Film, back to basics
| October 15th, 2007
I just recently started shooting film again. Not just any film, 35mm. I know, how archaic, right? Not really. I was just discussing with a friend about how film is actually considered an alternative process in some school’s photo curriculum! Can you believe that? Yeah, daguerrotype, alternative process- check. 35mm? I don’t think so.
After shooting digital for so long, it’s really nice to go back to film. It’s my whole attempt at getting back to basics. Some of the things that have been hindering my production of new work is the irrational complication that I create for myself in my head of all the things I need in order to produce a nice photo, mainly a nice expensive digital camera. I grabbed my old contax, some portra, and just started carrying my camera with me everywhere. It’s been pretty awesome. I found myself smiling with a sense of giddyness while I was out shooting on the street the other day. Giddiness! I hadn’t felt that way while shooting in a while, and it was nice.
Another reason I decided to shoot film again, was that I need the time between shooting and receiving my processed film to think about what I had just shot. Digital is so instant, and that’s part of its draw, but after I see my shots that’s it. Maybe I’ll retouch some images, but that’s about the extent of time I’d spend with pictures when I’d shoot digital. With film, there’s more time spent with each shot though out the whole process from shooting to the final print. Because there’s a physical limitation with film, 36 exposures a roll, I think about each shot more before I press the shutter. I don’t just hope to “get the shot” by taking taking hundreds of photos (needle in a haystack method), but instead hope to get the shot I compose and wait for through the viewfinder, being more selective as I’m bound by 36 exposures only.
I had forgotten what it was like to shoot this way. There’s a lot of anticipation between clicking the shutter and receiving your processed film because for those few hours, while the film is at the lab, you don’t know if you’ve got the shot or not. And now, as I’m writing this post, I’m scanning negatives. I’m antsy. I want to see how the final pic looks.I forgot how much waiting there is with film.It’s kinda nice spending this much time on an image. It’s even nicer that it’s tangible. I forgot how much I missed contact sheets, not to mention how much I missed taking “archaic” pictures.
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