Last summer I bought a film camera. The first I’ve had since I sold my original film camera 15 years ago. When I sold mine, after everything I was doing was digital, I never had a clue that I’d go back to film. But upon seeing this camera, there was an urge to get back into it. When I was in school for photography, my class was the very last class to learn film before they tore the darkroom down. Everything was leading toward digital and the space made room for more available studio shooting space. But it was a sad moment when that happened. Excitement toward digital but also a sombering moment that an art was dying.

During this pandemic, when all I’ve had is time, I found two incredibly ancient rolls of film. One black & white, one color. I have no idea how old they were, or if they would even turn out but I put them in the camera and I went for photo walks. That’s all I could do for the past few months… walk. But taking my cameras out on walks was more therapeutic than I thought it would be. Both digital and film had given me a way to see things I’m normally too busy to stop and really appreciate. I’d gotten in the habit of only bringing my camera out if I had a session or had something to shoot at home for a client. I wasn’t shooting anything for me, for fun, anymore so this was a perfect opportunity to get my creative juices flowing again. All I did was photograph whatever inspired me, and places I found beauty.

Below are just a few of the scans I got back from the developed rolls. Surprisingly, they all developed well! I took the B&W roll to a local lab here in Chicago called PrintLab and sent the color off to the FindLab per recommendation of a friend. I was very happy with both services.

While I’m only using my film camera for personal passion projects right now, someday I’ll think about incorporating them into client sessions. I’m way out of practice with film, though, so I need to develop my craft before that can happen. I expect too much out of myself for client sessions and can’t be held back by fumbling with a camera!

Much love, all. I hope you’re hanging in there!

Can You Tell Which is Film and Which is Digital?!