Bryan Minear
Bryan Minear is a Midwest-based designer, photographer, father, Star Wars nerd, and pizza connoisseur. From a young age Bryan was inspired by Ansel Adams’ ethereal landscape work, which paved the direction he wanted to go as an artist.
Bryan’s always showed interests in cameras and technology from a young age, but it wasn’t until college where he was pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design that started shooting and developing film in the darkroom. He fell in love with the process and soon picked up a DSLR to supplement his design work.
Before he knew it he was teaching himself to use off-camera strobe lighting for portraits and building a business. After a couple of years, he realized that the business was not something that he enjoyed in the slightest and a creative renaissance started to occur.
In 2015 he decided to pursue fine art photography as a primary creative outlet. Before long, he started gaining some steam on instagram and attracting clients large and small. Since then he has been shooting landscape, lifestyle, and commercial photography as a career while still working a full time job as a Graphic Designer.
His goal is to portray atmosphere and emotion through his work. Whether he is shooting locally in the Midwest or traveling and teaching around the world, Bryan hopes to leave an impact on the world.
Stills photographer, Bryan Minear, talks about how X-T4 provided him with the perfect gateway into the world of video.
Bryan Minear has spent his career as an image maker focusing on landscape photography and, despite a lifelong love of moving images, until recently, he has never invested much time in exploring video. We speak to him to find out why he’s never pursued his interest in moviemaking and how FUJIFILM X-T4 has made a difference.
“Cinema has always been one of the biggest visual inspirations for me as an artist,” says Bryan. “I dabbled in it a while ago, but mostly shelved it to focus on photography. But I have many friends and co-workers who are professional cinematographers, directors, and producers, so I’ve constantly been soaking up information along the way.”
Bryan tells us that, more than anything else, his reason for not getting involved with videography is to do with accessibility – something that X-T4 has changed. “Advancements, like the X-T4 with its very hybrid-focused features, make technology more accessible now than it has ever been,” he says. “Features like the 240fps super slow-motion video and vari-angle LCD touchscreen give me more of a reason to explore where video can fit into my artistic vision.”
And it’s not just easier access to such an advanced image-making tool that Bryan loves – it is also how easy the technology is to use. “Why I’ve never really done much video in the past is largely due to all of the switching of the settings. When I am out shooting, I want to focus on the subjects in front of me, so I’d rather not have my nose stuck in a menu,” he explains. “X-T4 streamlines that process entirely by keeping it all independent. I was able to switch between stills and video instantly without interrupting my creative process.”
“Features like the 240fps super slow-motion video and vari-angle LCD touchscreen give me more of a reason to explore where video can fit into my artistic vision”
Bryan used X-T4 on two different projects: a video short featuring his three-year-old son as an astronaut, which focuses on the magic of make-believe, and a series of ‘cinemagraphs’ that illustrate the beauty of winter in the Midwest.
Bryan tells us how both projects made good use of the camera’s exciting new features, with the super slow-motion feature helping him to achieve video with an epic, cinematic feel and the five-axis in-body image stabilization (IBIS) ensuring all of his shots remained crisp and steady.
In fact, Bryan highlights these two features as his particular favorites. “The 240fps high-speed shooting mode is absolutely jaw-dropping. My creative brain is just teeming with ideas to play with this feature,” he smiles. He adds that X-T4’s IBIS not only made recording video a pleasure, but also opened up new opportunities in his landscape photography. “I am able to handheld shots with my XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR that I never could have gotten without a tripod before,” he reveals.
However, the feature that stood out the most to Bryan was the new 1.62 million dot vari-angle LCD touchscreen. “When coupled with the gorgeous new ETERNA Bleach Bypass Film Simulation mode, I’ve never seen my photos look as good,” says Bryan. “And for someone like me who is rough on gear, I love that you can flip the screen around, so it is protected when you are in between shoots,” he adds.
Bryan concludes by telling us that, despite some initial doubts, X-T4 has proved itself to be a welcome addition to his creative tool bag. “To be completely honest, when I first received the camera, I wasn’t sure that it was a camera for me as a stills photographer,” he admits. “But when I started experimenting with the video features and I saw the kinds of things that I could do, which I wasn’t able to do before, a whole world was revealed to me.”
He goes on to tell us how having such a capable camera that fits so perfectly into his workflow not only meant that he pushed his creativity, but also had a great time doing it.
“It gave me the tools I needed to really go out on a limb and try telling a story that I’ve never been able to tell through photos alone before. And it did all of that while still allowing me to flip back to stills mode to capture the world as I see it,” says Bryan.
“I’ve had nothing but fun with this camera – and that’s what photography should be at the heart of it all.”
X-T4 is coming soon to your nearest FUJIFILM Authorized Dealer. Learn more and read the full specifications here.
“When I started experimenting with the video features and I saw the kinds of things that I could do, which I wasn’t able to do before, a whole world was revealed to me”
About the Photographer
With roots in fine-art photography and graphic design, Bryan Minear’s striking landscape, lifestyle, and commercial photography has led to him working with a long list of high-profile clients.
Website: bryanminear.com
Instagram: @bryanminear
Facebook: /bryanminear
Twitter: @bryanminear
