What's the Point (and Shoot)?

Ever started something that, on the surface, seemed really simple, but which turned out to be quite profound?

I followed @CarolAnneRose a couple of weeks ago on Twitter. When she suggested a film collaboration I thought "Ooh, sounds like fun" and asked for more info. Taking a point-and-shoot film camera for a test drive and sharing the results would be a breeze, right?...

So. Which camera? Well, I was given one of these a while ago:

However, it takes 110 film, which is only available online, and I'm impatient. That review will have to wait for another day.

So I popped into Max Spielmann in Ely and picked up one of these:

It's one of those single-use cameras so beloved of brides and grooms - you know: "Darling, let's do this instead of paying a professional". Let's not go there, eh?

Here's a brief aside about Max Spielmann. Probably my favourite shop in Ely (the Ely Gin Company comes a close second, mind). Why? Because they still process film. Yup. In an hour. Only 35mm colour film (I can thank them for pushing me into developing my own black and white film) but THEY STILL PROCESS FILM. On the high street. In a hour. Not, as it turns out, for the mighty Wow camera, which has to be sent away on a 5-day turnaround, but I digress.

Back to the Wow. Its spec sheet took me a good five seconds to digest. Because there wasn't one. As you'd expect. I *think* the lens said it was a Ricoh 35mm, but my memory is a little hazy on that. Other than that, there's a film advance wheel, a flash button and a viewfinder, some cardboard, some plastic, and some writing (exhorting me to use the flash on every shot; yummy). Heady stuff. Off we go, then.

I like being in control of my cameras. I tend to shoot abstraction and portraits, so I need to know exactly what's in the frame and wrangle depth of focus to get my shot. I looked at my Wow box. It looked back at me and said "Come on then, film boy, what you got?". Oh. Feisty little fecker.

I took control. I wound the film on. Or did I? The film counter didn't budge. (It refused to budge until I'd loosed off at least seven of my allotted 16 frames.) Still, it felt like the film advanced, so whatever.

I pressed the flash button. I heard the familiar bat-friendly whine of a charging flash, but the flash-ready indicator didn't light. (Probably ruined the first few shots until I realised I had to hold the flash button in for a few seconds, rather than pressing and letting go.) "Not so clever now, eh, David Bailey?" Fuck off, Plastic Bertrand.

I looked through the viewfinder. Would what I saw bear any resemblance to what came out on the film? Plastic Bertrand was beginning to unnerve me, and I hadn't even pressed the shutter. I needed to man up and take some shots. "What's it gonna be? Adams, Leiter, Maier, Leibovitz?". Um. I. Er. Well, those flowers look nice. Bollocks.

I wandered around Ely in a bit of a daze, randomly firing off shots trying to look arty and pretend I knew what I was doing. Plastic Bertrand mostly laughed at me while I framed up the next entry for my RPS panel in the vain hope that one of my 16 shots might have something vaguely interesting on it. I honestly can't remember what I took.

Can you see the results? No. At least, not yet. I strolled nonchalantly back into Max Spielmann after a suspiciously short time and handed Plastic Bertrand over to the assistant, hoping he wouldn't give her as hard a time as he'd given me. That was when she told me I'd have to wait at least five days to get the film back. Five days respite! Five days to lick my wounds and think about what I'd done. "Missing you already". I might just lose that receipt. Ça plane pour moi...

Follow Martin here: @emDashMan

Let's have a look then?? Here are a few of my favourites from Martin's 16;

#film #ishootfilm #filmisnotdead #believeinfilm #martinley #disposable #camera #photography #filmphotography #experiement #pointandshoot #ely