No, it wasn’t food - it was film! Yeah, that stuff you used to put into the camera, expose -advance, expose-advance until the roll was done, rewind it and then bring to the lab to have processed. I haven’t captured images on a roll of film for 7 years. And I broke that hiatus just this last weekend.
It was Jose Villa and his work that inspired me to shoot film again. I wanted to see if I was able to photograph just as well with film as I do with my digital kit. And with the results I have below, I feel very confident in what I am capable of, no matter what medium I choose to shoot in.
For my experiment I was using a Canon AE-1 with a 50mm 1.8 lens and I loaded it with Fuji Pro 400H professional color print film. I chose that film simply because it is one of the best films out on the market today. The color and response remind me of my images from my digital - only the grain is more noticeable in the film images.
It is was I call, ‘old school’ shooting - since the Canon AE-1 is the type of camera I learned on when I shot B&W film in high school.
It’s funny how you forget things, or take things for granted. When I got home with the roll of film, I opened it slowly, making sure I got a chance to smell the film container (they have a neat smell I think), and I was transported back to when I was just starting out in photography - it was so cool.
Anyway, I loaded the film into the camera, advanced it to make sure it was on the take-up, closed the back and snapped a couple of dead shots to ensure the film was advancing properly. I then lifted the camera to my eye and snapped this image of my son:
… and wouldn’t you know it - I looked at the back of the camera! Doh! It’s film stupid! LOL!
It was a very unusual experience for me, having been totally digital this whole time. But after shooting ‘old school’ I felt renewed in some way. I felt as if I was forced to really focus on what I was photographing, instead of relying on instant feedback from the digital camera. I was remembering everything I had already learned when I was film.
Now, I am not going to say that digital is bad. Quite the contrary, digital made me grow and develop my style amazingly quick, and it allows me to experiment in ways I couldn’t afford to when I shot film. Every shot matters to your pocketbook with film. Nor am I going back to shooting film, but I do feel that film has a unique quality that is welcome in my camera bag.
In fact, I have my eye on a few still film cameras that I want to play with. One is a 4×5 Pinhole camera, and another is a medium format pinhole. Plus I have an Ansco Shurshot I received when my wife’s grandfather passed away. It takes 120 film (medium format) and I plan to use it very soon.
In my opinion, film isn’t going anywhere for a long time. Digital is here to stay, and compliments and outdoes film in so many ways. But into the hands of very creative photographers who know how to use all of its properties, film is a very effective medium for expressing your vision. Neither is better.
Here are a couple more from my experiment (more to follow soon).
I should have just shot everything in B&W, I just love B&W film.
Oh well, next time!
