Starting Over Again
I'm a fairly happy and content guy. I don't get the "I really want to have a new-----", you fill in the blank, itch often, if at all. I watch TV on a ten year old 50" big screen projection TV with dim bulbs, really dim bulbs. I just turn out all the lights and watch programs that are filmed in daylight.
I do daydream aloud sometimes about a 65"-101" LCD TV with Sensorround. Remember the 1974 release of Earthquake in Sensorround? For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, let me clue you in... you know that little black KIA that pulls up to you at the light with spinners spinnin and tunes jacked up so loud that the CDs in YOUR glove box start to vibrate? Well... just multiply that sound and vibration by about 10 and then spring it on a theater full of unsuspecting people who have never heard anything louder than Tom Jones belting out Delilah. I about wet myself... but that was cool though... new stuff always is.... It was cool for the first two or three movies then it just became annoying.
I am beginning to get a hankerin' for a camera and that could be trouble.
About 27 years ago I was really into photography. I had a slew of cameras, one room of the house had been transformed into a darkroom. I had the bug really bad. If you or someone you know has ever been afflicted by the photography bug then you know what life is like when there is always a new lens, a new enlarger, a new camera, new photo paper, bounce flash, fill flash, lighting system........ and on and on and on.... it never stops.
It had begun to take over my life. It was all I thought about. It was all I really wanted to do at any given time of the day or night. I was a two pack a day smoker and a two gallon of tea a day drinker but I could go into the darkroom and stay for three for four hours without a cigarette or a glass of tea.
Then one day I simply stopped. I boxed it all up, cameras, darkroom equipment, prints, negatives, drum dryers, everything. I have not exposed a frame of 35mm film since. In fact I have three rolls of exposed, undeveloped black and white film at work in my desk drawer as I type this post. I quit because sometimes in hobbies, jobs or avocations you get to a point that you can't progress any furtherbecause of issues other than desire and talent. At the time, I was limited by my ability to buy the equipment that I knew I needed to capture the pictures that were in my mind.
It is really weird that those rolls of film are in my drawer at work because I have changed offices at least three times since then, which means I have been carrying and moving those little canisters for about 20 years, and I have absolutely no idea what is etched into those film strips. I think there are some images of some people who are no longer living. If so, then I understand why they are still around and why they have never been developed.
As long as those images remain undeveloped a little piece of what those people were will always be fresh and new, ready to see the light of day for the first time. There are tribes in the world that believed and some still do believe that the camera can steal your soul. Our dog Cricket is a firm believer in the stolen soul scenario.
I think that the stolen soul idea may be partially true. But I believe that cameras only borrow the essence of how the world perceives our soul. Our souls are not always the same. Sometimes they are in turmoil, sometimes they are serene, occasionally they are even euphoric. Cameras when used properly can capture the "mood" of the soul.
If you carry this one step further you will see that a good photographer can capture the "mood" of inanimate objects.
The photo above is a good photo for a travel brochure or someone’s travel slide show. And I say someone because the site where I snagged it didn't even bother to mention the name of the photographer. Do people even have travel slide shows anymore. The old kind with a carousel projector with the slides that are upside down and reversed. Did you ever notice that the only slides that were reversed were the ones with words.
The image above is an example of capturing the "mood" of an inanimate object. It is by Ansel Adams and it is titled Yosemite Valley, Winter. His photography captures things about the setting that a viewer would miss if it was viewed in person. His photography has vision and heart.
I enjoy all aspects of photography. But most of all I enjoy seeing the image in my mind, then finding it in reality and capturing it with at least enough vision, talent and clarity that an unbiased viewer is able to see the image as it was originally cast in my mind. But most importantly I want the viewer to be changed in some way for having been exposed to my images.
That is the difference between photography and what I do for a living currently. I work in the automobile service and parts industry. I am very good at customer service, I make estimates and sell jobs. I am good at what I do. I am forthright and I don't placate people. As much as I enjoy what I do, I find no peace within that box. Although I enjoy it, there is no joy. Photography on the other hand makes me calm and introspective and happier at projects end than I was before the experience began.
I couldn't understand what all the talk was about. I dropped off to sleep three or four times. I thought that surely I had seen a different movie than the one seen by everyone that was raving about the tension and the spellbinding drama.
I was flipping channels the other day in the bedroom on Lynna's TV, the new LCD and I caught a few minutes of Open Water. Evidently I did see a different version of the movie. I saw the version I like to call "darkovision". Here is what I saw on Lynna's TV:
No big deal. You just adjust. We don't watch cave or submarine movies on my TV anymore either.
I do daydream aloud sometimes about a 65"-101" LCD TV with Sensorround. Remember the 1974 release of Earthquake in Sensorround? For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, let me clue you in... you know that little black KIA that pulls up to you at the light with spinners spinnin and tunes jacked up so loud that the CDs in YOUR glove box start to vibrate? Well... just multiply that sound and vibration by about 10 and then spring it on a theater full of unsuspecting people who have never heard anything louder than Tom Jones belting out Delilah. I about wet myself... but that was cool though... new stuff always is.... It was cool for the first two or three movies then it just became annoying.
As I was saying, I don't WANT a lot of stuff. Until lately that is.....
I am beginning to get a hankerin' for a camera and that could be trouble.
About 27 years ago I was really into photography. I had a slew of cameras, one room of the house had been transformed into a darkroom. I had the bug really bad. If you or someone you know has ever been afflicted by the photography bug then you know what life is like when there is always a new lens, a new enlarger, a new camera, new photo paper, bounce flash, fill flash, lighting system........ and on and on and on.... it never stops.
