Getting back into the fun of taking photographs with the digital camera again lately. Though I feel that my lens interests are shifting in a way that I didn't quite expect: I now feel the interest in obtaining a wider focal length. Something wider than the 35mm lens I have started shooting. To add to this, I've found more fun in using the viewfinder to mix things up, instead of relying more on the LCD screen the Sony camera has. It made me realise how fun it would be to have a more rangefinder camera. Something smaller and likely with a more fixed focal length with no ability to remove the lens and swap them out. Perhaps one day I'll look into getting something like that, though I know I won't be getting a Leica anytime soon. Those things are definitely a bit too expensive and I'm not interested in getting something I'm more limited with at that sort of price. I still love the idea of having wider focal lengths with the prime lenses. I've wanted to get some Sony G Master lenses which definitely come at a higher price. Photography is cruel in this way: if it isn't your job, it's hard to justify those sorts of prices.
Though my recent ventures have been in the pursuit of making photography a more independent job of mine in which it pertains more to my nomadic nature, no longer limited to clients in specific places, opening the door to something more global as those clients are throughout the world with whatever interests they have: videography or photography. Regardless of the subject.
Part of my realisation of how fun a wider focal length would be comes from the fact that I have been struggling with certain environments as of late, even with the 35mm lens. These more narrow streets, even if sometimes they're wide but coated in trees on either side. Architectural photography in which I'd want to capture as much of the building's features in frame as possible. A difficulty when it only really captures maybe half of it. I wouldn't say I feel super limited with the lenses I have, but more just noticing a general shift in how many things I want to be able to capture, and how I capture those things. It's fun that photography can be this way, a hobby that constantly shifts and results in newfound skills and interests, always keeping your creative and pursuing new ways of going about things. No matter the location, it means that there is always something to capture in them. I've even taken more of an interest in pursuing landscape photography, and that will definitely shift into something larger as the seasons change and the landscapes follow.
This sort of started with the drone, realising how much potential it offers and how fun it can be to shoot things with it. I do think it has led to a more creative mindset within even in regards to shooting things with the regular digital camera. It definitely opens things up when you have a wide angle lens and an ability to get unique perspectives of the world from above. I really don't get bored of that thing, whereas I do feel I sometimes get bored of the digital camera for the lenses I have. The solution really just being to mix up the focal lengths which open those surroundings up in new ways: from telephoto lenses to macro, looking far out or looking up real close at things.
With the 35mm I did a bit of everything today. I shot things really up close, some rocks coated in the water fall's sulphur water which supply Tbilisi's famous sulphur baths with their water. The changing of the features in the rocks after years of exposure to them. They almost look radiated in some form, their colours shifting, the build up of minerals that add to the rocks over time. It was a really fun thing to capture, though the water fall itself was a greater challenge since I couldn't fit everything into the frame with the APS-C sensor. A full frame camera likely would've managed instead. But that's fine. I still flew the drone around the water fall and got some cool shots on video. And that was a really fun experience since it was a style of videography I had never tried before, having just never really been near a natural water fall before with it. And that feeling of the water spraying me felt so good under the sun, worth the risk of flying my drone even closer to it with the shots I came out with.
Another nice thing is that the weather is starting to change here in Tbilisi. The days no longer feel as hot. The evenings are cooling off nicely and often with more of a cooler breeze and maybe even some rain and light storms. I love that. Still warm during the day, but not so intense that it makes walking around and seeking out adventure a significant challenge that leaves you coated in sweat and exhausted if you're carrying around gear. Before I would walk with limited weight in the backpack to avoid getting so tired. Today? I loaded that thing up and felt fine.
Oh! And I now have a medium format 35mm film camera! One from the USSR! I can't wait to get some 120 format film and start shooting on it. That's going to be such a blast. A totally new way of photographing things. Again, photography never stops being so much fun. It always shifts its form and mixes things up, always holding my attention. I love it.
