Wednesday, September 12, 2018

SoFoBoMo: My Concept. Ready Set and Shoot.

The first question before I began to do the Solo Photo Book Month, or SoFoBoMo, was what camera I was going to use. It is a good question because I have several camera: 2 Holga 120N, Holga 135BC, Pentax K1000, Casio Ex-10 and I have access to several more like the camera on my phone. To be sure, I spent several minutes deciding which camera to use. If I had ample time and ample money, I would use the Pentax. In fact of all the cameras I've ever had, and there have been dozens over the years, the Pentax is my favorite. And when you shoot on an old 35MM film camera nowadays, people think you're crazy.

Coming up with nothing, I decided to move on to the next question: what am I going to take pictures of? First of all, this challenge took place between July and August, so my time would be limited. I spent my summer days with my son, and the evenings took me to work. If I've learned anything about taking photos, it's best if done when alone.


I also thought about the end goal, which was to have 35 pictures for the final project. 35 pictures may not seem like a lot, but it's bigger than you'd think. I could take a whole roll of 36 exposures, and just use those, but I have never had a perfect roll of 36 perfect pictures. Also, I tend to study a subject. I'll take ten pictures of one thing: a rusted paperbox, bowl of lemons, etc.

Ultimately, I chose to take pictures of an entire day. I chose this because I had been listening to The Who's Blue Red and Grey. “I like every minute of the day...” it seemed like a great concept and a good place to start. After all, I knew my time would be limited. I've also scoured my little town and all the surrounding towns with various cameras over the last four years. And to be honest, I really find where I live to be pretty ugly. There are not many layers of things to see here. The days are bright white and the lack of plant life or city makes for wide open vistas. Although there is a certain beauty in this landscape, so I'm told, it doesn't translate well to images.

The concept was to start with very muted colors early in the day, and then move to very gaudy or lurid colors in the afternoon and then move into grainier monotone at night. So, “Blue Red Grey” was conceived.

And with that I went with my point and shoot Casio Ex-10. This is a very basic digital camera and it's over ten years old. It's small enough that I would be able to keep it on my body at all times. It does well enough at night. And being digital, I shot nearly 400 images for the project.

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