In late-2022, we sat down with Brazilian-born, Melbourne-based wedding and landscape photographer Fabio Oliveira. During that chat, we were introduced to Fabio’s big heart – one that beats in perfect sync with raw emotion of a RAW photo. Today, we meet with Fabio’s big brain – one that deeply considers every aspect of the gear he uses in order to elevate his craft.

As a sought-after wedding photographer, Fabio has proved so adept at immortalising ceremonies that couples from near and afar clamour for his eye. Just as impressive is his past work as a travel photographer. As social media manager for Riparide, he brings keen photographic and business knowledge to the hot young company. These days, Fabio opts to stay close to home and be with his family, actively turning down additional work so he is able to nurture both his kids and the next phase of his photographic career. 

Very recently, Fabio came on board as a Nikon creator and we couldn’t be happier with the partnership. We look forward to not only his creative output but his honest technical and industry input, both of which are on full display below.

I’m still full-time at Riparide. I’m not accepting as many commissions unless I’m really interested in doing the work, or it’s inspiring, or if there’s something nice to be done. But at the moment it’s just normal bookings because I don’t want to take out of my family time. 

I don’t say no to work that comes from existing clients. Like, if there’s someone that I’ve shot a wedding for and they’ve grown their family, and need a photoshoot for a pregnancy or family portraits, then I will say yes. I will also say yes if one of those clients has recommended me to their friends. I’m just not applying for any other jobs. 

With agencies, I used to do a lot of influencer stuff for brands, but I'm not doing that at the moment. After becoming a Nikon creator, I’m focusing on learning more about Nikon – the culture, the gear itself, and see what gear I don’t have and what I need to buy to do what I was able to do before. For now, I’m not comfortable working on big projects like I did before at least until I get my Nikon gear sorted. 

I’m very busy as it is. Now that the new year is starting, I’m trying to be more active on social media, repurposing work or joining short trips with friends for creative purposes. I just want to be more comfortable with the new camera. I didn’t test everything that I was planning yet, like shooting at night. I tested it a bunch, but not completely. 

Yes. I’ve tested it a lot, but not night photography – stars and stuff. Which I really like to do. 

Again, I decided that I would be more active on social media. Social media is now very much based on video. More and more people are using Nikon for video, but that’s a relatively new thing. Last year, in the last two months of the year, I was studying a lot of trends and new guys that do more creative types of content with video, and just trying to be more inspired and plan for cool stuff to do in 2024. 

For sure. Right now, more people are doing videos, or they’re giving information, trying to teach people and offer more than the normal posting of photos. I’m trying to mix it up because those photos I posted today are a mixture of old film photos and new photos shot on Nikon. 

This is very much a trend now in TikTok and Instagram – photographers breaking down the editing process and sharing the thoughts behind a photo and the way it was photographed. What I do with these photos is, take the RAW file and break it down. 

Another trend that I haven’t started to do yet, but will probably do in 2024, is the post-production of a photo based on the specific aesthetic of a movie. So, you take photos or videos with a particular cinematic aesthetic. 

You are 100% right. People don’t realise that recreation of the aesthetic of a movie is more than post-production – that would require the same light, ambience, angles, etc. It's a much bigger challenge to reproduce a scene that can match the same quality.  

But nowadays, mixing trends with your own voice is necessary. Otherwise, you’re going to start losing more influence. So, it’s picking up on the trends and working with them.

I think the challenge is: okay, there’s a trend here. How can I match it with my personal style? I can imagine that if you’re a full-time photographer and you need to create content to drive sales, it’s pretty hard. It’s now about the ability of the photographer to match trends and produce in their own voice. But if you are not getting proper sales all the time, you can mix it up, spice up a trend that’s your style, or with things that you like. 

One thing that I liked but never did in my practice was producing street photography or video content. For example, night street photography with a 'Cyberpunk' style is very on trend, and it’s been a trend for a while. You can imagine that if you’re a photographer and you don’t have money to travel to New York or Tokyo and capture those places, you have to be creative and achieve that same aesthetic at local places. 

