A long time ago in a completely different part of the state, I was given a decrepit, semi-functional Fuji SLR. I marveled at it's mechanical knobs and levers and wondered how something so wondrous could function without any motors or batteries. I learned how to master its gnarly lens that lacked any sort of automatic controls and leverage a flashbulb that could turn night into day.
One fateful day, the dream came to an end. The mechanical parts would no longer turn, and film would no longer advance in the camera. I looked far and wide for some way to repair it, but alas, it was not meant to be. So ended my dreams of becoming a photographer.
Flash forward to last week, and after having completed six whole (long) years of film school, I finally took the plunge and bought myself another SLR; a Canon Rebel K2. Sure it's not top of the line, nor is it a fancy digital SLR, but it makes me go back to the wonders of shooting everything on manual.
With finals and work overtaking my entire week, it was not until a few days ago that I was able to shoot a test roll through the thing. I had forgotten how weirdly satisfying the sound and feel of a mechanical shutter and film advance were. I suppose part of that comes from my experience in classes with motion picture cameras. So what did I take pictures of?
A lighthouse.
But first...
A good picture to start out with, I suppose.
A bit of explanation is necessary in order for any of these to make sense. All of the photos were shot on Kodak Max 400 color film and processed at Walgreens. However, Walgreens decided that they were apparently going to not treat my negatives with care, and as a result all of my negatives have really gnarly scratches all over them. The prints were not any better, as they had a really gnarly, bright yellow line going from top to bottom in every single shot, aside from being horribly over exposed. All of these photos were scanned directly from the negatives and cropped to remove horrible scratches. On some I left the scratches as is as they have a sort of charm to them with the ridiculously grainy film stock I used.
What essentially happened is that I hopped in my truck and drove. I did not have any destination in mind, but knew I wanted to drive down Highway 1. Back in my hometown of Orange County (yes, the whole county is basically one giant city), it's known as the Pacific Coast Highway, and it is a pretty apt name for it as it winds up the coast of California from Dana Point in the south to Leggett in the north. What's especially fascinating about this highway is that through most of California, you get this odd combination of having fields producing produce on one side, and the ocean on the other.
The day was cloudy, cold and otherwise miserable. For most of the drive it was actually drizzling a bit, and the clouds were just high enough to be considered clouds and not fog. Off in the distance I spotted a fuzzy outline of something that looked to me almost like a mirage or a ghost, sometimes there and sometimes not. As I came closer, a familiar shape loomed out of the murk.
This is the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, a California landmark of whose existence I knew nothing about until it sprang up out of nowhere from the fog. The grounds are open and the old structures have been converted into a Hostel, but the lighthouse itself is closed off, due to parts of it crumbling away over the years.
Being a unfamiliar with the camera and being a bit rusty on exposures due to lack of practice, some of these came out really underexposed and others just slightly underexposed. I thankfully did not totally over expose anything, but it's going to take a little practice before I get good at this camera.
I left the lighthouse in search of new things to photograph. Being a complete sucker for the ocean, I drove until I found a fairly secluded beach.
It was only fairly secluded because some surfers had apparently found it too.
Also, bonus wave action
After taking one final snapshot of the Pacific...
...I headed back towards home. I still needed to burn through 6 more pictures in order to complete the roll, so the next day I went to campus.
Ah, typical San Francisco summers...
The library over on the right is in a stage of disassembly in order to prepare for the library reconstruction process, part of which is already occurring. My department will be moving back into the library once it's finished, but at the moment I don't even want to imagine what it looks like on the inside.
One of the nice things about having a camera with a proper lens is the fact that I can now do proper shallow depth of field shots with more control (LOVE focus rings) than with my digital camera that only has a digital arrow pad for control.
I like the yellow flowers with the fuzzy Caterpillar backhoes in the background
I should go hide out here more often. I wonder what wifi is like here...
And that pretty much does it for the test roll. Lessons I learned:
Over the weekend I'm taking the camera out for my sister's graduation (woo, lots of reds) and will really put my latent photography skills to the test.
The idea is that I want to get really good at shooting film before making the jump (and major investment) to a digital SLR. I want to know that I am decent at photography first before plunking down the dough for a serious camera. I see this as a hobby right now, designed to fill the gap now left by the lack of having school, but who knows...if I get serious enough about it, I may even drift into freelance photography.
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