly amazing!

But the problem was that Hell-Ville was 40 minutes away from our villa… I made two other very short trips there. I wanted to hang out by the sea because there was a harbour just behind the town, but I didn’t get the chance to go there. We only went there to pick up vegetables at the market. Exploring Hell-Ville wasn’t compatible with our stay. We had organised outings almost every day and came back at the end of the afternoon completely exhausted.

I am an early bird. Not really a fan of sleeping in. So every morning I was up around 5:30 a.m. Since our outings didn’t start until 8:30 a.m. at the earliest, that gave me enough time to hang out in the neighbourhood as the streets came to life. I had no idea what I would find in the neighbourhood, and I enjoyed getting lost in the maze of dirt roads among the houses. I even stumbled upon an open-air slaughterhouse where zebu cattle were being killed. A dozen young men were busy butchering the animals that had been breathing not long before, while other people waited, presumably to collect cuts of meat. Everything seemed exotic to me, and I frantically clicked away to document everything I saw. I had found my playground! Almost every morning, I would go for a walk in the streets behind Madirokely beach. This is where I took most of my photos.

During my wanderings, I sensed that there was poverty, but not destitution. I don’t think I saw any beggars. People work there. Even if they don’t earn much, they don’t sit around doing nothing. Children work too. I asked if school was compulsory and was told that it was, but that it depended on the parents… When we were there, it was the school holidays. So it was difficult to know whether these children were helping their parents during the holidays or whether they had dropped out of school…

In terms of photos, I had a great time during this trip. I managed to do some street photography at the beginning and end of the day without it interfering with the visits we had planned during the trip. I uploaded a very long slideshow of over 80 photos to YouTube. It might be a bit much, but if you’re brave enough, I’ll put it below. I’m not making a comeback on YouTube, it’s just a way to host the slideshow.

2025 ended on a high note. I started 2025 in Vietnam and ended it in Nosy Be. 2026 is also shaping up to be exciting, with a trip to Malaysia and Singapore planned for next July!

All the photos were taken with the Ricoh GR3 | Crop 35 mm

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Since we moved to Reunion Island, I have been taking them hiking so they can discover all these wonderful places that are only accessible on foot. Last year, we climbed the highest peak on the island, which rises to 3,070 metres. It took us three hours to climb up to the mountain lodge where we spent the night, and then another hour and a half at 4 a.m., wearing headlamps and braving the cold, to reach the summit in time for sunrise. It was extremely cold up there because it was windy. But the view was clear and magnificent, with a stunning sea of clouds. The long descent (nearly 5 hours) back to Cilaos, the starting point of our journey, was endless and very trying on Gwen’s and my old joints. The boys ran like goats… Ah, the beauty of youth! I don’t think I shared the photos from this hike with you last year. Here is a small selection below.

This year, we returned to the Cirque de Mafate. It’s a magnificent place that can only be reached on foot. I had planned to spend two nights there, but the children protested. Walking, yes, but not too much! I even suggested a different route, but they didn’t want to. They insisted on revisiting the same places. I must say that it wasn’t really a problem because it’s truly beautiful and, having done this hike more than a dozen times, I never tire of it. The hike was fairly easy, with a descent into the Cirque de Mafate towards the village of La Nouvelle from the Col des Boeufs (a 2-hour walk). We spent the night there and returned the next day via the same trail, with one small difference… while we had a descent on the way there, the return trip was all uphill!

We were accompanied on this trip to Mafate by my sister, my nephew, my cousin Tom and his children, and my friend Alex. It was quite a large group with varying levels of fitness. The young ones were way ahead of everyone else! We settled into the lodge we had booked and, in the early afternoon, Alex, Tom and I set off for a spot called 3 Roches. It’s a magnificent place with a river flowing into a large gorge. I slightly overestimated my strength and set off full of enthusiasm with less than half a litre of water. Pfff, too easy. 1 hour 20 minutes there and 1 hour 40 minutes back. Piece of cake. That was without taking into account the long lunch break, which had already cooled my muscles down considerably. Getting to 3 Roches is like going down to La Nouvelle. It’s almost all downhill. Which means that the return trip would be uphill! Not having hydrated enough at lunchtime (one beer is not enough), I started to get cramps in my adductors on the way there. I gritted my teeth and waited for them to pass. I tried not to drink too much water. I know this is a mistake and that you should drink even more, but I didn’t have much and I didn’t want to use up everyone else’s water.

