So, I have decided to re-pick up 35mm photography. It's something I used to enjoy considerably, and most likely, was a contributing force to my career switch from making food to making film. I have had other SLR's in the past, all Canon. But the first SLR I got my hands on was my Father's Canon AE-1 from 1975 (pictured here). He used it through a few years of photography studies at McGill before I was even a thought. In fact, at that age, I was more than likely a worry. Later, I would get a brand new Canon SLR (never digital) but, much to my dismay, it never captured like the old AE-1 did. I would end up pawning my new Canon and lenses in order to pay for some post production fees on my film "Six Reasons Why" and, since, photography has been but a memory (still photography that is, since, I have been capturing images at 24 frames per second).
I have picked up the good ol' 1975 Canon AE-1 once again, blew off the dust and cobwebs, and have set out to refamiliarize myself with the antiquated piece of equipment which, hopefully, still snaps unrivaled picture quality and produces a 35mm feel like no other camera I have used since.
Directors nowadays, or at least the younger ones like myself, tend to forget about the technology which paved the way for Hi-Def Video, 4K Red Cameras, P2 Cards and Hard Drives. We loosen our grip on the artistic nature of what we do and it's only when we go back to strips of 35mm film that we get a fair and conscious appreciation for the art itself, instead of simply the process.
writing under the influence, and now snapping under the influence,
jeffc
Thursday, April 30, 2009
A Camera Born Before Me: My Canon AE-1
Posted by
A Writer Under The Influence
2:07 p.m.
- A Writer Under The Influence April 30, 2009 at 10:21 p.m.
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Correction:
After checking the serial code dating formula on the inside of the film chamber on the Canon, it appears to have been manufactured in November of 1976, Still long before I was born....
2
comments:
A lot of the craft is lost and usually goes unappreciated thanks to the instantaneous nature of technology.
It's amazing to me how many people consider themselves artists or even masters of any craft thanks to advances in communication technology and application advances like YouTube, Digital Cameras and other ones you've mentioned in the post.
But really, Jeff...
I miss my SLR too... she broke from old age. A black Nikon was she, and she expired with the birth of the millenium. maybe I didn't love her that much, I don't even remember her name...
:(