The great thing about shooting film – besides the actual beauty of the images – is the feeling of Christmas when you get the prints/scans back. Back in the day, you’d drop off a roll at your local lab and get it back in a few days. You got back an envelope of 4×6 images – and towards the end of film’s heydey you’d get the second set of 4×6 prints free. You can still go this route, but of course these days we value the digital files as much as the prints. So now you send out the film rolls (across the country!) and they send you not just prints but scans/digital files of the negatives as well. That takes time. Altogether, film is slow and steady.
Not many people shoot film these days. But among the photography community, film is making a resurgence. For a lot of photographers, film is new to them. For us more, ahem, seasoned photographers, we cut our teeth on film. I started with film a long time ago but don’t claim to have shot professionally when I was shooting film. It was more of a hobby at that time. But I remember the discipline that went with shooting film – it’s slower and more methodical.
I’m glad to see film making a comeback. I’m sure it will never be what it once was because it’s so expensive compared to digital. And it’s a lot of work. But it’s making a comeback because, in my opinion, it is beautiful. Why work so hard for an image when you can get it faster and easier with digital? Because you can’t get these tones, the white balance, the saturation, the contrast, and the grain that comes with film. The photos in this post are 100% unprocessed by me. They were developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab (which I highly recommend if you’re exploring film). To get the look you see in these images, I’d have had to spend hours processing them for the right contrast, white balance and toning. Oh, and I’d have had to add grain – digital creates nearly no grain – which is why we love it so for low light situations. But sometimes grain is good. Really really good.
Anyway. I love these images. And getting back these first two rolls of film scans was like Christmas. Reviewing each image, trying to remember the settings and the lens used and just remembering once again why film is so unique. I shot these over the course of a few weeks – between January and February. I went out once a week or so and captured the Bradford Pear trees in our front yard as they were budding. This spring was fast and early – and I had no idea they’d bloom so quickly. Within just four weeks or so the tree went from winter dormant to spring blooms.
My film study of the trees is below: shot on my Canon 1VHS with my 85mm 1.8 lens and Fuji 400h film. If you’re interested in learning more about film photography, I highly recommend the book “Film is Not Dead” by Jonathan Canlas. I am by no means an expert and have much to learn. I’ll share another post soon – have some sweet images of my girl on film.
There’s no happier place for our cat Charlie than sleeping on, near or next to a person. Thank goodness she only weighs about 7 pounds because she loves sleeping on our backs!
by Amy Sandoval
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