TAKE TEN: Nicci Auchincloss
Ten years have passed since Fujifilm introduced the X Mount system in the X-Pro1. To celebrate, Fujifilm South Africa is featuring the top 10 photos from Fujifilm users across South Africa. Hailing from the Natal Midlands, Nicci Auchincloss picked an X-T10 instead of a DSLR, leading to awesome results. (Photo by Kirsty Skene)
Why do you love photography?
I love capturing the beauty of nature. Photography makes me look at the world differently and pay attention to the beauty that is everywhere, if you take the time to look. It also makes me slow down and be immersed in nature and gives me a break from the busyness of life.
I love sharing my images in the hopes that it gives someone else a small reprieve from the craziness of life and a reminder to ‘stop and smell the roses’ so to speak!
Tell us a bit more about your photography and what you would like to achieve through this.
We love exploring natural places and I love photographing the beauty of nature, whether its landscapes, close-ups of details in nature, or wildlife and bird photography – sharing the beauty of our province, country and continent. I am hoping to start selling prints and I would love to be able to contribute to conservation projects that we support and believe in, with a portion of the proceeds from sales of my prints to be donated to these conservation projects. It’s a work-in-progress at the moment, but hopefully I’ll have it up and running soon.
What made you switch to Fujifilm and when did this happen?
I have always had a camera, for as long as I can remember, but always just little point-and-shoots. Then I started realising there was more to photography and I wanted to learn how to intentionally create certain techniques and photos. I graduated from a point-and-shoot to a bridge camera, but soon enough that camera was also needing an upgrade as I was getting frustrated at not being able to take the photos I envisaged in my imagination, within the limits of that camera.
In April 2017, I was intending to upgrade to a DSLR as a birthday present to myself, but when I went to the camera shop in Gateway, the manager there showed me the Fujifilm range and examples of photos that other customers had taken with their various Fujifilm cameras. I absolutely loved the retro look and feel of the Fujifilm cameras and the various film simulation settings and ended up getting the Fujifilm X-T10 with a wide-angle kit lens as a starting point and I fell in love with my little camera.
We love going to game reserves and, of course, I love photographing wildlife, and I very quickly realised that the wide-angle lens was not going to do the job for a trip we had booked to Vic Falls and the Okavango Delta later in that year, so I got myself the Fujinon XF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 LM OIS WR Lens and have never looked back.
Which Fujifilm camera do you use?
I started with the Fujifilm X-T10 but realised a second body would come in very handy, and my husband very kindly got me the Fujifilm X-T30 for my birthday last year. I mainly use the X-T30 these days, but the X-T10 still comes in handy.
What do you love most about the camera?
I love its lightweight retro design and feel and while it’s a small camera, it still delivers, especially with the Fujifilm XF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 LM OIS WR Lens. I love experimenting with the in-camera double-exposure feature and I love a good time-lapse too. I also enjoy trying my hand at some astrophotography and star-trails. I feel like my cameras are very versatile and allow me to experiment with all different types of photography.
Want to find more of Nicci’s work? Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicciauch/
