Photography
For me, photography started as a nice way to spend time outdoors in Berkeley, walking around and snapping off random photos, or so I thought.
I guess it all really began when my brother got a pamphlet from the folks at Kodak describing how to build a pinhole camera. Although the pamphlet was filled with worrisome words like depth of field, the fact that you could build something that would take pictures out of an old cereal box, a couple of rubber bands, some aluminum foil, a bit of paint, and a 126 cartridge was really neat.
My father had (has) an old Canon SLR that he would (still does) haul out and take pictures with every time we saw old friends or went on vacation. By the time I was seven, my brother had a 110 point-and-shoot, and my mom had a couple of Disc cameras (for those of you who worry about all the odd film sizes running around in my family, I'm not even going to say anything about the Super-8 camera that's probably still around somewhere in the attic), and I got to play with the empty film canisters.
I finally got a break in high school, when I got to use a SLR after a steady diet of pinholes and point-and-shoots in junior high. After that, I didn't have enough money to get a camera of my own until I was well into college. I ended up getting a Nikon F because of its, ah, "durable" reputation. I tend to get Tonka-style stuff as a result of my clumsiness. I used to have a real glass glass when I was five, because my brother blazed a precedent for carefulness. By the time I was six, and we were starting to run low on glassware, I had a plastic plate, bowl, and cup.
Of course, by now, as some hobbies do, it has turned into a small money-sink that drains my time and still leaves me happy. I'm trying to get to the peaceful state at which I'll regard my equipment as just that -- tools -- and not as small sculptures. That said, it's still more enjoyable to use the cameras than to look at them. I like to be the one who's never again in any more pictures. I like going home to take pictures.
I also like to write (badly). Some of my work can be found on the personal pages, but that's all more stuff about how boring I am. I had some fun writing up Nikon haikus, which clearly exhibit my lack of writing skill.
About the only thing that I could hope for now is a lighter camera system. I think the Nikon manual-focus stuff is pretty well-made (getting back to the Tonka issue again), but a little weighty. Of course, that doesn't explain why lately I've been enamored with the old press-style medium format cameras. I searched the Medium Format Digest for information on the Graflex XL, the Koni-Omega, and the Mamiya Press, all of which seem to have their advantages and disadvantages. I'll put up a page regarding them as soon as I can assemble a quick comparison (and maybe more!). You might also want to check out this review of the Graflex XL that I borrowed from the medium format digest. If that's not interesting, you could look at my review of the Koni (and just so that it's worth your time, I've included another person's opinion). Another favorite cheap MF camera seems to be the Fujica G690; I wrote up some specifications on it.
I have some fairly strong opinions on tripods, if you're interested.
If you came to this page looking for pictures, don't despair -- I'll see what I can do about getting them scanned on.
Depth of Field | Nikon | F and F2 | Nikon Haikus | MF Press | MFD Graflex XL Review | Koni-Omega Review | Fujica G690 Specifications | Tripod Rants
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