This is one of those pointless hypotheticals and I’ve decided to just write it down instead of pretending I have better things to think about.

I made a video about this idea a few years ago, I still agree with myself… I think.

If you asked me which focal length makes for the nicest images, I’d say 35mm without giving it much thought.

Why 35mm? It’s neat and tidy. Lines are straight. Whatever situation you walk into, I think 35mm will work every time and you can come home with something clean. Clean being a key description of 35mm.

But 28mm is interesting… and I think interesting is a more important than clean.

So what do I mean by interesting?

Personally, 28mm is the widest you can go before it stops looking like real life.

But wider than 28? I’m not sure. At 24mm, 21mm, definitely 16mm, the edges start doing something your eyes never would.

28mm is the limit where the frame still feels like a person stood there and saw a thing.

If I’m keeping one lens for the rest of my life, I want it to be a truthful point of view before I want it to be impressive point of view.

28mm lets stuff in the frame that I didn’t ask for, natural distractions. A hand in the bottom corner. A branch, shadows, Half a face on the edge that I couldn’t avoid.

I used to think those details were failures, things that made my composition worse… now I think they’re the bit that makes the photograph feel like a real documentation of something, candid in it’s the truest form.

35mm lets me tidy up my frames, 28 doesn’t often give much option.

A small loophole. You can crop a 28mm into a 35mm. You cannot crop a 35 into a 28. I know this is a slight "‘get out of jail free card” but if we’re playing desert island rules then I’m allowed to make up whatever reasons I want.

If I had to sell all my gear but keep one lens, I’d keep the 28.

What would yours be? I suspect a lot of you are going to say 35mm or 50mm and if we had to debate the pros and cons, what would you say?

See you on the street,

Mike

I’ll be upfront, the Canon PowerShot V1 is not the kind of camera I ever thought I’d buy. I shoot Leica. I use a Canon R6 Mark II for video. I’m far too cool for school to be concerned with a camera designed for vloggers… right??

And yet, here we are.

Let me explain (or justify) why I bought the Canon PowerShot V1, whether it’s worth it for photographers and content creators, and how it compares to the alternatives.

Why I Was Even Looking for a Compact Camera

My main video setup is the Canon R6 Mark II. It’s brilliant, I have no complaints.

But the moment you add a 24-70mm or a 16–35mm on it, it’s no longer something I want to casually carry around. It fills most of my sling bags combined with an M11 or MP around my neck, it becomes a chore.

I refuse to carry a backpack for day-to-day shooting. So whenever I’m travelling, spending long days on the street, or just want to document something without faff, the R6 setup gets left behind.

What I wanted was something pocketable that still produced good results.

Easy workflow, decent image quality - there has to be answer for this right?

Turns out it took me a while to figure out.

The Alternatives I Considered (And Why I Ruled Them Out)

DJI Osmo Pocket 3

The Osmo Pocket 3 is a solid option on paper, but the footage has a very specific look to it - smooth, gimbal-stabilised, almost a bit too clean. It’s fine, but it looks like everyone else’s Osmo Pocket footage. I also don’t like how grades. I’d rather not have my b roll be immediately identifiable as “that pocket camera thing.”

iPhone (17 Pro)

The obvious answer and to be fair, it’s excellent. But using your phone as a camera comes with trade offs: you end up on your phone more, you need ND filters for proper shutter speeds, and by the time you’ve added accessories it’s no longer the simple pocket solution it seemed. I’ll still use it here and there, but it’s not the dedicated solution I’m after.

Action Cameras (GoPro, Insta360, DJI)

Generally not impressed. The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is probably the best of the bunch in my opinion. Decent battery, straightforward to use, acceptable footage and I’ll likely still pick this up for POV and chest cam stuff. But for anything I’d call “proper” video, action cam footage isn’t going to make the cut.

Why I Chose the Canon PowerShot V1

After ruling out the above, I started looking more seriously at compact fixed lens cameras.

The V1 had been on my radar, these small pocketable cameras have had a moment with the vlogging crowd since the Canon G7X days back in 2016, and the V1 is essentially Canon’s modern answer to that legacy.

