Instant Photography Project , Photo 1

Maybe it's about time I showed some of my instant work I did for a college project called 'point and shoot' , I briefed the work myself and it  was probably one of my favourite projects to date. Some of you may have seen this before : 

(as it is my blog background image) which shows several of the photos from the collection but I thought I'd do a series of blog posts showing the photos a bit more up close & in detail. So let me know what you think.

Firstly I guess I should start with the first photo I took with my instant camera (Fuji instax wide 210 in case you were wondering what model the camera is)

I was a little nervous about taking my first photo with my instant camera mainly because the viewfinder isn't lined up with the lens meaning what you see isn't exactly how the photo will come out. That's something I learnt to keep in mind more and practice with during the project. To think more about composition knowing if I photograph the subject directly it'll crop a bit off. I was also very excited to use the camera , I had always wanted to use an instant camera , I was eager to see the photo develop in front of my eyes. It seemed like magic. 

I'll give you more information on the project. The idea behind it was to show that you don't need thousands of pounds worth of equipment to take well composed , interesting , story-telling photos. Also that the physical quality of the image doesn't need to have thousands of mega-pixels...also that you don't need to spend hours planning a shoot and that you can literally pick up a camera at the right moment and take a photo to be proud of. I love the idea of spontaneousness & photography going hand in hand.

My first instant shot is of a friend , Mary. The photo was taken in the gorgeous woods of her back garden , the light outside was stunning and I loved the shadows it created , I wanted a pretty relaxed portrait so I didn't think too much about it and pressed the shutter. The first thing that surprised me was how soft focused the photos are that the camera produced , I expected them to be a little more sharp but overall I wasn't too bothered as one of the key points of the project was to shoot with equipment that didn't cost thousands or even hundreds.

Honestly it is SO great watching the photo develop in front of your eyes without spending hours in a darkroom.  And I knew instantly that I was going to love taking more.

-Ella-