50mm. A Saturday Walkabout.

Phoenix, AZ. 11/12/2017

I start the Saturday, as before, when the alarm goes off at 5AM. I had decided the night before if nothing more interesting arises, I would go explore Downtown Mesa at sunrise and see what I find.

I fumble a little around in bed, the vagueness of the plan inviting me to snooze the alarm once or twice, when I fight with myself to get out of bed, what eventually has allowed me to to get out and do the work is the notion of "What would you rather end up doing for the rest of your life? Snoozing? Or taking pictures?"

The answer to this question comes from deep within, that wipes out this procrastinating nasty habit I had developed during all those years of being in a line a of work in which my heart wasn't in it, in which procrastination was a form of self defense.

The night before was another form of battle. I couldn't find my battery charger. I had looked in all the usual places and that not so unusual places (even the attic), I had gone online and couldn't find a Best Buy that carried one on inventory in the whole Valley, and I had just sat down to contemplate the possibility of not being able to go the following day to take pictures. "What would you rather end up doing for the rest of your life? " and as I asked myself this and committed to another round of looking all over for it, I turn my head and see it there.

I pack a backpack with two thermoses (one for coffee and one for cold water), my camera bag and a snack. "What if I google an interesting place to take pictures at in Mesa?" Why not? it had worked before. Amongst the first results, I read about this classic hotel sign of a diving girl, that had at one point been taken down for servicing but was up and running again and I say to myself "Why not".

Not wanting to waste time trying to get there by remembering what I had seen on the google search, which I can do but I risk a couple of U-Turns due to guessing on the wrong Exit, or.... the already clearing sky, clearly showing signs that dawn was within 30 mins or so, I type in the address on my GPS without another thought and decide to minimize risk.

A couple of days ago, perhaps even a week prior, I had ordered my first prime lens (50mm) and the delivery had been delayed, that I had picked it up just yesterday from the store and had never taken pictures with it, so I was going to try it out for the first time, on a walkabout..... in the streets.... at sunrise....... the pleasure of it.

The diving girl hotel. The sign was turned off, located near a corner that contained more abandoned/closed stores than open ones that I wonder if this is going to be another abandoned place I get to take pictures of...

It wasn't, this hotel was a still operating hotel, apparently with some vacancy but still pretty full. One of the first things I realize I hadn't taken into consideration, even though someone had already told me about this but I remember now too late, is that my D3200 doesn't have a built in autofocus and so if you want to use the autofocus function, the lens has to have a built in one, and my new 50mm apparently didn't. Manual focus it is.

Next I walk around, used to just walking and looking around for that "pull" of something interesting calling my attention to it, to follow it even if I'm not sure of what exactly I'm looking for, and I find it walking past the sign, further down the street, looking at it against the sunrise, with some trees and a bugambilia in the foreground. I put the camera to my eyes and realize that the lens brings you closer than what I was used to and since it lacked that zoom in and out of my kit lens, I had to put way more distance between me and my subject, that I couldn't get the shot that I wanted. I learn that my way of seeing scenes must change as well, or rather incorporate other ways of seeing scenes but not necessarily replacing the old one. In fact, the realization of having had to "let go" of a scene I had "found", kept me open to the idea of using the kit lens again, even though it's supposed to be "lower quality" than a fixed one. I knew deep within that I was willing to sacrifice some assumed "quality" and rather get the picture that inspired me.

But if I was to give this new lens a chance, I have to force myself to adapt myself to it, exclusively at first, so I can test its limits, find its real limits. Once I have that, I believe I can alternate.

****

I had to cut my trip short this time, as I had to be back early to take my daughter to skating lessons.

Back from those lessons, I start unloading the images into the PC, scrolling through them, getting a brief first glance at all the pictures, stopping here or there starting on some light editing to make sure I come back to that inspiration later on. I had mostly stuck to the 50mm lens but at some point I did switch to a zoom lens as I was walking inside an alley and really couldn't step back enough to capture what I wanted to capture.

I had a bitter sweat sensation, a part of me had really liked what the prime lens could do, I could tell just by the preview my camera showed me but at the same time I wasn't sure I wanted to change styles that much, I kinda enjoyed just walking and shooting, and with the 50, the "distance" I had to place myself from the subject would change part of how I take my pictures.

I worked the night shift on that Saturday, so I didn't have a chance to do more than the general look over and the initial edits on some of them. I would come back late that night and sleep into mid-morning on Sunday.

****

After sunrise I detach myself from shooting against the rising sun and start looking at the street around me. As I walk some street construction workers were driving down the middle lane slowly, placing orange construction cones along one of the lanes. I have my headset on and listening to sweet music, I start walking past just saying "Buenos Dias" but the driver started telling me something so I take off one earplug just in time to hear him asking me for a photo, so I took one of him at the wheel.

As I enter an alley I switch lenses, I take my first images of it liking the plain grey and brown colors.

I drive towards Downtown Mesa. I park in a backstreet parallel to Main St. start walking around and after a few shots I realize I'm missing the 50mm. I decide I might as well get as many shots as I can from that lens to get a real feel for it.

As I'm changing lenses I accidentally shoot towards the ground and I realize there's a good scene just under my feet. I take a picture or two now with the 50mm lens.

Later that night, I would be walking around work with this uneasy sensation, I wasn't sure what I would think of my photos 24 hrs. after. I take a walk outside work and take some nighttime photos to releive some stress.

After which I decide to start watching photography videos on youtube, and binged watched this channel named Adorama Tv. It was a slow night so I must've watched around 7 episodes. During one of them I see this guy, manipulate a photo in Lightroom, not even thinking twice of radically changing the tint or temperature of the photo and something about that called me, just like vines on a fence can call me for a photo. By the time I came around to editing the photos on Sunday, I had made up up my mind to experiment as loosley as I could with the pictures in Lightroom.