I Am Blaming It On

Blaming it on the rain. i mean really Dallas gets like 1 inch of rain a year. I get a new camera and want to take the bike out and it rains. Jeez, so I'm blaming this blog on the rain! I admit I still like Milli Vanilli...come on you know you do too.

So my new camera? A Holga. Thi sis what is referred to as a toy camera. It has a plastic lens, only two apertures f/8 and f/11and like four focus settings. It is also a medium format camera taking 120 film.

So why on Earth did I buy a toy, film, medium format camera? Well, I'll get to that in a minute. but I also purchased a Polaroid SX-70 Timezero Autofocus Model 2 from Ebay (I'm still waiting on that baby). Ah you are now saying, "Wait a second John. They don't make Polaroid film anymore." And you are right, sort of. Polaroid doesn't, but The Impossible Project  does! Oh yeah, have four packs on the way to me.

So why this crazy obsession with lo-fi film all of the sudden? It is simple really, I want to focus on the image not the technical pieces. I have found myself bogged down by the technical bits of lighting, depth of field, shutter speeds, etc while shooting. I want to shoot for the sake of shooting. I want a tool that will free me to focus on composition, art, creativity from the point of what I shoot not how I shoot it. I also have to admit that I love the quality and feel of these images. They just suck me in. Don't get me wrong, I have some ideas on incorporating some lighting stuff into both of these units, but in time, not now.

I realized walking around NYC last month that I do not shoot enough for the sake of just shooting, playing, having fun. As a matter of fact back in NC I went a couple months without picking up my camera. Blame my depression, work, self doubt, or all of it most likely. But how sad, I missed two months of growth in something I love. No more!

Maybe my first film shots will be junk, maybe not, maybe they will be award winners, or when I'm dead they will go for millions, but I know I'm having fun, finding the love of the craft and art again. Don't ever loose that..just don't hold onto it no matter what.

Business Update Time:

I have a wedding consult tomorrow evening. I'm looking forward to that. I love meeting new couples. I have six serious prospects currently. Weddings take time to book, and I expect folks to shop around. I'm getting good leads from Decidio and a couple of folks hitting through to my website from Facebook. While I'm not Ryan Brenizer I am getting about 25 hits a day on my site. If I can convert 1% of those on a monthly basis I'll be rocking!

Other things.....let's see I attended a meeting of the Dallas Camera Club last night. Trying to get out and network. I'll be hitting the butterfly gardens this Saturday with the local Flickr group. That should be cool. Maybe I'll have the Polaroid in time.

I'm keeping daily tabs on my Craigslist ad, seeing where I fall down the list. I don't want to go below 2/3 of the way down. I'm also checking click through rate on Facebook. Seems I do better on Tuesdays and Sundays. Not sure why, but I'll keep monitoring for trends to help me target my ad.

More later!