In studio with the Philips 288P6LJEB 28-inch Ultra HD Monitor

As a photographer, finding the right monitor is always an important part of our workflow. We are constantly looking for monitors with great colour rendition, vibrant and bright displays with a minimum size of 24-inch for shooting tethered and editing images. The Philips 288P6LJEB 28-inch Ultra HD monitor is a real beast - it boasts four times as many pixels than Full HD. I was really impressed by the build quality and I loved the ability to tilt and swivel the monitor, also allowing me to turn the screen 90 degrees into portrait mode. All the movements are damped to enable smooth movements and adjustable height with a high level of fine-tuning.

The overall screen quality is fantastic. The screen is bright and crystal clear. Usually you have to setup customised colour calibrations when using a new display. I did find the default colours surprisingly accurate out-of-the box. It is however important to make sure your computer's graphic hardware is capable of displaying at such high resolutions. The monitor offers an assortment of inputs; with HDMI, Displayport, DVI and even VGA and is capable of displaying picture-in-picture. There are also four USB ports; two US­­B 2.0 and two USB 3.0. Once you work with a monitor with so many USB ports - you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. O yes... it also comes with built in speakers to save valuable desktop space for all you minimalists out there. The menu system is logically laid out with beautiful touch sensitive buttons on the lower bezel.

“The ability continually check critical focus without having to zoom into the image is a real time saver and made shooting tethered a breeze. The monitor is highly capable an absolute joy to use and is perfectly suited for a studio environment.”

Apart from the screen quality, the swivel and tilt action is what got me excited. The smooth transition from landscape to portrait viewing mode happens in a flash. The beauty of the 90 degree tilted screen is that you can fill the entire screen with a portrait image, rather than the traditional landscape view that images only fill up a tiny amount of the screen. The ability to work without the creative team hovering around the computer monitor and the ability to view the screen from a distance is paramount when working with editorial magazine assignments. This allows me to view the entire image from a distance without the need to continually pop in for a closer look. The ability continually check critical focus without having to zoom into the image is a real time saver and made shooting tethered a breeze. The monitor is highly capable an absolute joy to use and is perfectly suited for a studio environment.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation or sponsorship with Philips.

Food & Home Entertaining Magazine - Cover | February 2015

Cranberry and Citrus Salmon Pizza Puzzle

I was fortunate enough to be part of another cover shoot for Food & Home Entertaining Magazine. The cranberry and citrus salmon pizza puzzle cover was part of a Valentine’s Day feature all about having a playful time in the kitchen (and out) with your loved one.

I'm also quite chuffed that we were included by MediaSlut’s choice of the best international and local magazine covers last week. You can find the full article here.

Magazine: Food & Home Entertaining Magazine
Recipe and Styling: Thulisa Martins
Photography: dylanswart.com

Christmas Countdown

Dear Santa - Food & Home Entertaining Magazine

Gingerbread House - Your Family Magazine Stylist: Leila Saffarian

Christmas Wreath - Garden & Home Magazine

And so the Christmas countdown has begun!

It has been such an awesome and blessed year for me, and I trust it was for you too. The season is upon us and there is no time more fitting to thank my family and friends for all their support throughout the year.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay safe and see you in 2014; it is going to be another colossal year. 

X100s One Small Camera, One Big Heart

It's been an awesome past two weeks with the Fuji x100s - wow is all I can say! A huge shout out to the kind folks at Fujifilm South Africa for letting me test this specimen out. I want to stress that this is by no means a technical review; there are plenty of resources out there that cover those aspects in-depth. I will however, highlight a few things I found interesting and thoroughly enjoyed about this camera.

After looking forward to shooting with the Fuji x100s for so long, I'll admit that I was slightly bummed -within the first five minutes of switching the device on I wanted to toss it against the wall... There - I said it… One can forget just how accustomed you become to using a DSLR, which I can pretty much operate with my eyes closed. After fumbling around with the controls and dials for a little while it all clicked (ha - pardon the pun). I was particularly impressed with the menu layout and the Q button (a real life saver); which allows you to access some of the most used controls. 

Anyway, rocky start aside, the x100s has a quick learning curve and is ergonomically very logically laid out. The amount of customization is astounding; in a couple of minutes everything was set up to my specifications. It was at that very moment that a gold ray of light shone upon me and the x100s (A-Ha moment possibly). This suddenly felt like a photographer’s camera. I managed to set up three different custom profiles that I could access on the fly. I got pretty close to my usual Photoshop look just by tweaking white balance and curves clippings. If you prefer the old-school vibe there are three focusing modes to choose from; standard, split screen and the Jedi-like focus peaking mode - which is the best thing ever. Accessing the menu without removing your eye from the viewfinder is genius thanks to the optical viewfinder (OVF), which is good news for all you chimpers out there - no one will ever know your secret antics.

Once I set up my profiles, I roped in a stylist- Leila Saffarian for a quick collaboration to put the x100s to the test. I popped the camera into macro mode to get a tight, square crop and a quick focus check using the focus peaking mode (just because I can) - it worked flawlessly. I also had no problem triggering studio strobes with the little camera.

