Intro to Photography

So quarantine happened. However, I was one of the lucky ones, and the biggest change in my life was where I was sitting and what I was wearing while working. To be honest with a very few exceptions I was a big fan of rolling out of bed and sitting down to work in my pyjamas. All that time I saved in my commute I threw into several hobbies and crafts and generally had a nice time hiding out from society and spending time with my family.

Then I started to run out of hobby projects and my family aren’t all that great so I got bored. I needed a new hobby. I just so happen to work with two of the biggest hipsters in Scotland. Like I'm surprised they use computers instead of carrying in typewriters to work type of hipsters. And like any good hipster they are both into film cameras. I had successfully resisted their calls to the dark side for several months, but in my weakened dwindling project situation I needed something new to try.

And like the brilliant drug dealer he is, I received a package in the mail.

In a moment of weakness, and succumbing to peer pressure I asked my co-worker for info about a camera to get my hands on. And like the brilliant drug dealer he is, I received a package in the mail. Inside was a free gift, a mid 20^th century Russian made 35mm film camera called the Zorki-4k. Tucked in behind it, was a roll of black and white film as well. Within minutes I was loaded up and outside taking my first images.

Now this period in the quarantine saga we were allowed out every day for one hour for exercise. I took the opportunity to co-op my daughter into becoming my assistant and off into the world we went looking for adventure and photos.

We have already had many adventures. From long walks with friendly sheep to, some possible trespassing with very friendly running cows. I have not had enough time with my film to finish the four rolls I have and send them off to be developed. I really like the fact that it will take me many months to complete the work. I’ll eventually get the film developed by the end of the year and have fun re-experiencing the adventures I've had.

Then out of character for a drug dealer I was offered another free camera also a mid-century Russian made 35mm camera called a Practika. I bought myself some colour film to give a go and I continue taking these images today. But at the same time as the second gift I was loaned an Olympus Pen F mirror less digital camera. I really fell in love with this thing. I had envisioned that I would have fallen in love with the film developing process, but what I really liked was the actual making of images.

You see I’ve been an archivist in my past and this gave me the feeling that I could really document places and people with photos. War photographer would be ideal, but I might have missed the boat on that life. Telling stories with images really seems like a fun activity. I have neat ideas of taking landscape photos in really obscure places. Combining travelling and odd locations with photography just sounds like fun. But first things first I needed to get myself a camera.

I get an allowance from my wife every month and I had a few bucks saved up for hobbies so I figured I’d sink a few in and get myself a Fujifilm X-T10. This thing is amazing. I love everything about it. It’s a mirror less cropped sensor camera that is small light weight and easy to carry around.  I’ve just been going for walks and adventures with it taking photos of everything. I’m considering eventually trading it in for a Fujifilm X-T1 to get essentially the same camera but weather proof, but I’ll work up to that.

Drug dealers should really get into selling cameras.

And that last paragraph is part of the danger of getting involved with photography. All of a sudden almost every conversation you have revolves around camera gear. And more importantly your life revolves around spending money to buy camera gear. Drug dealers should really get into selling cameras. It’s way more lucrative and way less illegal with less mafia hits and drive by shootings involved.

But now that I had the adventures and the cameras I needed skills. I had the basics down from courses I’ve taken on photography decades ago. I did have to re-learn a lot of basics, but it isn’t rocket science. Also every person who owns a camera also seems to have a YouTube channel telling you every thing you’ll ever want to know about every aspect of photography. I needed to work on my practical skills. And to do that I needed to find a series of challenges to see if I could at least mimic the long list of techniques that exist. This is where I was introduced to 52 Frames. I’ve only recently gotten involved, but the premise is that every week you're given a challenge to attempt. This gives you experience in a wide range of techniques and a neat little account online to host your images. The focus is not on super duper awesome quality, but the experience of regularly taking photos.

I am looking forward to working on my skills and taking lots of fun photographs. Ideally over the next several years I’ll be adept enough to start telling interesting stories through images that are steeped in a time place and culture. Maybe after saving a few more bucks, if I can get this desire to spend money on camera gear under control, I’ll be able to travel to interesting places and make these photo stories.