As long as it’s available I can’t see myself every giving up shooting film. Digital photography has been a godsend when it comes to events where a quick turn around and hundreds of shots are required, but film has qualities you just can’t duplicate digitally. With digital I have be very carefull with exposure, and I don’t have nearly as much play with it in post processing. For the most part, in decent even light, film is like horseshoes and hand grenades… close is good enough. Highlights don’t blow out as easy and shadow grain looks so much nicer than digital noise. It really lets me concentrate on the image instead of all the technical stuff.
Anyways… this isn’t a digital versus film rant… that horse has been flogged sufficiently. Both sides of the argument seem to have called an armistice and have grudgingly agreed that both photographic mediums have their own time and place. Film has seen a huge resurgence among younger photographers and a lot of the old guard have gone fully or partially digital.
This shot was of a telephone pole in downtown Ottawa. There’s many that have so many staples, that over the years they’ve developed up to an inch of rusted staple and poster paper armor. This one had a nice balance of wood and metal textures. I was also surprised at how well the Rolleinar close up filters for my Yashica Mat-124G worked. Originally made for Rolleiflex cameras, they’ll fit on most TLR’s with the same filter size. I was worried that another layer of glass might introduce some softness or distortion like most of the modern accessory lenses, but I can’t see any degradation at all, gotta love 70 year old German glass.
One unexpected bonus I’ve found to shooting film is how I’m perceived. When I walk down the street taking pictures of random stuff with a big lens on a DSLR, some people have come up with some very imaginative and devious uses I must be using those pictures for. Walking around with an archaic box with two lenses and all kinds of knobs and fiddly bits seems to scream “artist” and people generally leave me alone or take a positive interest in what I’m doing. For more of my film captures you can check out the film section of my Flickr.