Now that I’m in a moment in my career where I have a family, I don’t want to be away too much. Every social media guru is saying that you have to create the kind of content that you can do wherever and whenever you want. I can’t travel all the time, but I can go to the city and take beautiful photos. If you want to be an influencer/content creator, you have to be consistent. You can’t follow one path that will cost a lot of money to produce daily content. 

Yes. I think… what I’ve seen is people doing the same stuff every day. Saying the same thing. If they’re doing that, there’s often a purpose. Like, they’re selling a particular kind of print, or they’re selling presets… there’s some business behind it. 

I’m not as attached to the business side, so I can spread between two or three things. I will continue doing content with Riparide. And I’ll also be doing fully Nikon-based content. 

I’m really happy with that, with the content that’s coming out of the Z 8 and even the video side. That kind of content I’ll keep doing. Mixing photography and video, and how to give value to people in terms of tutorials. 

This year, I’m trying to go more towards helping people with photography, but focusing a bit more on video. Because I've not seen many people doing cool instructional things with video in the Nikon community. Some are, but not the full potential. So, there is a lack of reference and I can be offering really good video content on aesthetics, so people can say: okay, that’s what he’s using, that’s the amazing stuff you can do with the camera. 

I still photograph for them as a content creator, separate from my job as a social media manager. 

Yes. Just to step back on that. If a social media manager is focused only on data and reports and doesn't dive into the content, it might hurt the social channel as companies use social media for different purposes, some for only brand awareness, others for everything and most importantly to drive sales. Before my new role, I was a content curator, so my choices for posting were focused on driving sales, I pretty much was a growth manager. Now as a social media manager, plus my photography knowledge, I'm way more comfortable helping the company to grow their social channels and drive sales all together, but it's a lot of pressure though. 

Everything happened because we at Riparide joined forces with Nikon to produce a campaign. This was late 2022/early 2023. A bunch of creators and storytellers from Riparide were involved. At the time, I tested the Z 9, and I was very impressed by the quality. 

So, after that, I had a long-term partnership with Nikon in mind and floated the idea. I didn’t hear back at first, but then when they launched the Z 8, I heard from the guy who managed the campaign. He said he wanted to send me the Z 8 and test it. That’s when the relationship officially started. 

I tested the camera. Along with the Z 8, they sent me the most prime, prime lenses and I was really, really impressed. After I sent the photos from my test, we started talking more and they offered me a partnership. 

I will be creating content. There are a couple of deliverables – I will be sending photos and videos. We did a couple of great first posts together. We’re also planning to do Nikon ‘know-how’ posts with tips about a certain theme. I think we’re doing travel photography next. We have a plan to do a bunch of things through the year. 

Nikon took their time to launch amazing top-of-the-line gear on the mirrorless side. But since they launched the Z 9 and the lenses, the market started to switch. Everyone was saying “Nikon is knocking on the door here. There’s something happening”. Then, I started to pay attention, and when the opportunity came in 2022 to test the Z 9, I wanted to see for myself. Joining the company at this stage is not just good for me personally, because I’m going to be handling amazing gear, but strategically as well. The company is growing fast and I want to grow with them. 

A good thing that Nikon did with the Z 8 is that like an iPhone, you can do a lot with the software. The only small thing with the software is that after they got rid of the mechanical shutter and made it digital, the click isn’t as good. 

Yes, through a firmware update, I would prefer the sound of a mechanical shutter. 

Yeah [laughs]. Like, if you are shooting weddings at a ceremony, you’re going to put it on silent mode. But if you are doing travel photography for yourself, you want to have that click. 

They launched the Z f, inspired by the old Nikon FM2, and the mechanical shutter is just a sexy click. 

It’s 80% as satisfying!

But no, seriously. Apart from the lightness of the camera which is amazing… when the mirrorless movement came, other brands were quick to do it, but it was super hard to use those cameras. For one of them, the body was so small, that I had to put a back on it to ergonomically make my life better. 

