The thing about Fuji is not only the cameras but the community that comes with the cameras. Being an X-Photographer is just the same if not even more enjoyable. Every day it seems you can find another person creating some fantastic Fuji magic, but, Kevin Mullins was one of the first photographers that for me really brought the camera to my attention.

Kevin Mullins – I love his style, his work ethic and his images are pretty amazing too….

Kevin is known for his reportage style & documentary images focused mostly around weddings and his work with the Fuji cameras. Please do check out his work & blog.

To start with – Thank you Kevin. I would love to know where the name for the blog came about !!  The Owl Seems an odd name for a camera blog ? 

All my work is now featured on my main website:  www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk.  I found it too difficult to run a separate Fuji and Personal work blog and having it all in one place makes things far more streamlined for me.

The other thing we should get out the way is the book – (Fujifilm X100S Book: From Snapshots to Great Shots). We touched on the book and the Tokyo thing before in the SLR Lounge Interview. How did the book go – are there more coming?  Tell us about it all for those who missed the other interview.

The book went really well and I believe its sold over 4,000 copies worldwide.  It was translated into Spanish and for around an hour one day was the “bestselling” photography book on Amazon UK.  Unfortunately, there are no plans for further books.  I’ve approached the publisher about penning a new book for the X100T but they are concentrating now on DSLRs only.  I’ve had so many emails about a follow up from fellow Fuji users so its something I would have loved to have done.  I still have ambitions to write a “wedding photojournalism” book of some sort, but I’d need a publisher on board etc for all of that to happen.

It was good fun writing the book, though a LOT of work.  I’m proud of it and it’s something to tick off in my list of life’s ambitions.

Just picking up from the SLR Lounge again, have you got the chance to shoot other medical commissions of the back of the birth ? Is this still something you would do ? Have you done any funeral shoots or, would you ?

I’ve had several inquiries to shoot a birth story, but unfortunately none of them have really come off.  One potential client wanted me to fly to L.A and “just wait until the baby came” – which of course whilst flattering, wasn’t very feasible given my own business.  I’m working on a project that may come to fruition soon which involves traveling to a medical facility in Nepal.  I’m hoping that may happen in early 2016.  I really want to do more social documentary work and it’s something I’m trying to bring more into my working life.

In a few weeks we have X-Photographer Ben Cherry doing an interview with us. One of the things I love about his work is the travel aspect. Do you think you would ever hang up the wedding thing and go for a long extended trip ?  How was the recent trip to Argentina ?

I love Ben’s work and his philosophy on life.  Whilst I love traveling, and have traveled extensively through my speaking engagements and weddings, I can’t lose sight of the fact that all these opportunities arise because of my wedding photography.  With that in mind, I can’t see me taking any extended breaks soon.  That said, I always take all of August off.  Myself and the family fly to Spain for a month for some R&R.  July is always crazy busy because of that break and this July I have 11 weddings, as well as four workshops and lots of editing.

I would love to see some images that inspire you- can you share an image that you would of loved to create and tell us what makes it special to you ?

This image:  http://luisgarvan.com/experiment/dosmarias/ by my good friend Luis Garvan.  I have been lucky enough to spend some time with Luis and I am a complete fan of his work.  His portraits erupt with emotion and class and integrity.  I just love them and if I could shoot portraits, I’d like to shoot like this.

The tough questions now !! – What advice would you give back to yourself if you could send an e-mail back in time to a young Kevin starting out ?

I think I’d tell myself to stop worrying about what other people think.  The only people that matter in this industry are the paying clients.  We spend a lot of time in the social media circus but how much of that actually brings in hard earned cash?  On time / profit ration it has to be pretty low.  Additionally, I’d get myself a business plan right back in the beginning.  It took me two years to write one properly and now I write one every year.   I honestly believe, that as a professional wedding photographer, its 95% business and 5% shooting.

The top 5 things that you want to change about your photography:

1. Shoot more natural portraits like Luis (not at weddings though!).
2. Get a real grip of monochromatic processing.  I like what I do, but want to do it better.
3. I want to shoot even more Street Photography and I’ve started to get commissions for this – so more of that.
4. I’d like to be far less critical of my own work.
5. I’d like to have much more of it printed in sample books and framed work in the studio.

Lastly- Who would you like me to nominate for an interview on my little blog ?

How about Patrick LaRoque !

All images copyright of Kevin Mullins – http://www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk/

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