The Camera

Photos. Thousands of them. Every weekend he’s out there. Taking photos is great craic. The ol’ noggin doesn’t moan about life then. The photos distract him. That’s a good thing.

John Cooper smiles. His camera looks at him from the shelf. He’s not been out with it much. Hardly at all. What’s that about? Dunno. But it could change. Yep, pick it up, load a film. Go for a walk.

Nah, bad idea. He hasn’t taken any photos for ages. Fallen out of the habit. Doing other things. Writing, stuff like that. But that Nikon FE2 keeps looking at him. Stick a roll of film in. Go out and live for a while.

He takes a breath. Picks the Nikon up. Pops the back open. The camera feels good in his hands. Solid. Well built. He unwraps a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus. Yeah, black and white. Atmosphere. Mood. Brilliant. He fell out with digital a while back. Too pristine. Not honest enough. Algorithms, not crystals.

He threads the film onto the spool. Winds it on. Closes the back. A solid click. Couple more wind-ons. Good to go. He checks the battery. All good.

Time to take some new photos.