4 years with Fuji – From X-T1 to the X-H1, a retrospective on Paul Marshall’s career
Hi, my name is Paul Marshall & my business is ‘Paul Marshall Photography’.
I was born and raised in London UK. I am an international professional photographer who moved from London in 2014 to Texas USA to be with my fiancé. This move was a great opportunity to push my business into the US as we are lead to believe that Americans love pictures (it’s true). Fast forward four years, married, with a beautiful son and we have relocated to Belfast, Northern Ireland to be closer to our family & try new things.
No we are not mad…
My business started in 2009 when I was made redundant from my 9-5 IT job, I made the decision to try wedding photography & shot 62 weddings up until 2014 where I moved to Texas & got picked up by a local medical business as a freelance lead photographer from the fashion work I had on model mayhem. This thrusted me into the commercial world of photography with assignments all over Texas & US. Good bye wedding photography (only shoot 5 a year now). I am currently pushing towards Commercial, Portrait & some weddings.
Shooting in the US is a totally different ball game compared to my European clients, my US clients seem to understand the need for professional images for their business, products & advertising & understand the costs involved. Here in Europe capturing the bigger client can be a hard task. My American clientele love to have their faces on billboards & magazines, I still have clients in the US who call up for an Ad campaign which requires me to fly in for those assignments.
I was introduce to Fujifilm by a good friend & photographer Mark Dell. My first Fujifilm X Camera was the amazing X-T1 with the equally amazing 35mm 1.4 lens. I was running this beside my Nikon D800 system for around 6 months before I realised the Fujifilm X series cameras can produce everything my Nikon system could with an extra benefit… That EVF!!!
I traded/Sold my Nikon gear & got a X-Pro 2 and my base prime setup that I still shoot with today consisting of 16, 35, 56 & 90mm prime lenses. The great XPro2 body didn’t last too long after the X-T2 was release, the EVF was the only downside to the camera after using the X-T1 for some time. Shooting with the X-T1 & 2 as a team was really working well for my business and style of photography of which incorporates 90% off camera lighting these days.
Along came the X-H1, what can I say… What a beast of a camera & for my uses its the best Fujifilm X series camera to date. The ergonomics are spot on for my hands and the overall speed & user experience is dead on (as they say here in Belfast). I am a battery grip lover since my Pentax days, through my Nikon years and now my FujiFilm years ahead, Because i shoot around 50/50 landscape & portrait orientated images having the vertical grip makes life a little easier on a full days shoot with 3 batteries.
My lighting is supplied by Godox Lighting & consists of 2 AD200 strobes & 2 Godox 860ii Speedlites all controlled via the XPro trigger. I like to travel light as most of my assignments are on location so a small but powerful setup makes it easier to travel. Combined with the amazing Westcott lighting modifiers of which they all pop up like umbrellas so they pack away small & light.
In the beginning fujifilm had an issue with a dedicated flash system for us Strobist shooters, this was a reason I kept my Nikon system at hand for those off camera lighting moments the Fuji just was unable to do. Then Fuji release a major Kaizen Firmware update which allowed me to do everything the Nikon system could do including HSS of which is the option I longed for in my assignments due to shooting during the day on most of my Commercial assignments. Goodbye Nikon…
Going forward I have some goals I have set myself & my business, I have been in talks with Westcott lighting recently as they have been watching my work for a while and reached out to me about becoming a reviewer/tester of their products. This was one of my goals for 2018 working with Westcott & their gear, who knows i could be a reviewer by the time you read this.
My next goal is to become a FujiFilm X Photographer, This has been a hard goal to hit & I may never get there but I’ll keep trying. FujiFilm if you are reading this: “Your system is more than just a Landscape, Wedding & street system of which 90% of the X Photographers are at the moment wink wink”.
The goal for my business is to push my reach out to the rest of the US from my Texas office & into Europe from my Belfast office, I have no idea how to do this but I’m up for the challenge & the FujiFilm system is coming along for the ride!!! I am hoping Fujifilm will lend me a GFX system long term to use in the commercial world… Now that is a goal!
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“My name is Paul Marshall, International Commercial, Fashion, Portrait & wedding photographer. Based in Belfast, UK with clientele in europe & the US. I am a full time Fujifilm X photographer.”
