The Traveling Yashica: Amanda Raney, Mississippi

I became aware of Traveling Yashica project when I saw Susan tweeting about it. I said, “Oh, that’s cool!” and Hamish let me sign up to be be one of the project’s participants.

The camera was supposed to make a couple of stops internationally before it came my way, but Hamish made an executive decision to have Susan send it to me for the holidays. This meant I was allowed to keep the camera a little longer than the rest of the participants, which kind of made me nervous! When I thought it was going to be a couple of months before I’d receive the Yashica, I had some ideas as to how I was going to fill my time with the camera. Having it come to me early threw me off a bit! But I think its extended stay with me ended up lending some diversity to my subject matter.

My first two Yashica T5 shots: on Main Street in the town where I live.

Caught red-handed. The man looked over right as I snapped the photo (as I was driving by, through rolled down car window…)

A former children’s clothing shop that is now a church/cash advance business. Also taken from my car with the window rolled down

Since Susan used the camera in Memphis, I was hoping to avoid shooting Memphis with the camera. I was going to do it all in North Mississippi! However, a few days before Christmas, I got called in to help at the bakery in Memphis where I used to work. It was in a part of the city that is being revitalized into an art district, so there’s lots of interesting things on that street. How could I resist a few pictures up there? (answer: I couldn’t!)

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In the bakery

I sat the camera on the ground and used the super scope for this one – worked out surprisingly well!

Nautical-themed bar called The Cove

Cool door on Broad Avenue

Shop on Broad

The rest of my film in the T5 was shot in Mississippi, as planned.

A trio of mini vegan cakes I made for Christmas. I am blown away by the sharpness of this photo.

I know the internet loves animals, so I thought you might want to meet my sister’s dog Delta, who mysteriously lost an eye last year

My yellow shoes and a random blue finial in front of the house

There’s a famous fried chicken restaurant in Memphis. They have a location just over the state line in Mississippi. There’s this old hearse out front, advertising the restaurant. Couldn’t NOT share this with the world via the Traveling Yashica.

Mossy

We have a little 4 screen cinema in our town – nothing like the larger cinemas that I’m used to going to.

When I was taking this, someone in charge at the cinema suspiciously asked me, “What are you doing?” I clumsily blurted out some explanation about a traveling camera project. That seemed to set his mind at ease.

They don’t have electronically printed tickets at this cinema. They still do these old-fashioned ones. Color-coded for each of the films showing, I presume.

Finally, we have what is a regular occurrence in my life: I see a cool car and I run over to photograph it. This was at a gas station (petrol station, to you non-Americans) and I was able to snap a few photos while the driver was inside paying for his fuel.

I’d like to say that, up until the final few frames, I thought I was shooting Lomography X-Pro Chrome 100 and shot things with that film in mind. Then came the moment when I noticed I’d actually loaded Lomography Color 100 print film, so no cross-processing would be going on after all! I was a bit disappointed, especially since the Color 100 I’d used in the past didn’t give me the most vibrant of results. Thankfully, it turned out okay!

I can echo the sentiments of the other Traveling Yashica photographers so far: the T5 feels plastic and clunky. I also found that the shutter button was EXTREMELY easy to trip – I often thought I was just half-pressing the button to pre-focus and, instead, I was actually tripping the shutter! I can look through the roll and see where there are two versions of some pictures: the blurry one I accidentally took when I thought I was pre-focusing and jarred the camera as the shutter fired, and the normal version where I KNEW I was taking the picture. But, like those who have come before me, anything uncomplimentary I’d have to say about the T5 was instantly silenced when I saw the finished product and how good that lens is.

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