A quick survey of my hard drives suggest I shot roughly 30,000 frames in 2019. That’s digital, of course—that amount at my film lab would cost a fortune. To a fault, I can be meticulous about composition, exposure, and the various other technical aspects of photography. I call this ‘Work Brain’, and it shows up every time I pick up a camera. Even on vacation, uninvited.
A few years ago I found that if I only packed an analog point and shoot, I was able to reengage with the spontaneous quality of photography that drew me in in the first place. No knobs, no buttons, no nonsense. See a cool thing, aim (or don’t), and snap. Flash or no flash, who cares?