RAW Series - X100s with studio strobes. Styling: Leila Saffarian

The x100s is small…stealthily small, silent and oozes retro sexiness! Funny how so many people mistook the x100s for a film camera - dismissing it as a serious camera is a big plus for any photographer. It’s nice to work on a scene without getting noticed. I'm sure this will quickly change as people become more aware of these retro styled cameras. I spent a very short amount of time with the XPro1, another fantastic camera. It would be ideal for more serious jobs; I would definitely reach for it with its interchangeable lenses.

X100s with a 3 light studio setup.

I thought I would prefer the XPro1 to the x100s for everyday use but I'm a sucker for the latter. Apart from the x100s being a very capable camera, the x100s can fit perfectly into my personal workflow. Imagine this; behind the scenes with the x100s partnered with an Eye-fi card shooting directly to your phone/tablet where you are able to 'spam' all relevant social media channels with epic images - keeping your audience in the loop of your current projects. You can even set up a square mode to upload directly to Instagram.

I've created more personal shots with this camera than I have in a very long time, as it travelled with me daily. Not having to ponder what lens to pack is a big plus in my books, a fixed lens frees you up when shooting, so that you can actually focus on what matters... your subject. And boy is the 23mm F2 Single Focal Length Lens a crisp little gem! The images look great out of camera and on screen. I was constantly reaching for the Fuji when I was out and about; it truly is an everyday companion.

In closing; the x100s is fun and easy to shoot with, stick with it and embrace its limitation and you will be rewarded for your efforts and time spent with it.

It’s Cover Time!

It has been a blessed year thus far, especially this month with the opportunity to be featured on the cover of one of the country’s top food magazines. The year just seems to be getting better and better…

Thanks to the amazing team at Food & Home Entertaining Magazine, with special thanks to über stylist; Leila Saffarian for helping me reach this milestone in my career – a goal I had since the beginning. I trust that this will be the first of many more. See the August issue of Food & Home Entertaining Magazine on Newsstands now! 

Another one off the bucket list.

View fullsize

Food & Home Entertaining Magazine Cover (August)

Have camera, will travel!

View fullsize

Fisherman's boat - Long Beach Hotel

View fullsize

Market - Port Louis

View fullsize

Sushi Platter - Sugar Beach Hotel

Any photographer will tell you that landing a travel assignment will always be right on top of their career bucket list. While studying photography we were often told that the photographic industry is not what it used to be. Gone are the days of extravagant travel assignments and large-scale production sets. The thought of being commissioned to visit exotic locations as a photographer soon vanished off my list.

I was however, fortunate enough to land a travel assignment in Mauritius early in my photographic career, and despite the smug feeling, it is not what you would come to expect. Nervous excitement quickly fades and by the time you board that airplane you are shaken into reality. The only thing running through your mind - DON’T screw this up! Imagine returning without any decent images. That thought is a sure winner to shake you out of your travel assignment virginity. Getting up at absurd hours to capture sunrises, risking expensive gear in dodgy markets and making sure you back-up all images late at night quickly becomes the norm. To quote the famous MasterCard ad – the feeling you get when boarding your flight back home with the right shots in the bag: Priceless!

Having said that, it was a magical trip; one of my fondest memories is shooting a couple of food dishes right on the beach with the sun setting over the ocean (who knew golden hour could be applicable to food as well). Personally, that trip served as a wake-up call. It is important to establish goals - be it a bucket list or to start collaborating with other creatives. It is so easy to become discouraged by the negative comments from peers. My advice; get out of your comfort zone and produce something unique and meaningful.

The Black Box

Considering this being my very first blog post, I feel it would be somewhat fitting to talk about what rekindled my passion for photography. Now I know what you are thinking and no, it is not a piece of gear or new retouching technique. It was something much more simplistic than that. It involved a black box and some light sensitive emulsion…

In late 2009 I found myself in a creative rut. Fortunately, part of my studies involved quite a lot of large format film photography. I relished the opportunity to lock myself inside that small, crammed cubical to process a few rolls of film. A typical visit to the darkroom is usually accompanied by a fair amount of profanity and mostly ended with me on all fours, fumbling around in complete darkness trying to locate my dropped- and now scratched film. I can still remember my first print appearing from the developing tank, and the nervous excitement of processing a fresh roll of Ilford FP4 Plus 120 Black & White film, not knowing if anything will come out or if I mixed the chemicals correctly.

I can still remember my first print appearing from the developing tank, and the nervous excitement of processing a fresh roll of Ilford FP4 Plus 120 Black & White film, not knowing if anything will come out or if I mixed the chemicals correctly.

That was it. Somehow, the limitation of the equipment and simplicity of the black box made it all clear.  I started collecting medium format cameras, all in working order of course. There is nothing more satisfying than cranking the film advance and firing the obnoxiously loud shutter, “clunk”. Bliss. Film has taught me that creativity comes when you distance yourself from the clutter of the latest equipment, focal length choices, lighting setups and post processing. The slow contemplated process allowed me to focus on what mattered - the craft. What are you waiting for, load up a roll and get inspired.