Last night I went on a walk in the small town my parents live in. My camera of choice for this outing was a cheap Nikon Coolpix digital point and shoot. It has a really nice B&W setting similar to the Ricoh GR 3. I just walked. No destination or direction. I took pictures when something “told” me something.
I never stopped to take a photo, I was always moving. I wanted to evoke the same sense of importance on each frame as I would if I was shooting film. With digital you can retake each frame until it’s “perfect” but to me there’s something much more interesting about a photo that doesn’t feel “perfect.” Anyone can take a perfect photo. They are boring. I didn’t look at any of the photos after they’d been shot to really emulate the film experience. A lot of the night was blindly trying something new, and trying to not look like a creep taking photos in the street at 12 am on a Wednesday night.
I started the adventure listening to “Urban Hymns” by The Verve, one of my favorite bands and albums but I soon came to find that what I really needed to be listening to was Souvlaki by Slowdive. I hadn’t fully listened to Souvlaki for a long time, it’s one of those albums I know is amazing so I end up not listening to it and taking it for granted. It fit the night perfectly. I remember starting the album when I was walking down a big hill, and feeling like I was the only person alive, flying through the warm night air, blasting Alison. Man, Slowdive is (are) so good.
I only saw one other person and a cop patrolling, besides those two the streets were mine.
I’m a firm believer that the photographer takes the photos not the camera. It honestly surprised me how much some of the photos looked like film. The grain and contrast of film is hard to replicate from my experiences. My guess is it’s a mixture of the camera compensating for the low light (longer exposures creating grain) and my shaky hand (slight blur) that gives it a film-like aspect. I think B&W photos are more associated with film, so maybe my mind is just telling me it looks like a film photo cause it’s B&W haha!
I remember being in a jr high photo class and learning about long exposure photography, specifically using moving light and thinking that it had to be magic or something. There’s such a care free and spontaneous nature to them. Just press the shutter button and do a spin, or jerk the camera around, or throw it in the air. You can never predict the result. There something so free and beautiful and alive about it.
That’s what art is. Or at least a big part of it. It’s life and emotion. It comes from within you and outside of you. So many artist they they are just “receptors” or as Lenny Kravitz said “antennas.” Inspiration has no rhyme or reason, it comes when it pleases and it’s our job to do something about it. If I never went on that walk I’d never have taken these photos, or even written this. Art brings us together, it’s why you’re reading this. It’s the lifeblood of humanity.
I really like how the photos turned out. I know that there’s a lot you can control within a photo, you can adjust your aperture or shutter speed, different lenses or filters, light metering or fancy film stocks, but where’s the fun in that. A photo should capture a moment, or feeling. Show you something through a perspective that isn’t your own. Yes you need to understand you camera and how it works, but you also need to understand how YOU work. The camera is just the tool.
Thanks, hope you enjoyed.
