I need to go back to taking photos for fun and not for a judge!
Absolutely.
My own exposure to cam-club was twenty five years back and I signed up to do City & Guilds at night-school. By dint of duristiction, this was at Solihul Tech, and the tutors and lab tech were all keen clubbers, from Solihul RPS or rivals Redditch; who between them vied for exhibition & competition awards, and it was only when one of the tutors showed us some of his pictures in a lecture on 'presentation & mounting' and I blurted "I recognise that one!", realised that it had been in one of the photo mags I was buying two or three of a month, and going back, the competition & exhibtion pages were stuffed full of the two clubs entries, they were two of the most prolific in the country at the time! And the course, loosely ran to culb principles with photo challenges set each week, and a class comment & critique of results a fortnght later.
It was, particularly informative, and did challenge me to tackle subjects I would never have considered on my own; but at the same time, it did take me a long way down that road of introspection, where so much of the 'point' of a picture was being lost, trying to achieve 'effect' or 'impact' or chasing techncal merit, and the photo's were usually contrived, pretentiouse and ultimately lacking in 'interest'.
I had actually signed up for the course for a couple of reasons, main one was that I had got 'in' to photo while at uni, and on a grant-cheque budget, and inspired by a copy of Langford's "Darkroom Handbook", I'd chanced on in the book-shop and bought instead of the 'steam tables' and 'Engineers Beam Theory' I really needed for my course Lol! I had taken to shooting slide film and kitchen sink developing it, in order to afford to take photo's!
Thing was, that bulk loading slide film, and using an E6 chemistry 'kit' to develop it, wasn't really going very far 'in' to doing this whole photography lark.. but people wodering why they never got to see my pictures handed round in a Truprint envelope, presumed that I must be REALLY 'in-to' my photography.... and I felt a bit of a fraud, essentially a prolific snapper, with a bunch of photo mags and no more than a developing tank in the bathroom! I wanted to learn 'the rest'... and I didn't have a darkroom, or an enlarger... and the college DID!
NOW! Between the different tutors with different bents for dfferent aspects of the persuit, I did learn to print, and eventually got my own enlarger, and later still set up a home dark-room; but the course was, predomnantly, about picture taking, and stepping past point and shoot, and a lot of it was particularly equipment driven, and getting folk using hand held meters, exploiting apertures and setting up studo flashes... as you cant really take great landscapes in a class-room! But, very much SLR camera orientated, and learnig to exploit the versatility of them.
HOWEVER; we had one tutor, who was I must now admit, was actually not that 'old'! He was then probably younger than I am now! BUT, whilst a keen club competitor, he was very much inspired by Ansel Adams, and the school of 'Straight' photography, and spurning the techncal to concentrate on the image... at this point we step into the oragins of "Lomo", and whlst that brand naming excersise has perverted a lot of what was then described as 'Serendipty Photography' or 'Punk Pictures'; This tutor was a fan of junk-shop cameras, and seeing what you could do wth them...
He actually set us a junk-shop camera assignment, to go buy a camera and a roll of film for under a fiver, and come back with pictures to C&C from it, and explain them. The objective to counter-point another tutors assignments pontificating on Exposure Values and aperture settings, and looking at knobs and dials; and with a hopefully simple and probably 'meter-less' camera with a few and crudimentary 'settings', to 'Use your EYES', and meter by f-16 sunny, maybe apply the 'zone system' but concentrate not on the camera but what we pointed it at!
For me, that excersise was a flop; but it did inspire me; I was already a fan of serendipity photography, and developing had been an extenson of that; the thrill of not knowing what you'd get, and 'discovering' it as it came out the soup! BUT a necessty born of using winder equipped SLR's and 'Spray & Pray' machine gunning at college rock-gigs and other events, working fast, burning film and hoping for those serendipiteose surprises when they came out the tank.
This 'Junk Shop' aproach to serendipity was a completely different kettle of fish; working ever so slowly, with something of incrdibly limited versatilty, and an incredibly restricted number of frames, trying to just get anything at all!
Juxtoposition, illuminated a seperation in my own photography, which I shall describe as being between 'fast photo' and 'slo-photo'.
Slo-photo being that slow, deliberate aproach; paying attension to detail, both in the scene and in the camera, and taking the time and aplying the patience and diligence to get the 'best' from a situation.
Given an, even then, 'old', Sigma MK1 all metal, all manual M42 screw fit SLR that had fallen out of some-ones loft I was helping clear when they moved, that they couldn't remember how to use, was the start of me putting together what I thought of as a 'Pocket Money Period, all prime outfit'.
It's a loverly camera; all metal, all clock-work, its very tactle, chunky and clunky! And actually not much less sophsticated than the electronic Olympus OM's I had as 'front-line' cameras at the time. It has just as useful a range of shutter speeds and apertures, possibly better on some of the prime lenses I have! BUT, lacking 'zoom' lacking any automation; it has a through the lens swing needle light meter, but that's it! It's a camera you have to be a bit more considered and deliberate with; especially taking it out with maybe just one or perhaps two lenses fom the bag. And for me was a nice compromise, not being quite as 'restricted' as say my Ziess Ikonta 'folder'.. another camera that fell out of a cupbard during a house clearance when my Gt Aunt went into a 'home' lol! A loverly bit of kit! Fantastc 'fixed' 105mm Ziess lens, and scale focus.. no vew finder to compose with! Just a wire framing guide and a scale to set the subject distance you measure or guess! No light meter, and only about four shutter speed settings and maybe five apertures! That really does demand some concouse thought and slow you down!
