Quality Assured

The sun shone yesterday and I took a lunchtime stroll up to the war memorial with an Olympus E620 hung around my neck and a Holga 120N in my pocket. I took a couple of shots with the Holga and a 'few' more with the Olympus. In fact I took rather a lot with the Olympus, reviewing the result, altering settings, changing modes and making 'x' number of other adjustments along the way.

Here's one of the digital snaps. I chose monochrome, black and white, electronic red filter and a polarising filter over the lens to get the best contrast between sky and cloud. I even looked at (and adjusted) the levels in photoshop to ensure optimum contrast and exposure.

Back at work (in my other life I'm a 'Biomedical Scientist') I got into a discussion with a colleague about the obsession with 'quality' within our role. Every morning we are faced with a huge list of tasks to do before we even consider carrying out a test - analyser maintenance, calibrations, quality control, reagent checks, temperature checks (rooms, fridges, incubators) etc. etc..... In fact there are so many routine quality tasks that I employ (I'm the manager too) Medical Laboratory Assistants, who (for very little money) play a very important role in carrying out the various QC tests, making all the checks on equipment and reagents and performing some of the maintenance and set-up tasks so that the 'professional' staff can actually find the time to do the job that they are paid for.

Don't get me wrong, quality control/assurance IS important and in the lab I work in the professional way expected from someone in my role (and expect it from those around me too). However, it's refreshing to get away from work and shove it all on the back burner.

I think this maybe where my obsession passion for toy cameras and cheap film (some call it lomo) originates. OK, some days I'll take the dSLR and happily click away in search of the perfect shot, but I tend to get more satisfaction from 'snaps' (to use a friend's term) taken using a Holga and some Fomapan - and these snaps are the ones that appear to create most interest (did I forget to mention that I've even had a recent request to submit 2 snaps for inclusion in a toy camera book).

So roll on simplicity and imperfection. Hipster? I'm the godfather of the movement! Take away my pixels (if you have to) but please leave the cheap film, and the Holgas, and the vinyl, and the fixed wheel bike, and.............