Well a strange title I know, but amazing similarities. It's Sunday morning (yesterday), the sun is out so it has got to be time to get the BBQ cleaned and ready for this years use. I purchased a rather expensive gas type a few years ago after being told time after time this is what you should buy after all lighting charcol in a bag with fire lighters etc that's apparently just one step up from caveman (what's wrong with that) So after spending 2 hours scraping it clean it slowly dawned on me that this just was not going to be suitable to cook on any more, the final straw was when I placed the fat catcher back underneath the cooker and it broke in my hand like melted butter! So that was it, time to buy a new BBQ, but this time I was going to buy what I wanted. So sitting in the garden drinking my tea I began to look at various different models online, a wonderful mix of double burners with hot plates and places to keep food warm and how much! I then had a vision, I love Jamie Oliver and what he has done for my cooking skills, does he stand at a gas BBQ playing with all the functions of course not, he picks up an old roasting dish from the kitchen with a cake rack, chucks in a few pieces of charcol, finds a nice part of the garden and just cooks some amazing food in a primal way.
I packed the family into the car and off to Sainsburys we went, I had spotted the other day a little bucket BBQ for £14.99, I walked straight in picked it up, plus a bag of charcol (easy lighting) and made my purchase. The weather was brilliant, but the thing I noticed was how much we were all enjoying the experience of getting this little BBQ to work, I actually felt like I was having a BBQ instead of the gas days of lifting the lid turning it on and that was it. The gas for me had taken away all the excitement (and taste) that used to be fun in creating the outside cooking experience. It was by far the best one we had had for years, and the food tasted how it should without artificial bits and pieces that a gas one needs.
So where does the digital camera fit into all this? Well it made me think about how I use my camera (professionally) and how tempting it is to shoot of extra frames as you can, it just seemed a little to easy, so I have now decided to purchase a new film camera, the film only has 15 frames so will make me really concentrate on what I am taking. I will always use the digital of course but to retrain my passion I will at least once a week use my film camera just to remind me of why I love photography so much. I just wonder, once I start using film again I bet it will become an addiction, cant wait!