ChristopherCoy
Subscriber
It's a phrase that's often touted with regards to shooting film. "I enjoy it because it makes me stop and think." Everyone says it, but I wonder how many people actually understand it? I didn't. I had absolutely no clue what it meant, and if I repeated the phrase in the past, I must have been talking sideways out of my ass.
Yesterday I got out with the RB67, tripod, and hand held meter. I went to the local nursery again, one of my favorite places to photograph right now. I hadn't made it out of the car yet and I noticed an old, broke down and rusted tractor. After loading my gear and grabbing my bag, I headed over. Set up the tripod, level the camera, get things ready to go. That in itself was a challenge. The tractor was a bit up hill from the tripod, not by much, but enough that once the camera was set up I realized I was too short to look down into the waist level finder. That was the first "slow down." I had to shorten the legs of the tripod, move the camera a bit, re-level it, and try again. Ok, we're good to go, let's take some meter readings.
It was a partly cloudy day and the wind was slightly more than a gentle breeze. Up until now I didn't think light changed that fast. Seriously, if someone told me "light changes", I would shrug them off. One reading gave me 1/4000th of a shutter speed, and by the time I got back to the camera to focus, a cloud came by. Ok well let's try another meter reading. 1/1000th. Back to the camera to change the settings. I get ready to compose the shot, and I'll be damned if that cloud hadn't raced off. Yet another meter reading. This time 1/2000th. Back to the camera, and thankfully the light stayed just long enough for me to get the shot off. Between the tripod set up, the three or four or five meter readings that I took, and actually dialing in the settings for the shot, it must have been 10 minutes or more.
And then there's the wind. Leaves act as if they're in a category 5 hurricane, even if its just a small breeze. Just as you get all of your metering and calculations done, which for someone like me takes more minutes than you think it will, and you prepare for the shot as the leaves are still for the fraction of a second they are, the wind kicks up. This resets the entire cycle over again. If you're lucky, and anything like me, maybe you'll get around to firing off a shot sometimes around the third or fourth or fifth attempt.
I never realized how much the process could "slow me down" until yesterday. Walking around with a 35mm that has all the bells and whistles, or a dslr with even more bells and whistles really takes that slowness away. Or at least mitigates it to a manageable level. It makes me question how many shooting experiences I didn't get to fully see and appreciate because I was busy clicking and walking on, just thinking that "film photography slows me down." My experiences yesterday forced me to stop, sometimes for fifteen, twenty minutes or even longer, and take in the scene I chose to photograph. I got to study all the colors and imagine how they'd look in grays. I got to see patterns. I got to move from side to side, or around, and pick out compositions. Yesterday really did, "slow me down."
It was a good day.
Yesterday I got out with the RB67, tripod, and hand held meter. I went to the local nursery again, one of my favorite places to photograph right now. I hadn't made it out of the car yet and I noticed an old, broke down and rusted tractor. After loading my gear and grabbing my bag, I headed over. Set up the tripod, level the camera, get things ready to go. That in itself was a challenge. The tractor was a bit up hill from the tripod, not by much, but enough that once the camera was set up I realized I was too short to look down into the waist level finder. That was the first "slow down." I had to shorten the legs of the tripod, move the camera a bit, re-level it, and try again. Ok, we're good to go, let's take some meter readings.
It was a partly cloudy day and the wind was slightly more than a gentle breeze. Up until now I didn't think light changed that fast. Seriously, if someone told me "light changes", I would shrug them off. One reading gave me 1/4000th of a shutter speed, and by the time I got back to the camera to focus, a cloud came by. Ok well let's try another meter reading. 1/1000th. Back to the camera to change the settings. I get ready to compose the shot, and I'll be damned if that cloud hadn't raced off. Yet another meter reading. This time 1/2000th. Back to the camera, and thankfully the light stayed just long enough for me to get the shot off. Between the tripod set up, the three or four or five meter readings that I took, and actually dialing in the settings for the shot, it must have been 10 minutes or more.
And then there's the wind. Leaves act as if they're in a category 5 hurricane, even if its just a small breeze. Just as you get all of your metering and calculations done, which for someone like me takes more minutes than you think it will, and you prepare for the shot as the leaves are still for the fraction of a second they are, the wind kicks up. This resets the entire cycle over again. If you're lucky, and anything like me, maybe you'll get around to firing off a shot sometimes around the third or fourth or fifth attempt.
I never realized how much the process could "slow me down" until yesterday. Walking around with a 35mm that has all the bells and whistles, or a dslr with even more bells and whistles really takes that slowness away. Or at least mitigates it to a manageable level. It makes me question how many shooting experiences I didn't get to fully see and appreciate because I was busy clicking and walking on, just thinking that "film photography slows me down." My experiences yesterday forced me to stop, sometimes for fifteen, twenty minutes or even longer, and take in the scene I chose to photograph. I got to study all the colors and imagine how they'd look in grays. I got to see patterns. I got to move from side to side, or around, and pick out compositions. Yesterday really did, "slow me down."
It was a good day.