Four things sealed the deal for me:

1. Canon Log 3 (CLog 3) This is a lovely for anyone who grades their footage. I’ve used clog3 on my R6 years and I really like. Having a flat log profile in a camera this small means you’re not baking in a look at the point of capture. You have latitude in post. This alone puts the V1 in a different conversation to most compact cameras that don’t shoot log.

2. 16mm equivalent wide-angle lens at f/2.8 Wide, fast, and fixed. For run-and-gun and travel content, this is a very useful focal length.

3. Built-in ND filter This solves the iPhone problem entirely. No clipping on a sunny day, no fussing with external filters, no excuses not to have proper shutter speed. It’s the kind of feature that sounds small until you’re in the field and you don’t have to think about it.

4. Decent built-in microphone Not a replacement for proper audio work, but more than adequate for on-the-go content where you’re not setting up a full kit.

Stack those four things together and it becomes a g compelling option - not just for vloggers, but for photographers who also make video content and want a camera that works with them.

First Impressions: Is the Canon PowerShot V1 Any Good?

It’s very early to share any real results, i’ve filmed one YouTube video with it at the moment and I’ll be honest , it seems great!

The log footage grades nicely, the wide lens is exactly what you want for self-shooting or environmental content. The built-in ND means I’m not reaching for accessories. And it is, actually, pocketable.

Will it replace my R6? No. For anything important - commercial work, main YouTube content, anything that needs to look its best - the R6 stays the main rig. But for travel, for long shooting days, for casual content I’d otherwise just skip because the setup is too much faff? The V1 fills that gap properly.

Canon PowerShot V1 vs Canon R6 Mark II: Which Should You Use?

These are solving different problems. The R6 Mark II is a full-featured hybrid camera that produces exceptional results - if you’re shooting anything where quality is the primary concern, it wins every time.

The V1 is for the situations where you’d otherwise leave the camera at home. Think of it less as a competitor and more as a companion.

If you’re a photographer or content creator already running a capable main system, the V1 makes a strong case as a run-and-gun second body that doesn’t compromise your bag space or your sanity.

Final Verdict

The Canon PowerShot V1 is a properly thought-out compact camera - not just a vlogging novelty. For photographers and creators who want something genuinely pocketable but don’t want to shoot flat, boring footage, it’s hard to look past the combination of CLog 3, a fast wide lens, and built-in ND.

I didn’t expect to like it this much. I can’t wait to use this more.

In September of 2022 a friend and I visited The Photography Show. Half a mile from the NEC in Birmingham where the event was held is this Travel Lodge we stayed at.

£35 for 1 night, why not. A bed for the night was all that was needed. Although I’m grateful for a good nights sleep, this was probably on the worser sides of hotel rooms I’ve ever stayed in. However, with age and poor quality comes character and even a liminal space feeling.

If you’re familiar with Todd Hido and his work with interiors I would be flattered if you can see the similarity in these photos I got here. It’s not often that someone’s work makes you feel a certain type of way and Todd Hido’s interior photography definitely creates an atmosphere I haven’t seen or felt from photos before. So when I walked into this Travel Lodge room I immediately wanted to capture this liminal atmosphere.

This isn’t the first time I have attempted to capture liminal space photography. Many years ago I filmed my process of walking around Basildon at night in the winter snow photographing with a similar idea in mind. Check out that video here: Liminal Spaces SCARE ME and Why I’m taking Photos of Them.

Downstairs in the lobby of the hotel was definitely much less liminal and eerie of course. People eating, drinking and staff serving customers made this feel like nothing of out the ordinary. I had my camera zipped away in my bag with no intention of shooting.

That was until my friend Pete who was with me on this trip wondered into the corner to look for any potential images. I wasn’t sure what caught his eye until I followed and noticed these shapes, lines and colours.

The reason I like these images could be a simple one. They’re timeless to me. A combination of the slightly aged rooms, interior design and JPEG film simulations from the X100v give this a certain type of look. Was this an editorial piece taken in 1982 or in fact just a random photographers 1 night stay whilst visiting The Photography Show in 2022?

