I’ve never been ashamed to admit that I don’t know much about film (you know the way people used to take pictures.) I had a film class in high school (probably about 12 years ago) where we developed our own film and that’s when I started enjoying photography. But it wasn’t until I bought my first digital camera (a 2.1 megapixel Hewlett-Packard for $600) and 3 years later that I really got into photography. For the last 9 years I never even picked up a film camera, I bought more digital cameras and I really worked on becoming a better photographer. I had very little (read…no) interest in a film camera or film photography.
Then last week Jess and I went to some antique stores on Broadway. She thought it would be cool to have some fun looking old cameras as decorations…shelf cameras. So we bought 3 that looked kind of fun and old-fashioned. I didn’t even know if they worked but we thought they’d be fun to have. I also pulled out an old 35mm camera that my grandpa gave me and my parents said they had been looking at old pictures of me as a baby (sorry I don’t have any of those to post…maybe another time.) So they gave me another old camera, a stereo camera.
I of course jumped on the internet and started researching these old cameras; there’s a lot of good info on that world wide web. But I was amazed at all of the interesting things I learned. I learned that the 3 cameras we bought were VERY hard to find film for. But I came across the-impossible-project. Which was a group of dreamers, visionaries, crazies, who set out to remake polaroid instant film. It’s an incredible project and so far they’re succeeding. I found this interesting because one of the cameras we bought was a Polaroid SX-70 which was quite the camera when it was made almost 40 years ago. I of course had to buy some film for it. 2 packs of 8 exposures each for a grand total of $75. That comes out to almost $4.70 per picture. A little more expensive than what I’m used to…okay A LOT more expensive. So far I’ve taken 10 of 16 pictures. 8 were completely blown out, one was blurry and one was awesome. By the way that awesome picture was taken by my beautiful wife Jessica…
This fortunate inheritance of random cameras came at a great time. We’re leaving for our trip on Monday and of course we planned to take a bunch of pictures. But now I have 6 rolls of film to expose. I have 6 rolls of film with which to try and create some amazing images. I have 3 cameras that don’t have digital backs, that don’t have instant feedback, that don’t have light meters, that don’t automatically advance to the next picture. Do I think that you need to shoot film to be a great photographer…absolutely not. But I’m now convinced that shooting film will help me to beome a better photographer. There’s just something about loading a roll of film in a camera. There’s something about clicking a shutter and only relying on your eye and your instinct to hope that you’ve created something worth looking at. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little excited about the possibilities.
I also looked through old pictures that my parents have. Pictures of my grandpa who has been gone for 5 years. Pictures of my grandmother who has been gone for over 30 years (I never even met her.) I saw the emotion (and tears) in my mom’s face when she looked at pictures of BOTH of her parents who are now gone. It made me think about the weddings I’ve photographed, the families I’ve photographed, the people I’ve photographed, the places I’ve photographed. Are people going to look at my pictures in 30 years and cry (I hope so.)
Photography is an incredible medium because with one click of a shutter you can create art, memories, inspiration, history, records and so much more. Photography has been instrumental in my life (maybe moreso than I actually know) and I’m excited to spend some time with a camera and my thoughts…we’ll see what happens.
This was Andrew writing…by the way…Jess told me to sign my post…that’s what I came up with.
