All Alone

[RattyMouse]

So yesterday I'm sitting under an umbrella at an outdoor café, waiting out a passing rain shower. Not an unusual way to pass the time in Washington state. Even on a July 5th.

My camera bag sits on the table under the umbrella with my GF670 folder resting on top. Once opened and locked, the camera usually stays that way. The UV filter and metal shade preclude easily reclosing it as both must be removed to do so, and I also use a separate right-hand bracket with cable release for better handling. So I wait.

While I'm waiting up walks a nice elderly lady who notices and asks about the camera. After I explain, she tells me that she just bought a wonderful vintage Zeiss Ikon 6x9 folder for use as her "new" regular working camera. She uses Ilford film (atta' girl!) and does her own developing and printing.

She recently learned these things by taking a series of classes at a community college in Portland, Oregon. They let her continue to use their darkroom facilities, as she currently has none of her own. But she wants to start looking into what it would take to set up a simple one at her place.

She looked to me to be in her early 70s, and said that this is her first go around with photography of any type. After she walked away I was just grinning from ear to ear...



Ken

Surreal!

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

While I'm waiting up walks a nice elderly lady who notices and asks about the camera. After I explain, she tells me that she just bought a wonderful vintage Zeiss Ikon 6x9 folder for use as her "new" regular working camera. She uses Ilford film (atta' girl!) and does her own developing and printing.

She recently learned these things by taking a series of classes at a community college in Portland, Oregon. They let her continue to use their darkroom facilities, as she currently has none of her own. But she wants to start looking into what it would take to set up a simple one at her place.

She looked to me to be in her early 70s, and said that this is her first go around with photography of any type. After she walked away I was just grinning from ear to ear...



Ken

She must have read about Vivian Maier.

Yesterday, I was with another APUGer on the Portobello Rd. market, normally busy with tourists. We didn't see anyone using a film camera, but the stall that had used film cameras were always busy with American, Japanese and other tourists asking questions. I noticed on one of those stalls a group of American girls very interested in Polaroid cameras.

 

[Xmas]

So yesterday I'm sitting under an umbrella at an outdoor café, waiting out a passing rain shower. Not an unusual way to pass the time in Washington state. Even on a July 5th.

My camera bag sits on the table under the umbrella with my GF670 folder resting on top. Once opened and locked, the camera usually stays that way. The UV filter and metal shade preclude easily reclosing it as both must be removed to do so, and I also use a separate right-hand bracket with cable release for better handling. So I wait.

While I'm waiting up walks a nice elderly lady who notices and asks about the camera. After I explain, she tells me that she just bought a wonderful vintage Zeiss Ikon 6x9 folder for use as her "new" regular working camera. She uses Ilford film (atta' girl!) and does her own developing and printing.

She recently learned these things by taking a series of classes at a community college in Portland, Oregon. They let her continue to use their darkroom facilities, as she currently has none of her own. But she wants to start looking into what it would take to set up a simple one at her place.

She looked to me to be in her early 70s, and said that this is her first go around with photography of any type. After she walked away I was just grinning from ear to ear...



Ken

item

changing bag
thermometer
film clip
cloths pin
dev tank
trays
contact print frame

6x9 contacts ok

 

[MattKing]

Every time I see the title to this thread, this song intrudes into my attention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbn6o5tiPds&feature=kp

 

[AgX]

Funny, I overheard this song yesterday on the radio, first time again after many, many years. And thought I should hint at it here...

 

[Jaf-Photo]

Shooting film does seem to be a life style choice for youths in Asia. Quite a large proportion of users sharing film images online seem to be based in Asia.

One observation I made while on holiday was that most tourists seem to have very expensive pro or prosumer DSLRs. But they mainly use it for typical holiday snaps of people posing in front of various statues, fountains or vistas. For that, a point and shoot at a fraction of the cost would be more than adequate.

Only saw one other film shooter, who incidentally was an Italian tourist.

 

[tron_]

I try and go shooting at least once a week and in ~4 years of shooting film I've seen enough people shooting film to count on one hand. Mind you this is in the Detroit area so I'm not exactly out in the sticks.

Even now it bothers me to some degree. Mostly because at times (when photography isn't going so well), I feel like it's somewhat of a curse to be a creative person in the sense that I NEED to be creative in order to feel functional.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Shooting film does seem to be a life style choice for youths in Asia. Quite a large proportion of users sharing film images online seem to be based in Asia.

One observation I made while on holiday was that most tourists seem to have very expensive pro or prosumer DSLRs. But they mainly use it for typical holiday snaps of people posing in front of various statues, fountains or vistas. For that, a point and shoot at a fraction of the cost would be more than adequate.

Only saw one other film shooter, who incidentally was an Italian tourist.

That may be true! Just last night I ended up walking behind a young Japanese couple after sourcing some filters at Yodobashi Camera. She had a Rolleiflex TLR hanging off her shoulder and he had a Nikon F (I think) hanging round his neck. That's the first time in a long time that I've seen anyone with a film camera, and in almost every case, the person holding a film camera is Japanese. That being said, most of the (tourists) I see in Kyoto are wielding DSLRs or camera phones (point and shoots are getting rarer I think).