This documentary, contemporary or editorial style photography is something I find very interesting and probably something I should pursue more often. I had fun playing around with these images and that’s all that matters right?

“It’s just vibes man”

I’ve enjoyed personal development and ‘taking responsibility for your own life’ since I first read ‘7 habits of highly effective people’ when I was 17 or something.

Pursuing personal excellence is what gives us meaning. Doing something well, having intention, direction and purpose doesn’t just improve your own life but those you love around you.

Classic Jordan Peterson language “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.”

Too many people complain about the government or their neighbours or their family before working on their own problems first.

Over the years the more I dived into the “self help” world the more hectic it gets. In some ways it’s kinda cult like.

But as the more bro-science content I consume or philosophical content I read the more I’ve realised “it’s just vibes man”.

The hippy skating along the beachfront had it figured out all this time.

My favourite meme that sums up this thinking is the Midwit.

For those who don’t know about the midwit.

The midwit in the middle would represent the overthinking, hyper-analytical approach that tries to dissect, strategize, and “perfect” every single decision or action, often missing the bigger picture.

The guy on the left is dumb and naive. The guy on the right is a wise old sage.

Effectively, they come to the same conclusion.

I’m probably still a midwit photographer - but I am aiming to be the guy on the right (or even left)

What am I even trying to say? That photography is just vibes man.

Good or bad photo? Good or bad project? Good or bad technique? Good or bad compositions? Good of bad focal length? Says Who? it’s all just a feeling.

The more I’ve chased those feelings and leaned into the ‘vibes’ the more work I’ve enjoyed making and looking at.

I guess ‘Vibes’ is your gut instinct and taste. I wrote about taste in this blog here.

Especially where art and photography is concerned, just do whatever feels right.

Follow your gut. Not what gets the most likes on Instagram.

Since I’ve done that in regards to my YouTube channel, my photography, what i’ve been posting, the things I’ve been consuming… I think… just maybe, i’ve been a little happier.

Not overthinking it too much, just enjoying the vibes.

See you on street,

Mike

But now.

Obviously: the world is pretty mental

Cities are busier than they’ve ever been. In 1990, just over 2 billion people lived in cities. Today? It’s over 4.4 billion.

That’s more than half the planet in close spaces.

One of the best things about photography, especially street photography - is that it’s unrepeatable.

A second later, and the moment’s gone. And that, to me, is why it’s magic.

A weird shadow, a fleeting expression or two strangers crossing paths for a split second.

Moments that are irreplaceable.

Photography is witchcraft.

I genuinely think the process of photography stopping time is something we just accept and gloss over as if it’s nothing special.

Like flying in a plane. If you actually consider what is going on fundamentally, you’re in a tin box in the sky travelling at 300mph.

But we just sit there in our little seats looking out the window like it’s normal. How our brains rationalise and normalise complex situations in crazy.

Image if you showed anyone in history the process of photography they would think it’s witchcraft… because it basically is!

All the best photos have already been taken?

I get it… for the street photographers reading this it might feel like all the great street photographs have already been taken.

But we only think that way because we’ve had decades to reflect on the likes of Garry Winogrand, Saul Leiter and Joel Meyerowitz.

They weren’t shooting with the knowledge that their work would be iconic.

They were just out there, walking and watching, doing the thing.

We don’t know the value of what we’re capturing now. Not yet.

But give it 10, 20, 30 years… what feels ordinary today will be different…

“You photograph a lot of things, and sometimes, years later, you realize they were important.” – Saul Leiter

That’s why photography matters now, because it always mattered, Why would things be different today?

This is powerful. A photo you took today might feel like a throwaway, but time gives it context and potentially value.

We’re not just taking pictures – we’re storing evidence of how people dressed. How they moved and how places felt.

Something real.

In a world that’s getting more digital and a little more... designed. Photography gives us a way to see something real.

Street photography especially. It’s messy… but the best bit… it’s honest.

