Spend more time on my photography

With an old Apple Quicktake!!!

Yes, the Apple Quicktake was an early digital camera for the home user. The Quicktake is very simple, and I’m amazed and amused by the cute little device. It takes a 640×480 image, which is stores in camera. There is no card or stick to place in a reader with this, meaning that once the camera is full you’re done until you get to a computer. There is no preview in camera. It DOES have a built in automatic flash. It’s “point and shoot”.

That all said. Just like my Minox for film, the camera brings about “challenges” for the user. You have to THINK in a way most people no longer think about their photographs. The limited storage space of the camera means you don’t want to waste photo after photo unless you plan on uploading to the computer soon [FYI: Holds pics]. The small image size means you need to compose well the first time, “cropping later” will only hurt more.

Funny, this quirky little camera with it’s draw backs and all, are making me get off my rear and shoot photos again, when few other efforts were really working.

Here is the first batch:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16542958@N00/

I’ll be sharing more later.

—Ringo

PS-
Thank you Judith and Barry for finding the QuickTake for me.

Ok, so just so that you can see what I have to work with, this is a photo looking into what will be the darkroom. Back in July, this worked well, but as I said I started using this as a storage area. This is a closet, or pantry that connects both my kitchen, and bathroom, which although an odd looking space is perfect for what I want. It’s just big enough to work with the enlarger I have, I have enough space to lay out all my trays, or use my Jobo Tank.

This is what the area looks like with stuff still in the way. This is actually a HUGE improvement over what it looked like a couple weeks ago. My next full day off I intend to clear everything on the middle shelf out of there, and once again set up the enlarger.

This is eaily a task I can complete in one day, and would make me feel a lot closer to a place where I can do more photographs.

My photography used to mean a lot to me, and I really love to share my work with others. My favorite camera is a Minox B, which shoots on an 8mm x 11mm film. Blowing these prints up to 11×14 is a fun challege. My darkroom consists of a Russian made enlarger that hides in a briefcase. My current appartment has the PERFECT location for a darkroom, which was a huge consideration in choosing it. My last apartment before this had a small laundry room I had been using, but I also had room mates who would wake up in the middle of the night and turn lights on, which is kind of understandable. I live alone, and no longer have that worry.

Back in July, I had set up my darkroom, and started to do some printing. I was experimenting with making a paper negative from some old b/w slides I aquirred somehow. The prints came out about how I expected, but I need a lot more experimenting to really make it work better. I also did some work with Polaroid emulsion lifts. The Polaroid transfers and emulsion lifts are among my favorite dark room activity, but it’s also much more expensive to work with. Darkroom work is more fun than shooting things in the first place, but I need to start shooting more as well. If I started using the Minox again I would probably want to take photos almost everyday. That Minox used to go with me EVERYWHERE, my best photos, or at least my favorite photos were all shot with the Minox.

I haven’t printed in the Darkroom since July, and I have not shot any new photos in over a year. My goal is to start shooting more pictures, AND to start using the darkroom again.

There’s another goal to this thing as well. When I realized I wasn’t going to print anything for a while I started using the darkroom as storage for other things. I need to clean the darkroom out again, FIRST. I plan to do this before I leave for more work again.