Shooting film is like riding a bicycle, once you learn it you never forget.
I am finding myself shooting film more often these days. It seems to be a mixture of being tired of the sameness of digital images, the unique look of film, and maybe a little bit of nostalgia thrown into the mix. It also seems that the books that I am enjoying the most lately are by photographers that are still shooting with film. I want to be clear, it’s not that I think film images are better, they just have a different look that I seem to be enjoying these days. I get annoyed when people suggest that film images are better because they are film. Each image has to stand on its own merit and not be defined by the media that it was exposed with.
I have been stopping by to see my old friend Druē Washington the owner of Harry’s Camera in Studio City, California. He sells used cameras and lenses along with lots of accessories. He doesn’t sell any new cameras. Always says that there is no money in new cameras but just a little in used ones. Occasionally I come across some real gems on his shelves.
Every time I stop in he starts telling me how well his film sales are going. He is selling more film each month than the last. He sales lots of Kodak Portra 400 and Kodak Tri-X. Being around all of his old equipment brings back memories of when film was king. We used to call Kodak the big yellow god because of their dominance in the field.
For my part I mostly shoot Ilford film. Usually it is either HP5 or FP4. I find that 400 and 100 speed film cover most of the range that I need these days. I do remember when Kodak TMZ 3200 was introduced. It was shocking to have film that was that fast. The grain seemed like it was the size of softballs in the images. ISO 3200 is of course nothing big these days.
I process my own film with Ilford chemistry. It is so easy to do that I can’t see any reason to pay someone to process it for me. I then scan the best images and work on them in Photoshop. If I wanted to I could still print them with my enlarger. I still have my Besler 23CII that I drag out from time to time and make some silver prints. Everyone should print film just to enjoy seeing the image appear in the developer.
Shooting film with a Leica rangefinder is also something that everyone should try at least one time in their life. I feel so connected with my Leica M6 whenever I use it. It just feels so natural in my hands. And it is so small most people don’t even realize I have a camera. When someone does notice they usually do a double take to be sure that it was really what they saw or they just nod and smile because they are a member of the Leica club. Again not better, just different.
Below are a sample of a few images from my latest roll. No portfolio images, just some memories. A day out with a film camera is like going fishing. It doesn’t matter if you catch anything, it’s just fun to try.
