Fruits of the Creative Afternoon

This past weekend I made a rather daring decision to shoot for myself... something that I had not allowed myself to do for a long time due to other obligations.

I'm glad I did it. I just got the film back and I'm in love all over again with my Olympus OM-1 and my Holga (first time shooting with the Holga...)

The One That Started It All

Or should I say the "OM-1" that started it all?

When I was 15 I wanted a "real" camera. So I got a job at the Iredell-Statesville YMCA as a summer day camp counselor. I saved every paycheck and at the end of the summer my parents took me to Service Merchandise in Charlotte.

I can't really remember why it had to be an Olympus OM-1, but I do remember standing at the conveyor belt as my new camera slowly rolled my way. I didn't know much, but I knew I wanted to take pictures. Learning to load film was easy as was reading the internal light meter.

I think it was 2005 that I got to go to Paris to take a workshop on street photography. I loved the work of Robert Doisneau and that was where he worked. The course required either a digital camera or a film camera with a 28mm f/2.8 lens... which just happened to be the only lens I had for this camera. Twenty rolls of Ilford Delta 400 film, a plane ticket and a rented worldwide cell phone and I was off.

I love this camera. It makes me happy just to pick it up and look at the world through its viewfinder.

Happy World Photography Day

Today is World Photography Day...

To celebrate, I'm posting an image that I don't think I've ever posted before, even though it's one of my favorites.

I shot this back in 2005 with my Olympus OM-1, the camera that I learned to shoot with... my first "real" camera. I worked as a camp counselor one summer to earn the money to buy this particular camera and I still use it to this day. I think I've got a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 film in it right now that I need to finish off.

I thought this image would be appropriate because I shot it in Paris. On this date, 172 years ago, the French government proclaimed the invention of the Daguerreotype by Louis Daguerre as a "Gift Free to the World".

There's some controversy about whether the Daguerreotype or the Calotype (discovered by William Fox Talbot) was first. For my part, I'm just glad these people were up for experimentation.

Thank you gentlemen... and all the other photographers I've been priveleged to learn from as well.