TGIF: Steping Back

Been a rather dark, gloomy and rainy week which meant quick short walks in the neighborhood. 

Maybe it's the weather and being confined indoors that has prompted reflections about the Midwest project.  Beginning in 2006, have been traveling about and photographing in earnest the Midwest.  

Much - not all - but most of the work has been done using digital cameras.  Yes, there are a few black and white film images.  Of course, these must be scanned in order to post them.  In either case there is a certain digital clarity and sharpness look to the results.

Digital cameras have rapidly improved in a short few years.  They are very complex and offer seemly unending capture choices.  Once personal camera menu choices are made, a photographer simply composes and trips the shutter and the camera processes the image.

Began thinking this past week, perhaps it is time to step back, return to more analog and less digital equipment and  materials.  This move would imply a more personal input and less of a machine result.

Have in mind, something along the line of this:

   Richmond, Indiana.

More impression and less precision. 

This film image was taken using a simple Holga with a plastic lens, fixed focus, aperture and shutter. Your basic point and shoot tool.
   

Another example from a Holga camera.

    Up State New York. 

Straying a bit from a Holga with a plastic lens to a film camera with no lens, we have: 

   Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

A pinhole camera - no lens - light tight container with just a small hole opposite the light sensitive material that is exposed by uncovering the hole. 

Yes, there is a film Holga pinhole camera. 

Because exposures are often long and the camera should not move during capture, a tripod or something stable to place the camera on is often used.

Looking forward to discovering where this new tack of simplifying and slowing down leads.