It had begun to take over my life. It was all I thought about. It was all I really wanted to do at any given time of the day or night. I was a two pack a day smoker and a two gallon of tea a day drinker but I could go into the darkroom and stay for three for four hours without a cigarette or a glass of tea.
Then one day I simply stopped. I boxed it all up, cameras, darkroom equipment, prints, negatives, drum dryers, everything. I have not exposed a frame of 35mm film since. In fact I have three rolls of exposed, undeveloped black and white film at work in my desk drawer as I type this post. I quit because sometimes in hobbies, jobs or avocations you get to a point that you can't progress any furtherbecause of issues other than desire and talent. At the time, I was limited by my ability to buy the equipment that I knew I needed to capture the pictures that were in my mind.
It is really weird that those rolls of film are in my drawer at work because I have changed offices at least three times since then, which means I have been carrying and moving those little canisters for about 20 years, and I have absolutely no idea what is etched into those film strips. I think there are some images of some people who are no longer living. If so, then I understand why they are still around and why they have never been developed.
As long as those images remain undeveloped a little piece of what those people were will always be fresh and new, ready to see the light of day for the first time. There are tribes in the world that believed and some still do believe that the camera can steal your soul. Our dog Cricket is a firm believer in the stolen soul scenario.
I think that the stolen soul idea may be partially true. But I believe that cameras only borrow the essence of how the world perceives our soul. Our souls are not always the same. Sometimes they are in turmoil, sometimes they are serene, occasionally they are even euphoric. Cameras when used properly can capture the "mood" of the soul.
If you carry this one step further you will see that a good photographer can capture the "mood" of inanimate objects.
The photo above is a good photo for a travel brochure or someone’s travel slide show. And I say someone because the site where I snagged it didn't even bother to mention the name of the photographer. Do people even have travel slide shows anymore. The old kind with a carousel projector with the slides that are upside down and reversed. Did you ever notice that the only slides that were reversed were the ones with words.
The image above is an example of capturing the "mood" of an inanimate object. It is by Ansel Adams and it is titled Yosemite Valley, Winter. His photography captures things about the setting that a viewer would miss if it was viewed in person. His photography has vision and heart.
I enjoy all aspects of photography. But most of all I enjoy seeing the image in my mind, then finding it in reality and capturing it with at least enough vision, talent and clarity that an unbiased viewer is able to see the image as it was originally cast in my mind. But most importantly I want the viewer to be changed in some way for having been exposed to my images.
That is the difference between photography and what I do for a living currently. I work in the automobile service and parts industry. I am very good at customer service, I make estimates and sell jobs. I am good at what I do. I am forthright and I don't placate people. As much as I enjoy what I do, I find no peace within that box. Although I enjoy it, there is no joy. Photography on the other hand makes me calm and introspective and happier at projects end than I was before the experience began.
I have always thought seeing and capturing images was something I was good at. Good enough to quit my day job? Probably not.. but who knows, the jury is still out on that one. Am I good enough to keep trying while the jury deliberates? Absolutely.
So here we are.... up until now I have been getting by with a Canon Powershot A410 point and shoot camera. If you have visited my Photojournal you have seen photos taken with that camera. While it is a great pocket camera. It is severely limited as far as ability to shoot in adverse conditions and the functionality to shoot images that involve action of any kind. Close ups, depth of field issues, backlighting.... it is just limited.
I haven't even really thought seriously about moving up to a digital SLR camera because of the whole more camera, more camera, more lens', more lens' issue. Until now. I think it is time to fish or cut bait as they say. Either buy a semi professional camera with some amount of flexibility or put it all in a box and go back to taking pictures at Christmas and of an occasional dog trick.
So...Yes I WANT a new camera. I have narrowed my camera of choice to the Olympus E-510. The best deal I can find will put it and two lens in my paws for about $800. Not really that bad considering I have three 35mm cameras, in a box, which I have probably $700 invested. The E-510 is large enough to accommodate my ham sized hands and has all the features I have been looking for in a digital SLR. But then I hit the "sort by price, high to low" button by accident and found a Hasselblad H3D-39II, Medium Format Digital SLR Camera with 39mp Sensor & 3" LCD Display for the low introductory price of $33,994.00. Daaaaammmmmn 39megapixels now thats some real resolution. Someday...
And so it begins.....
It should prove to be very interesting. I hope you will stick around to see the outcome. With any luck I won't be writing about a memory stick I found in drawer twenty years from now. By then I'll be sixty-eight and I think that will probably be way too late to start over again.
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Sunday, February 24, 2008 8:36 PM
A Quiet Place In My Mind wrote:
In a previous post I wrote about the two canisters of film that had been collecting dust in my drawer for the last twenty years. After writing about them started dominating my thoughts. I truly have no idea what is captured on that film. I was still married to my first wife, I had a completely different set of friends, a totally different life. But most importantly twenty years ago my son was eight years old. I remember him at that age, wide eyed and interested in everything. Everything having to do with Star Wars that is... oh... and riding ... -
Sunday, February 24, 2008 8:50 PM
A Quiet Place In My Mind wrote:
In a previous post I wrote about the two canisters of film that had been collecting dust in my drawer for the last twenty years. After writing about them, their contents started dominating my thoughts. I truly have no idea what is captured on that film. I was still married to my first wife, I had a completely different set of friends, a totally different life. But most importantly twenty years ago my son was eight years old. I remember him at that age, wide eyed and interested in everything. Everything having to do with Star Wars that is... oh... ...
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