New toy/tool.

Got a used camera for free, from my father-in-law. Thanks dad!

 

Even that roll of film you see loaded there was free. Fuck yeah relentless march of technology bequeathing me great free shit, I am a fan!

This is a "real" camera that feels substantial in your mits. You have to hand crank it, manual focus, but the most crucial bit is done for you! Since it's an "aperture priority" camera, all you have to do is choose your f-stop, and the ankshent ass Kompyuter chip does it's calculations, and decides what your shutter speed will be, for you, because fuck you. This has inevitable consequences for DOF composition, I guess, but I don't care, because I am free to shoot. No fucking menu's, no fucking histograms, no fucking checking to see "did I get the shot (shutter quake tremble)". Fire and forget my friend, you know, after you've very carefully considered a few things like:

1. Why am I taking this picture?

2. Is it REALLY as interesting as I think it is?

3. Really?

4. Why?

5. Okay, how do I optimize this image I have decided is interesting?

6. How do I wanna frame it?

7. What needs to be eliminated, what is detracting from this image.

8. Can I eliminate it, by moving?

9. What mistakes have I made before when reaching this very moment of shutter release that I can avoid RIGHT NOW by thinking about it for just a second?

10. Have I cocked the shutter?

#10 will get you more often than you think! This short and incomplete list is what makes the difference between a snapshot and something worth looking at. Most people just see something "interesting", take a few rapid fire shots of it, and move on. They don't give a shit about what they're shooting, and so I don't care to look at their piece of shit. Photoshop can't polish a turd, and that goes for a photograph just as much as a photographer. 

Do I think I'm better? No, but I spend more time taking my pictures, and I am at least microscopically more honest about the value of my work. 95% of my "portfolio" (ha ha ha!) is shit, but you won't find agreement on what precisely constitutes that other 5%. That's the % in which artists live and die!