Lorena y la fotografía
Hace tres días estuve de visita en casa de Lorena. Ella es fotógrafa, y reside en Calvià, un pequeño (pero rico) municipio de Mallorca. La visita fue justo como esperaba: merienda, charla de las cosas de la vida, fotografía y un poco de todo. Yo traje tanto mi cámara digital como la analógica, y el propósito era poder discutir el estilo de Lorena e intentar absorber la mayor cantidad de conocimientos posibles.
Lorena se dedica a la fotografía desde hace ya más de dos años. Su especialidad es fotografiar cosas pequeñas de la vida cotidiana y utilizar la película fotográfica como medio de expresión. Sus principales trabajos han consistido en fotografiar familias, modelos y hacer varios libros de fotografía, entre los que destacan los temas del mar y de las cosas pequeñas de cada día. Su estudio es su casa, y la luz natural su único accesorio aparte de su cámara.
Lorena aceptó mi visita como fotógrafo amateur y me estuvo explicando sus motivaciones y las fases por las que ella ha pasado hasta decidir qué es lo que realmente la conmueve cuando mira a través del visor de su Minolta. Aquella tarde recibí justo la lección que deseaba: aprender de motiviación y de elecciones personales, nada de terminología ni técnicas fotográficas.
Revisamos toda su colección de fotos y hasta me regaló tres fotos buenísimas. Me reveló uno de sus secretos profesionales: los carretes que utiliza y dónde podría conseguirlos. Además, me explicó, según ella, las diferencias entre el resultado digital y el analógico. Su opinión ha calado muchísimo en mi forma de pensar y, aún más importante, en mi forma de orientarme hacia lo que a mí pueda motivarme el día de mañana cuando coja una cámara.
Tras charlar y merendar, Lorena me propuso posar para ella en su habitación, en su patio y en varias situaciones allí en su casa. En realidad, como la tarde estaba muy soleada, estábamos esperando a que el sol nos diera una tregua para poder salir a la calle a tirar fotos en el exterior.
La tarde se nubló ligeramente, era la luz perfecta para Lorena. En cuanto el sol se escondió, ambos cogimos nuestras cámaras y nos fuimos a un caminito un tanto alejado, donde comenzamos a probar cosas. Sinceramente, Lorena me usó de modelo y yo, partícipe de su virtud, me olvidé de mis cámaras por un momento para ser retratado.
Al final de la tarde, Lorena aún tuvo energía para retratarme en el patio de su casa, donde yo toqué la guitarra durante más de una hora. Aquello fue casi el último paso antes de que acabara una velada increíble. El último coleteo consistió en revisar y editar las fotos digitales en el ordenador de Lorena y en seleccionar las mejores.
Tras aquella tarde, ahora consigo entender mejor ciertos aspectos de la fotografía analógica y la digital que han sembrado nuevas inquietudes en mi espíritu de fotógrafo amateur. Para empezar, ya tengo claro que la fotografía analógica está más viva que nunca, y que es una alternativa clara a la fotografía digital. Por otro lado, cada vez tengo más claro que es mejor usar un equivalente de 50mm con una apertura inmensa (e.g. f/1.4) y tirar fotos de lo que el ojo ve, sin usar teleobjetivos en cualquier situación.
Sin embargo, aún no tengo claro hasta que punto seré capaz de sumergirme en el mundo de lo analógico sin dejarme llevar completamente y manteniéndome prágmatico como hasta ahora. Lo que tengo claro es que mi objetivo de 18-250mm tiene sus días contados y que un objetivo de gran apertura equivalente a 50mm está en camino. De todos modos, ahora sé que la fotografía analógica puede ser bellísima, y quiero explotar ese potencial si es que algo de él hay dentro de mí. ¡Gracias Lorena!
Canon AE-1
Last Wednesday I received a nice surprise at work. Not a pay raise, nor an upgrade, but something more.. analog. My boss gave me his Canon AE-1 film camera, a classic milestone with a 3x2 35mm film format. The reason: he won't use it anymore, and I am about to start film photography courses in the autumn. This camera was the first model to introduce an electronic processor to evaluate metering through the lens (TTL). It is a fine 20th-century jewel that is now resting on my hands.
I told Risto, my boss, that I was going to buy an analog camera from the Internet, in order to attend some film-development courses in the autumn. He brought his old Canon AE-1 and told me that he was going to throw it away, so he gave it to me as a present. Right away, I started researching about film photography. I never thought I could be into it but, the more I read, the more I want to learn the classic techniques.
Concepts like ISO, dynamic range and other stuff sound very nice, and your digital camera can do all of them yet you only have to press one button. However, as I started to dig into film photography, I discovered that almost all the things done by digital cameras nowadays are a hardware-and-software simulation of those characteristics that apply for a film and its development process.
