Film Photography
Now I’m not sure if I’m qualified enough on this topic to be writing an entire blog about it so I’ll keep it short. This is, as the title suggests, a medium within an art form that I’ve been more and more drawn to and that so far has been incredibly fascinating and relaxing; Film Photography.
Shooting with a digital camera, let alone an almost $4,000 mirrorless camera is undoubtedly fun, rewarding and I would even say easy once you’ve gotten the hang of things. The first months having my Canon R5 were filled with inspiration, excitement and rediscovering a form of art that I honestly forget I took so much enjoyment in. The first place I went to test out my camera (well other than the living room lol) was the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Medicine Park, Oklahoma. Armed with only the camera body, the Canon RF 15-35mm lens and a 64 GB SD card, I drove out to emulate what I witnessed all those photographers I had meticulously studied and researched, to see if I could even come close to the images they were able to create. I’m sure I spent at least 3-4 hours out driving around taking pictures of the Longhorns, Bison, Prairie Dogs (if I was lucky enough to catch one), trees, flowers, docks, the road, anything I saw that looked remotely photogenic. I couldn’t remember how many pictures I took, I was just out there snapping away. And that’s the beauty of shooting digital; your can only take as many pictures as your SD Card can hold and with 64GB of storage thats quite a lot. This continued on throughout the next few years with every time I took photos, I’d take as many as I could, seldom repositioning or doing any real critical thinking and assuming instead that if I didn’t get the first shot right I could always take another 30 pictures. Which is true to an extent, but photography should be more than that.
Fast forward about three years and while I still clearly haven’t mastered digital photography, I began to crave something more than returning home with an SD Card with 1037 photos (which actually happened after a photoshoot I did for a coworker. Yikes) I believe in tradition and understanding the origin of things. While I’m no history buff, I do believe there is a sense of beauty in the “antique” side of things. Technology is amazing and has advanced so much even in our lifetime, but sometimes it’s refreshing to take a step backwards and re-live the good ol’ days when things were simple. Enter the Canon F-1N (Yeah…at this point you can call me a Canon fanboy).
Now I’m sure that most don’t immediately recognize this camera just off of the name but it has proven so far to be an excellent camera. The Canon F-1N, not to be confused with the earlier Canon F-1, is a 35mm Film Camera originally introduced to the market around the 1960’s. She’s a beefy little girl with a surprisingly comfortable weight to it. But the thing that really attracted me to this particular model aside from it being Canon, more compact and “vintage”, was the waist level viewfinder. It’s essentially a top down screen before screens on cameras ever existed. For me this was perfect for the street photography I intended to use it for. The Canon R5 creates stunning photos and while it has a smaller form factor than most DSLRs, it’s still a pretty big camera in terms of discreet photography. I did my necessary research and a few short days later found a near mint body and 50mm lens combo on E-Bay and bought it almost immediately.
Since shooting with my F-1N there are two things that I’ve really learned:
1.) Film is expensive!!! OMG, paying $100+ for 5 rolls of Kodak Portra 400??? And I thought the lenses for my R5 were pricey.
2.) Film photography is a slow, methodical practice.
Being that it is a recently revived way of shooting that is becoming more and more popular nowadays, it’s also a bit of a learning process for those who have shot solely with digital cameras. There are way more things to consider to make sure you get the best image possible. The light metering, adjusting your ISO, managing your film, zero IBIS, composition and way more. All these things must be taken into consideration before you start snapping away. However, the trickiest part for me is the lack of instant gratification you get with a digital camera. It’s so easy to fix a picture when you can see it on the back of your camera in milliseconds unlike film that could take weeks or months to see your results at which point you probably forgot your settings and what was going through your head at that time. Film Photography has really taught me to slow down my photography and make every shot count. With only 36 chances to expose an image, it has forced me take the time to make sure everything is as perfect as possible.
Again, I’m far from mastering shooting on film and I have already managed to make quite a few mistakes already but it is a surprisingly fun and fascinating way to take photos. It has already forced me to think more, stay in the moment and just be calm. I’m excited not only to broaden my skill set but to transfer the skills learned in shooting film to shooting digital as well. But I’m sure that will come after a few more paychecks when I can afford to by boxes and boxes of film lol.
