Numerous months ago now, when I was moving into a new room in our house, which entailed a massive sort out of shit, I stumbled upon something awesome. No we didn't find some ridiculously ugly antique which is actually worth a shitload of money, in fact this item isn't probably worth that much, but to me its worth a lot. It's something which I wished I'd had and thought about buying, but knowing nothing about this particular object or the hobby attached to it I decided it might be a frivolous waste of my money, kinda like my buying a £300 guitar was; especially in these times of economic hardship. However this discovery has saved me the money...

See, amidst my growing love for the old, I've developed a slight obsession for vintage items. But it's really quite a mish-mash of different eras and things that I like; I love art deco architecture and design, especially the huge wooden dressing tables and chests they would have back then, along with the visual art and posters. I also love furniture from the 1960s, especially chairs! Amongst the growing list of things I wish I'd studied and become, chair designer is one of them (woodwork was my favourite lesson). I don't quite know what it is about chairs that I especially love, but the iconic ones by Eams & Breur just grab me ... my future house is going to be filled with chairs. I can't get enough of 1950s and 60s stuff; the wiggle dresses of the 50s or mini go-go shift dresses of the 60s, little trinkets and the Bakelite phones etc, although I think I want one of these phones when I can get one.

Anyway, getting off track a bit here, amongst this wish list of items what I really wanted was an old school camera. One like David Hemmings has when he's running around in Blow Up, failing to do a thing about the murder he's captured on film cause he's too busy shagging Jane Birkin & going to freaky parties in castles (or is that last bit La Dolce Vita ... it's all blur). If you haven't see it, I've just spoilt you on it but here's a little visual so you know what I'm talking about... Sexy!

Now as I said, it's probably not worth loads, but it's in good nick, and comes with an over the shoulder carrying case, an extra zoom lens and a separate flash bulb you attach to the top. I got so excited about this I spent the next few hours prancing around pretending I was Hemmings or some kind of David Bailey type that I overlooked the fact I have no clue how to work it, and know sod all about photography.

Now as seemingly everyone will attest to the same, I've always wished to learn photography, or at least get better at it and be able to take arty, poncy shots of breaking waves and shit. So this find has thrown up the prime opportunity, overnight I have acquired an awesome non-digital, proper film SLR camera, now to just learn about photography. I have managed to find a manual online of what all the buttons and dials do, so really I want to get a little guide book to how all the things like shutter speed and light affect the shots.

It's actually quite nice and nostalgic to find something that is a throwback to how things used to be done. The digital camera has become so ubiquitous now, its funny having to learn how to fit a film, and in a way I feel it is better that you don't have 8GB of memory to take hundreds of shots - with this you only have 35 shots before your film is up. It's both limiting yet oddly liberating at the same time; in the sense that it liberates you from the shackles of dependency upon digital means and complacency to good shot making that this engenders in photographers. The nostalgia it creates is comforting, kind of like going back to watching VHS or playing an old mix tape, that you'd sat for three hours listening to the top 40 on the radio to record the best songs; frantically scrabbling to cut it right so you didn't get any of the annoying radio sound bite or adverts trampling over the ends and then minutely writing the track listing out on the back cover. Aah those were the days!