06.24.2016 Tomasz Lazar

Inside the bag of the X-Photographer -Tomasz Lazar

Tomasz Lazar

Born 1985 in Szczecin, Poland. An independent photographer, a graduate of the West Pomeranian University of Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology.  Winner of photography contests in Poland and abroad (e.g. World Press Photo, POY, CHIPP, Sony World Photography Award, the International Photography Award, BZWBK Press Photo, Grand Press Photo, Lumix Festival for Young Journalism or Grand Prix at Łódź Photo Festival). His work was published in newspapers and magazines like: New York Times, Newswek International, Sunday Times Magazine, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times or New York Magazine. He is a coffee-lover and a good music enthusiast. He derives pleasure from spending time with other people and devotes most of his time to photography. Recently, he is constantly on the move.

I would like to welcome all very warmly. My name is Tomasz Lazar and I’m photographer from Poland, who is mainly working in documentary, reportage and portrait photography. A lot of my time I also spend on street photography. I received such Awards as World Press Photo Picture of the Year International, Grand Prix at Łódź Photo Festival and many others.

Today I would like to share with you with what type of photography equipment I normally work with and which bags or backpacks I use to carry them. For me very important thing is weight aspect. The bag should not be to heavy. One of the reason why I’m working with Fujifilm mirrorless cameras.  Fujifilm has also two other very important aspects:
– quality of the image thanks to Fujifilm sensor
– design and other technical aspects of those cameras that gives me comofort working in the field

Normally in my Think Tank Citywalker bag, I have Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera with Fujifilm XF23mmF1.4 lens and XF35mmF2. Additionally, I pack the EF-X20 flash and X70 camera with optical viewfinder.

Sometimes happens that I’m taking only with me camera with batteries. During this situation I work with Fujfilm X100T or X70 with optical viewfinder. They are small, compact and give great quality of image. They give the possibility to capture “moments” in photography. Very important thing for example in street photography.

In September and November 2015 I was shooting as a comission Fashion Weeks in London, Milan and Paris. This project I was doing for The Cut Magazine from New York. Because I had to move a lot, sometimes each day walking 15-20 km I packed my all equipments in this small backpack. Inside I had:
– 2x Fujifilm X-T1 cameras
– 6 additional batteries
– 4 lenses: XF23mmF1.4, XF35mmF1.4, XF56mmF1.2 and XF90mmF2
– wireless flash Cactus RF 60 and Cactus transceiver V6
– Think Tank Hubba Hubba Hiney beltpack
– and other accessories that you can see on the image

For example, this image was taken during Paris Fashion Week at Valentino Show. As you know Fujifilm don’t have fisheye lens. This was made with XF23mmF1.4 lens and it is optical illusion. Small X-T1 allowed me to capture this image on 1/4 second from hand also I used here ISO 200 and aperture 10. Tilt screen gave me the potential to move the camera higher with my hands and still see what is happening on the catwalk. Great sensor gave me beautiful colours in the image.

As my final words for all you I would like to tell that the most important thing is to know what do you want to shoot and this determine what do you want to take to your bag