Fujifilm South Africa Take Ten X-Community X-Series X-User

TAKE TEN: Pierre Rommelaere

April 13, 2023

Pierre Rommelaere is making a name for himself capturing Cape Town’s rough-and-ready live music scene. He shares ten of his favourite Fujifilm images, while we chat to him about exploring new avenues, his favourite gear, energy and emotion.

Why do you love photography?

For me, photography, like most art, is all about telling a story or conveying an idea. Whether shooting events, portraiture, ad campaigns, digitally manipulating or just changing a photo from colour to black and white, the endgame is always to narrate an idea, emotion or a process.

My love for photography, above other mediums, is the challenge to capture a thought, feeling or vibe in just a single shot and then create a narrative with a selection of such shots.

Tell us a bit more about your photography.

Being raised by very artistic parents in the Cape Town CBD, I was exposed to art and music from a very early age. After school I developed a passion for photography, made friends with quite a few local musicians and bands and started capturing their performances. And now I’m a full-time photographer shooting mainly events, festivals, productions and behind the scenes.

I’d say the common underlying themes to my photography are emotion and energy, those two being very prominent in music and events photography. The thing I’ve learned about music photography is that it’s not just about taking photos of bands – there much more to it. From music photography one can branch off into branding, fashion, behind the scenes, videography, etc. This is essentially what I want to achieve with my photography: to create aesthetically pleasing images and always explore new genres in my own unique way.

What made you switch to Fujifilm and when did this happen?

My previous DSLR camera got stolen in 2019 and my housemate at that time had a Fujifilm X-T20. I instantly fell in love with Fujifilm’s features and ergonomics, so the choice became quite obvious when I needed a replacement.

Which Fujifilm camera do you use and what’s your favourite lens?

Currently I’m using the X-T30 with the 18-55mm f2.8-4 kit lens and 35mm f2 lens. The sharpness and focusing speed of the 35mm is just astounding.

Other things I love about the X-T30 (and Fujifilm in general) include the range I can push my ISO to, the silent shutter and the way the camera interprets colour. These really are bonuses to my line of photography work. I’m also a big fan of the Acros and Classic Chrome simulations and use them as my base profiles in post-production.