I was inspired and had my creative juices flowing when Robert told me I should photograph Bethany Oklahoma as a personal project. I have not done a personal project like this or a personal project at all in years. I thought, why not? Robert also has been shooting with several different vintage lenses. So of course, I had to pick up a couple myself. So I purchased a telephoto and a wide lens.

While I was waiting on the lenses, I went ahead and started capturing images of Bethany. At first, my introverted self was feeling hesitant but once I was out there walking around, I was having a lot of fun. I think what also got me going was the fact that I decided to capture these images in B&W using a custom recipe on the Fujifilm cameras as well as capturing them in a square format. So as I'm shooting, I'm seeing everything through the viewfinder, and on the back screen, in black and white and my composition is forced into a square view. So it's very different than what most of us are used to. Unless you are familiar with the older film cameras that were built with a square format. (LOMOGRAPHY LCA 120, PENTACON 6 TL, BRONICA SQ-A, HASSELBLAD 500C/M, MAMIYA C330). Just to name a few. Yes, I had to research those. My parents had some sort of square format camera that was a twin-lens reflex camera with a matte focusing screen on top where you had to look down into that screen. I took some bad photos with that thing when I Was maybe 9 or 10.

Honestly, I wasn't even thinking of that old camera or any other square format camera while I've been capturing Bethany. I'm just in the mode of composing and capturing scenes that we just don't see when driving by unless we are walking and looking at everything. You only get that when you slow down and either walk or ride a bike through town or your neighborhood.

I had several conversations with a few shop owners in downtown Bethany and firemen at the Bethany Fire Station. Being the introvert that I am, I often notice that when I push myself to go somewhere and be around people, it's always a great time. I am a member of the NWOKC Chamber and a lunch networking group. It's always a good time with lots of conversations. You learn things about yourself when you push yourself to do something you would not normally do. If Robert had not been talking about this and encouraging me to do this personal project, I can't say I would be typing this blog post right now. I think the main thing that is driving me in this project is Robert and the fact that it makes him happy and excited that I'm doing this personal project.

I am also enjoying the vintage lenses. Shooting in manual focus. But the other cool thing is using "focus peaking" in manual focus. It's like cheating. Using a mirrorless camera alone is like cheating. You get instant feedback on your exposure and you are always in "live view". So using a vintage lens with the mirrorless is so fun. If you're interested, check out KEH.com and search for vintage lenses or M42 screw-mount lenses. You can get them very cheap. I've purchased 3 lenses. $23.91 to $116.33.

To finalize this project I will create a photo book and self publish. I am using Blurb.com and their downloadable App to create the book. As of writing this, I have only designed the cover and written the "blurb" for the dust cover. The format of the book is of course a square format. I'm excited to get it done. I will be creating another post here to talk about the book and promote it.

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