Techknowledgey

Listening to: Cog - Moo


I made my first purchase from iTunes yesterday - I feel so technologized. I downloaded the latest version (v7), and wanted to have all the funky album artworks show up, so I signed up for an account.

If you haven't seen v7 yet, take a look at this.

You can flick through the album covers like you flick through a box of records. And as you flick to an album, the listing below jumps to the start of that album.

So anyway, I was browsing through the Music Store at lunch time, and thought I'd check out what tracks by The Butterfly Effect

are available. I noticed that their EP was there, and for only $6.99, so I grabbed it. Gotta admit, if you're into buying music online, iTunes is a pretty nifty solution to the problem. I'd browsed the store before, but never purchased.

Now, if only it would recognise my frigging iPod Nano, I'd be set...

Toy cameras and the world we live in.

A little while ago, I bought myself a toy camera. I wasn't getting bored as such with my current equipment, but I was enjoying viewing toy camera photography, and I wanted to have a go at it.

I suppose it's not necessarily classed as a "toy" camera as such, but my Holga 120N is so cheap, nasty and crappy, that it's really not far off. It feels so odd around my neck because it's almost totally made of plastic. Even the lens is plastic. It uses 120 film (medium format) which is about the only part of the camera that can be taken seriously. I wonder what other people think when they see me put my Nikon D100 or Mamiya 645 away and drag this shabby little POS out!

We went for a drive on the weekend down to the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide. I brought the Holga along so I could have a play with it. As I was sitting on the beach at Rapid Bay, I tried a few pictures of the pebbles. I've only run one roll of film through it so far, and haven't bothered to get it developed as I know I didn't wind each frame on enough! When I do get it developed, it could almost look quite funny.

There's one thing I keep forgetting about when I think about what the images will look like. That's any light leaks within the camera. These vary from Holga to Holga, and can be small or large. I used about half a roll on the weekend, so I want to finish it off and get it developed. If the frames are ok, I may even get prints made, for a laugh.

But I've been getting visions in my mind of different shots I want to take with it, including one which could look awesome blown up and maybe even printed onto a frameless canvas. Hmmm. If the camera's up for it, let's have some fun.

I have two weeks of holidays coming up in October, and I've started planning what I want to do while I'm off. I really want to get out and get some photography under my belt. All day trips into the hills are on my list, as are some scouting journeys to Pt. Adelaide. I love wandering the old streets of the Port area, looking at the old buildings and capturing their old-world charms. All the time I'm out shooting though, I'll have my Holga ready. It's really quite funny how such a shitty little plastic box can capture my imagination the way it has. $56 well spent I think.