For the 'sport' and pleasure of using cameras these are fantastic devices. You dont get loads of pictures out of them. They dont do much if anything for you, you really have to 'get involved' and work to get anything.... usually pretentiouse rubbish in my case, but still; for the love of the persuit, this sort of photography 'delivers'.
The OM's remained, and have now, eventually, been suplanted by an electric picture maker, for 'fast photo'. Automation letting me work fast, and burn... well, not film any more, silicon memory perhaps? Automatic exposure taking away a lot of the chores, and 'capture the moment'.
Fast-Photo, then sort of suits event or candid photography, and the objectve is to get 'better' snap-shots, A-N-D these days THAT is all I aspire to from it. Ironic that all that easement of these cameras should leave me to better concentrate on 'the subject'... and that its the slo-photo cameras that lack much if any fidleability but demand fiddling, that change the emphasis and beg that added consderation of compostion and subject, and better suit landscape or portrat photo.
NOW, this all brings me back to the top, and humourouse suggestion that if you want to 'develop' in your photography, maybe you need to try film..... as well as get back to basics and rediscover what got you into it all in the first place....
From my own adventures in photography; I was early into digital, without a digital camera! Doing another 'course' in IT I discovered the dgital dark-room, and that it was a lot cheaper than real chemicals and paper, and you could get to the point of discoverig what a 'hash' you'd made of a pcture a lot sooner! But, early direct to digtal cameras were horendousely expensive and significantlt poor in IQ, so I stuck to my 35mm film cameras and got a high end scanner, for that stuff. Though around 2003 I did buy a Digital 'Compact' which, proved remarkeably versatile and useful and took over from my prebiouse 35mm 'pocket camera', an Olympus XA2.... which I was give as a birthday present in 1981, and yup.. where it all started!
Anyhow; spurning Digital SLR's for a long time; making ever more use of widge-pact; it was only a couple of years ago when the last of a succession of them expired, and I was looking for another, and disalusioned by the way camera phones have polarised the market, and price of 'decent' compacts rival entry level DSLR's I bit the bullet and bought one.
Which, serendipiteousely closes the loop.... no longer does the electrc picture maker slip in my pocket, to go every where with me, and demand little thought or attension. The 'slo-photo' Folder and Sigma still consume space as they always have, and sit about waiting for me to have the 'urge' to go play cameras... and so, the DSLR sits in the bag that used to home the OM's, to NOT go every where with me, and to not get used that much, and to leave me out and about, hunting through my pockets, 'wishing' I'd brought a camera.... Remember bikes! If I am heading off for a week-end on the bike, loaded up with camping kit and a pillion, the 'bulky' camera bag is the first thing returned to to the house when I am struggling with straps trying to make all the luggage fit!
But, imagine, returning the gadget bag to the house, and as I put it down, spottng on the shelf, looking falorn that beloved Olympus XA2 'compact' 35mm film camera, that, when it all began, lved my pocket and went everywhere with me..... and the 'light-bulb' apearing over my head, as I reach oer, check its got film in it and slip it into my jacket pocket as I return to finish strappng sleeping bags!
I always kept a 'compact' in the car 'just in case' and I have a loverly Konica C35 zone focus compact that has been in very occassional service for many years in that role; BUT, uyng into widgetal, has serendipiteousely taken me full crcle, and begged putting that little XA2 back in my pocket... and you know what?
It's everything it always was; and I just apreiate it more now; but, it's a snap shot 'fast photo' camera AND its a slo-photo considered picture maker. I can think about it as much or as little as I want to, and get good snap-shots or pretentiouse rubbish!
To wit; point is, there may be some inspiration in there; AND looking for a new direction, film photo MAY offer some unexplored teratory to investigate and enjoy, and certainly oportunity to 'develop'... AND you dont have to stick to the path and follow the track of 35mm SLR's or aspire to Medium Format. There's a awful lot more to the world of film, and 35mm range-finders and compacts are astoundingly neglected, and hence under valued! Yo can buy a great camera for a tenner; add a roll of film, and go take great photo's with it and have a lot of fun along the way. Add a dev tank and some chemicals and a cheap scanner, and for under £50, you are set up to explore the whole chibang!
Said at the start that photography has a tendancy to itrospection; and in that widgetal, making so much 'craft' of concentional photography redundant, has only re-inforced the trend and drawn the 'centre' of that introspection into the camera. Without finding other interests to gve the camera purpose, indulgng that instrospection n the persuit, 'slo photo' cameras, film cameras, and the dying art of developng... is a region withn the persuit full of opotunity and interest still to be explored and enjoyed for its own sake.. that I HOPE I might have inspired you to ponder....