Tag: photo

My cameras over time

Here’s a little aside between my editing process on desktop and on mobile.

I have used and owned the following still cameras:

  • 1999-2001: Sony MAVICA (on loan from my Dad and whose model I don’t remember. It’s the kind that recorded low resolution photos on FLOPPY DISKS! 😱 and I had to carry a bag big enough for the camera and the 10 or so floppies I needed on a typical day.)
  • 2001-2003: Sony DSC-P1
  • 2003-2006: Sony DSC-P12
  • 2006-2007: Fujifilm FinePix S7000 (bought second hand from a colleague of mine.)
  • 2007-2009: Canon PowerShot S5 IS (I barely remember it!)
  • 2009-2012: Panasonic Lumix GH1
  • 2011: Polaroid 300! (Obviously not digital)
  • 2012-current: Panasonic Lumix GH3

I loved them all! Although I don’t remember the Canon, I took many pictures that I love with it. Here are pictures I could find of me and them over time:

Black and white grainy photo of me, young white woman in sunglasses, holding a camera bag. I stand by vegetation with the sea in my background. My hair is tied up, I wear a flowery light short dress and an open dark shirt.
May 2000, Le Trayas, France, MAVICA & bag
Photo of me, young woman with long dark hair, reflected in a mirror with steam except in the center. I'm holding a light grey digital camera in my hands.
May 2003, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Sony DSC-P1
Photo of me, young woman with straight shoulder-length brown hair, reflected in the mirrors of an elevator. I'm holding a dark blue camera in both hands and looking at the screen. I'm wearing a leather coat. I'm reflected three times.
December 2005, Montreal, Canada, Sony DSC-P12
Photo of me, young woman, bending forward as I take a photo of me in a mirror, aiming at a mirror that is reflected in the mirror. My hair is tied in a poney tail. I wear a pink pullover and light blue jeans.
June 2006, Galway, Ireland, Fujifilm FinePix S7000
Photo of me taking a picture of an orchid while I hold a plastic toy at the same time. I'm smoking a thin rollie and look intently at the camera screen.
May 2008, Rustrel, France, Canon PowerShot S5 IS
Reflection in a motorcycle part. A small boy stands between a woman (me) and a man crouching and kneeling behind their cameras
March 2010, Mougins, France, Panasonic Lumix GH1
Portrait of me holding a toy camera, Polaroid 300, and film. I'm smiling. My hair is long and I wear a gold and silver bow around my neck.
December 2011, Villeneuve-Loubet, France, Polaroid 300
Photo of me, smiling woman with short curly hair, standing up in rubber boots and blue jeans on wet sandy ground. I am stylishly smoking while I carry a water bottle and my camera around my neck.
April 2015, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France, Panasonic Lumix GH3

Flickr stats: me wins, my photos lose, meh

Screenshot of the Flickr app showing the all-time views, the 1st photo has had over 124K, 2nd 45K, 3rd 36K, 4th 30K, 5th 28K. All but the 4th are photos picturing me.

What my top-five most viewed photos tell me is that I should have been a model in my early thirties rather than a wannabe photographer.

I have been using Flickr since 2005.

Well, I have not used it for several years now, and I think I just understood why:

The most viewed photos are almost entirely pictures I posted that picture me. They are part of the story I told about me on this platform, but they are not photos I took. (Although I did a series of self portraits in a dusty mirror which are of me, by me.)

But I don’t use the platform to show myself (that’s what Instagram is about, right? And I left that one already), as much as to showcase my photography at the same time as I photo-document bits of my life.

The only photo where I am not, among the top five, is a byproduct of its title being the same as swingers club (a coincidence, which I blogged about in 2006 when I figured out why it was my most popular photo.)

I think I will find out how much longer the pro membership I paid is, and find an exit strategy for all of my photos on this platform. There is appetite for how I was about 10 years ago more than there is appetite for the stuff I want to show, much to my dismay.