camera envy

I'm finding that photography is taking over more and more of my thoughts on a daily basis. There's nothing particularly wrong with that -- hobbies are like that when you're passionate about them. More and more, I feel as though I've hit a plateau in that area of my self-development.

Photography never seems quite as simple as just pointing and shooting for me. I divide it mentally into genres, each one with its own set of possibilities and limitations.

Film Photography
I have a Nikon SLR camera that I bought a few years ago, prior to my trip to Ireland. I have the standard zoom lens, as well as a 50mm lens that I bought during a photography class I was taking this summer.

I've done some work with slide film, as well as regular print film, and I took a black and white darkroom class over the summer. Having someone else develop my film bores me, and I'm horrid about taking my film in. The process of taking the picture is far more interesting than actually seeing the pictures I took. The delay of gratification ruins the excitement for me.

What I want desperately to work on is more darkroom development. I really enjoyed developing my pictures over the summer, but it's hard to find darkroom space in Austin. The class I signed up for in October was cancelled for low attendance. I was very disappointed. ACC is offering a darkroom continuing education class in the spring, but it begins at 8:00am every Saturday morning, and it's on the other side of town. I'm dedicated to learning more about darkroom, but I don't think I'm that dedicated. The Austin Museum of Art offers darkroom classes sometimes, but they're really expensive. I'm having problems finding other programs geared toward darkroom semi-beginners.

I'd also like to experiment with other film genres. I'd love to get a lomo camera to play with.

Digital Photography

Obviously, I do most of my photography in the digital genre. I bought a Nikon CoolPix 5700 in June, and I've been using it exclusively since September. It was hard to give up my Olympus 700 UZ. By and large, I'm fairly happy with my Nikon, and it's far more versatile than the digital camera I had before, but I've been struck with a rather stubborn case of camera envy in the past month or so.

It's just that... I miss the feel of a lens in my hands. It's not nearly the same to zoom in and out with a little button, and I'm dying for an intuitive manual focus. I want to be able to switch lenses on my camera and add filters like a normal photographer, without having to buy adaptors or jerryrig something together. I really really want a digital SLR camera. Canon released its Digital Rebel a couple of months after I bought my Nikon, for about the same price as my camera cost. If I'd've known, I would have waited. And even though my camera is nearly brand new (but well-used for the time frame) and I can't really justify the expense, I'm half-hoping I'll drop it, so that I'll have the need to replace it.

A girl can dream, can't she?