GADGET BAG BIOGRAPHY
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When photography was first invented people said, |
GADGET BAG BIOGRAPHY
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When photography was first invented people said, |
I've always been interested in photography, since the day I bought my first box camera for 6d (that's 2.5p to you youngsters) from the local junk shop. It took 620 roll film and had a piece of bottle glass for a lens!
My Halina Rolls cost £5.19s.6p and was bought with my paper round Christmas box money. It had a few controls, but the only light meter was the piece of paper that came with the film. The first SLR I owned was a Zenit EM. I still wonder why they bothered with the light meter, I got better results just using the piece of paper!
The Practica had a TTL light meter and worked! I started freelancing with it, and although I always felt down market next to the professional press boys with their Nikons and Canons, it still did the biz until I could aford to buy the Canon A1.
The Canon must be nearly 20 years old now, and although it's been to the repairers a few times as a result of being dropped and dunked in orange juice, it still takes superb pics. Whether the composition is as good as the technology is another matter of course.
By 6 x 6 standards, the Yashicamat 124G may not be up to Mamyaflex or Hassleblad standards, but it impresses people at weddings.
Sadly I do not have any darkroom facilities at the moment, the Rolliflex enlarger has been consigned to the loft. I know you can do wonders with a computer, scanner and photo programme, but somehow it doesn't beat esconcing yourself in that etherial orange/red semi-world of the darkroom with the smell of chemicals in your nostrils and the taste on your fingers, thrilling at the magic of the image appearing on the paper.