Walking on the dark side

For the past three years I’ve been devoting almost all of my free time not to photography but to building a motorhome out of an old school bus. The concept was that since I only seem to get the rubbish jobs in South Carolina, I’d be better off moving to a different state. Thus the project began and it has taken an absolute age.

In the last 18 months after deciding I wasn’t that good at driving my own bus, I took a job with a school district with the aim of learning to drive a school bus. That turned into a quite acceptable job with more money than I was getting from what I was doing previously.

While photography with a real camera has taken a bit of a back seat for the moment that doesn’t mean my interest in photography has dwindled any. In fact I still enjoy going out and taking photos. I’m saving every penny to complete my motorhome though so I don’t get to go out to fun places very often.

My big photo project of the last couple of years has been my bus conversion. Most of that has been documented with a cellphone purely because the quality of cellphones today is little short of excellent. While dedicated cameras do produce work that is a little better, the difference is pretty minimal to be honest.

Perhaps the most interesting photograph I’ve taken lately is of a bullet hole in a school bus. Yes - somebody fired what looks like a .45 bullet at a school bus while it was on the interstate. It penetrated the outer skin and was arrested by a nut attached to the inner skin. It just dented one corner of the nut and dropped to the floor of the bus. This demonstrates how ineffective pistols are against vehicles and their occupants.

After years of people saying “you can’t charge a camera battery from a USB source” it now appears that it’s possible. I just bought a USB powered charger for my Olympus e-pm1. That’s very welcome!  I won’t be getting one for my Canon though as I just don’t find I use my Canon, these days. It’s just big and bulky as well as heavy. I much prefer my small, light Olympus. It’s not as if I’m ever actually going to sell any photographic works. They’re purely for my own enjoyment.

Those with memories like elephants will recall that somebody managed to pull the wool over my eyes and convinced me photography in the USA was lucrative whereas in the UK had somebody tried to convince me of the same I’d have probably smacked them in the head. Sadly I had several people when I first arrived in the USA trying to and often succeeding to convince me with falsehoods. Anyway the upshot was I ended up with an excess of Canon camera gear - most of which I sold, virtually unused, at a massive loss several years later.  The reason I keep one camera is because it’s something my late mother bought me as a gift. That, I’ll always cherish. Otherwise I use my Olympus.

So, since my bus has only USB power installed, I had to hunt for a USB camera battery charger. I have no idea how well it’ll work but for $9 and being shipped from California (instead of China), it’s worth a shot. If it works that means I’ll be able to charge my camera battery from my solar-powered USB charger. That means if I went for a couple of weeks camping in the Arizona desert that I’d be able to keep my camera battery charged.

I had a look back at some model photos I took some years ago using my Canon and the expensive flash setup I had (that I subsequently sold) and the photos are excellent. Definitely professional quality. In terms of professional photography - don’t make me laugh. Nobody that claims to be a professional photographer is anything more than a bum with a camera. They could live far better by getting a real job and forgetting about photography as an income. Every time I hear the description professional photography, I am reminded of the tale of one of the British photographers who would regularly run to and from from the pawn shop, pawning equipment until he got a paying client.

When I think of a professional photographer, I think of a seedy character who’s not entirely to be trusted. Indeed one or two “professional” photographers come frequently to make paid presentations at camera club meetings. Invariably there’s something seedy and down-at-heel about them. The threadbare clothes or the dirty fingernails. Nothing that says “I make money” or “I am successful” or “this is a good job”.

Would I allow a “professional” photographer into my house? No - I most certainly would not. If one ever came near my property I’d be out counting the geraniums to make sure he hadn’t pinched any.