Day 339 / 704 – Devil’s Slide bunker

My first “real” camera was some used thing about 20 years ago, film, 35mm, no idea what brand it was.  I had one lens, I don’t know if it was changeable.  It was a brown rangefinder camera.  I didn’t know what half the controls were, I didn’t understand much about how exposure worked, or take careful notes about what I shot so I could see what effect changing settings had.

I just loved to shoot with it.

And I mostly shot black and white.

Most of the shots on 365 are black and white.  Sometimes when I look over the pages, I jump when I see a color one go by.  I have always been attracted to black and white.  Maybe there is a little cheating involved in black and white.  You don’t have to color to distract you, but at the same time, the focus will be squarely on what you put in the frame.  So maybe it isn’t as much of a cheat as we think.

Some shots are appropriate for black and white, some for color.  It’s hard to know what is better until you look at it.  When I shot film twenty years ago, the film determined what you shot, and if you wanted to change from one to the other, then you were done with that roll of film.  So I stuck with what I liked. Black and white.

Now, since I can do it in the computer, and I can manipulate the tones of the black and white image much more than I could before, I get to chose after.  It’s a great freedom, one I don’t have any problem touting.  Film isn’t better or worse than digital.  They each have their strengths.  I am happy I’m shooting digital.  I like what it has to offer.

But I wonder where my old film camera is.  Just because I’m curious.

Day 327 / 692 – The bunker at Devil’s Slide along Highway 1 near Pacifica, CA

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