I'm sick and fuckin' tired of taking shitty photos.
Let's be honest: I don't claim to be a photographer by any standard, but I do enjoy taking photos. It all started with my uncle, who is a photographer and has been for quite some time. Armed with my dad's Canon AE-1 SLR camera, he showed me the ropes of manual photography.
I used to snap away with that fucker for ages. I'd keep taking photos till everyone was used to the little 'snap-whrr' of the camera and they'd start acting naturally. I almost always had that camera at an f-stop of 1.8, never using a flash (I also always framed my photos horizontally as opposed to vertically. Seems like I could only see things in 4:3 or wider).
Unfortunately, one day the Canon AE-1 escaped me (or rather, I misplaced it and haven't seen it since) and replaced it with a 1980's Zenith SLR from the days of communist Russia (complete with Olympic symbol on the top) which I bought for ten pounds at a charity shop.
Ten pounds, and it had a 50mm Carl Zeiss lens. Heheh.
I used that one up till it couldn't take anymore. In the end, sand got into the lens and screwed it up big time. But no matter. It was time to take the next step.
It was time to go digital.
One of the things I've always noticed with the advent of digital cameras was the framing. Now that people were free from the eyepiece and instead looking at a screen, images were framed unlike before. I'm sure the standard high-angle self-shot MySpace profile pic wouldn't exist without digital cameras.
My first digital camera was locally made, shaped like a sea shell, and full of shit. The less said about that fucker the better.
But then I got myself a Canon Ixus V3, a real beauty. And the photos were surprisingly good. To me, that camera had a certain color temperature which current Ixus cameras don't. I took loads of photos with that one, particularly band photos in the underground scene. When I was a writer and editor for Dragon Music Magazine, all the photos I took for that mag were with that camera, including some of the pin-up posters.
And then, one trip to Sidney later, it was fucked.
For some reason the screen became utterly screwed for no apparent reason. Goodbye Ixus V3.
For a while I used another shitty el-cheapo digital camera, this time made in Hong Kong, with terrible results. After that it was a Canon powershot A430, which was better, but it still didn't capture pics like my old Ixus did. One quick browse through Cash Converters later, and I bought myself an old 4 megapixel Canon Ixusi and gave my powershot to my girlfriend.
She's happy with the camera. Me? I'm pissed. This second hand piece of shit won't last. The battery keeps dying after only a few shots. And this is a new battery I bought just for this damn thing. Fuckin' Cash Converters.
And now I've reached my last straw. No more el cheapo digital cameras. No more second hand bullshit. I want a good camera. Not as big as a digital SLR, but with the same manual functions yet still able to fit in my pocket.
Something, say, like the Canon Powershot G9...?
I will own this camera. Oh, yes. I will. And I will be trigger happy once again and snap photos of unsuspecting couples ready to bermaksiat. Oh, yes.
