Everyone has their own Covid diary in memory or hard copy. I have one too - but I'm not sharing it right now; well not all of it. Last year the world slowed down and so did my creativity; to maybe one heartbeat per day. I just didn't feel it, any of it. The world was sick and everything was so serious. The US politics was stifling and there was no "off" switch for me. In spite of being isolated, and contained, tuning out was not an option because every level was consequential.
March 2021- a year after Covid isolated the world I'm thinking creatively about photography again. I had ordered some Rollei Blackbird film last August and I finally got it (6 months later). I wasn't shooting; I was watching Sundance and Netflix (The Last Resort), but I was primarily reading photography news. Fuji has discontinued their 400 Pro, the Nikon F6 is like $6K on eBay, and Lomography introduced some new film. The Fantome caught my eye and I bought a couple rolls which is a high contrast extremely low ISO film. I thought it was interesting that fantome means "ghosts" which gave me a few ideas to journal.
So far I have had about 4 failed outings with tripod in tow. I never factored in that I would be rusty. I am. My first test roll of the Fantome came out o.k. and I wasn't too bothered by it. I shot with my Holga 135bc. The second roll was about the same although I used my Nikon F100 which had a previous exposure compensation setting dialed in (sigh) with my second hand MC Zenitar 16 mm Fisheye lens. The Holga as you know doesn't have much to set so why set a Nikon?
I took a walk downtown on a bright sunny day which was cold with few people out. The above image was the only one that I thought was cool enough to share because it's obviously an image of the Detroit Free Press building that is being reimagined like a lot of the old stately buildings in the downtown area. However, I caught another iconic building in the window, the Book Cadillac building. This was not planned. and a nice surprise, and a lift after sharing headspace with disappointment.
I'm planning on going out again this week. I like to plan what I'm going to shoot because it's still cold, and I hate being cold. It's not the "don't think just shoot." free-spirited lomography mentality, but it's a re-start after a long, isolated, and intense year.