This weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with my good pals / bandmates in Dog Fish Mammal. We play Blues and Rock n Roll covers. The band is a great project as for many of us we were learning a new instrument when we started it and we have grown together as musicians and as a band. 

I recently took delivery of my new Fuji X100V which I have finally replaced my original and much loved X100 with. I thought this would be a great opportunity to take some pics with it and get a feel for how it behaves - every camera and lens has it's own personality and quirks :)

For two of us the band it was their first experience in the recording studio but everyone did a sterling job and we managed to track 4 songs between 9am and 5pm. Even without mixing they were sounding great so we were all really pleased.

PMC is a pretty special place for anyone involved in the Plymouth Music Scene. Ever since I moved to the city in 2000 it has been a significant part of the cities music scene supporting bands with everything from rehearsal space, recording, gigs and lots more. 

Doc Collins has been running the studio here since 2001. I've had the pleasure of recording with Doc 4 times now and without fail it's an enjoyable, creative and relaxed experience.

In his time at PMC Doc has recorded over 1000 bands and is a well known and much loved and respected figure within the local scene. Regularly working 7 days a week this guy lives recording. I asked Doc what his favourite thing about his job is and he said "getting the opportunity to hang out with all these amazing musicians over the years". From my perspective it takes someone pretty talented themselves to do what he does and create such a good space to be creative in.

We will be mixing the recordings shortly and I'll try to add them here once they are complete. 

As for the X100V I have to say I'm thrilled with how well it has performed and the photos I got. I thought I'd process them in a flat b/w style which I'm really into generally and find works well with the Fuji lenses I use. Some of the highlights for me with regards to the camera are the improved lens - really sharp wide open now, and I like the way it flares as you can see in some of the photos. The autofocus is a lot faster - a world apart from the old model I had which means I should get a lot more keepers in the future. Finally, it's still a super discreet camera, most people think it's a film camera and aren't intimidated by it which I love as it means I can get very natural photos without affecting a scene too much.