Trendy

<p>I was out with my old Rollei Automat the other day and was bust taking a shot when a couple of young things walked up to me and said "wow, like that camera is really cool...totally trendy"<br>

What can I say, I have never done trendy in my life, clothes always way behind the times, hairstyle...well I have no hair...you get the idea.<br>

So maybe the Rollei has finally put me on the spot...anyone here have a similar story.</p>

<p>We can thank Vivian Maier, the proto-hipster, for reviving interest in Rollei TLRs. God bless her indie, underground soul.</p>

<p><em>Kicking myself now for selling my 2.8C a few years ago.</em></p>

<p>I thought having no hair was trendy.</p>

<p>I, at 63, still have a full head of hair. It is gray. I am so un-trendy. Maybe I will get another Rollei. I really miss my Rolleicord Vb.</p>

<p>I've never been called trendy, but I have been accused of being a hipster. </p>

<p >A few years ago I took my then newly acquired Rolleiflex New Standard to a local preserved railway (we are lucky enough to have two of these in Leicestershire). Before putting in the film I played around with the controls, using the two foot square slabs of the station platform to gauge the focussing distance, and a pot plant in a window as the subject. I eventually put a film in and took some pictures, but on the way out a lady stopped me and said “Are you going to let me have a photo of my plant then?” I explained to her that although it was an excellent plant, I hadn't actually taken any pictures of it. She then turned her attention to the camera and said “Oh, is that one of them old box cameras then?” I showed her how it worked and the image on the ground glass screen, which seemed to impress her to a degree and I was able to get away unscathed.</p>

<p ><br />I would add that I can't ever remember being accused of not being trendy.</p>

<p>Sorry duplicate post</p>

<p>If they said the word "trendy" then they are definitely not trendy themselves. I last used that term when I was wearing corduroy pants.</p>

Or, Robin, you're not trendy enough to know that it is once again trendy to say trendy.

<p>Perhaps it was actually true admiration? I have had older people come to me and talk about the old cameras I might be using on a particular walk. I can look a lot younger depending on how I dress. In my late thirties but with a clean shave and a number one hair cut, apparently, I look much younger. I once had an elderly gentleman shooting with his Canon G9 ask me how my Nikon was. I was shooting with the Olympus OM4.</p>

<p>Tony, my 1950's Automat has been a babe magnet several times. And it ain't me, I'm 57 years old and never will be mistaken for George Clooney. The best incident was when a tall, young, exquisitely dressed fashion model type stopped and asked all sorts of questions about the camera and 120 film while I was setting it up on a tripod. Her boyfriend was bored to tears. </p>

<p>I shoot a lot with my Yashica TLRs and people do stop me to ask what kind of camera it is. Once a young girl stopped by me and asked what kind of camera it was. I told her it was a Yashica TLR so she said : "My parents used to own one just like this" I said yeah this one I bought brand new in 1960 she looked at me and said really? long pause goes here no!. I laughed and we parted. I am 30.</p>

<p>I'm 63, have most of my hair and only a little gray at the temples but the missus tells me I getting a 'monks cap' bald spot. Do have a ratty Yashica D but it needs service so not much use out of it. Every once in a while I get a question when shooting with the Olympus Pen F, 'is that a Leica?', no, it's a 35mm half frame, blank look. At 6'2'', 240 lbs, pot gut, baggy eyes and jowls I don't attract the 'young things' no manner what camera I have in my hands. That's fine as the missus is very understanding of my photo purchases plus she is drop dead gorgeous, a fine combination.</p>

<p>Had a sort of similiar experience a fortnight or so ago; I was in a little curios shop I frequent and spotted a rather nice old Rollei TLR on a table in the midst of a sort of steampunk display. I picked the camera up and was playing with it and a very expensively-dressed twenty-something couple came over and asked me what it was and how it worked, and I ended up giving quite a tutorial. I eventually set it back in the display and departed. I was in the shop a few days later and the proprietor came over and informed me that the couple had come back an hour or so later and had paid the $375 asking price, and that the girl was going to enrol in the night class in photography that's a popular Adult Education programme at their local High School. There's hope for us, yet...</p>

<p>My daughter told me my sunglasses were so old fashioned that they were back in style.</p>