The first time I got the Z 8, I knew right away that it just handles so perfectly. The camera makes sense. It’s not too heavy, not too weirdly small. Another big brand did the same in terms of size but it’s super heavy. Nikon has not just the handling, but the size. It’s the perfect balance. Really, really nice.

The Z 8 has a really nice experience of shooting through the viewfinder. Also, the durability, and the weather sealing. 

Another thing. I shot two small weddings on the Z 8. The 3D focus tracking just blows me away. I don’t lose any shots. The focus is straight, right on the eye. The autofocus and the tracking are just amazing. 

I had a very challenging situation shooting a wedding in a backyard of a big house with almost no light and the results were amazing. A bit of recovery in post-production because I wasn’t using the lens I would normally use, but considering the conditions of the backyard, the results were amazing. 

The wedding was supposed to be earlier, but at the time of the ceremony everything was late and I had to shoot in the dark when I hadn’t planned for it. 

Yeah. I just made everyone hold candles during the ceremony. We did what we could. The final results were amazing. 

So, a big improvement for me is the lowlight capability and performance. Again, on the handling – I could hold the camera all day without feeling pain in my back, where I definitely would have had a problem with other cameras. The Z 8 is just perfect for wedding photography. 

I use it a lot. All the time. The handling as well, for doing video, while travelling or not wanting to carry much stuff…

I actually took a lot of videos during a trip in November. A road trip of 3000 km from Melbourne to Byron Bay. We spent three weeks in the car, saw a lot of places, just testing the camera at the maximum low light, sunset, and sunrise. Learning how to use the camera as a cinema camera. We used the log files, doing post-production on DaVinci Resolve. 

I’m really happy. I’ve posted already on social media a bunch, and I’m really happy. I didn’t get to test everything that I wanted to, but the first tests that came out – the videos are absolutely amazing.

For sure. At this stage, I will not use the 8k capability, but for testing. The post-production of those enormous files is time-consuming. But yes, I’ll be able to do everything that I want to do with video on the Z 8.

So, in the past, I started working with a 35-85mm when photographing weddings then I dropped to a 20-24/50-55mm lens just because I liked the images better, and the small places I photographed needed a massive wide-open lens. So now I use a 20mm 1.8, and a 50mm 1.8 (which I need to change for the 50mm 1.2). 

The other two lenses that I need for specifics are - 14mm for the work I do for Riparide. Some of those places are so small that the 20mm can’t capture everything. I have to have an ultra-wide lens. Nikon has the 14-24mm or the 15-30mm. Both will work nicely there. 

And… I’m not usually a fan of zoom lenses, but this trip I did in November... Nikon lent me the 24-70mm and it was super handy. I could do everything I wanted on the go on one lens, without changing. So, at some point, I will go down to a zoom lens. There is one, in particular, a 24-120mm. Just a perfect range. You can have one lens to do everything from sunrise until sunset… landscape, etc. Yes, when you do portraits you will need a different lens, but for everything else that’s general purpose, that lens is the best in the market because of the quality of the glass. 

With this lens, for anyone who is starting with Nikon and doesn’t know what to pick in terms of lenses, and doesn’t need a specific lens for portraits – it’s a no-brainer. Just amazing glass, and you can do everything in everyday life with one lens. After I get the 50mm, and the 14mm, I will get the 24-120mm as my on-the-go camera. 

Definitely. I took a bunch of photos at the beach in Byron Bay. I took a bunch of photos with my wife, and a couple of surfers going in and out. That same day I captured the sunrise on… it’s called Tallow Beach? It’s a beautiful place in Byron Bay to watch sunrise, moonrise and sunset. 

Oh, and one more thing I didn’t mention. Another amazing lens Nikon launched is the NIKKOR 135mm Plena. If I could afford it, I would have it. It’s just a perfect lens. I saw a comparison with all the other brands and it’s just a perfect lens. There’s no comparison.

See Fabio’s work here. Browse his Instagram here.