The final descent into the riverbed was very steep, and I thought to myself that it was going to be tough to climb back up on the way back. And I was right! From the very first switchbacks, I was seized by violent cramps in the adductors of both legs! I couldn’t lift my legs. I had to stop for a good 10 minutes to stretch my muscles and get rid of the cramps… What awaited me was 35 minutes of a gruelling climb. The trail was very difficult. I had to lift my legs very high to climb, and I did the whole climb with the cramps still present, but I was able to manage them by climbing very slowly, delaying my companions a little. I went at my own pace, managing my efforts so as not to get cramps again. After an hour and a half of suffering, we were back in La Nouvelle where I drank more than a litre of water to eliminate all the lactic acid that was causing my cramps. It’s clear that I took this 3-hour trip a little too lightly. Some stretching when I got back, followed by a good night’s sleep, and I was ready to head back up to the Col des Bœufs.

We had a wonderful time in the Mafate cirque. It felt like we were far away from everything, surrounded by magnificent landscapes. Waking up in the early morning surrounded by mountains over 2,500 metres high is truly impressive. I’m already thinking about where we could go on our next holiday in two months’ time. To the mountains, that’s for sure! Réunion Island is full of beautiful places that I haven’t seen yet. I’ve already done the most famous hikes, but there’s still a lot left to do.

All the photos were taken with the Ricoh GR3

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I’ve never owned a Leica. The price of these cameras is very high. Even if the price is an obstacle, I don’t think this type of camera is right for me. Much too big! I’ve already had John Harper’s Leica MP and Elizabeth Char’s Leica Q in my hand. Well, no thanks. These little jewels may produce exceptional photos, but the weight and size of the bodies put me off … The X100, if you read my blogs regularly, you’ll know that I bought one second-hand: the X100F. A very nice camera, but like the Leica, I found it too bulky. That’s why I came back to the Ricoh GR3 for Street Photography. A concentrate of technology in a tiny body. I’ll overlook the many faults of this camera (largely due to its small size…) to tell you that it’s the perfect camera for me in the street.

When we got back from our trip to Vietnam, I set myself the delicate task of opening up my Ricoh GR3 to clean the sensor, which was really dirty. I had a lot of dust on the sensor and post-processing sometimes became a real pain and I even had photos that were unusable because the spots were really badly placed… After watching a tutorial on YouTube, I took the plunge and I have to say that I found dismantling quite simple. I was just surprised to see that the sensor plate was only fixed by 3 screws! I’m under the impression that a rectangle is better held with 4 screws … What’s more, you can only really remove 2 of the screws. The third can be unscrewed, but not removed … Anyway, I was able to clean the sensor but when I went back up I must have screwed the 3rd screw in wrongly because I didn’t realise straight away that I had a sharpness problem on the left-hand side of my photos. Even at f8, I had the impression that the left-hand side of the photo wasn’t sharp. The problem was even more noticeable at f2.8.

So I took the camera apart again to see what was wrong. The plate where the sensor of the Ricoh GR3 was fixed didn’t seem to be square… The fault of this famous 3rd screw. I screwed it all back together and this time I made sure everything was straight and screwed back in correctly. I was pretty pleased with myself. I was a master at dismantling the Ricoh GR3! However, I was in for a nasty surprise. The camera seemed to be working normally except for the LCD screen, which was displaying images in a rather strange way.

That’s where the title of this Blog comes from. Fujifilm is famous for its film simulations. All new models receive these new simulations. Acros, Classic Chrome, Astie, Provia … A godsend for all those who are nostalgic for the old Fujifilm films from the analog days. Unintentionally, I’ve given my Ricoh GR3 a kind of simulation that I could call ‘Comics’!

You can see from the photos of the LCD screen on my Ricoh GR3 what I’m talking about. I was very worried that I’d done something wrong and damaged the sensor on my camera. Nothing of the sort! The files are intact. It’s just the LCD screen that’s buggy. In my last blog, I talked about the way I take photos. John even said that I work a bit like a painter who concentrates first on the shapes in the composition. With my new Ricoh Frankenstein version, this is even truer! All I can see on my screen are the general shapes. Details are irremediably erased. For me, the power of composition comes from shapes, and here I am comforted by this problem on my LCD screen, which in the end is not a problem in the way I take photos!

