Cheap thrills

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from Chris Harris, features editor of the Southeast Missourian, explaining that the newspaper was preparing to run a weekly series of photo spreads in the Sunday Good Times section showcasing the work of selected local photographers. I was flattered to be chosen for today's issue.

Many of my photographer friends express amusement at how often someone looks at one of their images and says something along the lines of, "That's a great picture! You must have a really good camera!" With that in mind, I thought I'd use this week's photo spread to display a group of images made with a really bad camera.

Several years ago my wife Missy gave me a fun present for Christmas. She went all-out, splurging on a Chinese-built toy camera that cost the breathtaking sum of $10. Constructed of plastic, with a simple plastic lens and a single shutter speed announced by a resounding "click" when a button alongside the lens was firmly pushed, it was about as simple and cheap (and cheaply built) as a camera can get. Missy smiled when I opened the package: she knew I'd enjoy it. It was a "Merry Christmas -- now, let's see what you can do with it!" kind of moment. I'd always said that the most important elements in a good photograph are what's in front of the camera and who's behind it, not the camera itself. Missy was challenging me to prove my point.

Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

I love traveling, and I love landscape photography. Once a year my goal is to find myself somewhere I've never been before and try to come up with at least one photograph that expresses something of the feel of the place I'm visiting. It's always fun, and it's always a challenge. Using a camera with a plastic lens that produces distorted images that unfailingly have unclear, poorly illuminated edges adds to the challenge. Which adds to the fun.