New Year and a New Focus
New years offer a new promise, even when they come with storm clouds. At least, that is what I would like to think. I would like to think that the birth of a new year is filled with the same kind to potential and hope that parents of a newborn child have on delivery day. Extend that analogy and 2025 is a baby that is being birthed on the high seas during a the eye of a hurricane; things may be great right now, but the water is going to get choppy real fast.
I’m just an amateur photographer who struggles with even taking my camera out on a regular basis, how can I have anything to say about what is coming once the eye of the hurricane passes? That’s not a rhetorical question, I honestly do not know how the coming struggle is going to affect me as a photographer and how I will document the world around me.
I believe that the best way for me to confront the challenges we all are going to face in the coming years is to make photography more a part of my every day life. To that end I have set my yearly theme to be “photography”.
Yeah, I know that seems pretty “all-encompassing” and I get it, but that is the purpose of a theme. Unlike resolutions which you are meant fail a theme is meant to be a guide along the year to help keep you going the right direction. This theme allows me to ask “how am I incorporating photography into right now?” Going to grocery? Grab a camera, because you never know what’s going to happen. Wondering what to do this weekend, make it something camera friendly.
By not having resolutions I will not fail at “finish a photo essay of independent gas stations in Middle Tennessee”, but by keeping photography as a main focus of what I am doing I am more likely to go out and collect photos for an essay showcasing independent gas stations in Middle Tennessee.
Enter the Bronica S a much overlooked 6x6 medium format camera. When it comes to film as I get older I am becoming more of a fan of medium format photography than I am of 35mm. Over the years I have tried a few medium format cameras and have come to enjoy the Zensa Bronica lineup. If you’re a 35mm shooter looking to move up to medium format, I would suggest the Bronica ETR (including the ETRS and ERTSi makes) as good starter camera. It produces 6x4.5cm negatives and with an available 35mm back (normal and wide) you can use your 35mm film in your medium format camera.
Enough about that camera, today we’re going to look at the Bronica S (other makes include S2 and S2a) that I purchased as a Christmas present for myself. Last year I sold about 95% of my collection (I did have about 2 dozen variations of the Yashica Electro35) and one of the cameras let go was my Bronica S. I kept my Fuji GW690 thinking it would be my go-to medium format camera for everyday use. But there is just something about that camera that is hard in ways it shouldn’t be being a range finder. Again I digress. The sell off coupled with the disappointment of the GW690 left me without a medium format camera that I like using, hince the purchase of a Bronica S.
Mine is the basic version with a 75mm f2.8 lens. Everything about this camera is manual which gives me an excuse to break out my Pentax Digital Spotmeter. Nothing says “pretentious film photographer” like a Pentax Digital Spormeter. Which is why I use it to meter photos I take with my iPhone.
When the camera showed up I loaded a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400TX black and white film and went out looking for a few independent gas stations in my area. On the Bronica S you can get 12 images on a standard roll of 120 film and as this was the first roll I had put through this particular camera I bracketed every shot. I was using a tripod so I could bracket by changing the exposure time for each shot rather than adjusting the f-stop.
All and all I think the results were on the nose. I think I might get a second back so I can have a color roll and a black and white roll in my bag.
By the way, all three of these gas stations are still in operation. Only one sells fuel (I realize two have pumps), but all three are garages. I especially dig the ‘76 ball sign in front of one.
What do you think?
Later days, friends!