A few days ago, we went trekking and it was the perfect opportunity to test my Ricoh GR3 Comics Edition. Yes, I’m being a bit mocking by calling it that. Ricoh has officially released its Street and Diary Editions and didn’t think of the Comics Edition! The hike itself was great, culminating in a swim in very cold water in a pool with a superb waterfall. On the way back, we stopped off at Boucan Canot for a dip. In the same morning we sweated like pigs on hiking trails and ended up at the beach! Yes, that’s how it is on Reunion Island!

I’m reassured because my camera seems to be working normally. I did a quick Street Photography outing today and apart from my settings which weren’t optimal (I took the photos at 1/500s instead of 1/800s …), I didn’t notice any sharpness problems. So here I am with a brand new customised Ricoh GR3. This model is unique and seems to have been created just for me. Don’t ask me how I achieved this, I don’t know. I couldn’t even sell the concept to Ricoh …

Well, these shots of my LCD screen are all very nice, but didn’t you say the files were intact? Well, I’ll leave you with the photos I’ve post processed in Lightroom to prove to you that the files haven’t been altered by this malfunction of my LCD screen!

All the pictures were taken with the Ricoh GR3 Comics Edition.

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In any case, I’d like to wish you and your family a happy new year in 2024. For our part, we started the New Year in Thailand. We embarked on 27th of December just after Christmas and we’ll be staying there until 14th of January. We’ve been in Bangkok for 5 days now, and now we’re flying north to Chiang Mai, where we’ll be staying for a few days before heading down to Phuket.

Christmas has come and gone, and as I’ve been relatively good in 2023, Santa has put a new lens under the tree for my Fujifilm X-E2. As I’d written in a previous Blog, I was planning to get a 23mm (35mm FF equivalent) because the 7Artisan 35mm 0.95 was a bit big and the focal length was too tight and lacked versatility. I have to say that I love this lens and that it will surely remain my favourite focal length for portraits. So here I am with a TTArtisan 23mm f1.4 on my Fujifilm X-E2. A fully manual, compact lens that cost just €80!

I thought I’d do the whole trip with this focal length. So I left my 18mm f2 and my 35mm f0.95 at home. Nevertheless, I took my Ricoh GRD IV as a backup, because I didn’t know if I’d be able to get used to this focal length. I had no doubts about the travel photos to document our trip, but I had more questions about the ‘Street Photography’ aspect. Even though this trip is essentially about our holiday in Thailand, you know me and I certainly wasn’t going to resist snapping like crazy.

That was the case! Strictly speaking, I didn’t do any Street Sessions. I took advantage of our travels to do a bit of Street Photography. And frankly, there’s so much going on in the streets of Bangkok that just taking the overground metro (BTS) offers enough opportunities for a guy who lives on a small island lost in the middle of the Indian Ocean! Bangkok is an incredible city and it would take me months or even years to get the measure of this megalopolis. You’d have to take your time in the different neighbourhoods and settle down to get a consistent result. Clearly I didn’t have the time, so I made do with what I had.

Let’s come back to the 23mm. It was a very pleasant surprise. I was a bit apprehensive about this change of focal length, as I’ve been shooting exclusively with the 18mm for over 7 years… The transition was fairly straightforward, even though the lens is manual. I think I love having control over the focus, and I think one of the big plus points is the increased battery life! They’ve never lasted so long! I was also happy to get back to Zone Focusing. I set myself at f8 and focus at 3m. That gave me a zone ranging from 1m60 to 20m sharp. When I was shooting with the viewfinder, I had fun changing the aperture and setting the focus precisely. In Street Mode, I often shot with the LCD screen in Zone Focusing mode, as with my Ricoh GRD IV. But sometimes, when the light was lacking and I found myself with larger apertures (I even went so far as to shoot at f1.4!), I manually focus and I have to admit that the lens is really pleasant to use. The aperture dial is notched, unlike the 7Artisan, which is a real plus! The focus ring is also very pleasant and I was able to focus precisely even when walking. However, there’s a little play around the bayonet. It’s nothing to write home about, but it’s worth noting.

