Starting a New Series

To me, starting a new series can be daunting. As I sit in La Guardia waiting for my flight back to Atlanta, I am trying to give myself a pep talk. “This new series will be great! It will be just as successful as the last and take me to new places as an artist.” (Blah, blah, blah). However, all I can think about is the beautiful place I’ve spent the past two days surrounded by wonderful friends and family. I was in a place called Full Moon just north of Woodstock, NY. No phones. No Internet. And barely any digital photography. I have recently acquired a Yashica MAT twin lens camera ( yes, I know, the poor man’s Rolleiflex) and am loving it. I have experience shooting 35 mm film, but this is my first time experimenting with medium format. I think I’m addicted. I feel like it’s all I want to do now. The simplicity of the process makes me feel at home. Sometimes when I am shooting with my DSLR, I feel overwhelmed with options. It’s nice to return to an instrument that requires you to take your time, visualize your image, think about the settings, and snap. I think I need this in my life right now.

So back to my series. I was originally thinking about shooting digitally, but now with my new love affair with medium format, I feel like I should continue in this direction. Maybe I’ll try both in the beginning and see which I prefer. Maybe it was just my brief escape from technology and a return to all things simple, but I can say that I’m leaning towards the old Yashica. The excitement of learning a new instrument makes the task of actually starting this series a little less daunting.