Staff Spotlight: Riley Onyon the Art Director

As a local camera store based in Salt Lake City, UT, we have a lot of love for the photography community. We're all about sharing work from photographers we love, but we figured it's time we let you all get to know us a little bit better as a company. Our strapping team of bright-eyed employees here at pictureline are photography enthusiasts, just like you, and we want to share a little bit about each of them and their photography style. Our first staff spotlight is Riley Onyon, pictureline's Art Director and FujiFilm X-Pro1 extraordinaire. We hope you enjoy getting to know a little bit about the pictureline team!

What Do You Do At pictureline?
I'm the Art Director, and I'm in charge of creating and maintaining pictureline's overall graphical presence, including advertisements, signage, and the design of the pictureline website.

What Do You Shoot With?
I am currently shooting with the FujiFilm X-Pro1 with the 35mm lens. I am anxiously awaiting the soon-to-be-released 14mm, which you can read more about here.

Why Do You Love Your X-Pro1?
I really love my X-Pro1 because of the quality of photos it gives for the size of the thing. After shooting with standard DSLRs for years, I was finding myself leaving them behind on trips more and more due to their weight. I like to focus on my adventure as much as I do my photographs, and the X-Pro1 gives me a lighter overall package without a compromise in quality.

The X-Pro1 also gives me a great feeling of nostalgia. The dials, the manual cable release, shutter speed dial, aperture ring—all of these bring me back to when I was just starting photography on my Olympus OM-10 with a handful of B&W rolls of film. I love it! It gives me the feeling of everything being manual again, but also brings along a lot of the things in digital photography that I don't want to give back up.

Tell Us A Little About Your Photography Style/Philosophy
I enjoy taking a wide variety of photos, but my personal favorites are always very minimalist and simple, often with elements of pattern and symmetry. My drawings as a kid were always more geometric and abstract, and I delight in the harmony between positive and negative space. This is probably why I decided to pursue a career in design, and I also try to convey that through my photography.

Tell Us About These Photos. Where Were They Taken?
These photos were taken in Paris on my trip to Europe this past summer. Having never been to Paris before, I was constantly fighting my eagerness to explore with my desire to capture images. At first I thought the two would go hand in hand as many of the photographs I had envisioned were around landmarks I would likely be visiting—along with, what seemed like, every other tourist on the planet.

Traveling during the high season originally left me frustrated and bewildered. How do I get a decent photo with the entire populous of Paris standing in front of me? I ended on a simple solution and decided to photograph things near the landmarks instead of the landmarks themselves. In the end, I was more pleased with the photos I took in lesser known spots and enjoyed photographing the under-appreciated beauty often shadowed by the landmarks and crowds. It really allowed me to get more intimate with the area.

What Did You Use For Post-Processing? Any Tips?
I use Lightroom for all of my post-processing. As for tips, do what you can when you're shooting the photo. Not much of a post-processing tip, but one that will serve you better. Take the time to get your framing, lighting, and exposure compensation right while you're taking the photo rather than relying on software to fix it. It'll save time and make better photos in the end.

Why Did You Choose B&W For These Photos?
I have always been fond of black and white photography. I prefer its simplicity and ability to create an image perhaps not seen otherwise. I've got nothing against color, but there's a time and a place for everything, and I felt that the elegance black and white offers was fitting for these photos.

Fujifilm xpro1October 2012ParisPicturelineXpro1