I freaking love photographing this kid. My son is 2 1/2 months old in these photos and he makes taking good photographs pretty easy. Plus it’s rewarding as a parent and all that good stuff.
Here he is with an Areca Palm, a plant that wishes it lived in Hawaii and not Alaska this winter. My son might think that too, but so far he seems to like the snow.
When you’re holding a plastic camera it feels more like playing with a toy than a serious instrument of photography. Probably because it is a toy camera. But shooting with one can lighten the mood and open up new inspirations. The pressure is off. I don’t feel like every frame *has* to count, and sometimes that can lead to taking chances you might not otherwise take.
Another plus (sometimes) is that the results from these toy cameras can be rather unpredictable. Plastic camera bodies are prone to light leaks, and a lot of them have irregular lenses and a fixed aperture. Throw in a roll of expired or color-shifting film, and all bets are off.
I like to use the Oxford comma. That’s one pet peeve from my journalism days that I still hang on to. It just makes more sense, dammit.
But I don’t work as a journalist anymore. At least not full time, and at least not since 2017. Instead I mostly take tourists halibut fishing out of Homer, Alaska to help pay the bills, and in my spare time I shoot a lot of photos on 35mm and medium format film stock. This is going to be my platform to explore that more, sometimes, like whenever I have time and the mood strikes me, and also ramble about life stuff and Alaska stuff.
I’m retiring my “Travels” blog that hasn’t been updated since **cough** 2019, but you can still access that content here if you’re looking for even older photos and ramblings.
A couple of semi-relevant and semi-useful film- and camera- related posts on the old blog include:
I’ll still write about travel and stuff on here. Probably. But the format of this new “Mostly Film” blog frees me up to explore different topics and is a better focus for my life now. I’m a new father and a home owner again, so there’s been less travel and more adulting going on. My words should reflect that. Maybe.
Feel free to drop me an email to say “hi” or if you’re trying to find something specific on here: clayduda at gmail.