A photographic digital detox (or how I am about to spend some time in 1997...)

 

Any regular readers of this blog will know that it, quite randomly, switches from rambling on about writing, then to historic motor sport with the odd bit of photography thrown in.

Which means it's probably time to blog about photography again...

Back at the beginning of lockdown (wow, that seems such a long time ago) I took up the 'one lens, one body' challenge. It was supposed to last until the end of lockdown but I actually kept it up for about six weeks. In my defence, I don't think any of us thought that things would go on this long! 

It actually was really refreshing. Rather than switch from format to format, camera to camera, lens to lens, just working with the restrictions of a single system and a single focal length took me back to my early days as a teenage photographer with my 35mm Practica MTL-5 and 50mm prime lens. 

It was refreshing - and, despite all of the years I have been taking photos it improved me as a photographer. 

A byproduct was that it gave me an introduction to Micro 4/3. I was amazed by the quality of the system allied to the sheer portability of the lenses. I quickly sold my most up-to-date DSLR with its hefty lens range and bought into the Olympus OM-D system with a Pen E-PL7 as a walk around camera. I absolutely love using both.

But, I feel it's time for another challenge.

One of the reasons I like the portability of the M4/3 system and was an early adopter of digital 20 years ago was the ease and flexibility of digital photography. You can take, see the results, and take again, spotting opportunities that didn't first seem apparent. I did this a couple of nights ago when I was waiting for a sunset; I noticed some weeds by the track I was on and took a couple of shots.

The first was nice enough...


But then I spotted that by shooting through the weeds into the low sun I got something really striking...

Not perfect but still pretty nice.

Which is the beauty of digital. It's instantaneous. And by taking lots of shots and 'playing' you can choose the best.

But this experience got me thinking; am I missing something by taking this easy route? What would it be like if I have to slow down. Not the slowness I get by shooting my Sigma cameras but really slow.

And blind. Not seeing the results until after the results are processed.

I'm talking about shooting film. Good old fashioned analogue photography.

Now, don't get me wrong, I already do shoot and develop my own film but only occasionally. What I am talking about is doing it exclusively for a month.

Now, immediately I must put a caveat on that. I have a day job which means I shoot 200-500 record shots a week as part of my work. I cannot do that with film. I will have to keep doing that. But that's not what I class as my 'photography', i.e. it's not creative.

But for everything else...well, why not?

Actually, I can probably answer that one; because it's a crazy idea, that's why!

But, anyway, I'm going for it.

I have a range of Pentax film cameras. My most reliable up-to-date one is the MZ-50 shown above which I have paired with a fairly modern digital 35mm Pentax lens. I am just going to shoot this combination using some of the gorgeous film shown in the picture which I got from the great Analogue Wonderland, a UK photo supply company. 

So I am being a little lazy. I have kept an autofocus camera. I could have picked something older, I have a few manual Pentaxes but, with my aging eyesight, autofocus is not a luxury it's a necessity! I am, therefore, going to spend a month in 1997 rather than 1975 but it's still going to be awkward. Maybe, at some point, I will go back further. I do write historical fiction and I do try to do my research properly to get the period feel right so using older equipment might give me an insight. 

Mind you, my writing spans from 1910 to the mid-1950s - whilst I could see myself trying a 1950s camera, trying something pre-Leica from the Great War seems terrifying...

I'll stick with my trial journey into the past being around 23 years for now.

Watch this space.

And listen to the curses when I realise what I have taken on...

 




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