People are tired of curated feeds and overly perfect content.

A good photograph, for whatever reason that might be, cuts through the noise and tells us: this actually happened.

That’s also part of why I’ve fallen in love with film photography.

It’s tactile. It’s real. and it’s in contrast to a world that’s glued to screens and dopamine loops.

Holding a camera – especially a film one – just feels different.

Photography isn’t just about taking pictures.

In a time that feels like we’re all rushing around, photography forces you to stop and really look, really pay attention.

it’s a purposeful practice of finding interest in the ordinary – a puddle, a reflection, a face in a crowd.

Photography isn’t just about noticing life, it’s about appreciating it.

We live in this culture of constant productivity – ticking boxes, crushing goals, squeezing every drop out of every day.

But photography… it gives you permission to just be.

Walking without a destination. Noticing things that don’t shout for attention.

Enjoying the process for its own sake – not the outcome.

You’re out there doing 20, 30, 40 thousand steps in a day, just following your curiosity.

It’s good for your mental health. Good for your physical health. And keeps you active, creatively.

You’re not scrolling. You’re not comparing. You’re not performing.

You’re just responding… to life.

When was the last time you walked without a destination.

Sounds like a waste of time, right?

That’s the point.

The most important part…

Now I’m not saying this is philosophical gold, but these ideas keep me thinking positively in my pursuit of photography.

Instead of feeling like the good old days are behind us,

I genuinely think some of the best photos are still waiting to be taken.

The world’s changing fast. And that’s exactly why photography matters more than ever.

So if you’re on the fence about starting photography,

or if you’ve been feeling uninspired…

just remember this:

What feels mundane today will one day be a record of how it used to be.

And one last thing I’ll say…

Some of the most meaningful photos you’ll ever take won’t be your most artistic or clever ones.

They won’t be the perfectly timed street moments or the ones with beautiful light and composition.

They’ll be the off-the-cuff, ordinary photos of people you love.

Your friends. Your family. The people around you right now.

A blurry shot from a birthday. A casual frame from a road trip. A quiet moment at home.

Those are the ones that grow in meaning over time.

They might feel throwaway today – but trust me, future you will thank you for capturing them.

So take more photos of your life. Don’t wait for it to feel significant.

Just shoot.

Because years from now, when things have changed – and they will – those everyday moments will feel priceless.

Right, so I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while.

About 6 years ago I picked up The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

I’d heard people bang on about mindfulness and being present and all that for ages and it always felt a bit... wishy washy?

Like yeah mate, be present… cheers for that.

But this book was different. Eckhart Tolle doesn’t dress it up in spiritual nonsense. His whole thing is dead simple: right now is the only real thing.

The past? That’s just a memory. The future? A guess.

This moment, literally right now while you’re reading this, is the only bit that’s actually happening. Nothing else is real.

And I don’t know if I just read it at the right time in my life or something but it clicked. Not in a dramatic way.

Like someone finally explained something you couldn’t put into words.

and it’s so closely related to street photography, I have to share it with you.

Photography is just paying attention, isn’t it?

When you’re out with a camera, especially on the street, you can’t be doom-scrolling or in your head about some email you forgot to send.

If you’re not locked in, you miss stuff.

Street photography is basically a game of noticing. The way light hits a staircase. A stranger’s expression changing for half a second. Two bikes on the floor that look like a face.

None of that stuff is obvious… you’re almost training yourself to notice it.

And that’s Eckhart Tolle’s entire point.

Most of us spend our lives stuck in our own heads - worrying about the future or replaying the past while actual life is just cracking on without us.

Photography drags me out of that mindset and into the present moment.

The envelope story

There’s a Kurt Vonnegut quote I absolutely love that sums all this up way better than I can.

He tells his wife he’s popping out to buy an envelope… i’ll let you read the rest.

To summerise… he says we’re dancing animals.

That’s street photography to me. That’s genuinely why I grab the camera and head out the door. Not really for the photos. For the farting around. For the noticing. For being a dancing animal on a Saturday afternoon with nowhere to be.

