Photographer Reuben Wu’s ‘Thin Places’ Combines Creativity, Drones, and the Fujifilm GFX100RF

Mar 21, 2025

Jeremy Gray

A surreal, futuristic scene with glowing, vertical light trails resembling a flowing curtain suspended in the sky. The ground is a vast, cracked salt flat under a serene twilight sky, blending blue and soft purple hues.

Photographer Reuben Wu created a new project, Thin Places, using the brand-new Fujifilm GFX100RF. With the new 102-megapixel fixed-lens medium-format camera, Wu captured breathtaking, ethereal photos of landscapes at night, precisely lit by drone-mounted lights and lasers.

Wu debuted these specialized lasers last year as part of his incredible Siren series. This new approach is more fluid than the traditional drone-mounted lights Wu has used in other series, like Unfamiliar Light and Lux Noctis. In Thin Places, Wu uses both approaches, as they tell different stories.

A long-exposure photograph of a starry night sky over a vast, flat landscape with hexagonal patterns on the ground. In the foreground, ethereal light trails create vertical, curtain-like shapes glowing white against the dark backdrop. — An image from Reuben Wu’s new project, *Thin Places*

“There are places in the world where the gap between the seen and unseen feels thinner, where presence shifts in ways that reveal something just beyond reach. Thin Places is about those moments; brief encounters with the beyond,” Wu explains on Instagram.

“Certain places seem to hum with presence, and the atmosphere shifts in unexpected ways. Some locations reveal this naturally, while others require the right conditions or the right state of mind. Perhaps the world always holds this quality, and noticing it is simply a matter of being still enough to see,” the photographer continues.

A grayscale pencil sketch depicts a flowing white curtain caught in a gentle breeze against a dark, textured background. The curtain appears to hover above a silhouetted, uneven horizon. — “The sketch was an evolution of the work I had done in my *Siren* series, inspired further by Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting ‘Ladder to the Moon.’ This series isn’t about recognizable or iconic landmarks, but rather focuses on the subject matter and how it’s situated within the environment. *Siren* is an ongoing personal project, so this series for Fujifilm feels like a movement within that greater body of work,” Wu tells *PetaPixel*. Wu says the image at the top of the article is his favorite because it most closely resembles this sketch.

As for dialing in the specific approach — finding the best way to capture a location’s essence — composition and lighting are vital. For Wu, the GFX100RF’s fixed lens, a 35mm f/4 (28mm equivalent), proved to be creatively liberating rather than restrictive.

Two silhouettes stand on a reflective surface under a starry night sky. One person holds a hoop of light, creating a halo effect mirrored below. Mountains and distant lights are visible on the horizon, enhancing the surreal ambiance.

“Essentially, having only one lens choice removes the decision-making processes you usually go through with interchangeable lenses, as well as the physical act of changing lenses in the field, often in extreme conditions,” Wu tells PetaPixel. “While I’m comfortable doing all of the above, working without those processes allows me to engage more immediately with the scene.”

Three-panel image: Left, a close-up of a Fujifilm camera on a tripod. Center, a camera with a large lens held by a gloved hand. Right, a person with dark hair holding a camera to their eye, focused on taking a photo.

The photographer says that thanks to the GFX100RF’s 102-megapixel image sensor, he is comfortable using the camera’s built-in digital teleconverters and different aspect ratios. The 44 by 33-millimeter sensor delivers 102-megapixel 4:3 photos by default at a 28mm equivalent focal length. However, photographers can crop into a 35mm “lens” (62 megapixels), a 50mm one (31 megapixels), and even a 63mm focal length (20 megapixels). These can be controlled via a rocker switch on the camera.

A tall, narrow vertical light beam glows in a dark, expansive landscape, reflecting on the calm water below. Surrounding the scene are distant hills and a starry night sky.

There is also a new dedicated aspect ratio dial, allowing photographers to swap to aspect ratios like 3:2, 5:4, 65:42, 17:6, 1:1, and more, with megapixel counts ranging from a low of 48 megapixels (17:6) to up to 95 megapixels (5:4).

Wu used the GFX100RF’s standard 4:3 aspect ratio for his new “hero” shots but used more cinematic aspect ratios for some of his project story photos. Many of these are seen throughout this story.

A serene night scene by a lake with a starry sky. Soft, flowing light trails form graceful curves reflecting on the water's surface, contrasting against a deep orange horizon with silhouetted hills.

Panoramic view of a mountain range bathed in warm, golden sunlight at sunset. The mountains are perfectly reflected in the still, mirror-like water below, creating a symmetrical and serene landscape scene.

Calm water surface with expanding concentric ripples from a central point, creating a serene and peaceful visual effect. The water reflects a light sky, adding to the tranquility of the scene.

One of the primary benefits of the GFX100RF’s fixed 35mm f/4 lens is that the camera is relatively small and lightweight. It is Fujifilm’s lightest GFX camera yet, and despite its massive 102-megapixel sensor, it’s not a cumbersome camera.

“It felt liberating to carry around such a compact camera while knowing that it had the same resolution as what I usually use for these types of images,” Wu explains. “The reduced weight and size meant I could move more freely in the field, be less laborious when shooting, and experience less fatigue during longer hikes.”

A tall, narrow vertical light beam glows in a dark, expansive landscape, reflecting on the calm water below. Surrounding the scene are distant hills and a starry night sky.

“This physical freedom translated directly into creative freedom, allowing me to access positions that might have been more challenging with bulkier equipment.”

Wu has been using the Fujifilm GFX100II over the past few months, so he’s familiar with the sensor’s resolution, color rendering, and dynamic range.

A person stands on a vast, cracked white surface under a deep blue sky. A bright vertical light hovers above them, casting a glow on the ground. Mountains are faintly visible in the background.

“It’s about enabling this technology in a much smaller form factor that excites me,” Wu says. “The 102-megapixel sensor gives me incredible flexibility in post-production, whether I’m creating large-scale prints or need to crop significantly while maintaining detail. The dynamic range is particularly valuable for my night work, capturing both the darkest shadows and brightest highlights in a single frame.”

A person stands on a vast, cracked surface under a dark, starry sky. Above them, a glowing circular light hovers, casting an eerie illumination below. The horizon is faintly visible in the distance.

“I’ve never really enjoyed having a walk-around camera since the Fujifilm X-Pro1, and I think I might start again with this,” Wu concludes.

Image credits: All photos © Reuben Wu. Fans can keep up to date with Wu’s latest projects by signing up for an email list on his website and by following Wu on Instagram. “I have a lot of projects in the pipeline,” says Wu, including upcoming exhibitions, a group show at Foster/White Gallery next month, a potential solo show in New York City later this spring, and another collaborative exhibition in the fall.