The simplest creative medium

Any camera is the easiest way to be creative and probably the most portable. I try to bring a camera with me everywhere, and if I forget, I know I have the camera on my iphone. In the summer of 2009 I went to NYC with my family, and what I was most excited about, was being able to photograph NYC. Instead of brining all my digital gear, I decided to only bring two film camera’s. That’s right…film! I brought my Nikon F100 35mm camera and my Holga medium format camera.

Manhattan NYC in a cab, on our way to the "Liberty Boat Cruise". Holga camera, velvia film.

When you give yourself limits you are forced to be more selective and therefore more creative. I like shooting with a prime lens (no zoom) like a 5omm or 28mm, and force myself to compose within the frame. When you shoot film you know you only have so many shots (12, 24 or 36 shots) so you become selective, but with digital it’s limited by the size of media card you have, and you end up shooting hundreds of pictures. With film you also don’t waste time looking at the pictures you just took, you just have to trust you got the shot and wait until the film is developed. I still get excited to go and pick up the developed  film at costco. My theory is that photos get more valuable the older they get, that’s why I try not to look at the shots I take digitally until I get home.

Here are a couple of shots from the “Top of the Rock” at Rockefeller Centre”. These were shot with the Holga and velvia film. Then scanned and converted to Black and white. Now I know you could probably get shots like this at IKEA or any other poster store because NYC has been photographed so much, but it’s different when you can say “I took the shot”.

This shot was a double exposer of "Central Park" and the other of the "Empire State Building". I forgot to manually advance the film, because I was trying to keep an eye on my seven year old son at the same time. A perfect example of a creative accident.

View overlooking central park, from the observation deck in Rockefeller Center. Taken with Holga camera

These last few pictures were taken with my Nikon 35mm camera and Ilford 400 b&w film. Some are during the day and some are from when I took a walk down to “Time Square” by myself at about 10pm. It wanted to just take my time with my camera and try to capture NY at night. I had a small mini tripod attached to the camera to get these shots.

Time Square in the middle of the day.

Tourists taking a picture in Time Square at night.

Woman taking a nap on someone's car in the middle of the day.

A little closer view. This shot was taken with my camera down by my hip. I walked by her and aimed as best I could, and I got lucky.

So remember to bring you camera with you, because you never know what you might see. Keep you eyes open and try to see something interesting in what most people see as mundane.