Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Camera itch





I remember when I heard Polaroid was being discontinued. I wept quietly in my room for a good 40 minutes before going out to face the world. I had assumed such a wonderful medium would always be in my life tracking all the mundane moments and major milestones. My parents were often exasperated at the amount of money I would spend on film but secretly I could tell they loved it when I whipped it out at christmas.

The only advantage of the Polaroid demise was that it forced me to try out new and exciting avenues that I had been ignoring. Predictably, first came the Holga which is a great camera for point and shoot. It allowed me to rediscover the joy of developing film which can't be rated highly enough. Next came the Diana. I grappled with this one. Despite the pretty name it is essentially the raw guts of a camera and I am no photo tech scientist. Photos came out either blurry, opaque or utterly uninspiring.

Next I moved on to the Golden Half and this love affair ran for over a year. Although we are on a 'break' I look forward to returning to her soon. A tiny wee thing, she fits snugly in my hand bag allowing me to whip her out at a moments notice to point and shoot. The Golden Half captures light beautifully and the double frame shots put a new spin on chosen subject matter. For christmas my boyfriend got me a multi coloured flash (and a BP gift voucher?) allowing me to take my day hobby across to the night.

Next came the big guns. The Nikon D80 which to say it politely, raped my bank account. A digital camera was a whole new realm for me. No developing film anticipation, no tangible photos, no opportunity to have a happy accident with botched film or beautiful light. I felt puzzled holding such a large contraption in my hand. Tentativeness soon gave way to an overwhelming enthusiasm as I took photos with carefree abandon. There was no developing costs, the opportunity to review a night of debauchery the morning after, and the ability to edit photos on a computer. I became hooked. Although I would pick film over digital any day the D80 improved my technical skills through hours or trial and error, error, error.

As winter approaches I am keen to document the falling snow, blinding light and hazy nights of drinking to escape the cold. There is an itch for a new camera to document this. I'm contemplating the Fuji film instax, a rather ugly imitation of Polaroid. Half of me is dying for point and shoot instant photo contraption but the other half can't help but wonder if I am buying into over priced hipster camera? Also sitting on the wish list is a Minolta xg-m and a Canon Rebel 2000. There are also a few planned outings with a plain old disposable camera, taking me back to the days of school camps and underrated photographic fun.

Photos: by Katrin Braga, by Hilda Grahnat, Fuji film instax, Hello Kitty Golden Half

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Brian Ferry










I love the work of Brian Ferry. Simple, clear, crisp, lovely.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Learning to read (again)







I distract easily. To aid my Japanese language endeavours I picked up this children's comic at a book warehouse for a meagre $4. It's tough going and I feel like such a dummy but decoding the adventures of frog and mouse is way more motivating than memorising language charts!

Childish things



 I'm very happy about acquiring these. They make me feel like doing fancy shuffling movements around my kitchen. Okay maybe not fancy, just shuffling.