So, what's been going on? Let's see..
1. I broke up with my girlfriend of 3 years. Wow was that tumultuous. I'm actually glad its over. Unfortunately, she was a bit of a muse to me, so between that and...
2. I HATED my Fuji X-E1. Slow slow slow slow slow and unreliable auto focus just crippled an otherwise amazing camera. Correction - amazing sensor. I hated nearly everything about the camera. Battery life, confusing menu system, the metering system, just all of it. I hated almost every minute of using it.
3. I sold the Fuji and thought long and hard about WHAT TO DO NEXT? Well, to be honest, I've always preferred the look and feel, the mood, really, of film to that of anything that looked overly 'clean' and digital. That sort of photography just looks clinical and unfeeling to me. There's a certain beauty inherent in imperfection. After all, I'm a people and portrait photographer, and I'm damn sure that we're imperfect. Why should my images have a clinical, perfect feeling? The question was, how should I go about achieving those results? So I...
4. Researched and researched. Should I go back to shooting a Leica Rangefinder? If so, digital or film? After all, I've spent quite a bit of money on the great VSCO film emulation plugins, only to make my digital images feel more like film, so why not just suck it up and shoot film? Oh yeah, the slow workflow....well, what if I simply had fewer frames to deal with? What if I just slowed down and really tried to get just what I want? I'd always loved the look of medium format, and especially loved the 6x6 square format....would it be crazy to go back to film?
5. I just bought a Hasselblad 501C with a Zeiss 80 f/2.8 Planar. Great camera and great lens. I have an Epson V500 from my 35mm film days just hanging out, so I figured why not? For the price of a decent to crappy Leica film body, I can get an entire setup that will give me incredible results....what's the harm?
I have a couple portrait shoots coming up - I'm finally excited to shoot again!!
