I take a lot of pictures of doorways, and to a lesser extent, window frames. But really, doorways. I do not know why that is.
I’m thinking about starting up another subdomain on here all about my cameras specifically. I love my cameras. I’ve spent over 20 years collecting my cameras. Cameras are way more expensive now than they used to be, but I used to be able to find a camera at a junk store for like $5. Now I’m lucky if it’s $20 (really lucky if it’s $10). Don’t even get me started on film.
When I say junk store camera, there’s a very wide range of what I mean. Toy cameras are another term, but to me that means a certain subset of the junk store camera. A Brownie Hawkeye Flash, a Holga, a Vivitar Wide & Slim, a Reader’s Digest Panoramic. All of these are junk store cameras. In theory you could find a Rolleiflex 3.5 in a junk store (in fact I did!). You could find anything in a junk store, but there is a certain level of crappiness that is inherent in a real junk store camera.
I like them because they have personality. They have a life that was generally lived, and they probably have a few bumps and bruises. But they work, because they were simple. There’s very few things that can actually go wrong with them. Although probably don’t drop them because they’re generally very cheaply made. It’s an odd mixture of both resilient and fragile.
Anyhow, I love my cameras. Cameras are more expensive now, especially with the resurgence in film photography. And these cameras also are aging out – there’s something to be said for that. They’re 20-25 years older than when I started collecting them, so they are becoming more rare.
Anyway I’ll probably start working on an online catalogue of my cameras with information about them, and maybe my thoughts and some example photographs. Not sure what I’ll call it yet, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.