arhphotographic

I think of a portrait as a head and shoulders shot of a person. To add an additional piece of information about the person, we might include visual clues about them, their interests, their occupation or their personality. But suppose we took the person out of the shot could we still convey something about them?

What better way of finding out, than for me to take a camera out for the day, to see if I could take photos of me … without me in them.

I decided on the Nikon Lite Touch 130 ED which is a point and shoot film camera from the early 2000’s. It was hailed as being the smallest and lightest compact of the time. Boasting a 38 – 130mm zoom lens and slow sync flash, it seemed like the kind of camera that would enable me to concentrate on the task without too much worry about the camera.

The camera lets you know if you are too close to your subject by illuminating an orange light in the viewfinder, green tells you your ok. However it is not perfect.

The flash is on by default and as I rarely use flash, I found this frustrating and had to remember to turn it off. However the camera does produce a good result when it is on.

I really enjoyed this project as it challenged the little grey cells. Although I felt slightly limited by my choice of camera, on reflection I don’t know if I’d have been any better off with a more advanced film slr. Only one way to find out……

To be continued……..