As far as image quality is concerned, I’m pretty impressed for a lens that costs just €80. For the way I use it, I get a lot of bang for my buck! It’s light, fast and compact. Everything I need for street photography. And it’s also a focal length that will be more versatile for my family photos, with less distortion than the 18mm. As far as street photography is concerned, the slightly tighter focal length than the 18mm didn’t bother me much. Zone Focusing works terribly well and is clearly the ultimate weapon for street photographers!

While we were having lunch in Chinatown, I went in search of a shop to have my sensor cleaned because it was riddled with very annoying dust … Shooting regularly at f8 or f11, these stains made my post-processing heavy and tedious. On the afternoon of 31 December, I found myself in Mega Plaza Chinatown on the 5th floor having my sensor cleaned. A 5-storey building, just like in Hong Kong. Each floor has its own speciality (video games, figurines, games, electronics, etc.). This top floor is entirely dedicated to photography. Thousands and thousands of second-hand cameras (Leica, Minolat, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc.). Both film and digital. And even more lenses! I came across a guy who spent 15 minutes cleaning my Fujifilm X-E2 and didn’t even charge me! It’s a service that would have cost at least €70 in France. So here I am, ready to go into 2024 with a clean sensor! I must say that I hadn’t cleaned it since 2016 …

I’ll leave you with this first Blog of 2024. I’ll try to do a Street Photography Blog as soon as I have the time or the motivation!

All the photos were made with the Fujifilm X-E2 et le TTArtisan 23 mm f1.4.

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For a very long time, I only had the XF 18 mm f2. Obviously, I bought this focal length for Street Photography. Since then, I’ve bought myself a 35mm f0.95. I’d been so blown away by John Harper‘s photos with his Noctilux that I decided to invest in this focal length. A mere €160 for a lens that, in my opinion, is really very good. It’s a non-AF lens and we don’t have the aperture information in the EXIFs of the photos either. As a result of using this lens, I’ve become quite quick at manual focus, even at f0.95. This is quite tricky because focusing errors are unforgiving at such large apertures. Until now, I didn’t see the point of closing the aperture, but on our last holiday, I had some fun changing the aperture to gain depth of field. At f8 or f11, focusing is less critical and I even think it’s possible to do street photography with this 35mm. Henri Cartier Bresson photographed well with a 50mm mounted on his Leica M6, didn’t he?

I didn’t tell you, but I just passed the half-century mark last week. Several weeks ago, Gwen was bugging me to suggest some gift ideas for this event. Of course, I had no idea. I have to confess that I’m a very happy man. I have a lovely wife and two endearing little monsters. OK, but I’m not sure that Gwen was thinking of offering me a new wife or a new child… Even materially, I don’t feel like I’m lacking anything. As I couldn’t find anything, I decided to upgrade my Fujifilm X-E2 to a more recent version: the Fujifilm X-E4, released in 2021. A 26MP camera, whereas mine is only 16MP. Over 50% more MP! Well yes, that promises better performance at high ISO. I’m not a guy who fantasises about more and more MP. In fact, I use a Ricoh GRD IV with 10 MP for street photography … But I don’t know why, I’ve started to become fixated on the Fujifilm X-E4. Why the X-E4 instead of another Fujifilm hybrid? Simply because this camera is compact. Not as compact as the Ricoh GRD, but it’s the smallest interchangeable lens camera on offer from Fujifilm.

It’s worth noting that this camera is no longer available for sale. 2 years after its launch, this is quite astonishing. It would appear that sales have not lived up to Fujifilm’s expectations. This camera, initially sold for €900 new, is now being offered for over €1,000 second-hand on leboncoin! If you take a look at Ebay, prices are skyrocketing even for unused cameras. On several occasions I was ready to go for it, but each time a little voice asked me if I really needed it, or if it was just a manifestation of G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

During my last holiday with Gwen and the children, I realised that the Fujifilm X-E2, although 7 years old, is still a hell of a camera for the use I put it to. Manufacturers are pushing us to consume more and more (useless) features, with ever-increasing MPs. Always more power. But frankly, when I see the photos produced by my old Fujifilm X-E2, I don’t see what 10 extra MP could offer me!

