Now I want less. I shop at yard sales for something I can repurpose or refinish. I want my furniture to look a little worn with character. My boots are Capezio and I want them to look like they’ve logged a hundred miles when I buy them. I scour antique shops for vintage jewelry so that I’ll have something different than what everyone else is wearing. Not because I want to stand out, but because I want something that will stand out to me. In fact, my wedding band is from an antique store in Waxhaw. I picked it out after looking endlessly at diamond wraps and bands that had a lot of wow factor in the store, but just seemed kind of boring to me. I love my ring because it’s unique, unassuming, and I feel like it has a story behind it.
My latest attempt to go old school came in the form of an early 2000s model 35mm SLR film camera. It’s a bit of an experiment for me, but there is something about the look of film that appeals to me right now. I am definitely not a pro, I'm an enthusiastic amateur at best. Most pros shoot larger format film anyway, but to me, it looks softer and a little grainier. Right out of the gate the pictures look a little older and seem to have a little history behind them, which is very different from the images produced by my DSLR that are sharp, crystal clear, and full of color. I recently read somewhere that the quality of a camera isn’t all that important to the quality of a photograph. It’s more about what you capture and how you capture it. It’s about knowing what will make a great photograph and whether it will invoke some sort of emotion and tell a story that speaks to someone in some sort of way. A 35 mm SLR camera does not produce the best results for a perfect looking image, but I think that’s kind of my point. I don’t want it to look perfect. For me, it's a break from the same old same old produced by my DSLR and mostly, it’s about getting something that looks different or is unique.
No matter where your tastes lie, I don’t think there is anything wrong with loving the shiny and new or the old and worn. They each have a ton of appeal, they're just different. It's more about knowing what tells your story best and reflects your personality at any given point in time. I personally love them both. Value isn’t one sided to me anymore. It can be found in many different forms and places. It’s all just how you perceive things. And as time changes, so will your perceptions. For right now, I want to try and create something special without having the best equipment possible so that my efforts require a little more work, a little more thought and a little more creativity. I would like to believe that you can go just as far with a little less if you put the emphasis in the right places. At the same time, I would NEVER give up my digital camera. : )
I’ve already done a couple of posts that consist of all film photos, including, He Loves Me and The Mini Donkeys, Revisited. which are probably my favorite film shots so far, but here are a few other randoms.
