Kim, The Mentalists
The Mentalists at Proud Galleries, Camden, 17/09/08.
This is the first Mentalists gig I've been to since they got their new guitarist, Emma. I was keen to get some photos, but my Canon was sick, so I fished out my old Minolta X-500 film camera. Now, I love that old camera, which is why I kept it, and I was really excited about using it again...
It's manual focus, which was a worry with my old man eyesight, but I think the pictures are OK, and obviously it doesn't have all of the controls that my more recent (film and digital) SLR's have. Oh, and I kept forgetting I had to wind the film on!
While I was shooting, I came to realise how lazy shooting digital had made me. Now, I don't exactly take a scattergun approach when I shoot digital, but I will take more than I really need, and if the framing is a little off, it's easy to crop it in Lightroom. This time though, I was conscious that I only had one roll of 36 shots, and no instant feedback on the back of the camera! I found myself being much more careful about composition and exposure, because I had to make every shot count. I haven't shot film on an SLR for a few years now, but I think it was a really useful exercise, if only to remind myself to take a bit more care to get it all right first time.
It's made me keen to shoot more film, too. I think I may dig some of my old darkroom gear out of the garage, if I can find it...
Kim, The Mentalists
The Mentalists at Proud Galleries, Camden, 17/09/08.
This is the first Mentalists gig I've been to since they got their new guitarist, Emma. I was keen to get some photos, but my Canon was sick, so I fished out my old Minolta X-500 film camera. Now, I love that old camera, which is why I kept it, and I was really excited about using it again...
It's manual focus, which was a worry with my old man eyesight, but I think the pictures are OK, and obviously it doesn't have all of the controls that my more recent (film and digital) SLR's have. Oh, and I kept forgetting I had to wind the film on!
While I was shooting, I came to realise how lazy shooting digital had made me. Now, I don't exactly take a scattergun approach when I shoot digital, but I will take more than I really need, and if the framing is a little off, it's easy to crop it in Lightroom. This time though, I was conscious that I only had one roll of 36 shots, and no instant feedback on the back of the camera! I found myself being much more careful about composition and exposure, because I had to make every shot count. I haven't shot film on an SLR for a few years now, but I think it was a really useful exercise, if only to remind myself to take a bit more care to get it all right first time.
It's made me keen to shoot more film, too. I think I may dig some of my old darkroom gear out of the garage, if I can find it...