Who are you and what’s your profession?

I’m Riley and my profession is being a photographer & a gentleman. While photography is a large part of my professional life I also do side work managing social media for organizations as well as a writing creative. I married my dream girl in 2011 and we live in Southern Alberta with our year old cockapoo Ruby. My hobby, shockingly, is also photography. But it is just for me then. And that is what I typically share on my social media, tumblr, blog and the like.

In the spring I was invited by famed FujiGuy, Billy, into the stable of Fujifilm X-Photographers. With this I am given the opportunity to try out knew Fuji products before they hit the streets and give my input to Fuji on how to make their products better. And by better I of course mean exactly how I want them to be. I like anything made of leather, wood, fine brass or a mixture of all three.

What’s your rig?

In the summer I sold off all my dSLR gear,, a 5D Mark III, 35L, 50L, 24-105L, 17-40L. A very weighty collection. I rarely took it out with me and it was a real pain for travelling. I made the switch to only mirrorless cameras and I am still loving the freedom. My workhorse camera has been a Fujifilm X-Pro1. I love the way it looks and feels in my hands. And its files are awesome. My have a lens collection of primes. The Fujinon 14mm (21mm equivalent), 23mm (35mm equivalent), and 35mm (50mm equivalent).. they are awesome. The 56mm (85mm equivalent) will round my kit out. They are some of the sharpest lenses I have ever used.

As a take anywhere camera or when I need a high sync speed I also have a Fuji X100s. I have just added a Fuji E-X2 camera to my bag which will be my new main body. All of my cameras have a Artisan Obscura soft shutter release on it. I can hand hold at 1/15th of a second and get sharp results.

For strobing (which I do not do all that often) I use 2 Lumpro180 flashes. I fire them using Cybersyncs. I always dreamed of having Pocket Wizards but I have never, ever had a problem with Cybersyncs. they just work. I have 28″ Apollo Softbox, umbrellas, Honl grids just in the event I need to make my own light.

When I am using two cameras I use a Holdfast Moneymaker strap.. it is the coolest dual strap on the market. I wish they would make one with thinner leather and slighter hardware for mirrorless though.

What hardware do you use?

My machine is a 27″ iMac. I wish it had a matte display. The iMac screen, while pretty, is too glossy for me. As an Apple fanboy I also have an iPad 3 and iPhone 5s. I never used my iPhone to make photos before but in the last few months I have really liked the simplicity of just using a smartphone to make strong images. I print using an Epson Stylus Photo R2880.

What software do you use?

I edit my photos using Adobe Lightroom 5. I also use Photoshop CS6 if needed. I have VSCO Film presets loaded which I overused when I first got them. I have dialed it back now and use them lightly with my own edits. I also have Rebecca Lily’s Pro Set II presets. I find them to be a little lighter than VSCO’s and they too offer a great starting point.

What would be your dream rig?

I think that my current setup is very close to my dream rig. If I were to add anything else to it it would be a Hasselblad 503CX with a 80mm f/2.8 lens so I could shoot some medium format film. It would be mostly for personal work but I could see it working with my Fuji’s on commissioned jobs. I have almost pulled the trigger on buying one on several occasions but I run away before it happens. It is always somewhere on my mind. It is so easy for digital images to get imported into Lightroom and then disappear into the black digital void forever. I recently sat with my family pouring over a box of old family photographs dating back almost 100 years. Will we all crowd around a computer monitor looking at 100 year old JPG files one day? Prints.. digital or film are important.

What is your favorite photography quote?

Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Riley Joseph Social Media

http://www.rileyjoseph.com/
http://rileyjoseph.tumblr.com/
http://www.twitter.com/riley_joseph
http://instagram.com/rileyjoseph