Photographer Dorothea Lange once said that a camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera. I’ve found that to be true. Since I started shooting several years ago, I’ve come to notice things I never would have seen before. But I’ve also found that getting the settings right on one of my vintage cameras can considerably distract me from what I’m trying to see. That’s why my favorite vintage camera is my Canonet QL17 G-III. When it’s in my hands I almost forget its there. I put it in automatic mode, choose a shutter speed, and get shooting. I frame and then I focus, which takes a deft motion of a single finger.
I was to meet my brother for dinner in Broad Ripple. I had loaded some black-and-white film into my Canonet and it was a clear day, so I drove over a little early. I shot along the canal for a while, capturing a couple bridges and the canal itself. Then I strolled down a side street, where I came upon a mural painted on the back of a building. I didn’t think much of the mural, but I liked this detail.
