thoughts on project 1c

great, great, great. this is the first time i've ever actually played with still photography. in a professional manner, at least. (although i have taken over 150 pictures in one night with my digital "cheat" camera. disgusting, isn't it?)

our group decided to shoot at night. we missed our intended shots of super-slow-shutter-speed fire-spinning, but found some interesting material none-the-less up at the juggling gypsy. then we went even further downtown. a lot of our material was typical "everyday" stuff. a rock, a dumpster, a urinal, etc... we didn't shoot the rolls separately, either. instead, we just found what we liked, decided if it would be better as a realism picture or an experimental picture, and went from there. that gave us free range to pick our subjects based on what we liked, and not what we needed.

hands on experience with the camera and the light meter were great, and much needed. there was an ever-present fear in me that nothing would come out (i'm so used to instant gratification with digital cameras!) but luckily, the prints looked great. after the first few pictures, it became very easy to understand, and the process was less about what settings to use, and more about compositing and framing and the like. the only confusion was over the f-stop settings, because when set on a 2.8, for instance, it was only one click down to a 2, but two clicks to get it to where it looked like a 4. but setting the f-stop at a 4, it was one click up to a 5.6, but two clicks down to a 2.8. we ended up just having a set method and sticking to it, so at least it was all done the same.

our group was fun, everybody worked great together (especially considering that we shot from 11pm-2am), and everybody pulled their own weight and contributed equally.

plus, we got to see jamie downtown at the soapbox.

since then, i have asked my sister if she's interested in selling me her SLR camera. it's 35mm. she said she would just give it to me. great news! can't wait :)