Take it back to the old school
I decided to buy myself a new SLR today. Yeah, that’s right, a cheap old film SLR camera.
I had an old Pentax ZX-50 that I took a couple of art classes in high school with, and I used to be pretty good at photography. I knew all of the necessary technical terms and actually wasn’t half bad at composition. What happened? I really don’t have a clue.
I talked to some Something Awful goons in the Creative Convention forum and decided that the best way to learn the basics of photography is to go back to the old school and work in black and white film again. My ZX-50′s motor drive died on me, so I bought a new ZX-60 today. Needless to say, the ZX-50 is way more durable feeling than the new ZX-60, so for that I’m slightly annoyed.
It wasn’t very expensive, though. I’m going to a few photography workshops to regain my darkroom skills and get access to the Alice Lloyd darkroom.
Sure, it may be retro, but there’s still some charm in working in the darkroom as opposed to Photoshop CS2.
Article Abstract
Posted 10 October 2005. Approx. 188 words.
After being out of photography for too long, I bought myself a new Film SLR.
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I don’t necessaily agree that black and white is the way to go to get better at photography. I tried that, but then I realized that my best compositions revolved primarily around colour. What really helped me was using a SLR so that I could see what the camera was seeing so I could control depth of field better. Also, autofocus was much quicker in the SLR than on the digital compact, and I could use the camera in a wider variety of lighting conditions, especially with the use of exposure compensation. Film costs are killing me, so I’m debating moving to a DSLR once I run out of film. I’m not a darkroom buff, so I leave my developing and printing to a pro lab.