My most sensible purchase in recent years was not a camera body but the 7Artisan 35mm f0.95. I’ve already written a few blogs about this lens and, frankly, I love using it and it’s given me a new taste for manual focusing. Well, I didn’t really have a choice with this non-AF lens … But frankly, I seriously think it’s better to invest in good quality lenses than to rush out and buy the latest cameras with lots of MP. Over the last few holidays, we spent a few days in a beautiful hotel in the south of the island and we also went hiking in one of the most magical places on Réunion: the Bélouve forest. I took the opportunity to take out my Fujifilm X-E2 with the 35mm f0.95. Quite frankly, it made me not want to invest €1,000!

I think the photos are just sublime. I certainly had some beautiful models and the locations were magnificent. But there was also the handling. The Fujifilm X-E2 is pleasant to use and its EVF (Electronic ViewFinder) is very good as long as you have good light. When it’s darker, it pixelates a lot. But even in the forest, with sometimes borderline brightness, I had no problem focusing.

Getting back to Street Photography, 50mm seems too tight a focal length for me. I’ve already tried the 40mm (27mm from Fujifilm) and I also found it a little too narrow. That’s when an idea popped into my head. For the 28mm, I have the Ricoh GRD IV. I went looking for a 35mm. The 23mm would give me a 35mm equivalent (24×36) for my Fujifilm X-E2. And basically turn it into a Fujifilm X100 at a lower cost. OK, I won’t have the OVF (Optical ViewFinder). I found an Artisan 23mm f1.4 lens for €80! That seems a ridiculous price to me, even though the lens isn’t AF. I went to see some tests and they were pretty good. A little vignetting and not quite as sharp at F1. 4. But from f2.8, the lens is very good. So, in the absence of a birthday present, I ordered this lens for myself for Christmas.

Even though I really enjoy using the 35mm (50mm in 24×36 equivalent) on 7Artisan, as I said above, I felt that this focal length was too ‘tight’. A 23mm (35mm 35×36 equivalent) would be more versatile and would mean I wouldn’t have to juggle between the wide angle of the Ricoh GRD IV and the 35mm Fujifilm X-E2 when I’m taking photos of my little family. And I’m also itching to try out the 23mm in the street. I’m sure it’s just the novelty of it, and if it turns out to be the case, I’ll never get used to it. But I’m convinced that it’s the ideal all-round focal length for my family photos.

One thing’s for sure, if I’m still trying out different focal lengths, the Fujifilm X-E2 is still, in 2023, a superb camera with its “only” 16 MP!

All photos were taken with the Fujifilm X-E2 | 7Artisan 35 mm f0.95

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In the early afternoon, Jojo was watching from a distance as a group of youngsters enjoyed sliding down a wooden board on the sand. From an early age, Joachim has always had a fascination with board sports. By the age of 8, he already had his third star on skis, and was infuriating his instructors by doing whatever he wanted when he left the piste to go over the bumps. On our last winter sports holiday, Joachim wanted to take up snowboarding (to follow in his father’s footsteps), but unfortunately his experiment fell through. As he was quite comfortable, his instructor took him straight onto a blue slope and on a harmless fall, he broke his wrist… I sincerely believe that he would have mastered snowboarding quickly.

He skateboarded and scootered with great ease. During our first year on Reunion Island, we spent a lot of time in the skate parks… Whatever the sport, he always tried to do tricks once he’d mastered the slide itself. He was very persistent and would constantly do the same thing over and over again until he mastered the trick. So it’s not surprising that he got an itch when he saw the youngsters having fun sliding on their boards. We went to a shop to buy a board and after a few hesitations and a lot of falls, he and his brother got hold of the thing and started sliding on their boards.

This is skimboarding. All you need is a patch of fine, smooth sand, let the water recede and then throw your board onto the sand and glide across it like a surfboard. There are different styles of board. The simplest are made of wood, while others are composite. Basically, they look like a small surfboard without the fins. The more advanced boards allow you to ride the waves that crash on the beach and do surf-inspired tricks. So I bought a wooden board that the kids could only ride on sand, i.e. flat.

