At the beginning of this year, I would have never expected to be here, but alas here I am.
I'm 43, and cut my teeth on film, shooting it heavily from about 1989 to about 2001, primarily as 35mm slides, when I gave into Digital, and thought I would never come back. After my Mom passed, I found some old 6x6 transparencies I'd shot on a Seagull TLR I got in 1992 that I really liked, and I elected I'd shoot a roll of film through it if I stumbled across the camera. A week later, I discovered it, bought a roll of Velvia, and ran a nostalgic roll of film through it to see what I could get.
Despite some terrible focus calibration between viewing and taking lens, I was oddly bitten by the film bug, and actually sought out a Yashica TLR despite correcting the focus issues in the Seagull. Later, I discovered the world of folding cameras as I looked though a local antique store, and then a bad spell of GAS took over. I now own eight German 120 folders: three Zeiss, two Agfa, two Balda, and an unmarked Franka, and have shot film on all of them. I love the way I use discretion and careful judgement when shooting film, something I'd started to stray from when using digital. I love sending off rolls taken over the course of a month, and being greeted with a parcel full of images of my field trip memories when coming home from work.
I do miss the selection of films once available, and have managed to scour up a few not too stale samples of Provia 400X and Astia 100 to shoot while I still can. I really miss Kodachrome and only wish I'd have known of the 6x9 folders earlier as I'd have loved to have captured some images in my newly beloved "near sheet film" format.
I have a blog at http://quirkyguywithacamera.blogspot.com in which I share camera reviews, images, and scans of decades old slides that spotlight my love for both photography and history.
I'm 43, and cut my teeth on film, shooting it heavily from about 1989 to about 2001, primarily as 35mm slides, when I gave into Digital, and thought I would never come back. After my Mom passed, I found some old 6x6 transparencies I'd shot on a Seagull TLR I got in 1992 that I really liked, and I elected I'd shoot a roll of film through it if I stumbled across the camera. A week later, I discovered it, bought a roll of Velvia, and ran a nostalgic roll of film through it to see what I could get.
Despite some terrible focus calibration between viewing and taking lens, I was oddly bitten by the film bug, and actually sought out a Yashica TLR despite correcting the focus issues in the Seagull. Later, I discovered the world of folding cameras as I looked though a local antique store, and then a bad spell of GAS took over. I now own eight German 120 folders: three Zeiss, two Agfa, two Balda, and an unmarked Franka, and have shot film on all of them. I love the way I use discretion and careful judgement when shooting film, something I'd started to stray from when using digital. I love sending off rolls taken over the course of a month, and being greeted with a parcel full of images of my field trip memories when coming home from work.
I do miss the selection of films once available, and have managed to scour up a few not too stale samples of Provia 400X and Astia 100 to shoot while I still can. I really miss Kodachrome and only wish I'd have known of the 6x9 folders earlier as I'd have loved to have captured some images in my newly beloved "near sheet film" format.
I have a blog at http://quirkyguywithacamera.blogspot.com in which I share camera reviews, images, and scans of decades old slides that spotlight my love for both photography and history.