So I figured I will start trying to keep a blog since I just got this shiny new site up and running. I am not a writer by any means but writing has always interested me so this will be a fun experiment. I think that many times people keep themselves from doing things because they don't think it will come out great or maybe it won't be perfect or as good as what someone else is doing. I think that just doing something is half the battle, once you are at least moving in any direction it becomes much easier to steer. My hope is that by forcing myself to write it will help to make me a more developed, comfortable writer.
I will be posting a variety of things on here but one of the first things that I thought would be a fun thing to post about is my journey into shooting film. I decided that I would go on little trips both local and long distance and shoot some film and then post a few images that represent the place that I went. There are a few rules I wanted to make for myself in doing this...
Post everything.
No matter how good or bad these images come out I think its important to just post them and then grow from there. This rule is basically in place in order for me to avoid the whole "waiting to post something until I have something good" mentality. Many times I will do something and if it isn't up to the standard I think it should be I won't do anything with it. This is a dangerous mentality because many times in the beginning of any new endeavor a lot of what you are producing may not be the best or what you wish you could be producing but for growth purposes I feel its important to just be as transparent as possible. I think this will be a great opportunity to look back on over the course of a year and see the places I have been and also see how I (hopefully) grew as a film photographer.
Use what I have.
I am using a Konica Autoreflex T (black) that I got handed down to me from my grandfather after he passed away. My grandfather was one of my favorite people and played a major role in me becoming the person I am today so it is really great to be carrying around the same camera that he experimented with. He was not a professional photographer but loved to shoot and it really came through in the film and slides he left behind. As I am learning how to use this thing I can picture my grandfather fumbling around with different settings and probably having a lot of the same thoughts I have when I am trying to figure things out. I am really happy to be able to have his camera and get some more use out of it. I am also trying to keep this project as simple, stripped down and cheap as possible. I think sometimes we get caught up in the whole "well if I only had this gear" I would be able to do what I want thing. I think some of the best stuff is done just using what you have and doing something with it. Just pick up what you have and do the absolute best you can with that equipment, like I mentioned earlier just doing something is half the battle. I am using only what I have for now and not making any purchases. I want to see exactly what I can do just using the things I have and just have fun with it without the burden of need to purchase things and research "the best accessories" and so on.
Keeping track.
While I am shooting a roll I am keeping a journal of what settings I use with each shot with other various statistics like the time of day and weather. I think this will be helpful in being able to see what I did right or wrong and make changes as needed.
The first trip was to a patch of wetlands called Troy Meadows located in New Jersey. Anna and I decided this would be a fun spot, it wasn't far away and sounded like it would have some fun stuff to shoot. This time of year almost everything is dead and its still really cold. I would be interested in going back here in the spring and comparing the shots. I could have hiked around here for hours, it was filled with bogs, moss and large lakes filled with geese. I would imagine the bird watching here is great during the spring and summer months. I posted the images I ended up with below. I was trying some different settings and as you can tell from the images I ended up spending a lot of my pictures experimenting with the depth of field on my lens I was using. I also added a shot at the end that I took with my phone you can see the Konica in there with all its worn off lettering which now reads "IOIA"