My life has been taking a lot of creative new directions lately, mostly for the good, and a few that aren't necessarily bad, but have perhaps left me pondering a few things.

I bought a new film camera last weekend.  It's a camera I've actually drooled over for the better part of a decade but could never quite justify owning one.  After all, it was not anything I really "needed" but rather just wanted it.  However, after randomly browsing stuff for sale on craigslist I ended up getting a killer deal on a Mamiya RB 67 Pro SD.

Anyone who has ever used the RB 67 knows what a beast it is.  I've already nick-named mine the "tank killer".  This camera is actually heavier than a lot of 4x5 cameras I've used.  The camera is also incredibly slow to use in real world situations.  It is 100% mechanical and certainly not something I could ever use without drawing attention to myself.  I have plenty of other cameras I use on a regular basis without electronics but none are this large and heavy.    

In my last post to DA I proved to myself that I can hand hold this monster but it's not something I really want to do all the time.  A tri-pod will yield me much better results and anyone who has ever worked with me before know, I typically find tri-pods very confining.  This has been especially true in the past when I have a naked woman waiting on me to take a shot, most likely freezing her butt off.  The last thing I want to be doing at a time like that is fiddle with a tri-pod.    

That big giant 6x7 negative though….  Yeah.  It's creamy and beautiful.  And the bokeh is every bit as smooth as my favorite Zeiss glass.

So I'm taking this purchase as a sign that it might be time to slow down a little and focus on myself as a photographer and as an image maker.  For the last fifteen years or so my photographs have really been about sharing my time with others, i.e. the models who have been kind enough to pose for me.  However, I think it's time to just spend a little bit of quality time with just myself and maybe create a body of work without them.

Don't get me wrong here; I'm not going to give up shooting nudes.  Not ever.  There will be plenty of that for many years to come.  However, I am going to branch out a bit and look a little further inward for a change as well.