When I last owned a decent SLR I was in Grade Twelve at high school. The camera was an old Nikon that belonged to my stepfather. Older than me, and almost as heavy, it was a consistently reliable camera. I used to carry it around with a red filter attached, loaded with cheap black and white film that we had to wind onto the spindles ourselves (a public education meant that everything that could be recycled was, right down to the film spindles). The result was a number of scratched rolls of film, and very gritty, grainy images, a feature I would then highlight in the darkroom by using more filters and dodging and burning my images over and over. I took photos of large architectural structures, which after their treatment on poor quality film and an afternoon in the darkroom more often resembled abstract shapes than buildings. I loved them.
Several years later, and I have bought my first digital SLR after not having taken a photo on anything but a mobile phone for years. My first concern was whether I would be able to still take the style of pictures that I had before. Luckily for me, digital cameras have evolved a lot further than I knew (who’d have thought?) and with only a few setting changes I was able to emulate a high ISO and a red filter without any difficulty. Whilst it is not perfect, I am quite happy with the results.
The other benefit of digital is you can make as many mistakes as you like. Colour is something I have never really worked with. This was partly because when using film it is hard to swap from black and white to colour mid roll, but also because it adds a deeper level of complexity to what you are doing; it is not enough to frame an image, you have to also manage different lighting and colours throughout the shot. Having the freedom to try again and again and to learn from mistakes is encouraging me to explore with colours some more, and to hopefully experiment with some new styles soon. Whilst preparing dinner I stopped to play with some of my ingredients. Expect more of this, food is a pretty big part of my life.
Hey Owen and Bec,
I got myself a Digital SLR (Nikon D80) a few months ago and have been playing since then. Still having many troubles figuring out how to capture sharp images with no flash in low light…but fun nonetheless.
Have subscribed to your blog on google reader so look forward to following your discussions. I tried to start one a few years back, but soon realised that the time I had avaialble could never do it justice.
I’ve got some photos on picasaweb.google.com/m.dunn2 if you are interested. But might be too many to trawl through! =)
All the best!
m
Hi Michael,
The Kendo action shots are incredible. Your shots of Japan made me want to visit again, the snowy landscapes are so beautiful they hurt.
Cheers,
Bec.
Kendo is a very difficult sport to capture. we generally do a lot of standing around and then very fast movements. the shinai’s tip (bamboo sword) moves at around 100 km/h. so you have to kind of guess when to take it. plus i used the multi shot to get a ‘before’ ‘middle’ and ‘after’.
That was on full zoom (180mm) with 1000 ISO from up in the stands. I had a lot of trouble reducing camera shake. luckily the light was really good so could get some decent shots.
and yes japan is really beautfiul in parts. and as all fond memories you tend to forget that it was close to zero degrees and your feet were cold from walking in the snow.
oh, i love the blue and white shots too!
what sor t of camera does owen have?
Thanks for the feedback Michael
I bought a Pentax K200D a few weeks ago. I’m finding my way around its features more easily than I expected, but it is still a bit a learning curve.
I also really liked your Kendo shots, I’ll keep an eye on your Picasa album, look forward to seeing some more photos.