Point and Shoot!

I've never actually mentioned that I really like photography. I guess I always found it interesting, looking at images and their detail. But I got hooked when someone started talking to me about a brand called Lomo, short for Lomography. Now, what's special about Lomography is that it's not digital. It uses film, and nothing more. Everything is basically manual. And then I became really interested in it, and wanting to learn more, looking for more cameras and the like until I finally bought my own.

I purchased a Lomo LC-Wide for myself, which I find very convenient because its super light! Doesn't weight a thing! You can make multiple exposures, take pictures with a square frame or even half frames! The shutter doesn't make much noise, and of course...it is incredibly wide angled. You can be very near a subject at a distance as close as 0.4 meters and you'll be able to capture a lot more of the surroundings than you thought. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. For me, well I like wide angle and all but I sometimes just want to take a picture of a certain object...not everything else as well...when you take pictures with the LC-Wide, that particular subject will appear to be smaller than it actually is...think of it as the view mirrors on the sides of the cars that usually have a sticker that says "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear".

That was a year ago. After that first purchase into the world of analogue photography, or like others put it...film photography, I've been taking pictures very often and I've had the opportunity to test other cameras as well, even trade my own for another to use a certain amount of time. I had the chance to test out a camera called Petri TTL, which was made around 1974. Way older than I am! It was great, I had little to no problem with that camera! It was my first SLR camera, and my LC-Wide is not exactly an SLR camera. You really can't change the aperture, focal distance, nor the shutter speed to your liking (shutter speed is automatic and it has only to focal distances: near 0.4-0.9m and far 0.9-on).

After a while, I came face to face with a camera I had never seen or heard of before...a Canon AL-1. Whenever I mention that camera, people respond "Don't you mean the Canon AE-1?". I was originally looking for the Canon AE-1's less popular counterpart, the Canon AV-1 because it was aperture priority. I really wanted to be able to control the bokeh effect on my pictures (the blurry effect on the background contrasting on the focused object). Then I found this Canon AL-1, in which you can control both the aperture and shutter speed but can also place the shutter speed in automatic. I was there, the camera was there...I had to get my hands on it...

It's been great! It was in perfect conditions to start with! Now, enough reading and lets get to the pictures!!!

These are a couple of samples of the LC-Wide

Here I took a picture holding the camera from my lap...very close...yet I was able to capture a whole lot of the sky!

It's perfect for taking pictures of bigger subjects which you would otherwise have a harder time with other cameras!

    
Landscapes look great with this camera, due to the wide angle!

With the Petri TTL, which is an SLR camera, I was using lens that allowed me to take pictures close to my subject and to make them look as big as I wanted!

Get as close as I want, and change the depth of the bokeh!

And after playing around with the borrowed camera I finally got my own SLR! I'm very happy! I still have to get the hang of it though...

Silence...is Golden?

If I am silent...I am not real...

If I speak up...no one will hear...

If I wear a mask...there's somewhere to hide...

If I raise my voice...will someone get hurt...?

And if I can't feel...then I won't get touched...

If no truths are spoken...no lies can hide...

My favorite lines out of a song from a band I really like, Garbage. The lyrics have recently left me thinking...well not recently, but more now than ever. They make me think, about what happens when we say things. When we express what's on our minds, when we express our feelings...'Cause once they're out in the open, once they are uttered out of your mouth...whether it'd be a good thing or a bad thing. You can't push them back in, or no matter how hard you pretend it never happened...it did, and those words are out there. I believe that even if you prepped before saying what you had to say, and imagining what would go down and how it would happen...it might be actually harder to deal with.

So, those lines from the song...I feel I might understand the meaning behind them, but let me interpret them in my own way.

By not making yourself count, you remain in the background. You need to speak up in order to get noticed, to get heard. Otherwise by remaining silent things will still move on, they will still carry on even though you might disagree or are against whats happened. You are no longer part of reality unless you make yourself real.

Then we have the fear of rejection upon speaking, the fear of being ignored...which would result in not taking action. I, for some time, was also this way. Thinking that if I spoke up it was not gonna be of any use. No one would care, or worse...I would be shunned for doing so. So in the end, our insecurities and doubts overwhelm us to the point of remaining silent.

Pretending...pretending that you share the same opinion, pretending that nothing is wrong, pretending that you are ok with the situation, or to just take on a different attitude just to keep your thoughts and feelings inside. That way no one has to know whats going on, or even better! You adapt yourself to whats going out of your own little world so that you don't have to say anything. You're hiding.

Then we have the line I've been feeling identified with the most for a while now..."If I raise my voice, will someone get hurt?".  I am the type of person who doesn't like to talk about my own problems with other people. I've always thought that people have their own troubles, why would I went them to hear mine? I should be able to find a solution to my problems on my own...but I bet you might also know a thing or two that sometimes you should actually ask for help...or the fact of sharing your problems to the right person without receiving any help is, in fact, a big relief. Most of the times I don't say what's on my mind or when I keep my feelings inside is because I feel that if I do, I will hurt the other person. And there's no taking it back. Therefore I just keep silent, so that the other person doesn't feel bad about it. It seems pretty easy. Respect to the other person, you know. But I don't know what to do, when it starts affecting me. For example, when you change your view about someone else and they notice that you have distanced yourself. I don't know if to speak up and say what's on my mind, or just pretend everything's cool. You may take this example even further when it comes to couples and marriages. What then? You've been together for so long, is it really worth mentioning? Is it just a phase?

When you distance yourself, or demonstrate a lack of interest people will do the same. They will slide away, 'cause who wants to be with someone who doesn't mind about anything or isn't interesting about anything.

And the last line may have different points of view, but the way I see it is that when nobody comes up with the truth, it gives so much space for lies, omissions and whatnot. When no truths are spoken, any lie can be out there in the open. Therefore lies can't hide, anybody can see them....but can they recognize them?

Just sharing some thoughts. Anyway, check out the band. It's a great band that started in 1994 and will soon have new album out. This specific song is from their 3rd studio album, Beautiful Garbage. They have cool songs throughout their career.

Garbage

Silence Is Golden