In these times, for the newly retired,
there are probably a lot of things ushered in by this phenomenon called
retirement. For those who have lived
their professional lives the way I have –
which was work myself to death with really nothing much to show for it –
photography (or simply pictorial documentation of very personal experiences) has become an
interesting alternative to being very busy doing nothing fantastically
serious in retirement. As for me
personally, I’ve always been interested in photography, but more so now because
of my intention to go back to science journalism. Use of pictures in such activity is not only
useful and helpful, but absolutely necessary.
In the past, I’ve owned many different
cameras. After Graduate School, for
example, I even had a complete set, including an expensive camera bag, tripod,
and a set of filters and teleconverters, macro-zoom and telephoto lenses, and a
host of others. I also had compact
cameras.
My first camera was a Kodak box camera,
using a 120 film size. I also have used
Rolleiflex and Yashica, large-format (620 film size) cameras, and the portrait
camera called Bellows camera (this was really old stuff). I enjoyed my film cameras, and film
photography. But I found working in the darkroom and
loading exposed film in the developing tank rather difficult.
When the bag, weighing on the average
something like more than 5 kilos, became too heavy to carry around everyday, and considering that I had heart condition
that was becoming more serious, I knew I had to let go of the paraphernalia. I had to sell my camera system just before I
ended up in the Philippine Heart Center.
I wasn’t a particularly good
photographer, but I did enjoy film photography immensely. My training in communication made me believe in no uncertain terms that
photography was a means of effective communication rather than merely a form of
artistic expression. The cameras that I
used then were simple and easy to operate.
And when I set the aperture, for example, at a specific opening, I made
the corresponding adjustment in shutter release speed, and adjust the focusing
ring at the same time in order to achieve some appropriate picture that
expressed the idea I wanted to communicate.
The process was very simple and straight forward. And I
knew exactly how to adjust my camera in order to get that mood shot everyone
have always wanted to take under very low ambient light.
Using the digital camera today is
different. It’s much more complicated
than I am able to handle comfortably, and it requires endless buttons to
press. And yet, everything is supposed
to automatically adjust. Here lies a
paradox: my digital camera automatically operates within the law of averages
(it adjusts automatically based on internal readings and calculations regarding
values of a number of operations), and yet I really have to make the necessary
physical adjustments in order to achieve an excellent exposure. Trouble is, sometimes the piece of machine
wins.
***
If you ask me, I prefer film over a
microchip any time. Then again, film
photography has become very, very expensive … and Jurassic, although still
challenging. And all of my friends have
been won over to digital photography. I,
too, have been into it but I’m not a serious photographer. I just need to take pictures of what I write
about and for personal purposes. My
wife, Jegs, is the better photographer although when she was starting out I
usually coached her. She’s more of the
photographer-artist, while I’m the photographer-communicator. Let’s just leave it at that.
***
Since I recovered from my heart
by-pass operation in 1997, I’ve maintained one compact camera at a time. Initially, I maintained small (non-SLR) film
cameras, but later on I shifted to compact digitals because film cameras were
becoming more scarce and even eased out of the market. My last compact digital was supposed to be
top of the line in its class when I bought it, but the top of the line in the
same class today is way up front, both in terms of mechanisms and cost. There’s a very powerful compact digital
that’s high speed (which I’ve been looking for) but it’s still not available in
the Philippines.
The other day, I bought myself a new compact unit, a bit larger than the usual compact model, and
according to technical reviews is top in its class (I refer to it as low-end single-lens reflex). It has an f2.8, 25-600mm Leica lens, capable
of 10fps burst (you probably are familiar with this: Panasonic’s FZ200). Rather fast, which I like because I always
want to freeze actions into stills.
While I love this camera, I have problems with it. It has far too many buttons to push and too
many adjustments to make, which is, of course, what digital cameras are. I’m confused with this camera. It’ll take a bit more time to master the
operations of this machine, but I’ll get there.
***
In the last so many weeks, by the way,
I’ve seen new retirees sporting new paraphernalia – camera bags hanging down
their shoulders. Well, some of those
bags probably contain things like wallets and SC cards for maintenance
medicines and grocery goods. In any
case, it seems that most new male retirees these days are into photography and practically
all of them have camera bags hanging down their shoulders. Some smaller cameras and gadgets like cell
phones are conveniently stored in side pockets or small hand bags.
Yes, it’s nice seeing both young and
seniors apparently hooked in photography.
Our small organization, Kayvan Networks Specialist (Jegs is the
Executive Director), will soon conduct our Second Photography Workshop for
Kids, and perhaps Basic Photography for Seniors. Equipment requirement? Compact cameras and celphone cameras. Why not?
It’s the era of compact and celphone photography.
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