24 hours with my memory maker
mood.camera overwhelms me. It has countless film emulations and each of them can be individually adjusted with a mutlitude of options. I don't know where to begin and i don't know how i can ever be done having the camera set up to be MY camera.
But... that is if you "own", meaning if you pay the monthly subscription and are able to access all of these options. If you don't, you can still take photos, you have the whole catalogue of film emulations, all of the individual settings available and even the new options like adding a frame directly when taking a photo. But here is the but again... you can't decide which film, with what kind of quality and with what kind of tonality. It's random.
Every. Photo. Random. - And i love it.
Okay, after my trial ended i didn't touch it in almost a year, only opened it, because i was bored on the toilet and saw they added frames, made the "most ridiculous" frame by mindlessly playing around and took photos... yes, while on the toilet and no, im not showing them :D But I photographed this one only a short time afterwards and it quickly made me realize the potential.
The frame is nothing you would want in a gallery or to have your most prestigous photo framed with, but it does create a certain character. To me, it's that of a cheap one use film camera that people used to bring on vacation. In my memory they were bright orange, plasticky, cheap, light and when i see this frame it makes me think of looking through it's viewfinder.
Already, without even going into how that is the pillow of my mom, how gorgeous the light is, how beautifully low quality, yet charming the film emulation is and how much feeling i connect with the imagery, there is such an emotional backstory and linkage with simply the frame. Putting the two together and you have a perfect memory maker.
Waking up, feeling the warm sun, realizing summer is coming to an end, wanting to capture it, taking a photo and while it maybe doesn't look the same as the last time i took a photo out of my window, the default camera processing would be the same, the sun is usually the sun, the backyard isn't that much of a special subject that it would jump out from a crowd and you have a photo that isn't reaally that memorable after pretty much immediatly.
Compare that to the "BAM, BIG BLACK BORDER in your FACE!" (lol) and the fact that while you are taking the photo, you have no clue how it will look like. In almost every photo of our backyard, the back trees are very visible and a clear indication of it being our backyard. Due to this specific film emulation though, it's almost completely dark. Already making it unique. The same with the other ones. None of them are ordinary and each have something i wanted to actively remember.
There is the "park" area after the local village festival and first time alcohol enjoyers left their mark, there is the falcon who flew infront of my bike and propped up over a field, staying completely stationary while looking for a mouse to catch (+1 if you spotted him) and the obligatory bike shot after arriving at your destination, while having the sun be a paid actor.
Each of them beautiful, full of meaning and also completely outside of my control on how they would look like.
Still some of these will not only be cool memories to look back on, but simply be among my favorite and most beautiful images. That said, i wouldn't go on a photo walk with this camera. That is not it's point. Yes, you can press the shutter and the image makes you go "Oh wow!", but it's not a guarantee.
One or two in the above images show it to an extent already, but it can also REALLY alter what you think you will see in the image and crank the contrast + saturation or underexpose it and wash it out to a point where someone unfamiliar with the scene would need to take a double peek.
Maybe you stop at a bridge, the late afternoon sun is hitting the flowing creek in just the right spot as you look at the little pier, thinking how refreshing it would be to dangle your feet in the water, while taking in the surrounding gorgeous greenery and.... it becomes a black and white image :D It's good quality, but yeah, it makes you chuckle.
Maybe you see this ceramic water sculpture for the first time from the back, still the beautiful early evening soft light is hitting it and creates a beautiful composition and scene only to..... get overexposed as fuck, contrasted to the moon and have a very harsh quality to it while not even having any nostalgia inducing grain.
In the same breath it can be the lack of having light and clarity that can be the downfall. Around the middle of the field and slightly to the right is a deer laying in the grass. It only has its head poking out and it looked so cute.... if only you could see it!
Or maybe after the evening is turning to a close and you have arrived back into your village, looking at the fading sun and aweing at the master artist painting in the sky, you want to capture the colors. Yes, THE COLORS!!!! :D Atleast the grain and character is lovely.
At the end of the day it won't be the camera i soley entrust with capturing the dearest of memorys, the most now or never shots, but it will be a constant companion. One that will fill my gallery with unique, gorgeous, memorable, laugh inducing, sigh inducing, smile inducing photos.
And for that I am grateful.
