Walking with a camera
I’ve always had a camera. Well, nearly always.
My grandmother bought me a secondhand Kodak Box Brownie when I was about five years old, and ever since I got the first film back from the chemist, I was hooked. There were hiccups along the way, like learning how to load the film into the camera, and remembering to put film in the camera (some of my best early work was lost due to using an empty camera). But I learned, some would say the hard way, and that is a good thing.
From that early age I carried a camera pretty much everywhere, taking pictures of whatever I chose.
The limitations of 12 exposures on a roll, and insufficient pocket money, led me to be selective about what I photographed, and I try to carry this through to my digital photography today.
One of the greatest pleasures in my photographic life has been the simple act of going for a walk. With a camera, of course.
It doesn’t really matter where I walk, town or country, familiar or new, there is always something which catches my eye, or looks different to me.
Due to this habit of carrying a camera on my walks, I have generally used smallish cameras. My first serious camera was a Fuji 35 Auto-M, a 35mm rangefinder camera made in the sixties. I acquired this secondhand from a work colleague, not long after I left school. This was followed by a steady stream of secondhand 35mm and roll film cameras, but I always kept a small film camera for my walks.
Today I carry a Fujifilm X100s, which I love. By the way, isn’t it strange how Fuji have changed the name of their cameras over the years, from Fuji, to Fujica, and now the digital cameras are branded Fujifilm. Strange.
More and more nowadays I find myself leaving my cameras at home and just taking my iPhone with me. It is small, convenient, and takes pretty good pictures for a phone. It’s not good enough to tempt me away from my cameras altogether, but who knows how good phone cameras will become in the future.
Carry a camera.
So if you haven’t tried it yet, why not give it a go. Put a camera in your pocket and just walk. Look around at your surroundings, maybe you’ll see something you haven’t noticed before, simply because you haven’t looked. If you come back empty handed the first time, don’t give up. Keep trying, keep looking.
Keep trying, keep looking.
After the first couple of attempts, you will probably start noticing things you haven’t seen before. This is good, it means your powers of observation are improving, as they will continue to with practice.
Even if you regularly walk the same route, as I do on my commute, things can look different every day. The light changes, as does the weather.
We are different, we see things differently depending on our mood, or how tired we are, or what sort of a day we have had at work.
Keep trying, keep looking.
If you liked this story, please recommend it. If you didn’t, why not respond and let me know. Either way, thanks for reading.
