The Blackbird, Fly, a conversation starter

The first was a couple of weeks ago at Kingley Vale. As is getting quite common now if I'm primarily out to walk the dog I'll carry one or two of my film cameras rather than the d80 as they're much lighter and take up less space in my bag. I was standing at the view point with the Blackbird, Fly out trying to think about what would work well (see photo below) when a chap wandered up and asked me what camera this was. I explained and we had a conversation about film vs digital etc - he'd just switched to his first dSLR after disapointment with the processing of his films from one of the US National Parks (5 failed films out of 12 - odds not good). He was interested in the concept, and we talked a lot about the different types of film cameras, and how good eBay was for picking up old bits of kit.

The second and third were both whilst on holiday in the Gower Peninsular. The second guy was a bit sniffy about it and didn't really see the point - which is fair enough - not all cameras suit all people. He said he thought I must have painted an existing camera orange. I tried to explain about lomography, the concept of toy cameras and the Superheadz concept. He went on to express an option that film was dying because "everyone is using digital now". I disagreed saying that Kodak have brought out a new film in the last year and so have obviously still been investing in the medium and they wouldn't do that if there wasn't a demand. As a side note I liked the results of the new Kodak Ektar 100 and have ordered some more. I also said that I thought it depended on what you were doing. I mentioned landscape and detail and medium/large format films and he nodded. I also got the d80 out of my bag to show that I was in no way anti-digital and we then moved on to a conversation about the importance of buying good lenses. He classified himself as a nature photographer and said he couldn't afford to do this if he had to pay for the processing of the films - fair enough I guess.

The third conversation was with a young guy at the remains of a castle. I got the Blackbird, Fly out and he was interested in what it was and why I was using it and whether I'd loaded it with black and white film. I hadn't, I'd loaded it with Kodak Ektar 100, but do have a couple of black and white films waiting in the wings.

So, three quite different conversations and reactions. I think I am going to have to brush up on my one line explanation of what the Blackbird, fly is, why I use it and what the point is in readiness for my next conversation.