<p>When people wore ties, if you kept them long enough you could wear them again as the widths changed.</p>

<p>Here at my house, suddenly FD-mount is back in style -- not quite the same thing as the ties.</p>

<p>I don't know about you guys, but where I grew up, just giving the <em>impression</em> you were a serious photographer made you instantly interesting and smooth, especially to the ladies. The bigger, blacker, more complex looking your camera, the better. A big, fat Mamiya C330 was the best ice breaker/ wing man I ever had. My dance card was always full.</p>

<p>These days, I'm just the kindly old gent with some ancient relic of historical curiosity around his neck. Now when the young girls come up to me it's like "hey my grandfather had a camera like that" or "I saw one like that in a museum". Gee, thanks a ton. </p>

<p>You're right, <strong>Louis</strong>... It's possibly the reason I dropped out of Law School. Here's my favourite quote from David Bailey, iconic fashion photographer from swinging sixties London:</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p><strong>"I never cared for fashion much, amusing little seams and witty little pleats: it was the girls I liked."</strong></p>

</blockquote>

<p>John, if you're out and about snapping photos of people's pot plants w/ a TLR, you're the very definition of trendy :)</p>

<p>For myself, no amount of cameras are going to make me trendy, as I'm happily stuck in the "far out" and "groovy" era, even if nobody else still is.</p>

<p>I was viewing a show on contextual art at the Walker in Minneapolis back around, oh, 2005. A docent walked up to me and said "where'd you get those retro shoes?" I said "I bought them new, back in the 70's, at the Shoebox in Black Earth, Wisconsin (I think I have that right). Had 'em ever since." Unfortunately the docent was male.</p>

<p>"<em>We can thank Vivian Maier, the proto-hipster, for reviving interest in Rollei TLRs.</em>"</p>

<p>That's a bit lame, Lex, if not altogether wide of the mark. What in her work is worthy of the label "hipster," which most regard as a pejorative? </p>

<p>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/books/review/Greif-t.html?_r=1</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"What in her work is worthy of the label "hipster,"..."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>If I have to explain it...</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"..."hipster," which most regard as a pejorative?"</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Citing the NYT on hipsters <a href="http://files.sharenator.com/memes_hipster_kitty_point_counterpoint-s400x393-186291.jpg">without any sense of irony</a>. Slow clap.</p>

<p>So sad, Lex.</p>

<p>I'll soon be turning 57. Don't think I'll be trendy again, too much effort. I am too old to see the point of it. Was there ever a point? I have been stocking up on a few film cameras and lenses, but I have yet to dare the leap into the scary business of pressing the shutters on one of those non-digital cameras. Film rolls are scary too. Yes, they are! A Rollei is one of the cameras I bought. I am looking forward to those comments, Louis: 'My grandmother had one of those.' Or even worse: 'My greatgrandfather had one!'</p>

<p>Ann, for me, getting back into medium format via the TLR camera was something of a reprise. My first "serious" camera as a kid in the 1960s, around age 11, was with the then-new Yashica Mat 124 (pre "G" version), which our camera club had as a loaner.</p>

<p>Before then I'd used only simple box cameras with no exposure adjustments (exposure was "adjusted" by selecting a film speed appropriate for the anticipated lighting), and a Yashica compact rangefinder with all-auto exposure. Adapting to the all-manual TLR and having to think more about metering and exposure helped clarify how everything worked together. So I'll always have a soft spot in my noggin for TLRs. At the moment I have only a Yashica 635, a good basic TLR, tho' the separate winding and shutter cocking mechanisms demand a bit more attention to detail.</p>

<p>Dive in and try one of those cameras and rolls of film. Develop a few rolls. It's easy. Even if you never print or even scan the negatives, you'll probably enjoy the experience. You could even frame the bare negatives in a completely transparent mount and frame as an artistic piece all its own.</p>

<p><em>Now I'm off to kick myself again for selling my Rollei 2.8C...</em></p>

<p>When the New England weather gets warm again, on the basis of this thread, I will personally journey to the local beaches and tourist infested areas with each of my seven TLR's and report the effects of each by the reactions received. Oops, make that eight, I forgot the cute little Yashica 44, a notorious attention grabber. Don't tell my wife.</p>

<p>Roger, you will be mobbed like a rock star!</p>