Wise words from Kurt Vonnegut

Gratitude for the boring bits

One thing that’s stuck with me from The Power of Now is this idea of appreciating what’s already in front of you. Not the dream trip or perfect golden hour, just... the regular stuff.

I walk a lot of the same streets every week and I never run out of things to shoot. Because it’s never actually the same twice, is it?

London helps, arguably the most interesting city going but stick with me here.

The light’s different, the people are different, the vibe is always changing.

The present moment is endlessly interesting if you actually bother to show up for it. That’s true whether you’ve got a camera or not.

Chasing flow

The other thing street photography does and I think this connects to The Power of Now - is it forces a state of total focus.

I’m not going to pretend I walk around in some zen state every time I shoot. I’m human, my brain’s as busy as yours.

But when you get those five or ten minutes where everything goes quiet and you’re just responding to what’s happening in front of you? It’s unreal. Time disappears. The inner monologue shuts up.

You’re not thinking about yourself anymore.

That’s flow…. that’s presence, whatever you want to call it, it feels brilliant.

A small challenge

Whether you shoot or not, try this: go for a walk today. Leave the headphones at home. Don’t stick on another podcast. Just walk and actually look at things.

Notice the light and the people and unremarkable stuff. Noitce how you feel when you practise this.

If you haven’t read The Power of Now, honestly give it a go. It’s short, it’s not complicated, and it puts into words something we all kind of know but keep forgetting.

There’s a line from Eckhart Tolle I’ll end with:
“Do not be concerned with the fruit of your action - just give attention to the action itself.”

That’s street photography in a sentence. Don’t worry about whether the shot’s any good. Don’t think about likes or the portfolio.

Just see. Press the shutter. The rest sorts itself out.

Right, I’m off to fart around, see you out there.

Mike

There’s a age old conversation in photography around black and white VS. colour and is black and white more artistic than colour?

I want to have an open discussion here, as if we’re out for dinner or getting coffee. There is no right or wrong but I do have a few opinions on this. So I thought it could be fun to talk about it.

So question one… why do some people think B&W is more artist than colour? I think the reasoning for all of this is more interesting than the conclusion.

B&W isn’t real.

I want to start with perhaps an obvious point, that B&W isn’t real life.

Black and white is not what your eyes see when you walk out the door.

The world is in colour and the moment you take that away, you’ve already done something to an image. You’ve made a decision. You’ve reinterpreted reality rather than just documenting and recording it.

As Joel Sterneld once said: “Black and white is abstract; colour is not. Looking at a black and white photograph, you are already looking at a strange world.”

The moment a photograph becomes “strange” as Joel said - it asks you to look differently. And is that when people consider something more ‘arty’? I don’t know, it’s just an idea.

When you look at a b&w image, it’s not real and you know it’s not.

That’s the most useful way I’ve found to think about it. Colour tells you what something looked like. Black and white tells you what it felt like. Or at least - it’s open for you to decide.

“Colour is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.” - Elliott Erwitt

Colour is distracting.

A lot of people consider colour distracting. Colour is always asking for attention, it’s more detail you cannot help but notice.

A bright red coat or a green bin that might distract an otherwise interesting moment.

B&W neutralises all of that. It simplifies the scene meaning you focus on the real focal point, the main reason for the photograph… which might not be the red coat or green bin.

That rings true in street and documentary photography. When you’re shooting in a busy environment, there are so many different elements competing for attention.

Colour can be chaos. In black and white, a photograph can becomes slightly more obvious.

And I think that’s might be where the impression of B&W being more artistic comes from. A B&W image often looks more considered, more intentional - not because it necessarily is, but because the simplification does a lot of the heavy lifting.

An interesting exercise… that I don’t really have a conclusion for you but is fun to consider.

I always imagine your favourite B&W images, for example the photographs from Joseph Kouldeka’s book, Exiles… these are such beautiful images… but… would they be better in full colour? … I don’t have an answer for that.

Maybe some of them would, but maybe some of them might be worse. I guess we will never know.

