Wanderlight: A Custom FS RECIPE from Alicia Cooper
Travel photographer Alicia Cooper creates an all-purpose FS RECIPE that encapsulates her unique style
For Alicia Cooper, her career in travel photography got underway during the lockdowns of the global pandemic.
“It happened by accident,” she begins. “I was living in Bath in the UK – a lovely city, but very touristic – and the pandemic meant I was lucky enough to photograph the city when it was empty.”
“I started to post things online, people liked it and it evolved from there,” she describes. “As things opened again and I began travelling and sharing more photography, I started getting jobs. It’s strange to say that it’s thanks to the pandemic but it gave me the opportunity to see the city I was so used to in a different way.”
Now, Alicia travels the world providing her photography services to hotels and tourist boards alongside creating content for her travel blog, The Chaos Diaries.
Developing a style
A self-taught photographer, Alicia’s imaging expertise grew with every job she did. “At first, I focused on doing what I thought other people would like. When you go to a travel destination, there are always the classic photo spots and I found myself getting drawn into just doing those,” Alicia admits.
“But the more I travelled and the more photography I did, the more I wanted to express myself. I was becoming a copy-paste of everyone else, and it wasn’t inspiring to me anymore.”
“That’s when I started to develop my own style, especially with the colours I like. I now have a more nostalgic, dreamy feel, which isn’t as common in the travel creator space as the glossy, magazine-like images you often see,” she notes.
“It developed naturally over time, from becoming bored of doing what everyone else was doing and trying to learn how to distinguish myself, to inspiring myself to be different.”
Alicia now strives to get thoroughly acquainted with locations before looking for new ways of representing them. “If I’m visiting a famous place, I’ll show off different sides of it including the smaller moments,” she explains.
This approach is enabled by her unhurried travel philosophy. “We try to slow travel as much as we can,” she explains. “We aim to do at least a month everywhere we stay. I like it this way because we can really connect with each place.”
“We’re not just ticking off the tourist highlights before moving onto the next place. It also means we don’t burn out from constantly living out of a suitcase – and even have nights in sometimes!”
Film Simulations for travel photography
Creating using an X Series camera, Alicia is a staunch advocate of Fujifilm’s in-camera Film Simulation modes. “Since I got a Fujifilm camera, I’ve always used them – especially custom FS RECIPE,” she enthuses.
“At the moment, I’m using the FUJIFILM X-T50, which I love. I’m obsessed with it. I recently got the FUJINON XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR II as well and it’s so sharp. This is the perfect combination because it’s so compact,” Alicia points out. “I’m travelling full time, so I’m super limited in terms of what I can carry around.”
The X-T50 is equipped with all 20 of Fujifilm’s unique Film Simulation modes. By adjusting additional image quality settings, users can then tweak these base simulations to create extremely characterful profiles.
“When first looking at custom FS RECIPE, I was more proactive. I would try and load up as many as possible for different situations and go for the best-suited one,” Alicia recalls.
“But then I got to a point where I just wanted one that was suitable for everything. It’s a hard thing to ask from FS RECIPE but the one I’ve created is exactly that. Every situation I’ve used it in, it’s been great.”
“I have a couple of other all-rounders. As someone in the travel space, that’s important – I’m going from big cities like Seoul to hiking up a volcano. It’s helpful to have options that look good in every situation.”
“Helping to create a body of work with a coherent look and feel is another advantage, she explains. “It’s important to me that I can view my photos and they look distinctively mine in terms of style. That comes from how I like to frame my photos but also from having the colours synchronised across my work – it builds a strong portfolio.”
Wanderlight: custom FS RECIPE
Fujifilm challenged Alicia to make a new custom FS RECIPE that would work well for her style of travel photography. Using a base of CLASSIC CHROME, she created Wanderlight, which she has been testing out in Seoul and Jeju Island, South Korea.
“I’m a fan of images having a nostalgic vibe in terms of colouring; I like it to be a bit filmic and cinematic,” Alicia remarks. “I love warm tones, and making something that someone can look at and potentially associate with an emotion.“
“My focus was to make something that feels right for my editing style. I wanted a dreamy look,” she adds.
“For me, CLASSIC CHROME is a good base for that because it gives you contrast. It looks quite documentary-like – almost like old film slides.”
“From there, I like a softer image, which is why I’ve reduced the sharpness and noise reduction. I like warmer tones, too, so I’ve upped the reds, lowered the blues and added some grain.”
A multi-purpose FS RECIPE, Wanderlight is designed to give excellent performance across the diverse locations in which a traveler may find themselves.
“I was aiming to build a FS RECIPE that looks good in almost every situation,” Alicia explains. “I love how it looks in natural environments – especially how the greens come out in this FS RECIPE. If you’re going out travelling, whether in a city or the mountains, it’s going to be an excellent one to have in your deck. But for me, it’s especially strong for nature.”
Take it in
Alicia’s advice for travel creators trying to find their own unique ways of photographing locations is to simply stop and breathe.
“If you’re in a famous photo spot, you often look around at other people making photos and they’ve really zoned in on one aspect,” she describes.
“Just pause for a moment. You’re not in a rush. Just look around and don’t feel you need to get a million photos of a place. Spend more time observing. That’s the way I’ve found different angles of even very famous photo spots.
“You’ll often see lots of photographers stood with tripods pointed at the same thing. Let others inspire you, but don’t feel you have to copy them just because it’s what other photographers are doing. The key is not being afraid to turn around and look at something else.”
Wanderlight
FILM SIMULATION: CLASSIC CHROME
MONOCHROMATIC COLOR: N/A
GRAIN EFFECT: WEAK, SMALL
COLOR CHROME EFFECT: STRONG
COLOR CHROME FX BLUE: STRONG
SMOOTH SKIN EFFECT: OFF
WHITE BALANCE: AUTO, +3 RED, -6 BLUE
DYNAMIC RANGE: AUTO
D RANGE PRIORITY: OFF
TONE CURVE: H -2, S -0.5
COLOR: +4
SHARPNESS: -2
HIGH ISO NR: -3
CLARITY: 0
