A Rebel G Without A Cause

The answer is always...The Rebel G

Housekeeping

Oh Hey!

I’m currently squished up against my son’s bedroom wall typing this on my laptop and with this little elbow room I can tell this newsletter is gonna be a task to write due to the ergonomics of this situation.

He demanded that I get in his single bed with him while he watches Bluey on Lux’s old beaten up iPhone. So sandwiched between the wall and his 3 year old body I type to you…lovingly.

The title of this newsletter has been in my head for a while now so hopefully the meat and potatoes of it all lives up to the, what I thought at least, was a very clever substack title.

Before we go ahead with the featured content I wanted to take this op to alert you to my new YouTube video.

Have you watched it yet?

If you haven’t you should for the following reasons

• It’s graded to look like super 8 film so it’s got a serious vibe

• It features a legend Nikon camera

• I say some crazy things like how thrilling I find spying random objects and literal trash on the street and I also claim there is nothing worse than a focusless (not even a word) photographer!

• If you live in a cold part of the world you will feel warmer watching this video because it’s so sunny

• My knock off gucci sunnies are fab

• I offer some maybe guidance on shooting with colour in mind and allowing it to lead your composition

• You can see many examples of my Warm Film Preset - available here

I also have some extremely exciting news that I’m waiting to share with you all in regards to YouTube. I received an email the other morning and I was literally jumping for joy, so watch this space…literally.

I’m also working on a merch design at the moment and that is equally exciting so if you wanna keep up with that and all the other goings on then hit the subscribe button.

Rebel, Rebel…

It’s no secret we own our fair share of cameras.

Amongst the collection there are some pricey ones for sure, nothing in the Leica territory, or the Contax (the later makes me sad but the former does not) but some noteworthy and extremely capable professional cameras grace our shelves, yet I seem to only be interested in one budget piece of gear…

You guessed it

The consumer, plastic, pitiable, poor, Canon Rebel G.

It’s got those dials with icons like a person, a mountain, a running person and other easy to follow and understand symbols for the casual shooter who isn’t wanting to get too serious.

Unless you are me of course, and in spite of owning multiple other options you stick with what you know out of superstition and a life long fondness for the underdog.

I shot a rather fancy restaurant with a few accolades under it’s belt and felt as though I should have used something to match the occasion but instead I just loaded up the Rebel G and decided to add more luxe to my outfit as opposed to my camera set up.

Think The Bear but IRL and everyone was a lot nicer :)

During the night I missed a few shots due to slow autofocus but I knew I had enough in the bag and I was getting good stuff so it was okay.

I felt kind of dorky with the camera as it looks to a civilian like an old digital camera and might leave them thinking why can’t this chick who is firing the flash at my table not able to afford an upgrade.

With the 40mm pancake lens it look even more dinky and just well…shit really. Despite that lens being AMAZING the whole set up is really $200USD in total because the body is SO CHEAP.

I’m def not staring at my Rebel G on the shelf like I am my Pen FT with it’s custom lens cap and incredibly sexy design.

I’m choosing it for it’s reliability and for it’s consistency.

It’s little pop up flash. God, I cannot tell you how much I love and adore built in flash.

There are few photographic problems in life that cannot be solved by FLASH.

Flash is life, and built in flash is like living your best life but it’s on easy mode, so you don’t even have to work for it.

I turn the little dial round to the green rectangle symbol that represents everything everyone else seems to be so ashamed by…AUTO.

One things I love more than built in flash is AUTO.

BUILT IN FLASH + AUTO = PURE FOCUS ON THE SUBJECT, COMPOSITION AND GETTING INTO THE ZONE

For me it’s all about getting super immersed in the scene and the shoot, especially the way I have been shooting restaurants lately with a heavy focus on the vibe of the night and the people, as opposed to just strictly product type images of food, that to me feel kind of redundant in the days of social media where people are researching their next outing and want to see what it would be like to enter that space before they attend.

I find it fascinating how human behaviour online has so heavily influenced the way we not only photograph objects and spaces but also design them too. We take into great consideration how those things will come across in imagery from patrons and professional image takers.

I digress though and that feels like it’s own article altogether.

Back to the next outing with the Rebel G which was a fashion shoot with friend and model Charlotte.

We shot indoors mostly but headed outside to change it up and I accidentally took probably the best portrait of my life.

I had no idea it would be like this and if I’m honest I was starting to doubt my rebel G because I hadn’t seen it’s last shoot yet and I had struggled with it in a low lit wine bar and was questioning my whole life and cursing myself for making the choice to use it when Lux had tried so hard to convince me to use our far superior Canon EOS 7.

I shot through this roll of Charlotte and was praying that the other rolls mounting up from this little plastic guy would turn out at least okay, usable, passable and not put my whole newly found photography career down the drain.

And then I saw this photo and I just knew that the Rebel G was the one.

Always and forever.

I should have never doubted her, or Charlotte’s ability to just carry any photograph with her insanely striking good looks.

After seeing the photos of Charlotte and being pleasantly surprised I had a look at how it had faired in the very low light of the wine bar the night before.

Worrying I hadn’t focused properly due to the slow auto focus, primitive technology and struggle to see exactly how I was composing, I feared it would be the end to my love affair with the Rebel G.

Alas though, the images only brought us closer together.

I hope you’ve had dinner and you aren’t doing dry July because you likely now feel like a cheeseburger and a wine, or some tapas and a beer. Sorry not sorry.

In short the Rebel G lived up to the personal hype I had created for it.

Never letting me down and being just capable enough to get me through, but not so advanced it gets in my way.

Every time I book a job the first question out of Lux’s mouth is...

What camera will you use?

To which I answer 99.9% of the time with

Probably the Rebel G