I went out to Zehrs today to get some groceries and pick up our prints from Christmas. Three rolls of film from me and maybe, maybe 2 decent pictures in the entire lots of them. Nothing terribly fancy, just plain old snapshots. Blurry, grainy snapshots. I'm not terribly impressed, but I can't expect much more from sloppy photography.

I've been thinking about buying myself a tripod sometime soon. I want to get a bit more serious about my photography, and I really want to do some light painting and night shots. All of those need a tripod. So it's on my little mental list of things to buy when I get around to it. Right now I'm saving up for a sewing machine. I should be able to buy it by March.

I have the two cameras; the Yashica and the Olympus Digital. The Olympus is actually Mike's, but I seem to use it the most. It's handy to carry around and since most of my photography ends up online here it makes my life easier. My print images that I am willing to show to the world are a waiting the day I can get access to a scanner. So I end up using digital for anything casual or artsy and the 35mm for anything I want a permanent record of.

I've been a photographer (that feels so pretentious to type, but it's be most apt term for what I am and what I do) for as long as I can remember. I really got into it seriously when I hit high school. Our school had a darkroom, camera club, and a generous loan policy on the equipment. I'm not sure what year I took Photography as a course, but I have the feeling it was gr.10 or so. I have a box filled with old negatives in my artsy craftsy rubbermaid tub from those years. Black and White pictures of friends, family, and very few things.

Now I seem to only photograph things. It never seems to be people. I think in part it's because I think it's rude to do street photography of strangers -- legal or not. And I don't have that many people in my life the way I did when I was younger. I miss that sometimes -- having a group of friends to do things with. Like photo shoots in abandoned buses. (I was a model in that one.)

I like capturing life around me. Catching those brief moments and keeping them still forever. I think if I had my way, I'd buy myself a decent kit -- a digital SLR, a 35mm without fungus ruining the lens -- two of them so I could have both B&W and colour going at the same time, a tripod, a flash, filters and a cable release. I'd also have a darkroom all to myself. I'd really enjoy that, I think.

I'm disjointed today. I had some thoughts for an entry about photography, but they don't seem to want to flow today. So I'll leave this now and try again another day.