The Cliche…

There’s a running joke in photography.

If an image isn’t working, if the light is flat or the colours are off or the whole thing is just… meh, “throw it in black and white and add some grain and it’s not arty”

It that funny because, there is actually some truth to that?

Black and white genuinely can salvage a mediocre image. A photograph with poor lighting, or weird white balance can be converted to monochrome and all of a sudden feel moody or considered.

Throw some grain on it to add texture and hide any technical problems. It’s all of a sudden not completely crap.

But it’s also why the joke exists. The cliché exists because it actually works…

Because there’s a difference between using B&W because it’s the right call for that image, and using it because you’re covering something up.

But I do think photographers making genuinely great B&W work aren’t using it as a fix. They’re using it because actually produces better work.

Is B&W Revered a little bit because it came first?

Is there a nostalgia argument underneath all of this?

Photography was black and white a long time. The images that define documentary photography from the likes of Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank are almost entirely monochrome.

Mainly just because that was the only format available.

And then when colour arrived, the serious photographers - particularly in documentary and street largely stayed with B&W. As Martin Parr said himself.

“In the ‘70s, in Britain, if you were going to do serious photography, you were obliged to work in black and white.” - Martin Parr

B&W photography was what all the best or most serious photographers had used previously. So does B&W photography kind of automatically inherit a high standard? Maybe.

But it does make me think of how a B&W image might be considered timeless.

I do this with my own work, i’m guilty of it. This print on the wall behind me, I describe one of it’s qualities as feeling timeless, it’s what I like about it.

A great B&W image from 1965 and one from last week exist in the same category.

Another question then, does colour date more easily than B&W? And maybe that timelessness of B&W might be another reason to consider it more artistic?

Colour gets my vote.

Here’s my opinion, I prefer colour.

Not always. But most of the time.

Because colour is real. and I think… I prefer photographs that represent a version of reality.

Colour is the record of what actually happened and I think there’s something genuinely important about that, especially in street and documentary work where the whole point is that you were there, and this is what you saw.

I found some bloody good quotes when writing this video and I love this quote from Ted Grant.

“When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.” - Ted Grant

It’s a great line. But I’d push back on it slightly because colour can most definitely be part of a photographs feeling.

Sometimes the orange glow of light creates an entire atmosphere.

Removing the colour would remove that atmosphere.

Around 70% of my finished photographs are in colour. That’s just where my tends to land and I can’t say with any certainty why… just that I really enjoy colour.

Leica’s B&W High Contrast Profile.

Here’s something specific that I have experienced personally.

I always shoot with the HC Black & White picture profile on my M11.

Not because I intend to make black and white images - I shoot RAW, so the profile doesn’t affect the file - but because it completely changes how I see when I’m out.

The high contrast black and white preview strips away colour and shows me shape, form, and shadow. It emphasises contrast, highlights how light is behaving, and makes compositional decisions easier in the moment. It removes the visual noise.

Looking at a standard colour picture profile whilst shooting honestly does nothing for me. It’s almost boring in a way. But that crunchy pop of contrast from the B&W profile.

There’s something very satisfying and helpful about it.

The problem is the moment I open Lightroom, that preview is gone. I’m left with a full colour RAW file. Most of the time, that’s exactly what I want. About 70% of my final photographs are in colour anyway. But for the other 30% — when the shoe fits and I know the image needs to be black and white — I want that Leica HC B&W look back. And it just isn’t there.

So I built a preset for it and it’s available right now.

I shot against a colour card and matched exactly how the Leica HC B&W profile converts each colour into grey - red, green, skin tones, the sky.

So that dropping this preset onto a colour RAW file produces the same grayscale as the in-camera Leica HC black and white profile.

Then I pushed it slightly further with added texture and a touch more contrast to make it feel fully finished as an edit.

Combined with the Adobe Monochrome profile in Lightroom, it works consistently across camera systems, not just Leica’s.

I’ve been using it as my only B&W preset for months now, and I’ve just put it in on my site. XMP for desktop, DNG for mobile.

Thanks

Mike