how do people react when you tell them you shoot film?

[MartinCrabtree]

Lots of pot smoking horses 'round here.

 

[Jeff Bradford]

I occasionally get comments when I'm out shooting.

Passers by: "Ooh! What kind of camera is that?"

One particularly enthusiastic lady: "Take my picture! Take my picture!" (posing for Pentax 645 on tripod)

Older gentlemen: "Is that a ____?" [Hasselblad, Bronica, Mamiya, Leica, Rollei, never Pentax]

Younger gentlemen: "I have an old camera. How much do you think I could sell it for?"

Parents, to children fascinated by a TLR on tripod: "Leave him alone! Don't you dare go near that expensive camera!"

Cell-phone ladies, to each other, as if I were a mannequin: "Ooh! Look at that neat camera that guy has! Take a picture of me standing next to it!" I always patiently oblige.

Cell-phone tourists, to my sister instead of me with three cameras around my neck: "Can you take our picture with this iPhone?"

Only with the Polaroid Land Camera: "Where do you get film for it?"

Expensive Canon DSLR users: "How can I do such-&-such?" or "Do you know how I change this setting?"

Nikon users (every single one of them): "I have a Nikon" (I have one too. I just don't show it in public.)

Occasional nut, never the subject of my photo: "You can't take my picture! I won't allow it! I'll sue you! I'll kill you!"

Mall Security Officer in 1987, in a camera store: "You can't have a camera in here. We don't allow photography."

My sister-in-law once handed me her iPhone and asked me to photograph her with my brother in front of a scenic lake/skyline background. My brother stopped her. "He doesn't take pictures with cell-phones. Its against his religion." I told her it would be okay just this once, since I hadn't brought a real camera with me.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

(In response to "Do they still make film?")

I just quietly respond "No". Then I assume a mischievous grin to signal they might want to think a bit deeper before they reply further. Then I wait silently to see how long it takes to finally become clear...



Ken

Ok, I must be dumber than a box of rocks because it's still not clear to me :confused:

 

[Sirius Glass]

(In response to "Do they still make film?")

I just quietly respond "No". Then I assume a mischievous grin to signal they might want to think a bit deeper before they reply further. Then I wait silently to see how long it takes to finally become clear...



Ken

Ok, I must be dumber than a box of rocks because it's still not clear to me :confused:

Remove the lens cap to see it more clearly.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Why would anyone go to the trouble of being out with a film camera and going through the extended motions of making film photographs if film was extinct?

So maybe it's not??

The questioner obviously knows what film is, and what it's used for, and that I'm holding a film camera. Otherwise they would not have asked that question in the first place. The problem is that they chose to stop the thought process right there.

Often the seeds of an answer are already present within the context of a question being asked, if one would just pause and think for another moment or two about it. This is true in all areas of life.



(When the light does finally go on I never make a big deal about it. I just quickly move the conversation along to apug.org and Freestyle, and just how much fun these older film cameras can be...)

Ken

 

[Sirius Glass]

Why would anyone go to the trouble of being out with a film camera and going through the extended motions of making film photographs if film was extinct?

So maybe it's not??

The questioner obviously knows what film is, and what it's used for, and that I'm holding a film camera. Otherwise they would not have asked that question in the first place. The problem is that they chose to stop the thought process right there.

Often the seeds of an answer are already present within the context of a question being asked, if one would just pause and think for another moment or two about it. This is true in all areas of life.



(When the light does finally go on I never make a big deal about it. I just quickly move the conversation along to apug.org and Freestyle, and just how much fun these older film cameras can be...)

Ken

Gosh when you 'splain it, that takes all the fun out of it.

 

[removed account4]

theo no you aren't dumber than a box of rocks ...

it is a valid question, but unfortunately the person who answered it in a snarky " i'm so funny" condescending way didn't realize how valid it actually is.

to a lot of people who don't know any better, film is pretty much extinct ... ( after all kodak went bankrupt ) most people have never heard of foma or iilford ...
fewer people than ever using film, their their local mini labs went belly up, grocery stores and drug stores don't "send-out" film or have mini labs anymore.

unlike the person who claimed film couldn't be purchased anymore, some people currently coat their own film.
so it really doesn't matter if companies don't make it and the format is extinct because they are doing it themselves !
go to http://www.thelightfarm.com -- on the front page is an image/images made from self coated 127 film ...
it's not bought in a store or online, and it's not 20 years old from a freezer.
it is emulsion made from scratch, and then coated onto film base just like "it used to be" ...
so the uninformed former film user, has no clue that a camera that looks old, "vintage" could be an obsolete /orphaned format
and could either be used with store bought film, or self-coated film, or even photo paper wound on a spool.

