As a kid I burned through film rolls. My father would say, I ain’t paying for this anymore. Stop taking pictures of the inside of your bedroom. So I shot my thirteen inch black and white TV, my Pong controller, the light fixture, the headboard. It is weird. But it taught me composition, light, shutter speed, aperture.
William Eggleston was the best guy who ever shot nothing and made it look good. Critics say we only like it for nostalgia, the fifty year old cars, the vanished gas stations. That is not the whole story. He shot what he saw. It did not matter if there was a good subject or good light.
My advice: shoot more of what we see. Lately I grab the camera even for one shot.
This is a follow up to my shooting like Shore video. Note the wording: shooting LIKE Eggleston, not results like Eggleston. I know my place. Eggleston was mocked in his day. Why are you shooting color? You are shooting a whole lot of nothing. And yes, the STILL ALIVE is because Eggleston is alive. Born 1939.
The gear: a Canon PowerShot Pro1 from 2004. Eight megapixels. My dig bridge. It came with an L series lens with the red ring. Good optics make photos jump off the print, jump off the screen.
I am the digicam king. I have had them all. Eight megapixels is the sweet spot for a filmic look. Ten, twelve, fourteen megapixel digicams look filmish, but not filmic. This is the best of my multiple eight megapixel cameras. Closest to film without paying twenty five dollars a roll plus processing.
I enjoyed the results. Major fail? I do not think so. And there is a second Pro1 on my shelf for one million dollars.
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