I am glad I have such a great camera as my first film camera. Now, I will be able to experiment film photography myself and compare it, technically, to digital photography. I am interested in the differences in the work flow and the printed quality (35mm versus 18 megapixels on an APS-C sensor).
Some of the most important characteristics about the Canon AE-1 are:
- interchangeable single-lens reflex
- built from 1976 to 1984
- first camera to introduce an electronic processor for light metering
- FD lens-mount
- shutter speed as fast as 1/1000s (1/60s X-sync)
Right now, I am testing if it works. My boss told me it is so old that maybe it doesn't work properly. As of writing this, the shutter works, the film rolls and everything seems to be fine. Yet, I am waiting for my first film development results to see if everything is alright. If so, I will be having lessons with this camera in about two months, yay!
Australia 2010: The Great Ocean Road
Back in Melbourne, the arrangements weren't quick. At the airport, we picked up our stuff and went straight to Hertz, the car-rental. We had exactly 48 hours to drive through the Great Ocean Road and return back to the airport, to grab our flight back to Europe. That afternoon, with an automatic-gearbox Toyota Corolla, our final adventure began to be written..
Our target was to reach Torquay (the town where the Great Ocean Road officially starts) by sundown. We just drove on the freeway without much to see on the sides, until we reached this town. It was cold and gloomy, but we took the car to the front-line of the town to see the beach at sunset. The dusk was amazing, and the water of the ocean blended nicely with the sky.
After visiting the beach, we went around with the car and tried to find our hostel. Marc told me there should be a tiny place that was supposed to be cheap and cozy, and we found it! It was, actually, a normal house, with its owner living there and charging ridiculously low amounts of money to people wanting to stay there. The place was nice. The woman treated you like a baby, we paid like 15€ to stay one night, and that included dinner cooked by her.
This place was small but famous. Many backpackers and amateur surfers used to stay at that place. After dinner, there were only English guests, and Marc was already in bed, so I felt a little shifted. After having the standard minimalist conversation with everyone, I decided to go back to our room and tidy up my stuff for the rest of the trip.
The next morning we got up early and started driving through the Great Ocean Road. I was driving and Marc was exploring his guide, and so we were stopping at the most important locations of the Great Ocean Road. One interesting fact is that, at the Great Ocean Road, there are lookouts every 500 meters. That is, if you want to see all the interest points, it will take you a while (several days) to reach the other end of the Great Ocean Road.
For those who didn't know, the Great Ocean Road is a national road in the Victoria region, in the southern-east part of Australia. This road escapes from the inner freeway and follows the coastline at one of the most beautiful places on Earth, where the ocean gets lost in the horizon and the next shoreline is the Antarctica. That, added to the beauty of giant rocks coming out of the water at many points, makes the Great Ocean Road a real touristic attraction.
In the afternoon, we stopped at Apollo Bay, a very famous place as well, and we had lunch in a fine restaurant. I had a seafood soup, which was very delicious and full of different tastes: octopus, prawns, jumbo-shrimps, clams, oysters, king-crab, etcetera. After lunch, we continued our tour. Our purpose was to go to the end, at Warrnambool. This is the end of the Great Ocean Road. The choice was clear, since the next day we wanted to be fresh to return to Melbourne and spend the day doing shopping at the airport, before our flight back to Finland.
The part from Apollo Bay till Warrnambool was the most beautiful one. The most important stop, of course, was The Twelve Apostles, which is the biggest attraction at the Great Ocean Road. We spent most of the time there, and it was extremely beautiful. Giant rocks literally emerge from the ocean water and form incredible shapes.
The continuation after The Twelve Apostles was very beautiful as well. For instance, the London Bridge and other lookouts were amazing, specially at sunset. Once at Warrnambool, we found a cheap backpackers with nice rooms (also from Marc's guide) and we decided not to complicate and stay there. The dinner was huge, at a posh restaurant where there were only rich people. We did nothing special after that, but rest instead, for the next day to return back to Melbourne.
The following morning, we refueled the car and drove back to Melbourne. This time, we took the freeway (we didn't come back the same way, through the Great Ocean Road), and we were there in less than three hours. The day was a mix of feelings. I felt disappointed that our adventure was ending already, yet some part of me was happy to return with good memories and a nice experience to Finland. We spent plenty of money at the airport in shopping, and then we agonized through its corridors waiting for our plain to return to Helsinki.
As soon as I stepped on the airplane, I realized how much I was going to miss after those five and a half weeks of being fully free and traveling in such a beautiful country like Australia. I have to tell one thing: most of the times when I visit a country, I instantly know that I won't visit it again. Somehow, something told me, before getting into that airplane, that this wasn't the last time I was going to be in Australia. And still, as of today, I have something inside me that constantly tells me I will be there again, one day..
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