Film Photography Friday 07.19.2019

Film Photography

            As like many photographers I was exposed to film photography at an early age. Now before I get ahead of myself, I am not some pro-photography that has decades of film experience. Quite the contrary I was exposed to film mostly from my grandmother through her Olympus film camera. It was nothing fancy; essentially a point and shoot that shot film. But it got me hooked on the “film look” and the tactic feeling of printed pictures.

This was my gateway drug to photography. I have always been into technology and cameras were no exception. I became absorbed with the whole idea of; This camera has that feature or this camera has better low light, full-frame, dynamic range, etc. I wasn’t until about a month ago that I decided to get into film photography.

What a breath of fresh air. Strangely, some hunk of metal made in the ’80s could bring me so much joy. I snagged a Canon AE-1 with FD 50 f1.4 off eBay for under 100$ and could not be happier! This camera was built so solidly compared to cameras of today. Something about the exposed metal body and the microprism for guiding manual focus just felt so right. The lens itself is also a tank. I am in love with the heavy metal body and a buttery smooth focus ring. A testament to the time of yesteryears where things were built to last a lifetime.

The main thing about film photography that I love is the time it takes for everything. You have 36 pictures on 1 roll of film. Then you plan a picture, take it, and that’s the end. We nowadays have so much storage and memory on SD cards that we can keep taking pictures so much so that we lose the precious moment in favor of being able to keep shooting. The frantically post it for all to see cause the generation of ” look at what I did right now!” has been such a drag. Don’t get me wrong modern camera tech is great, but it is exhausting. Think of it like before and after the invention of emails. Letters take a while to mail therefore you plan your writing accordingly and hope it is not anything urgent because it might take a week. Whereas now, we are easily bombarded with hundreds of emails with this expectation that because it gets to us quickly we can get to it just as fast! Sometimes things get too convenient for our good. Film for me was a good step back to simplicity and little more effort.

Yes, I still appreciate digital photography and it is going to stay for a lot longer, but the point remains that the less you have the more you think about it. For the film, these moments are given more thought because there are only so many pictures you can take. This leaves more of the time to be enjoyed at the moments and save the headache of culling hundreds of pictures. When it comes time to develop the film, I bring it to a store that specializes in developing the film. This is arguably my favorite part of shooting film. The period that takes 1 or 2 days for the company to process the film, shorter if you do it yourself, allowing your head to empty of those moments temporarily.

It is when you walk into the store and pick up the prints that you get that nostalgia feeling. Wow… the prints from the film have feeling and memories that you hope were captured all come flooding back. The nice and not so great shots are in the classic paper photo bag along with the negatives for the future. Holding the memories even if they were a few days old and looking at it has a distinct characteristic to it. The way the film renders the detail, color, and texture is phenomenal.  

After talking to the employees at the film lab and learning about the intricacy of film I would like to develop my film someday, but until then I will pay the 20$ for developing printing, and USB scans. Film is a whole different beast to me. I will be with me for as long as I live because unlike digitals cameras the keep getting an update with 4k video, larger sensors, and better tech my film camera will glad snap a photo of any caliber with a fresh roll of film and wind of the shutter.