a wander around lowestoft and some thoughts on photography
A couple of weeks ago I found myself in the unheard of situation of having an entire day to myself. After treating myself to an hour of simply sitting and enjoying the silence in the house and experiencing an uninterrupted up of coffee, I grabbed the camera and headed out to take some photos of boring things. Arriving in the wonderful Lowestoft around midday I was immediately struck by the glorious weather and just how bright it was. Great for a day at the coast, not so great for taking photos so apologies in advance for how bright these are, even after dropping those highlights as low as they’d go.
I took along the Bronica ETRSi and some Fuji Pro 400H of which I managed to shoot a roll and a bit. It could be months until I finish that second roll so I’ll have to update this post with the missing photos when I eventually get the rest developed. Bronica Mini Review Time - The Bronica can be quite a compact camera by medium format standards but I loath WLVFs so I have to have the prism and grip which contrary to popular belief doesn’t handle just like an oversized SLR. A typical SLR camera is comfortable to use for extended periods of time whereas the Bronica feels too front heavy and gives me an achey wrist, cue tiny violin playing.. I also find it really hard to focus, there’s no split prism and the AE prism makes the viewfinder quite dim which can be frustrating. I’ve had quite a few images where I’ve missed focus on a reasonably well lit subject. I’m thinking about a magnifier attachment which would no doubt help but as you can probably tell I'm not exactly sold on the Bronica as a whole.
To be fair I think I’m just bitter about film in general, prices and availability have gone nuts and I feel like I'm on the fence about bothering to keep using it. I do enjoy the process and the satisfaction of using older mechanical cameras is something I don’t get at all from using any digital camera I've tried so far. But knowing that the photos for this blog post cost about £23 it doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth. Not long ago the costs were a lot easier to swallow but now its getting to the stage of debating if it’s really worth it. We’ll see.
Most of my photos recently have been of the family and I definitely struggle to get back into the photo taking mindset nowadays. I think that part of my brain has been neglected for a while so when I was wandering round I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired. I mean, who wouldn’t be inspired about taking photos around Lowestoft in the midday sun? The usual bins and banal scenes just weren’t jumping out at me like they usually do.. I’m hoping to come up with some kind of direction for my photos as a way to get ye old creative juices flowing but its tough to commit to a project when the days I have free to shoot are so sporadic.
Flicking through photo books for inspiration I feel compelled to create a body of work but its coupled with this odd sense of pressure to create something quickly. I often feel like social media has propagated this sense of urgency to make photos and share them continuously to feed the algorithm and grow a following. What I need to continuously remind myself is that the images in the photo books I compare myself to were made over years, even decades and the only constraints are the ones I place on myself. #damnthatsdeep
I’m not entirely sure of the point of this post but at the very least I thought I'd share a few photos. Lowestoft is a nice place to wander about if you like the mix of industrial/ residential and there’s quite a bit more I'd like to explore when time allows.
Larry