This is the story of a time when I was happy to have a spare roll of film or 2 on me, and ended up needing them when I didn't even have an analogue camera!
In April 2008, my fiance Dave (@fletchinski84) and me were in London visiting friends when we got all a bit caught up in the protests surrounding the G20. Dave had never been to such an event before and had his trusty Halina with him. Unfortunately, no sooner had he got the camera out of its case, had he realised that the batteries for the light meter were totally flat. Being fairly inexperienced at the time, he knew he couldn’t manage without it. To say he was devastated would be a massive understatement, he almost shed a tear. We decided to head out of the main meeting point and go and buy some batteries, we could even see a Snappy Snaps sign in the far distance. As we confidently strode over to the Police lines who were “controlling the crowds” we soon learnt we had been kettled in (a common practice nowadays where police keep large crowds of protestors in one area for long lengths of time to prevent trouble in other areas, very common at protests). Of course this meant no batteries.
As we were standing there, sad faces on, a man must have overheard us talking and said “what camera you got?”. A conversation started and it turned out he had batteries Dave could use. We offered him money but what he really needed was film! He also couldn’t get out and was wanting to use a medium format camera – twin reflex one I think. Although I was a Diana owner at this time, I had not even taken her out of her box and refused to switch from digital. I did however have 2 rolls of 120mm colour negative in my bag. The switch was a magnificent moment and a great day was had by all parties. Dave got some excellent photos which can be seen below, and, although I have never seen them I like to think Mr Battery Man did too. If you are reading this and you happen to be the aforementioned Mr Battery Man – get in touch! I would love to see your shots!
As we were standing there, sad faces on, a man must have overheard us talking and said “what camera you got?”. A conversation started and it turned out he had batteries Dave could use. We offered him money but what he really needed was film! He also couldn’t get out and was wanting to use a medium format camera – twin reflex one I think. Although I was a Diana owner at this time, I had not even taken her out of her box and refused to switch from digital. I did however have 2 rolls of 120mm colour negative in my bag. The switch was a magnificent moment and a great day was had by all parties. Dave got some excellent photos which can be seen below, and, although I have never seen them I like to think Mr Battery Man did too. If you are reading this and you happen to be the aforementioned Mr Battery Man – get in touch! I would love to see your shots!
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