77
B+WThe gentleman on whose
Facebook page I had seen
the post that started all this,
lives in Malta. This wonderful
island was the subject of
the first ever Fortnight at
F/8 column all those years
ago, and somewhere I would
LOVE to return to one day. I
was shooting for the Malta
Tourist Board when I was
there last and had very little
time off...I do remember the
back streets of the stunning
capital, Valletta, being an
ideal place for wandering
with a camera and the
perfect place for black &
white pictures...note to
self...Easyjet.
I have some ideas for you,
dear readers. If you REALLY
want to exercise ‘the same
care and attention as
working with an analogue
model’ when shooting with
your digital camera – then
here are three very simple
solutions I can suggest that
won’t cost you the price of
the Leica. 1: Exercise some
self-control. 2: Actually
buy an old film camera and
shoot with it. Or, 3: (really
simple this one) Turn off the
LCD screen on your present
camera. Good grief.
The pictures this month
are of the City Brass
Orchestra of Veliko Turnovo
in Bulgaria. My friend plays
the clarinet for them and
asked if I’d shoot some
pictures while they played
in the park one afternoon
in the summer. These are
some of the results.
And, incidentally, all the
pictures were processed
using Alien Skin’s
AMAZING Exposure 6
software. It’s wonderful
and I heartily recommend it
(alienskin.com).WHAT TIM
DID THIS
MONTH
All images © Tim Clinchcamera, a Polaroid Back showed
you exactly what you’d get once
your film was developed.
Cumbersome was the word
though. In cold weather you had
to stick the developing film under
your armpit so it developed
correctly, and even in warm
weather there was a two-minute
wait while it came through.
So imagine if the photographic
gods had broken through the
clouds one day and said to me,
‘I say, Timothy... how would it
be if we suggested that instead
of hanging about waiting for all
those messy Polaroids to develop,
and instead of having to spend all
that money on buying the stuff...
we just put a little magic screen
on the back of your camera that
showed you what your picture
looked like instantly?’
Exactly. I would have bitten
their hand off in an instant.
Just the same as I would have
if they suggested no more
exposure meters...or lightning
fast automatic focusing that you
could trust with your life. The
list, quite frankly, is endless.
Maybe it’s my age. Maybe
young photographers today just
need something to get cross
about and picked on ‘chimping’.
I don’t know. But I DO know thatI will happily ‘chimp’ away to my
heart’s content. I like it, it helps
me to compose my pictures and
I cannot understand AT ALL
what’s wrong with it.The one thing, however, that
I CAN promise you is that you
will never hear me, at any point
during the proceedings, going
‘Ooo-oo-oo’.76-77_FORTNIGHT_171 ER/MB.indd 7776-77_FORTNIGHT_171 ER/MB.indd 77 05/11/2014 11:0805/11/2014 11:08