There were quite a few falls at the start, but Joachim soon got the hang of it. Ronan took a little longer and was getting annoyed because he was taking knocks and that was frustrating him. It soon became clear that a second board was needed! The children dragged me to the beach the next day for yet another outing before the start of the new school year. So on Wednesday, we were at the beach again, even though school was due to start on Thursday! The bags weren’t packed, but they wanted to make the most of this last day. After two outings, they were much more at ease and there were fewer falls. That didn’t stop them coming back with bruised ankles and shins… Ronan’, without having Joachim’s natural ease, managed to impress me!

With the start of the new school year, the children were beginning to regret having to wait until the next holidays (mid-October) to get out their skimboards again …. Finally, as Gwen had a friend visiting from mainland, we decided to take her to the beach on Saturday, much to the boys’ delight! It was back-to-school time, but they still had the chance to extend their holidays for a day by taking up skimboarding on Saturday. And frankly, they had gained in ease and confidence and were now trying to do tricks together.

All of this was of course to my great delight, as I had a prime spot close to the kids with my Ricoh GRD IV to capture these moments of sliding. I have to admit that my camera took quite a few splashes, especially on the lens, because with my tendency to be very close to my subjects, it was inevitable! The times we went to Boucan, the waves were superb, sometimes creating chaos even for the skimboarders. Sometimes a board would get caught up in a wave and drift out to sea, only to be picked up again by another wave. You had to be careful not to get the boards caught on your ankles or any other part of your body.

I got a kick out of being as close as possible to the boys to take their photos. This is the one I like best. I worked essentially on the composition. It may look extremely simple, but I like simplicity …

All the photos were made with the Ricoh GRD IV

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We live on Reunion Island and we’re so caught up in our daily lives and work that we forget that this place is just amazing and that we haven’t visited much of it. We tell ourselves we’ll do that later. That we’ll visit this place some other time… . In the end, we didn’t do anything. We decided to help the children discover the beauty of the place where they live. It’s a bit like Street Photography, where you’re always looking for something exotic and you can’t take photos where you live because it’s well known that the grass is greener elsewhere …  It’s always better somewhere else!

After our week at the seaside trolling and watching the whales, we went for a short hike in the Mafate cirque. Our first objective was to avoid the rain, as we have the annoying habit of ending our hikes completely cold and soaked to the skin.

A little anecdote. On Gwen’s first visit to Reunion Island, I took her to the island’s highest peak. The Piton des Neiges is 3070 m high. We slept at the gîte, which is 2500 m above sea level. We were due to wake up at 4am to do the rest of the climb to watch the sunrise. Of course, when we woke up, it was pouring down… Everyone looked at each other in the gîte and apart from 2 Belgians who went up, everyone went back to bed… 2 hours later, everyone was getting ready to head back down, including us. That’s when our 2 Belgians showed up and told us they were so happy because it had cleared up there and they’d been able to enjoy the show. I looked at Gwen and said: “Come on! Let’s get going. We’re just taking a bottle of water, our panchos and the camera ! Banzai !”

Well, we climbed out of the bone-chilling rain. We got up there in the rain and the wind and… nothing. We saw nothing at all… Bloody jokers, those Belgians ! We came back down to the gîte in the rain. We picked up our bags and continued the 3-hour descent in the rain… It was a complete mess. Gwen fell ill after that. Two years ago, we went to Mafate and the climb back up was terrible: 5 hours in the rain, wading through pools of mud and trying to keep our balance on slippery stones…

In short, I was a bit apprehensive about the poor weather conditions for this walk. On the D day, it rained in Saint-Denis. It rained during the 2-hour drive to the start of the trail. Fortunately, at the start, the pass we were going over was damp, but there was no rain. Just fog. I know the weather conditions here and I know that we’re going to start walking at an altitude of 2,000 m and descend to Aurère, which is 900 m above sea level. So the weather is going to get better ! And so it did. The walk was magnificent, with breathtaking scenery ! Apparently the Scout trail that takes us to Aurere is considered to be the most beautiful on the island. The cirque of Mafate is a hiker’s paradise. It’s a magnificent place with hundreds of kilometres of hiking trails. After spending a night there, the climb back up the next day was very hard on the calves and thighs. My sister, who wanted to do the hike with us, pushed herself to the limit to get there. She has knee problems and is slightly overweight. But she managed ! We nicknamed her ” Golden Calf ” ! The ascent was made under a magnificent sun.

