Newcomer of the Week: billseye

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Having a professional photographer in the family paved a way for Bill to start taking interest in photography early on. In this interview, he shares more about how he discovered the community and his passion for shooting analog. Let’s all welcome our newcomer of the week from USA, billseye!

Bill aka @billseye

Name: Bill
LomoHome: @billseye
Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Please tell us something about yourself and what you do.

I work in technology as a cloud computing architect and spend most of my time doing systems integration. My father was a professional photographer and I have had a camera (126 format) since kindergarten. I have lived in several countries and a number of cities, so plenty of my photos document my travel. My creative photography is mostly about vehicles of all kinds, colorful macros, and dramatic ‘scapes.

How did you find the Community and who/what convinced you to join?

Like many others, I became a part of the Community via film. I bought a Holga 120 at a thrift store and was looking for a source of inexpensive film, especially transparency. A quick search for 120 format led me to the Lomography store. I bought a box of X-Pro film and noticed some Redscale. I wondered what it was, so I searched the site and found thousands of photos taken with Redscale film. I decided to buy a box of that, too.

Credits: billseye

As you have read the 10 Golden Rules of Lomography, what rule do you apply in your everyday life?

Rule #4: Try the shot from the hip.

I interpret this as: “look at and approach life from more than the typical perspective.” Literally in photography, this means don’t just take eye-level photos, from the typical tourist positions and times, or don’t just take photos of what’s behind you (selfies!). Kneel, get close, step back, climb stairs, get there early, stay late, etc. All of these offer different perspectives and dimensions of the same subject, but can substantially change the scene.

In this digital age, why still film?

Never before has it been easier to take so many awful photos! Just press the button and in a second, a dozen bad photos. With film, taking a dozen bad photos is time-consuming and expensive. Film constrains me to think, plan and really observe, to be as much a part of the scene as possible and not just a spectator.

I never stopped using film, I just decreased the frequency and started shooting in medium format. For my 35mm work, I sold my SLRs and have accumulated a small collection of rangefinders and point-and-shoots.

Credits: billseye

Your favorite analog camera as of the moment? Why?

That’s easy, my Contax G1. The lenses are amazingly sharp and give me the best results with transparencies I’ve ever had. I also have adaptors for my micro four-thirds bodies which creates a very small, portable set of gear. In practice, the digital bodies actually end up being tele-converters for the lenses! Not for a moment did I anticipate doing mostly manual mode photography with a digital camera and mostly AE/AF mode photography with an analog camera.

Credits: billseye

What is the Lomographic camera you’d want to have someday?

Not a camera, but a lens. The Petzval 58 Bokeh Control Art Lens.

Any song or movie you live by?

A song without music, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”.

Share your current favorite Lomograph, could be yours or a friend’s. Why?

Credits: cfehse

I don’t shoot portraits at all and I have never worked with models, but I take the occasional candid. I’m also a fan of film noir and some of the most powerful B&W images come from those movies when characters pause in high-contrast, dramatic scenes. To me, this shot appears to be from film noir in color, with the character of a street photo. A skillfully minimalist candid.

Any Community member you look up to? If so, why him or her?

There are four members, actually: @cfehse @majabutz @rmfs-ruegen @theblues.

@cfehse creates great images of everything he photographs. Aesthetics, technical skill, thought and curiosity – it’s all there and his photos are always interesting. I find his work to be inspirational for improving my skills.

@majabutz has an interesting collection, especially her triplets. She often uploads 3 photos of the same scene progressing from first impression to subject isolation to balanced composition. I use a similar approach, so I enjoy seeing her thought process.

@rmfs-ruegen and I photograph the same things. However, he lives in another country and while the content and subjects are similar, the scenes and perspectives differ. I imagine we also like the same types of beer, but he probably drinks from a glass and I drink from the bottle!

@theblues photography is so much different than mine. She uses colors, textures, and angles in a way I don’t and I often her subjects are things I would never see. Her work encourages me to experiment more.

What are you looking forward to in our Community?

The perpetual encouragement to experiment and try concepts I’ve never thought of. I’ve never been short of inspiration and there are lots of sites I can visit to improve my technical and design skills. There are no sites that have so much analog photography experimentation going on, so here I am.

2015-06-14 #lifestyle #newcomer #newcomer-of-the-week Eunice Abique の記事

3 Comment

  1. cfehse
    cfehse ·

    @billseye What an honor for me! Thank You very much.

  2. icequeenubia
    icequeenubia ·

    Welcome to the community @billseye! :)

  3. kristenwithacamera
    kristenwithacamera ·

    Nice!!!!

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