A Place to Start

I'm a photographer. Notice I didn't say a good photographer. But maybe a growing photographer would be a better description. I love it. I'm obsessed with it. I dream about what I want my next shot to be. What may set me apart from most of mainstream America is I've become obsessed with a dying medium that has been associated with photography for over 150 years...film. This has become more apparent as I find less places to develop my film or even buy it. I don't even know anyone who still shoots with film other than me.

Let me see if I can paint a picture for you. I take my 1970's Asahi Pentax K1000 camera in my hand. It feels heavy. It feels like it could weather a nuclear holocaust. This thing is built to last. I pull up on my winding knob and pop a button. The back of the camera opens. I take a roll of film and insert it into one side of my camera. I pull the plastic film tab over to the other side and begin to wind it into place. I close the back and pull the lever. The exposure counter starts at 0. I look through my viewfinder and see the light meter bounce up and down as I move my camera into place. I focus using my focus ring watching my subject become blurry then clear. I turn the shutter speed dial a little bit to the right. Then I turn my aperture ring a little to the left. I line up my subject so I get the right light and angles. And "click." The picture I had in my head is now preserved onto film inside this metal box.

                               My husband and I using a 1939 Kodak Vigilant Six-20 and my beloved Pentax K1000

I love this tactile, personal approach to capturing a vision. It's all me. Even the developing of the film is hands on. This is everything I was never able to do with my point-and-shoot camera. I didn't know what aperture or shutter speed meant. It was all automatic. I could take a bazillion pictures and hope for a good one somewhere in there. I feel more invested in perfecting the perfect shot when I use a film camera.

I could go on and on about other things I have found I love about film and my camera. But those can be future posts. Right now, I'm gonna lay out my plan.  While I've been at this for over a year, I still feel like a newbie to this world of photography. I want to continue to get better and so I'm documenting this journey. Each photo opportunity, each developed roll of film, each new camera I try, each story I capture, I want to express my thoughts about it and learn as I go. So here I go!