Victor Herrera(Mexico)
¡Hi there! My name is Víctor Herrera. For three generations, photography has been running in the blood of my family.
I’m convinced that love can overcome any obstacule... it doesn’t matter if it’s distance, race, color or language, when there’s love, anything can be possible. Being able to witness that is the main reason why I wedding photography has became my passion.
I’ve been fortunate to share the past 9 years of my life with my wife and best friend: Sara. Recently, a beautiful baby has came to our lives: David. Spending time with him, teaching him what we came to lear over the years, watching him grow and travel all together, really make us happy. We enjoy visiting our friends in La Antigua, Guatemala, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México, San Diego, California and New York City in the US.
We like to be surrounded by nature and be able to do something in favor of other people. That’s why we’ve been living in a small village in the jungle of Quintana Roo, Mexico for 6 years now. We’ve learnt the Mayan language to get involve with the local people and now, we can spend part of our time doing some community and educational work with them and all of those from the small villages close to us.
I’m a big fan of the Star Wars Universe. I also admire the work of Emmanuel Lubezki (a.k.a. “El Chivo, which means “The Goat). His photography in movies like “A Little Princess” and “The Revenant” made me respect and admire him deeply.
There are plenty more things that make my life a delight... the unique taste of peaches from Chiapas, Mexico, a glass of fine red wine, the ocean’s breeze, the view of a gorgeous forrest, how imposing wolves are and how they take care of their pack, and also, look up to a sky full of stars to remind me how small I’m really are.
A life without memories it’s a lost heritage
I’ve always liked light cameras and I truly loved the Velvia Fujifilm. When the digital era began, I felt that we lost those beautiful colors with the new technology. At first I used to use Canon cameras because I liked the way they captured the colors and the variety of lenses they offered. It was until 2014 that I had the first chance to use the X-T1 to cover an event. By then, I’d already heard great things about it but non of my colleagues in the wedding business was using it as his main camera. After working with the XF23mmF1.4 lens using high ISOs I fell in love of the camera and I decided to buy one body and one XF35mmF1.4. One month later I was buying my second body and two more lenses: XF23mmF1.4 and XF56mmF1.2. I also bought transmitters to use flashes off camera and after trying all these new gear on 10 more weddings or so -since it was my high season of work- I knew I took the right decision. I can point out the following advantages:
Weight. In the past, after shooting a wedding my back was killing me, it really felt like heavy work. Now that I use X-T1, it’s truly wonderful its minimum weight and how light it is
I don’t look like a professional. One of the most important things for me on the wedding day is to look like another one of the guests. I DON’T want to be seen as the professional photographer because people usually gets shy in front of a big camera and it gets harder to capture authentic emotions and spontaneous moments.
I remember this wedding where I was using my two X-T1 bodies and my XF23mmF1.4 and XF56mmF1.2 lenses. The bride’s brother was an architecture photographer and he was packed with a Canon 5D Mark IV and several lenses: 35mm, 50mm, 85 and 70-200. During the ceremony he approached me and told me: “What kind of camera is this? It looks like a toy. I’m a photographer and I was actually going to shoot my sister’s wedding but she did’t want something to distract me from enjoying myself on this special day, but you know how this is and I brought my camera anyway”. Afterwards, he began to show me his gear. “You know these cameras, don’t you?” he asked me. I was about to laugh out loud but I showed him my best respects and told him: “Of course I do. That’s what I used to use a long time ago when I didn’t know any better. Now they have built something with superior technology, smaller and lighter. It’s the Fujifilm X-T1 and you can order them on B&H (then I handed him my business card). If you want, in a few days I can email to you a few pictures of your sister’s wedding for you to judge”.
“That would be great”, he said.
The next day, I had an email from him with a few pictures he took at the wedding. Two days later I send to him 15 pictures I shot with my X-T1. He emailed me back surprised that that little toy-camera had such quality.
The tale of this story is: if to a fellow photographer I can look like a regular person in the crowd, more so to a regular wedding guest, it allows me to be on their and do my job better
Great performance using high ISOs.Even though at night we have to use flashlights to help us balance the light, we never have to use ISOs above 800 and event when I’d had to push beyond, its response has been perfect
The variety of high quality lenses. As a photojournalistic wedding photographer I usually carry to my events 3 lenses: XF23mmF1.4, XF35mmF1.4 and XF56mmF1.2. I have to confess the Fujinon lenses are made to compete with every other brand on the market and I specially love the XF56mmF1.2 R, I’m amazed by its bokeh and definitely found it very superior to the Canon 85mm
The application that allows you to shoot remotely. When I do street photography, the key is not to draw special attention, to blend in, unnoticed. With this app, I can have the camera hanging on my neck and controlling the trigger on my cellphone, so when I feel the composition is right on the screen, I shoot it without touching the camera. It’s wonderful, no one thinks I’m taking pictures
The movable screen. This feature allows me to enrich the compositions of my pictures, to go beyond, experiment and discover new angles that I wasn’t able to capture before using Canon, specially at ground level
Using the presents of the camera, the JPG file practically won’t need any editing
This is a little something I’ve been enjoying of the X and X-T series, it’s by far the best equipment I’ve had in years!