Most of the photos were taken with my smartphone. I realised that it was simpler and that I needed the ultra-wide angle to capture the beauty of the place. My Ricoh GRD IV must have a field of view of around 74°, whereas my One Plus Nord has a field of view of around 120°!

Later in the week, we went to visit a lava tunnel with the children. From the road, we could see the actual lava flow. The volcano has been experiencing its first eruption of the year for the past month, and the flow is less than 2 km from the road. We were able to observe the flow from a safe distance, and the glowing lava was even visible! For the visit to the lava tunnel, I opted for my Ricoh GRD IV with its adapter so that I could have a 21 mm lens with a better field of view. I’ve learnt my lesson from Mafate ! Go wide ! The results weren’t up to scratch. This was due to a flagrant lack of light. This was to be expected in an underground tunnel… I shot at ISO 800 and even then it was complicated.

One thing’s for sure, when there’s very good light, by which I mean sunshine, the smartphone with its tiny sensor like the Ricoh GRD IV does perfectly well, and frankly the quality is amazing. But as soon as there’s not enough light, the smartphone uses all sorts of tricks to give you a photo that’s pleasing to the eye, but when you look closer, it’s a mess of pixels. You realise that the algorithms are smoothing everything out (wax effect for the skin) to fill in the missing or degraded pixels. The Ricoh GRD IV does a much better job of this. There’s no contest ! You’ll get some noise and grain (digital), but not the shapeless swill of smartphones. So yes, smartphone photos are catchier, but nothing to do, they’re not up to the level of expert compacts. I think what tends to trick us about quality is the hyper-wide-angle focal length. As we’re not used to seeing this kind of photo, they immediately have a little wow factor. But put an adaptor on the Ricoh GRD IV to get to 21mm, and the effect is the same. The same applies if you mount an ultra-wide-angle lens on a camera ! For each photo, you’ll have the camera information so you can make up your own mind. Here’s even a comparison of 100% enlarged photos.

As a bonus, here’s a small macro shot of a shrew on the Scout trail down to Aurère. Just to show you that when the beast isn’t moving fast, I’m not as one-armed as all that!

So these are our adventures on Réunion Island ! It’s an island bursting with things to do. Do you know of places with lush vegetation, beaches, hundreds of kilometres of hiking trails, breathtaking waterfalls, a volcano that’s still active and hundreds of whales that come during the austral winter ? All this on an island of just 2500 km² ! Frankly, there’s a lot to do and we haven’t even got round to it yet ! Here’s a video I saw recently on Arte that made me say : “Wow Gwen, we should go there !”

  All the photos were made with the Ricoh GRD IV and the One Plus Nord.

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The water is colder and so is the air. But it’s still over 20°C during the day in the sun and it’s great for sunbathing. It was even warm enough for us to go for a dip and say hello to the fish. I just went out with my mask and was able to see trumpet fish, a lion fish, coris clown fish, triggerfish, trunkfish, etc. not far from the shore. If the water was that cold, I wouldn’t have stayed in it so long! We had planned a little trip on a boat to see the whales. Last year was a year to remember, as these large mammals were seen in great numbers. This year is likely to be even better! It’s simple, they’re everywhere! You sit down on the beach, pay close enough attention and watch the horizon beyond the coral reef: there’s a whale jumping! You go for lunch at a straw hut: there’s another whale doing its thing. You’re strolling along the jetty: whale in the distance! No, I’m not exaggerating. It really happens. Even from where we were staying, you could see them in the distance.

But this time we planned a boat trip to get up close and personal with them. I took along my Fuji XE2 and my 55-200mm to try and get some close-ups. Well, we saw quite a few, but very few were willing to make the super jump so that I could immortalise them. No, in fact, it was a cold shower. It’s really hard to photograph and it’s quite unpredictable. Maybe I don’t have the best camera for this kind of photography. It’s much harder than photographing animals in the Kruger Park! Here are a few photos I took during our stay in South Africa to prove that I’m not a one-armed man.

