On my way home from work this evening, I saw a couple of cool sights in Clapham Common that would have made for some pretty interesting photographs. 1) A troupe of strutting young professionals dressed as Santa Clauses 2) Oddball Reindeers dotted around the high street. Unfortunately my trusty W800i doesn’t take good night shots, which got me thinking on the bus journey home about all those missed photo opportunities, those captures that would so perfectly embody the spirit of an area. That tall awkward reindeer man would have done nicely! Quintessentially Clapham! I guess I’d just like to take pictures that truly depict those subtle realities that make up community life. See, the young professionals of Clapham know how to work hard and party harder! They take fancy dress to the
extreme! It’s the same every Saturday, only with different themes. Similarly each area in London is filled with its own quirky motifs, its own habits, intertwined social groups; the dreamers and addicts, the elderly, the youth. The connecting narratives. The stomping grounds. Those fleeting connections. This is what I try to get at in my novel, Freegan Freedom, perhaps more successfully than I do in my photography. Because I can put down in words, all those missed opportunities that together make up something larger. Some kind of…. wonderful. Anyway I’ll keep on at it, and soon maybe I’ll capture some more truly novel moments.
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Pros and Cons of my W800i
Pros
- Good for capturing unstaged moments
- Photos are more 'organic'
- It’s not big and obnoxious
- It’s durable and can withstand being dropped a lot
- You can take it anywhere
- It’s lightweight
- The quality is pretty good, 6 X 8 prints come out amazingly!
- It limits what you can do
Cons
It doesn’t take good night shots
Larger prints (+ 6 X 8) come out pixelated
The lens came loose so I had to stick sellotape around it
It limits what you can do
