Welcome to The 31st edition of the series - Scenes from a bike
This Edition facts:
I haven't done this for a long time, this is only the second edition of this i 2025 but I had some free time and I had a newish camera and a new lens to try out so why not?
Location: Kensington in Melbourne, and old industrial inner city suburb and Docklands, which is what happens when you gentrify a old industrial inner city suburb
Date & Weather: Saturday the 15th of November 2025- an in between day, I have a t-shirt and jeans on if that makes sense to you
Equipment: The reason we are here, On a whim I bought a 12 year old Fujifilm X-M1 camera, the thought being I needed something small and I wanted to challenge myself with a lack of control, on an even bigger whim I bought the world's rarest and certainly weirdest Fujifilm lens - the 24mm X-Mount Filter Lens, only availiable in Japan this lens is tiny (it weights 14 G) is fixed focal length, fixed aperture (F8), full focus and doesn't really communicate with the camera at all. It's weird.
The Concept & Finances: The concept is simple, I've bought an electric bike, on this bike I explore my hometown, Melbourne Australia and take photos, Priority 1 - Finding new places in Melbourne, Priority 2 - taking better photos, Bonus - Earn back the cost of the bike by creating content and getting paid for it on HIVE. The bike cost $1,100 USD. So far I've earned $176.93 from the previous 30 paid out posts meaning I've paid for just over 16% of the bike and I have $923 to go. This is going to take some time, but this is all bonus money, the joy is in the taking of photos.
Other stuff: This lens was a much bigger challenge than I realised, there is really no modern way of knowing if you are over exposed, The things I rely on in my lazy modern world, live histograms, metering, on screen live exposure all don't work, I have to know what will work - I don't know that yet but let's see what we have
Okay so this is fairly classic, it has a slightly moody quality that I like, but yeah over-exposure in the clouds.
Gritty lift behind the chain link fence, as much as a Toyota Corolla can be gritty out of shot is a lot of fingerprint dust on this car.
This is the sort of thing I imagined with this lens, - I should also mention I'm shooting in Black and White largely because I think it will suit the slightly less sharp lens, sort of a nostalgic film look. It would be great if this camera had Astia film simulation but it doesn't.
A train which is stopped and possibly broken. I like the tones here, they feel about right.
This one required some post production, darker blacks, which seems appropriate given the Aboriginal flag
Moving to docklands now, and this modern building, this shot is strange, it was over exposed a lot and I had to bring it back in post, but then the building has this toy like quality, the lack of a sense of scale helps, but then it feel plastic - not technically perfect but I think I like it.
Last shot - I must point out that the reflection of the shoes is intentional
So do I love this lens? No, Do I like it? Maybe is it Challenging to use? Absolutely, Have I got a LOT more to learn? Yes.