At sea, it was a big flop! Only one whale deigned to grace us with a leap and by the time I’d moved the camera in the right direction and focused, it was already too late! I just managed to photograph the back of a whale that passed not far from us. I must be the worst wildlife photographer ever.

Nat Geo Wild must be laughing at my whale shots. I can safely say that I’m much better on the streets with just my Ricoh GRD IV. I went to take some photos during my stay in the west on the port. I’d gone to read an article by Jean Perenet, a photographer who, like me, loves the GR and lives by the sea. I raved about his photos of the seaside. I’ve always found ports and quays very photogenic. I find these places very authentic. These places are changing because the fishing trade is disappearing. So I went to hang around the port of Saint Gilles to do a bit of street photography. You’d have to spend a lot more time to capture the soul of this place. Early in the morning when the last fishing boats left. Be there when they return… In short, no time. Still, I’m on holiday and spending time with the kids and family. So I snapped away as I usually do and I’m pretty happy with what I brought back. A bit of street photography and lots of photos of the kids having fun.

All in all, a good first week’s holiday. On Tuesday, we set off again, this time with a rucksack for a hike in the Mafate circus. It’s a different kind of trip, but I love it. We’re going for a walk and the children are looking forward to getting out on the hiking trails. Throughout my youth, I can count on the fingers of a leper’s hand the number of times my parents took my sister and me to the beach? On the other hand, we often went hiking. That’s why I’d much rather spend time in the mountains than sunbathing on a beach. Gwen and the kids like both, but I’m more into the mountains! I hope the weather will be kind so I can document this little trip to the Mafate circus! Oh yes, before I wrap up this week’s Street Shots.

All the photos were made with the Ricoh GRD IV except the animals ones (Fuji XE2 | 55-200 mm)

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What troubles me most is that I don’t miss street photography. On the rare occasions when I found myself in the city, I happily took out my camera, but when I stayed at home, I had no desire to go out and take pictures. No desire to go wandering around tirelessly doing what I thought was such an important duty of documentation. I am now wondering if I was wrong all along. Had I not thrown myself wholeheartedly into Street Photography for the wrong reasons? If I thought it was so important, like breathing, how come I’ve become so detached from it?

There is one thing I must confess. For a long time I tried to convince myself that it was because I loved people, that I empathised with them and their situations, that I did Street Photography. This is a lie. I never argue in the street. I never interact with anyone. I started that way because it was a way to give myself some legitimacy and to overcome my fear of photographing people. By interacting with them, I sort of got their consent. But for several years now. I only consider people as compositional elements in my photographs. Of course I am on the lookout because I know people’s reactions. I can anticipate what is going to happen and that is essential to capture gestures. This is what makes me doubt my real motivation in the street. I realise that what I do is very selfish. Everything I do is because I think it’s beautiful and it’s because I enjoy it that I do Street Photography.

The last time I was in the car, I was listening to a programme about old age. And there were some interesting things. For example, “At what age are we considered old”? In the world of high-level sport, it’s 25 years old. In the professional world, it’s 45… And in Street Photography? When are we old? I feel like I’m already old personally… Well, I’m 49 and I’ve already got 6 years of Street Photography behind me. I wonder if I haven’t grown up too fast in Street Photography. So much so that I’m getting tired of it today. I sincerely hope that this is just a temporary condition…

I’m even old in the way I approach the practice. Who nowadays still shoots in RAW? Who has absolutely no presence on social networks? I’m even thinking that it was better before with the Photo Clubs where we exchanged and discussed photos face to face without the filter of social networks, hidden behind our screen. With that, I said everything. It’s an old man’s reflex to say: “it was better before…”. I feel like I’m not living in the right era. Even the way I see Street Photography takes me back years. I hate all these new fashions in Street Photography that make all these insipid photo festivals happy. I like the banality of the street, I just like to capture insignificant moments in the street.

I don’t know what I mean by writing this Blog. What I do know is that there are lots of different reasons to do street photography. And also a lot of reasons not to do it or not to want to do it anymore. I wonder a lot about what would make me keep walking the same streets with my Ricoh on my wrist. I’ll leave you with a slideshow of the photos I haven’t shown in the last few months. Very uneven work. Hard to be consistent when you spend so little time in the street…

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