Well today is the last day that my prints will be hung up at El Mariachi. It’s been a fantastic experience, even though I didn’t manage to sell any of the photos. A few times I was in getting some tacos though, and I spotted a couple people looking at them. Being that I’m not a very shy individual, I’d go up to them (if they weren’t eating, I’m not shy, but I’m not rude either), and I’d ask if they liked the images. They’d usually reply with, “Yeah, these are pretty neat.” and one guy even told me, “Oh Yeah! I wish I had my phone, so I could scan the QR code”. I’d proudly tell them that I took them, and we’d have a short conversation while we waited for our food. Talking to people and having my work hung up on the wall made me feel so proud, and taught me a lot more than I though it would.
One of the things I learned was that I needed to be mindful of light sources. I’m fairly confident that one of the reasons more people didn’t see (or better yet notice) my work, was because of the glare from the large windows across from them. I also learned that my Description Tags need to be larger, and more descriptive, so that people don’t have to rely on scanning the QR code or being much closer to read it. I would say the largest take away from this whole experience though, was that I am such a small fish in this ocean, but I honestly found that I don’t mind.
I’m sure that if I had an ego about my photography, or if I thought I deserved more attention/respect toward my work, I’d be upset that I didn’t sell anything or have any kind of “shout out” from random strangers. I am very well aware that I’m nobody to the general public, and I feel like YouTube has helped me tremendously with that understanding. I honestly don’t care though, I will more than likely stay a “nobody” for the rest of my life. I knew getting into the Photography world that there is such a minuscule chance of major visibility. We live in a time period that photography is everywhere, and images taken by a guy that only just started a year and a half ago won’t and can’t stand up to photographers that have been shooting for decades. Not to mention, if I go onto Instagram/Facebook/YouTube or even Twitter, I have no doubt I could find millions of people that shoot photography, and are much better at marketing/showing their work to the world than I. Again, I’m blatantly aware that I’m a small fish in a big big ocean, but I’m happy to be swimming around in the ocean none the less.
Coming to the end of one experience marks the starting a few others, one of which is shooting film photography. Recently I picked up a Canon A-1, a fun little film camera from the early 70’s, which even though it’s over 50 years old, it still has some pretty cool “tech” to it when it comes to shooting. I actually picked it up because of Project - “Family Photos”, where I’ll be heading out to different locations that are tied to my family’s pasts (in one way or another). I’d like to shoot the project on film, as an added touch of “tangible time capture”, since film negatives are just that (a single moment in time that you can hold in your hands). On top of picking up my A-1, I also acquired a few other cameras that belonged to my grandparents. Two Eastman Kodak bellows cameras that are from roughly the 1920’s, a 1950’s Kodak Brownie that was my grandmothers, and a Pho-Tak Time Traveler 120. These cameras may never be used again, but they will damn sure live on with me until the day I pass them on (or I pass on).
I’m so excited to be shooting on film, and already it has changed the way I look at things, on top of slowing me waaaaaaay down. For my A-1 (which will more than likely be the main camera I use for the project and for fun), I only have one lens, a manual focusing 50mm f/1.8 which I’m finding is a great all around lens to learn on. I could easily find different lenses, but I don’t know if I really want to, at least not just yet. 50mm is great to start out with, as it seems to be quick to visualize what the image will look like, before you even bring the camera up to your eye (at least it is for me). Knowing you only have roughly 30 some odd shots in each roll, really makes you stop and think also. Bringing thoughts to attention like, “do I really want to shoot this, is it really that interesting"?”, and if you do want to capture something, you take that added extra time to make sure it’ll be in focus or cut/add to the images composition. I highly doubt I’ll solely shoot on film from this point on, but it is definitely nice to try it out, and connect with my grandparents more within the world of photography.
I have a few more things coming up, but I’ll save those for another blog post, probably sharing them as they come up. So I’ll leave off with the end of one experience and the start of another.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this weeks writings, and I hope you have fantastic days until we meet again. If you’d like to support Project - “Family Photos”, you can do so here - https://patreon.com/GrimlockMedia
Thanks for reading, and I’ll Catch Y’all Later.
Andrew Hoyle - Grimlock Media
