The Rig: Kevin Mullins

Who are you and what is your profession?

My name is Kevin Mullins. I’m a professional documentary style wedding photographer based in Wiltshire, England. I’m originally from Wales, but settled in our little market town around seven years ago with my wife. We now have two little people running around, and a Whippet, that seems to spend all its time asleep and avoiding running around.

I’ve been a full time wedding photographer for five years or so and have always been an avid fan, and shooter, of candid images. Images that are not staged, or contrived, not girp-and-grin or set up portraits. Rather, I want my images to tell a story – each and every one of them to have a narrative within the bigger picture of the wedding day.

Outside of running my business, and my family, I’m a huge Rugby Union fan (I’m Welsh by birth) and spend as much time watching and playing as I can muster. I also like great cigars and good Scotch Whiskey.

What’s your rig?

My primary cameras right now are the X-E2 and X100S (which I adore!). For weddings I tend to travel very light, preferring to be as discreet as possible – almost like a guest and so the combination of these cameras is perfect.
I tend to shoot the X-E2 a lot of the time with the Fuji XF60mm f/2.4 Macro lens and of course the X100S is a fixed 23mm (35mm equiv.) lens.

Depending on the situation (location, light, timings, and ambience of the wedding) depends on whether I use the X-Pro1 as well. If that is the case I will shoot either with the XF23mm f/1.4 or the 35mm /1.4 lens.
I don’t use any zooms though I’ve been toying with the idea of trailing the 55–200 for a while. It may be my next purchase.

I also shoot a lot of street photography for personal work and these days I’m usually shooting with an X-M1 and the 27mm f/2.8 pancake lens. That combination of discretion on the X-M1 (with the tillable screen) and the tiny pancake lens makes street shooting a joy. I tend to avoid using flash wherever possible, but to I do take with me an EF-X20 and also and EF42.

I carry pretty much everything I need for a wedding a Thinktank Retrospective 7 bag.

What hardware do you use?

Having started my working career many years ago at Microsoft, I suppose it’s only natural that I’m a PC user rather than a Mac user. I have two, high spec’d PC’s in my office. Both with solid state drives and 32GB of RAM. I use one machine for my editing, and the second for everything else. I also have a Samsung Windows 8 tablet which is brilliant for working when on the go. I can use it just like a regular iPad but I can also run all my editing and business software on it. It’s become totally invaluable for me as I move around the country a lot these days.

For backups I’m currently using a set of G-Technology external drives which are amazing. I have a Canon Pixma Pro10 printer in the studio, which is used for portfolio and wall prints here. Client printing is done externally.

What Software do you use?

I use Camerabits Photoemechanic for all my selections when deciding which images to keep or cull. Thereafter everything goes through a process of exposure adjustment and cropping if necessary in Lightroom 5. My black and whites are all generated using my Photoshop actions.
I’ve signed up to Adobe Cloud recently to ensure I’m up to date with the latest software from them.

My work environment is made up of Microsoft Office and I use an online Exchange account for mail and calendar etc. This works very well and is synced seamlessly with my phone and tablet devices.

I use both DropBox and Microsoft Skydrive for keep pretty much everything of importance in the cloud and accessible at any point, on any device.
My Website is built on a WordPress platform and I tend to host all my images there, rather than sites like Fliker etc.

My Online Gallery and proofing, print sales, album selections etc is all done through the amazing Zenfolio solution. Quite revolutionized my life when I switched to that.

What would be your dream rig?

I’d love to see a full frame version of the X-Series. Not a fixed lens (although that would be cool too), but an interchangeable full frame lens system. I know, I know….small form factor doesn’t really go hand in hand with a full frame sensor camera but we have seen some manufacturers managing it and I’d love to be in the situation when I can pick up a gorgeous 85mm 1.4 lens and pop it on a full frame X-Series body. Bliss!

 What’s your favorite photography quote?

Photography for me is not looking, its feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures – Don McCullin