The joys of film, the woes of my bank account.
Back in 2016 I started using film cameras again, prior to which I hadn’t used one since I did half of a photography A-Level which funnily I didn’t enjoy at all. On reflection I think if I did it again now I would have a lot more fun and likely put in much more effort but I found the focus on studying other photographers work really quite boring. Ironic since I now have an abundance of photo books and I love discovering new photographers. Eight years ago film was much more reasonably priced than it is now although I still saw it as a new and slightly annoying consumable to continually buy, however the variety and availability made it fun and somewhat experimental. After a while I settled on using either Kodak Portra 160/400 or Fujifilm Pro 400H (RIP) which were a bit more spendy but worth it for the fine grain and colours. For the subsequent years I continued using film alongside a Fujifilm X-T1 until I picked up my X100F in 2019, a nice combination and until film started getting a bit silly price-wise, I enjoyed the mix of both worlds.
Fast forward to about two years ago and my film days were dwindling, prices were extortionate and some films were on the cusp of being discontinued despite the uptake in popularity. Fortunately for me I still have some Pro 400H tucked away, ready to cash in when we need to buy a new car. A final foray with medium format cameras marked the end of using film and I settled back into the digital ‘workflow’. This coincided with the birth of Poppy and using my phone to take the majority of images and videos, convenience is the order of the day as a new parent and as a result I have thousands of photos of Poppy on my phone, a far cry from the limitations of a 36 exposure roll.
I hadn’t given film much thought until a couple of months ago I found three rolls which I hadn’t got around to getting developed, my curiosity was piqued but my bank account was not keen. Developing costs are another expense when it comes to using film and add postage into the mix and you’ve blown 40 quid just to get those sweet sweet high resolution jpeg scans emailed back to you (‘aint no one got time for TIFF). This month however I decided to bite the bullet and uncover the mystery of these rolls and, praying for some ‘fire emoji’ bangers, I popped them in the post en route to Take It Easy Lab.
Unsurprisingly 99% of the rolls were family photos and worth every penny. So many forgotten moments from time past combined with that filmy look which, despite what a million YouTubers will tell you, just can’t be achieved with digital. I don’t care what presets you use, film is more than just the final result. It’s the joy of using an old camera, the anticipation of waiting for those scans/ prints to be returned and in my case, not having a clue what’s on them. Anyway, less moaning, more photos.
Just a few favourites, naturally photos of my family and I probably aren’t of too much interest to the wider population but I want this blog to be a bit of a journal/ diary type thing to look back through in the future. My longstanding feud with Instagram is a great motivation to nurture my own little corner of the internet, a place not dictated by constantly changing algorithms. I’m fortunate that I don’t rely on Instagram for promoting a business, as continually changing tactics just to reach my own audience sounds exhausting. Hopefully over time this website will become less of a photography-centric place and more just about life in general. I’m still working on getting email notifications worked out as at some point I want to ditch IG for good and just post here. If anyone wants to follow along then it would be handy to ping an email out whenever I post a new musing.