This week marks a new chapter in my love affair with photography. Until recently, I never understood while anyone in this modern day would ever want to hassle with the inconvenience of film photography. I was the furthest person from wanting to try it, much lest invest in the archaic equipment in which I would need. After attending the workshop of the fabulous and ever so hip Taylor Lord- I was totally intrigued and wanted in on the lost art. This past weekend my sweet mama unearthed an old film camera that I'd known she had, but never showed any interest in pursuing. Yesterday I took an hour to teach myself how to load the archaic film (yes, an hour), find the shutter button (on the bottom half of the hasselblad, so strange), and fumble around with it's antique manual Zeiss 80mm lens to expose (with an old light meter) what I hope will be a beautiful first film test shot......the craziest part is the responsibility I felt to technically assess each shot's lighting qualities so that I didn't waste any of my precious 16 exposures! Film is not cheap and sending it off to get developed is a process not for the impatient "I need to see it now" photographer. Those close to me know that I don't enjoy waiting around and that I'm always acting on my quick and sometimes irrational impulses.....With that being said, I think this journey in film may be the perfect compliment to slow this busy body down, take a step back, and become a more sound and technical photographer.
Yesterday I styled some inanimate objects around my house and literally got the butterflies when I heard the extremely slow and loud shutter fire once. As a self taught, trigger happy digital photographer, I instinctively looked at the back of the camera to assess my image, ha- old habits will die hard I'm afraid. Guess I'll let you know how I did when I finish the role and send it off to be processed! Until then I plan on doing some heavy reading.
