Photo of The Day.

I know that I already posted part of the series, but I have fallen in love with these images.  I bought this German Mecablitz flash without really knowing too much about it. It's difficult to find accessories for my Pentax, without ordering everything online. So I took a chance on it, I really disliked it for a while, but now, I adore it. It takes these tiny little lithium batteries that look like mini soda cans (cute), that are like $8 each, and the flash takes two. It has a very retro appearance as well. It looks like something from a dirty-downtown-80's-foreign street scenario. It eats up batteries like crazy, I can usually shoot continiously for like an hour before the flash starts taking forever to recharge. It lets out a blinding white burst that washes over everything. It's absolutely beautiful, it stops motion without any room for consideration. I just wish it wasn't such a hassle to operate.

 I am huge fan of Martha Cooper and Weegee (I got the coolest Martha Cooper shirt at YRB in NYC, it makes me drool). I'm beginning to fall in love with black and white all over again. The combination of my flash and B&W completely rearranges the image.

Yesterday I listened to an interview with photographer Marion Ettlinger, she photographs authors, and is very well known. She said in her interview that she doesn't even own lights, and her equipment is as basic at it comes. I knew immediately that I had it all wrong for a moment there. For a second I started to put equipment first, I thought that I needed all of this stuff in order to really succeed, what the shit was I on? What a ridiculous thought, I am a little embarrassed by it. 

I think my niche is unfolding. I don't want anything fancy, I want to to keep it as simple as possible. I want to know exactly how and why my equipment works the way it does.

Fancy and big is not me. 

Can anyone show me how to roll my own film?