Don Gianatti of Phoenix Arizona and  Lighting-Essentials.com is a wonderful instructor, mentor, and photographer all rolled up into a nice guy. I’ve been working on a challenge of his to shoot 24 frames of film this month, just not all at once. He has some guidelines (not rules) here. You know me, I’m all about shooting film.  So, I was out with my new (to me) and untested Olympus Stylus Epic camera I just got off Ebay, as I couldn’t find one in a thrift store or flea market for a few bucks as the rumors on the net say you can. There is some risk doing this. An untested camera may get me a whole bunch of nothing if there are any problems. I have a roll of Black and White film in the camera from Freestyle. Its a rare beast nowadays as this is their house brand of re-packaged Kodak Tri-x film that is now discontinued.

Anyways, I went to the back of a shopping center to try one of my 3 frames (that day) on this arrangement of things

Then I saw this post and the green grass and the shapes in the pavement, so I had to use my point and shoot Canon Powershot S100 that I also use for video stuff.  I love how the post intersects the grass and retaining wall and is surrounded by the black pavement. I also liked how the post matched into the shadows when I worked it enough to see it eventually. This may be one of my favorite photos of inanimate stuff I’ve been shooting, looking at how things are arranged. Maybe one of my favorites ever.  And it’s neither a Holga photo or black and white!

Red Post, green grass

I hate to say it. Our cameras don’t mean a damn thing. Its about what we see, and what we shoot. Here are a roll of photos from a $3 camera I got at good will. It’s a Canon point and shoot with a zoom.  Some (most?) suck. Some are not bad. The camera was $3 at goodwill. The film was $5. Developing was $10. If you can’t do remarkably better with whatver Canikon you’re shooting now, maybe you need to rethink what your’re doing and, why?