A trip to paris and how I ended GAS

Towards the end of 2022, I had a personal photographic crisis. Weekends were packed with portrait shootings, however nothing clicked. I was just pushing buttons, batch edited all images, sent them to clients and never looked at the again - kind of like a living (and very expensive) camera booth. To fix this, I started buying more gear. All of a sudden I was sitting on 3 Sony bodies, 5 G-Master lenses and a whole studio lighting equipment.

Looking back at it, I suffered from GAS.

I’m sure every photographer has heard of GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome - by now. GAS is when buying new gear appears to be a legitimate way of solving issues, compensating skill or even create excitement in the first place. While this is a healthy approach for the photographic industry, it’s in no way healthy for us photographers.

Funnily enough, I managed to escape GAS by buying a final last piece of equipment: a Fuji XE4.

Having seen the legendary Fuji-look in Youtube videos, I was tempted to give it a try and found a used one with a 27mm f2.8 kit lens for a fair price nearby. The camera felt great in hand and I immediately fell in love with the tactile feeling, the shutter sound and the sheer look of the camera.

My real love however started with a trip to Paris. Unlike on other trips the same year, I decided to pack light and only bring the XE4. These are some of the first shots I ever took:

Raising my camera to the eye felt exciting every single time.

Every shot made me feel something.

It was as if I’ve finally found someone in a foreign country who speaks my language - almost like a deep mutual understanding between gear and photographer.