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Nathan Wake ASINWP - Member Profile

by Nathan Wake

Nathan Wake has been around cameras for years. He currently works for Fujifilm around the London area, supplying professional photographic labs with paper and chemistry. Before that he worked in camera shops and even ran the trade counter at Drummond Street when it was KJP. Back when he was at school Nathan was always the one with the camera - shooting pictures for classmates field trips and projects - but it's only recently that he went public with his pictures and finally achieved his Associateship at January's Convention. His use of a Compact System Camera, the Fujifilm X-Pro1 is of particular relevance in this issue.

'It's always been a way for chilling out for me' Nathan tells me when I ask him why he takes photos. 'Particularly now that I've got older, I'm not always very good at reading instruction books and I need to learn by going out and being hands-on.' When working at KJP Nathan would often take advantage of the rental department when a customer had a query, going out and learning how to use the equipment himself so that he could teach others. 'It was always a means to an end when I was working in shops, but more recently it's become a case of just going somewhere that I want to go and taking some time out to relax.' Growing up in the Lake District and then moving to Kent has meant that Nathan has always been around beautiful, watery landscapes. So it's no surprise then that landscapes that feature the Kent coast are the stars of Nathan's portfolio. 'I've tried doing portraits but I don't find it relaxing in the same way. It's funny really, because I can talk to a customer quite happily one-on-one, but if you put a camera between us it forms a barrier and I find it very hard to talk to someone over a camera.' 'I've always had a thing for maps' Nathan tells me when I ask him how he plans his days out shooting landscapes. 'I often use Ordinance Survey maps alongside a couple of apps on my iPad. My most used app is probably The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE).' TPE is handy app for any outdoor photographer. It helps you plan natural light photographing, showing how the light will fall on the land for any location in the world. 'It's helpful when you're traveling' says Nathan. 'At Photo Training Overseas I used it to find sunset and sunrise. Locally it's helpful too, for example there's a pier on the Kent coast that lines up with the sunrise for just two days a year and TPE helped me plan when those days would be.'

At the end of the day, Nathan believes that perseverance is one of the factors that will ultimately make a landscape photographer successful. 'I love revisiting locations. When you go somewhere in spring you get a different image to when you go in autumn so you can always discover new shots that you didn't take the first time.' Nathan loves to get off the beaten track and head away from the other photographers to find something unique to shoot; 'I think you can look at a view and see the reason why everyone else loves to shoot it, but I like to go somewhere else and perhaps look at the same place from a different view. My best pictures are usually caught when I'm out on my own with my camera, but I do enjoy shooting with friends too. It always amazes me how two people in the same place with almost identical kit can still get some very different pictures.'

Committing to Compact System Cameras
'I don't have a DSLR anymore' says Nathan as if he's hiding a guilty secret. 'I've got a couple of old film cameras that I'm planning to dust off and have a play with, but that's it.' There was no doubt from Nathan's Associate panel in January that the CSCs can rival DSLRs in the field of landscape photography and there are other distinct advantages too. 'I can carry around a relatively compact bag now that still contains two bodies, some prime lenses and a set of filters. It means that I can stay out for longer and walk further without having to worry about carrying a big bag of kit.' Nathan also found that going back to prime lenses has not only lightened his load, but also helped him concentrate on making better pictures. 'With my DSLR I never used most of the lenses I owned, but I always carried them around with me. When the Fujifilm X-1 Pro came out, it came with 28mm, 50mm and 90mm primes and I went back to just shooting on them. It meant I had to think about my composition more and it improved my photography.'

Switching to a CSC if you're a landscape photographer sounds like it makes complete sense. They're lightweight, compact, high quality - but Nathan does believe that there is a small flaw in the system. 'CSCs fall down when you look at their minimum ISO. The Fujifilm's, for example, are limited to ISO 200 as their minimum and that means you have to compensate more with neutral density filters.' Of course that isn't the end of the world anymore, since LEE Filters brought out their new system specifically for CSCs. The Seven5 Micro Filter System from LEE Filters is compatible with LEE's 75x90mm filter range and includes all the polarisers and neutral density filters that a landscape photographer could want. It also means that both the Big Stopper and the Little Stopper can be used with a CSC camera.

'There seems to be something about CSCs' Nathan says when I ask him why he thinks so many professionals have made the move away from DSLR's. 'If they click, then they seem to really click. I've had conversations with people who have only ever used one brand of camera, for instance, and you can see from the moment when they pick up a CSC that it doesn't feel right in their hands. They're not quite sure how to use the dials or the viewfinder because it's so alien to them. But of course the opposite happens too - sometimes people just pick it up and everything about it works for them.'



Updated 27/04/2026 16:44:22 Last Modified: Monday, 27 April 2026