Me. Up early.
Last Saturday, we were up before the birds to do a photo marathon. And not any marathon, but a photo marathon with film – not digital cameras. I decided to go as simply as possible as my experience with film has been very minimal. I went all out and used this bad boy right here -
The Banana-Cam
A toy camera called the Yellow Peace. Don’t let its small size and mighty yellow colour fool you. It’s a wide angle lens and a point and shoot. I didn’t have to do much except trust my composition skills and then hope for the best. I also had to remember to stand 1.5 metres away from the object I was taking the picture of. I think I remembered 3/12 shots.
the 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon worked like this: 1) We each got 1 roll of film with 12 exposures on it. 2) Every hour (beginning at 8:00 am) the organizers would draw a random theme for the hour 3) We had an hour to take 1 photo that somehow related to the theme. Please note, there were no themes like, “Dog” or “Coffee” or “Tree”. They were crazy – we had “High Hopes” and “Perform” and “Wild Goose Chase”.
That was it…1 shot, 1 hour, no do-overs, no “delete image”, nothing. The one shot was it. I found it super stressful. Since I only bought my camera on Friday night and had no idea (other than the 1 undeveloped roll of film I took) how it worked or how the photos turned out, I was shooting blind. I have to say, I salute the film photographers who came before us. Who the heck could stomach all that waiting and wondering if the photo looks just right? ACK! Could you imagine shooting a wedding like that? What if none of them came out well at all?
Besides, I had no idea if the film I loaded up was even done properly. I have a sneaking suspicion I missed the first 2 or 3 shots of the day. I realized after about 5 hours that if I had even 1 good shot all day, I was going to be happy. I sure hope the one I took of Mike that I used for “Tie” turned out. I just have to wait and see.
Mike used our other toy camera, The Diana. It actually has a lever on the side. There are a couple of settings on that toy camera, but not much more than my Banana-Cam.
Diana toy camera
And here is my favourite shot of the day – taken by Mike with his space phone on the “Toy Camera” setting:
I am wearing many layers and look like my Great Grandma Holly.
Yup. Looking just like my Great Grandma Holly who NEVER smiled in any photos, ever.
We had an amazing, exhausting time with a quick trip to the airport via the Canada Line (that made us the talk of Blenz) and met many fun people. You can see all kinds of photos from the day here on Flickr.
I’ll update you with the results and my 1 good photo from the day. Fingers crossed.
Will I become a film photographer? It may be too early to tell, but for now, I’m very, very grateful for my digital camera.
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I had fun, but my photos are going to look awful.
Me, too! And yes, my wide angle shots are going to look blurry. I just know it! (Too close.)
It was great meeting you guys. The reason I’ve been wanting to do this event for so many years is that I wanted to get people back to the core of photography – where you have to think before you shoot and you only have limited time and resources at your disposal. I secretly hoped someone would crack out a Lomo or something along those lines so when you guys showed up with your cool little plastic machines I was extratic. Way to make the challenge as challenging as possible. Can’t wait to see the results!
I am, quite frankly, cringing at the thought of my results.
i think it’s such a cool idea … but the shooting with film aspect completely freaks me out! i rarely like my first shot of anything … much less only take one shot! it sounds like it was lots of fun, though … i can’t wait to see your results.
Wow! Wow. I have never taken a photo with a didgital camera. You guys are so brave to take film with no experience! (but now I feel REALLY old). I took some stunning pictures by accident with my Brownie camera and I had to mail the film in to be developed and the pictures and the developed film came back in the mail. (Yah, me and the dinosaurs.) I am looking forward to seeing the photos, or at least one. ; )
Lomo-tastic!!! I totally want a Diana.
Do you get your rolls of film back to look at? I would have secretly taken my digital along to document the images. I can’t stand the suspense of waiting…
I did take my digital along. Here’s a Flickr set of eight f my setups: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebrowne/sets/72157623009025108/
This is, like, the COOLEST THING EVER! I mean, stressful and freak-out-able, but also, way cool! I’m so jealous of you guys being such creative go-getters!
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