When I told you guys ‘my story‘ (quite a while ago)… I mentioned that this whole photography thing started for me on film. When I was a kid and toted around cameras – they were old school film cameras – nothing fancy (they even included disposable cameras that I went through like candy in middle & high school before digital became prevalent/the norm). Then when I rediscovered my passion and entered photo school in 2005 – we were required to purchase a Mamiya and do all our projects on slide film. After it was developed – we cut the film, put it in a slide, and projected it in front of the entire class for critiques. No photoshop, no color correcting, no fixing mistakes… just our work – for what it was – up in front of the class. (Scary.)
Eventually we were able to switch to digital (a year or so into the program) – and while that is what I still use now – it was nice to get back to my roots and shoot some film again recently. I took my Mamiya with me for a couple engagement sessions and shot a few frames at home as well. It is interesting how much more deliberate you need to be about your choices when shooting film. I wasn’t about to waste a frame – because that stuff is not cheap! (I hope to translate some of that into my digital work as well.)
I had my film developed at Richard Photo Lab since the place I used to go in Chicago during school is no longer open. I shot all of these on Provia 400X (because that’s what I used a lot back in school). Since then my style has changed a lot, so I think next time I’m going to try some Fuji 400H in hope for a little more muted colors. (I realized I’m not a huge fan of the saturation in the Provia anymore. It even drove me so crazy I pulled a bunch of these into photoshop & turned them into black/white images. The greens on this film were just too much!) Anyway – you live and you learn! I’m excited to keep up my love affair with film and shoot more personal work with my Mamiya in the future, trying out different films until I find one that sticks! 🙂
It’s kind of strange for me to look through these actually – because it kind of feels like it is my work – but at the same time it doesn’t at all. haha 🙂 For one – it was a total adjustment to get used to not having every single image tack sharp. But I’m slowly starting to appreciate the airy/breezy quality to it when it isn’t spot on sharp. Anyway – I hope to post more film work soon! 🙂
Those that shoot film – what are your favorite films to use? I’d love to hear!
