Sunday, October 19, 2008

yellow

I am in love.
With my new camera.

Which isn't exactly brand new; I've had it since January, but am only now really getting back into photography. I think it is the digital amazement. Now I've figured out how to get the pictures from the camera onto my computer all by myself. Now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have deleted so many of my previous pictures. Yep, it is definitely that digital amazement.

Way back in my previous life, I studied photography in college. Had a darkroom and everything. Well, not exactly a darkroom; I had a windowless loo in the basement which served as a darkroom so long as you were really careful not to trip over any pans of developer or fixer on the floor. The stop bath was in the sink and the enlarger sat on a board on the toilet seat. It was not the best of set ups, but it was the darkest bit of the house with water access and I was determined. Then I lost interest. Or time. Or something. Possibly the cost was a huge factor. Developing black & white became quite expensive as did the developing from Black's. And being a bit impatient, my prints didn't always turn out as expected.

A few years ago, on one of my trips to Scotland I didn't even bother taking a camera with me. I was visiting family and I already had all the touristy pictures I needed and far too many that didn't do the real experience any justice. Besides, anything else, one of my cousins could send me as they always got double prints of everything. I found it to be surprisingly freeing. I enjoyed being in the moment and I think I saw more around me when I wasn't constantly searching for the perfect photo op. And because I was a bit slow, it usually took me awhile to get the perfect composition, the perfect angle, the perfect light... and people wandered off on me. Once, they all got in the car and slo-o-w-ly started to drive away.

But that was then, long before the digital age. Now, I don't have to worry about how many pictures I take - I don't have to spend a fortune to get back a bunch of blurry or too far away prints that never get looked at again. And I found out there was a photographic and digital imaging show on at the International Centre this weekend, so I hopped on over to see what was up and what I could learn from their many free seminars. Much of it involved buying new equipment and programs or was way beyond anything I needed. And a lot reinforced what I already knew but needed dragging out from behind the fuzzy parts of my brain. But, hot damn, if it wasn't exciting. I'm getting out of this luddite stage of my life.

The other day when I went out for my coffee I decided to walk to the old church yard to see if there was anything there blogpostworthy. The light was all wrong and the sky was darkening with clouds so I wandered to the lake to catch the change and stopped when it started to rain. I was surprised to see, when I uploaded my trip's takings onto the computer, that I had 36 pictures. That would have been a whole roll of film. I was just snapping away at so many useless looking things that struck my fancy. It was only about 15 minutes. I laughed when I read Yellerbelly's comment about getting a photographers eye! I think my 'eye' is coming back into focus. I was thinking about the things I would return to photograph another day, noticing things I'd not paid attention to before. Kinda the opposite of what I just wrote.

One of the the things I noticed was that there is an awful lot of yellow around and not just the leaves. And I was deciding as I walked home (getting drenched) that my first theme week would be on the colour yellow. So, each day I will head out for a walk, not far, maybe 6 blocks or about 1 km, and on SightLines I'll post something yellow that I find. Today, I'll start with the obvious.

6 comments:

  1. I have just got my digital camera too, but I haven't really used it yet. Maybe I'll be inspired by you. I can't wait to see the yellow pictures. It will be fun.

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  2. Many times I take my camera to events or places and I never use it. In fact, I have also not used my camera too often during my last vacations. Yes, very liberating.

    One of the nice thing about digital is that it's so easy to send a pic. The little ones grow so much so quickly, I need to have regular updates :)

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  3. I love photography, I don't get the chance to get out to take many pictures these days. I have a selection of cameras from the an old pentax up to an okish digital camera - I have been hinting for xmas. it comes to something when the camera on your mobile is better than your digital camera. I always end up taking tons of pictures, I remember going to Berlin and Prague on a orchestra tour from school and I think I came home with 10 rolls of film to be developed - 360 pictures in 10 days.

    MA

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  4. I find The Digital Age incredibly wonderful! I have always taken pictures, from the time I was a little girl...And the joy now is so attached to the immediacy available....Sometimes I take 300 pictures and then come inside, download them, and The THRILL of My Life is being able to see them BIG, right away---immediately!
    Talk about "instant gratification"....
    Are you familiar with Picassa? I use it to lighten and crop and other simple adjustments like that which I find incredibly helpful. Many pictures that I might have discarded in the past, I don't anymore.
    I save things in Picassa in "SAVE AS" because I don't want to use Picassa for 'posting'....it is too restrictiive in amounts, etc.
    And incidentally, Picassa is a free program, worth looking into if you are not familiar with it now.

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  5. Irene: have fun with it. I love that you can do somuch experimenting with a digital.

    UA: that is one regret I have that our family never really took many people shots.

    MA: wow, prolific!

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  6. Naomi: thanks for the hints about Picasa. I am familiar with it but haven't looked into it that much. I didn't know your could do all that - I thought it was just a file sharing thing. Thar instant gratification snd the BIG view is great! and I love cropping out the bad bits if need be!

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