ChrisR
I'm a well known grump...
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I quite enjoy The Online Photographer blog, which seems to be an interesting mixture of photography stuff, great value print sales (though I have not yet succumbed) and some interesting Off Topic (OT) articles. Recently he wrote a piece about the digital version of "One Camera, One Lens, One Year"; this article referred back to an earlier article called The Leica as Teacher. In that, he wrote:
The aim is to improve your photography...
He had some reasons why a Leica was a good idea (particularly the viewfinder, getting away from the seductiveness of the ground glass image), but they are a bit pricy, and he pretty much suggested picking any camera. The more recent piece has further practical suggestions for how to make it work.
This has been at the back of my mind for a while. I'm really intrigued by it. It's pretty much opposite to a lot of the general "buy/try as many cameras as possible" approaches (very valid and lots of fun). A few people here come pretty close, at least as far as the shots they post coming almost exclusively from one camera (or maybe two). But while I'm intrigued, and while I do think it would be valuable (reminds me of those first few years in the late 60s with only the Werra 1 and black and white film), I'm not sure I'm quite motivated enough to want to give up a second camera with colour (or, for that matter, my little digi beast for appropriate moments).
Anyway, I wondered if anyone here had done a one camera, one lens, one film, one year challenge, or was (or is) tempted by it?
I suggest shooting with nothing but a Leica and one lens for a year. Shoot one type of black-and-white film (yes, even if you're completely devoted to color and digital, and hate film and everything it stands for. You don't have to commit to this forever; it's an exercise). Pick a single-focal-length 50mm, or 35mm, or 28mm. It doesn't have to be a "good" lens—anything that appeals to you and that fits the camera will do. Carry the camera with you all day, every day. Shoot at least two films a week. Four or six is better (or shoot more in the spring and fall and less in the dead of summer and winter). The more time you spend shooting, the better. The amount of film you shoot is related but not so important. (Photographing is like jogging: benefit accrues to time spent doing it, not how fast you go or how much ground you cover.)
Proof the rolls of film by contact and file them sequentially in a notebook. Get or make between one and six workprints per roll, however you choose to do it (even if you scan your picks and look at the pictures on a computer screen), and, every five or ten rolls or so, have one nice print made, or make it yourself. Craft well, but don't crop and don't fuss; just take what the camera gives you.
The aim is to improve your photography...
... I'll say this: A year with a single Leica and a single lens, looking at light and ignoring color, will teach you as much about actually seeing photographs as three years in any photo school, and as much as ten or fifteen years (or more) of mucking about buying and selling and shopping for gear like the average hobbyist.
He had some reasons why a Leica was a good idea (particularly the viewfinder, getting away from the seductiveness of the ground glass image), but they are a bit pricy, and he pretty much suggested picking any camera. The more recent piece has further practical suggestions for how to make it work.
This has been at the back of my mind for a while. I'm really intrigued by it. It's pretty much opposite to a lot of the general "buy/try as many cameras as possible" approaches (very valid and lots of fun). A few people here come pretty close, at least as far as the shots they post coming almost exclusively from one camera (or maybe two). But while I'm intrigued, and while I do think it would be valuable (reminds me of those first few years in the late 60s with only the Werra 1 and black and white film), I'm not sure I'm quite motivated enough to want to give up a second camera with colour (or, for that matter, my little digi beast for appropriate moments).
Anyway, I wondered if anyone here had done a one camera, one lens, one film, one year challenge, or was (or is) tempted by it?