It's been a few days since I arrived back on Mer
Island. The place has been absolutely transformed by the monsoonal rains we've
experienced over the past few weeks. It's been great to get back into a routine
and my head back into my art.
A few weeks before we left the island I captured a handful
of images with a Yashica D camera. The Yashica D is a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR)
camera, meaning it has two lenses, one for viewing the image and one for
capturing the image. The Yashica D is a medium format camera, which takes
square images on 120 film. I had never used a TLR camera before and decided to
use black and white film, attempting to capture that grainy, film look that
these cameras do so well. Many say the medium format TLR cameras eclipse the
image quality of any 35mm digital camera; I tend to agree from what I have
seen. I used 400-asa film, which allowed me to shoot in lower light and not
have too much grain. The images turned out quite well for a camera made in
1959. What I am blown away by is the build quality of the Yashica D; it's solid
and works so smoothly for its age.
I took the camera back to the mainland for the holidays;
unfortunately my Labrador managed to smash it. These are the only images I have
from my days with the Yashica D. The best part about using this camera was
being forced to take my time when considering and composing an image. Using old
film cameras without meters really slows you down.
The images here are of Mer Island, with some
portraits of my adopted family (mother Etta Sam and brother Tyrese Passi), my
wife Hayley Wilkes and one double exposure, another fun aspect of using these
cameras.
