Sometimes I wonder what the appreciation of art is and where it can lead me to in the future. Grabbing onto my camera for instance, it has shown me the ways to capture an unknown world of reality, with which I can create in my own little world or possibly someone else’s to appreciate the fact my camera can do that. It’s made out of plastic, yet some surfaces are smooth, like butter, but the grip handling is little rigid to have a grip on the camera.



When sitting in my room, I see my camera bag hanging off of the doorknob. When I take out my 35mm SLR Canon K2 Rebel camera out of the camera bag, it brings me all kinds of memories and flashbacks. Every time I gaze and hold it close when I’m about to take a photograph with my 35mm SLR Canon K2 Rebel camera, it brings me joy by smelling small scents of Yosemite on the camera. Every now and then; I smell the fresh pine around the body of the camera, the tiny dust particles inside of the viewfinder reminds me of the time I went hiking by myself to Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park and accomplishing the hike under twenty minutes. The weight of this camera can vary at times. If I have my lens on the camera, it can create an extra weight to it. This establishes how much I see in a viewfinder for a subject of a photo I want in a frame for the photograph. There are two rings on the lens, one is for zooming in and out; and the other is for what I want in focus for the photograph. Normally the styles I am major interested is landscapes or documentary memories. Also, when viewing inside of the viewfinder, there are 6 tiny rectangular shapes, which is basically the area of focus points.



Whenever I open the back of the camera, I get an odd odor smell where I’m supposed to load the film in. Normally this odd odor is from the residue smell of the film I used previously and majority of the times it is the chemicals that is on the film. It doesn’t bother me, nor doesn’t it affect the ways I take my photographs. However, the older film that is expired does make a special looking effects and touch to my photographs, and I really do like this artistic look that adds to it. The majority of the photos are mostly done in black and white, since that is what I learned first, and it is more challenging work to have only two colors, black and white. I have been in the black and white darkroom many times before, in order to develop my own film or to develop contract sheets or prints for my leisure or assignments. Personally, when I take pictures of landscapes such as Yosemite Falls Meadows, in Yosemite, I love to use Fujifilm Velvia 50 ISO slide film. It gives such rich colors and wonderful saturation for the landscapes.





The buttons on this wonderful camera does long exposure shots or short, just depends on how or what the lighting conditions are like. For example, when I do night shots, I tend to use the manual setting on the camera, and set it on bulb because this allows me to control how long I want the shutter to be left open and how much light I want to allow in the photograph. This allows me to show moving traffic light trails and some great details for the buildings out in the distance. The aperture (also known as the f/stop) button of the camera setting varies for how much I want to focus for depth of field when taking photographs; whither it’s close up subject and having the background blurred, or having everything in focus to create the details that is surrounded by the person or the subject matter. If I take a portrait of someone, I normally have the f/1.8 setup and this will create a blurred background and the person is in sharp and in focus. If doing a landscape photo shoot, I have the tendency to have it at between f/5.6 – f/11 so I can have real sharp and wonderful images.



Having a lot of spare time on my hands, I explore the camera more by researching how to achieve more solid potential and powerful art photographs. No one said this is going to be an easy task for me; I just placed my mind and soul that I am a very well hard worker and strong-minded to achieve the impossible. Making sure that I have batteries in the camera, it takes two CR2 camera batteries, which is a truly pain to pay for, since they cost approximately six dollars for one battery; if I’m lucky I can get it for two for seven dollars. This essential is important to have, if I want to take pictures for any of my leisure photographs or for school projects. These batteries are so small, I can even lose them if I’m being careless and playing with the battery compartment.



The plastic body kit of the camera, when gripping onto it, it gives me a funny tingly sensation that I need to make sure my camera is clean. Tiny specs of dirt has the tendency to get stuck in the sealers, or possibly finger print smudges on the screen that can build up a lot of residue if its not taken care of. Although the simplicity of this camera is powerful enough, it will hold me for a while and I will grow into it over the next several years. It is my first camera and first film camera to capture majority of my photographs.



In conclusion, even though I have been doing this for merely one year, I am still learning new methods of photography from other photographers, professors, and classes that I’m currently taking. Enjoying the every moment that is taken with this camera has been pure bliss, and a wonderful journey to experience to have the ability to capture landscapes or documentary portraiture photographs. Basically what photography means to me is, creating ultimate illusions for the eyes to feast on. It’s not a matter of how fast to take photographs; it’s the moment of time how to preserve the illusionary world that is captured on film that is recorded and documented. Just never know what will lie on next, the impossible of reality can become an illusionary reality.