“f” WHAT??
I was introduced to photography at a very early age. Dad and
Mom gave me my first camera when I was in first or second grade in Buffalo
Grove, Illinois. I don’t remember much about the camera, other than it was a
“twin lens reflex” box camera, where you look down into the viewfinder to frame
your shot – which used the top lens of a 2-lens front, and then took your
picture with the second, bottom lens. And yes, [gasp!] you used real film that
went to a real photo lab for real processing and printing. That was a very
simple “point-and-shoot” style camera, much like the “instamatic” cameras
(remember the flash cubes?) I had in grade school.
It wasn’t until Junior High School in Mr. Robert B.’s
Graphic Arts class that I started learning about f-stops, shutter speeds,
exposure control, and more. I loved working in the darkroom developing film,
making our contact print proofs, and then using the enlarger to create prints
from my best shots. That was almost my second home during those years – so much
so that Mr. B asked me to help other students in the darkroom while he was in
the main classroom working with other students on drafting and letterpress
printing (two more parts of that class I loved. Ahhh… I can hear the flywheel
of that old power platen press in my mind. Happy days.)
For several years after that I would use my Dad’s Argus C3 35mm Rangefinder camera. Nicknamed “The Brick” because it was heavy,
rectangular, and with a body made from metal and bakelite polymer. Dad had
that for years. The camera was made from 1939 to 1966, and Dad shot a lot of
slides and some prints while he had it.
Shooting with that camera was fun. But it wasn’t simple. It
wasn’t point-and-shoot by any stretch. Sometimes I’d use a light meter,
sometimes a “best guess”. But I always had to manually set the aperture
(f-stop) and the shutter speed. Focusing was done with the Rangefinder split
image viewfinder, and a framing viewfinder next to it for setting up the shot.
No autofocus. No automatic shutter speed and aperture. Real film (oh I loved
real film), nothing digital about this puppy.
After high school I bought my first single lens reflex (SLR)
35mm camera, a Canon AE-1. Still real film but built with some automation. My
friend Chuck and I started a regular routine where we’d head out somewhere to
shoot – the Embarcadero, the ranches along Black Mountain Road along the north
side of where Mira Mesa now lives, beaches, downtown, and shoot 1 or 2
36-exposure rolls of Ektachrome slide film.
We’d take those film canisters to our favorite lab, Visual
Productions in the Kearny Mesa area. Ektachrome processing time was less than
a week. If we took Kodachrome or Vericolor Professional (VPS) for processing,
the wait time was longer.
As soon as we had our processed slides back – typically on a
Friday - we’d meet at Chuck’s house, order some pizzas, and critique each other’s
work. Sometimes we’d take a little time to jam – Chuck on his Gibson Flying V
and me on my Rickenbacker 4001 bass. We played the San Diego clubs and military
bases with our 3-piece band, Carouse.
The AE-1 was where I started getting some laziness into my
photography. While still primarily a manual camera, the AE-1 had a feature
called “shutter priority auto exposure.” You could set the exposure and f-stop
manually, or could set the shutter speed you wanted, for example, a fast shutter
to stop motion or control bright reflections and lighting, or a slower shutter
for time exposure shots and low-level lighting, and the camera would automatically
set your f-stop. Focus was always manual, so it wasn’t fully automatic.
At some point along the way, I purchased another Canon: the EOS
Rebel. Fully automatic, no need to think about shutter speed, aperture, or
focus. Just point, press the shutter button halfway, and you have a fully, 100
percent, brainless picture.
Okay, “brainless” is pretty harsh. That camera came in handy
lots of times over the years as my son was growing up. As we saw deer peeking
out from the trees while we learned more about North Carolina. As yellow finches visited my bird feeders. As
we joined friends at the beach and watched fireworks on July 4th.
As I continued to look up.
And as I’m getting back into this old hobby of mine, I’m
finding that I need – and want – to be more deliberate about what I’m doing
with the camera. The waxing gibbous moon this month was a perfect opportunity to
play with the manual settings again.
And true to form, from what I learned shooting 36 to 72 images or
more each week with Chuck years ago, it takes quite a few exposures to try to
end up with one to two decent ones. If I recall, our rule of thumb was a full
roll of shots to get two good photos.
This waxing gibbous shot was the best out of 23 shots on a
digital SLR. I appreciate the instant feedback – a lot easier to look and
adjust in real time, than to wait a week for the slides to be processed and mounted
to find out that the opportunity was lost.
So, I’ll continue to scrape the rust off and wipe the
cobwebs out and engage that part of my brain again. I’m not sure what I’ll shoot
next or what I share next. But I promise it will be from my efforts and not AI
generated, and as much as possible, not lazy photography.
Cheer$.
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