A New Camera

I need a new camera about as much as I need a hole in the head, but I decided to order a Fuji Finepix X10. It's a little pricey (esp. for me right now) but I wanted a camera with good image quality that is also small and easy to carry around. I also like the retro look - it kind of reminds me of my Pentax ME Super and Yashica Electro 35. Of course I could just shoot with those but they take film and these days film processing definitely isn't simple or cheap, especially if you want the images on your computer. One of the things I remember about my own childhood was all the pictures my dad took, and once every so often we'd have a family slide show. I want to do something similar with my kids but so far I haven't had a good camera that's easy to take everywhere (my DSLR is nice but it's just too big). I'm hoping this little Fuji will be that camera.

Fun Photo Project

One good reason to simplify your life is to have more time for fun things and not waste so much on crap that really won't matter in the long run. One of the things I remember growing up is my dad taking pictures - lots of pictures. He shot slides, and every so often we'd have a Slide Show night. He'd set up the projector and we'd spend an hour or so enjoying the family pictures. Sometimes my mom would make popcorn. I want to take more pictures so my kids can remember what their childhood was like after they grow up (heck, I want some memory aids too:) ). I've got a 365 Photo Project going on Flickr. Lots of fun but I don't have enough time for it - sometimes it feels like a chore to get a picture taken and uploaded every day when I've got so much other crap that I have to take care of. BUT... I'm saving memories for my kids, and my younger son really loves it when I let him have the camera for awhile so he can take his own camera. I think when he gets a little older a photo journal project would be a really fun father-son project. So I need to simplify...

Black and White

I've never been a great photographer but one of my favorite classes in high school was the photography class. The best part about the class (besides the fact my parents bought me a Pentax ME Super) was that we shot in black and white and did our own film developing and printing. Now I do most of my picture taking with a digital camera but I'm really starting to get jaded - too expensive and too many new models coming out all the time. I recently bought a Holga 120 and I've been having a lot of fun with it. So simple - Fixed aperture and only one shutter speed:) The only drawback is having to get the film developed because that's kind of expensive. If I shoot black and white though I can develop and print myself - just like back in high school. Now all I need to do is get my garage cleaned out enough to make room for a little darkroom.

Holga!!!

Got the first two rolls of film from my Holga 120 back today. I really enjoy shooting with film - paying for each shot really makes you slow down and think about the pictures you're taking:) Not all of the pictures came out good though and I really wish I'd taken notes while I was taking the pictures. Here are a couple that turned out OK:

Mom and Dad

Seems like the older my parents get the more I miss them when they're not around. I know they won't live forever and I want to spend as much time as I can with them before they're gone. I also want our son to have enough time with them to remember them... Sometimes I think I'm so damn selfish for waiting so long to have a kid. I just hope I can make it up to him by being as good a father as my dad is. That's a pretty high standard:) I wish I could give my son the kind of life my parents gave to me and my sister - living in a small town and always having time for the kids. Sometimes life just seems too complicated. Running here, running there, always worrying about improving our incomes and saving for the future... I need to talk to my wife and see if we can slow down and be happy with less. Don't know though... for her it's not about having things but about economic security. These days who can blame her? I need to simplify though, I'm really starting to feel burned out.

Back to Basics

The problem with having the means to buy fancy toys is that you end up spending too much time obsessing over what new fancy toys to get. You also end up with a lot of crap. It might be fancy and expensive crap, but face it: something you don't use is, well, useless crap. I realized this the other day when I was looking at the fancy new wide angle lens I bought for my camera. Over a month now and I still haven't snapped any pictures with it. So I decided to "get serious" about picture taking and decided to organize the photos on my computer. Guess what I found out? Most of the pictures I like were taken with my little pocket digital camera. None of the pictures taken with my fancy DSLR I would rate as in my top 10 favorites. I got out my old photo albums and it was pretty much the same story - pictures I'd taken with my little 110 film camera were just as good if not better than pictures taken with my 35mm Pentax. It got me thinking... my old 110 film camera and my ELPH 100 digital camera cost a lot (and I mean a lot) less than my 35mm and DSLR cameras but they're just as much fun to use and the pictures they take are just as enjoyable as the ones taken with my fancy cameras. I'm not quite at the point where I'm ready to call my 35mm and DSLR cameras "useless crap" but it's time for me to get back to the basics in my life - not just with photography but with everything.

A new, old house

We're buying a new house - well, new to us anyway - it is 91 years old, built in 1920. I really like older houses as long as they have a decent floor plan. This one has a very usable floor plan: 2 bedrooms (master BR has its own bath), living/family room, largish kitchen with a dining area and small breakfast bar, large laundry room with lots of storage, and a small half bath (shower but no tub) just off the kitchen. It's awesome! What I really like though is the outside - steeply pitched roof with decent overhang, front porch big enough for a rocking chair, and a white picket fence around the front yard.

The back yard has a taller, solid fence and it's like a miniature park. The back lawn has concrete curbing around it, there are 2 apple trees, and the side yard has been fixed up into a really nice garden area. The cover patio is very nice and best of all there is a clothes line! I wonder if kids these days even know what one is... The garage is a 2 car, detached. It looks like the previous owner was converting it into another living quarters but we're going to convert it back into a garage. We'll leave the bathroom in place though... how cool is that to have a garage/workshop with a bathroom?

What's all that have to do with living in a simpler time? Well, if you have to ask you might never understand but I'll try to explain anyway... These older houses just are simpler - simpler to live in and simpler to maintain (due to better construction). They also just plain look cool. I've already got my Kit Kat clock for the kitchen wall, now all I need is a rotary dial wall phone for the kitchen...