... when i use dry plates i get asked all the time "can you still get those" .
i don't make snarky comments, i answer no, you can't buy them pre-made .. then i tell them i make them myself.
and if i am using a 3A graflex (an obsolete / orphaned format )i have to hand roll my own spools of paper.
when asked about that camera and the film it takes ... again i don't make snarky comments, or make the person feel like a fool,
instead i tell them its not sold anymore commercially, and i roll my own spools of photo paper .

i photograph locally, and have for a long time, and i don't make fun of and alientate people for asking me questions about what i am doing.
instead, i educate them .. and then sometimes take their portrait ( and deliver it to them at a later date ) ...
it is obvious not everyone is ontop of ( or cares ) what films are still being made and how some obscure guy in france
is selling hand coated rolls of paper, or someone in russia sells glass plates ... sure we might know that stuff but most people don't.

being a smartass and snarky when taking photographs in public ... it does no body any good.
and does no one any good to do the same thing here on apug. plenty of people come here , see these threads where digital or lomo or holga users
( and even people that have a lab develop+print their film, or they use a scanner and printer )
are called not so nice names, it is a turn-off and they don't come back ( and they probably tell people what they read ).

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

theo no you aren't dumber than a box of rocks ...
it is a valid question, but unfortunately the person who answered it in a snarky condescending way didn't realize
how valid it actually is. to a lot of people who don't know, film is pretty much extinct ... ( after all kodak went bankrupt )
their local mini labs went belly up, grocery stores and drug stores don't send out film or have mini labs anymore.
some people coat their own film so it doesn't matter if companies don't make it and the format is extinct.
go to http://www.thelightfarm.com and the front page is an image/images made from self coated 127 film ... not bought in stores, not 20 years old from a freezer.
but emulsion made from scratch, and then coated onto film base just like "it used to be" ... ..
... i get asked all the time when i use dry plates " can you still get those" and the answer is no, you can't .. and then i tell them i make them myself.
and if i am using a 3A graflex, i have to hand roll my own spools of paper, seeing film isn't made for it anymore.
not everyone is ontop of ( or cares ) what films are still being made, or there are companies in russia you might find something at, or once a year through a special order overseas ..

i don't really get the point of being a smartass and snarky when taking photographs in public ...

Apologies to everyone for this latest outburst. I wish I could control them, but I can't. And a special apology to Theo on John's behalf. We've spoken via PM several times already. So you and I both know the truth.

Moderators, can someone please contact John offline and have a word with him privately about his behavior before I do it publicly? If I do it, it won't be pretty, and I'm right on the edge. APUG deserves better than this from its membership.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[film_man]

Now it's the brain dead digital wannabees who confuse quantity of both dollars spent and images made with quality. To say nothing of fun.

I've had family members get married and in one case, the woman taking the pictures had, of course, the latest Canon. At least she had an assistant using an umbrella reflector. She turned all the images over to my daughter, boy, did they suck. I improved them 300% just by running them through a batch auto-level program. Skill-less.

When my father shot weddings, he had a Speedgraphic, a big box of film holders, a giant "strobe" that powered off of a big brown box with a wet battery and DC to AC to DC converter. Then, of course, into the darkroom. His pictures were reliably perfect, unlike Ms. Digital. OTOH, both she and her assistant were far better looking than my father, if you get my drift.............

I'm always amazed when people complain about their wedding photos, don't people see a portfolio before hiring someone? Sounds like a typical shoot n burn shooter, turn up, shoot the photos, get $500 turn over a DVD. You get what you pay for.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Had a great experience yesterday. I had just finished shooting (4x5 wooden folder on a tripod) and was folding the camera up, when I heard someone ask. “Is that a 4x5 or a 5x7 folder”?

Turns out he owns a film processing lab in Melbourne’s inner south eastern suburbs.

He went on to say that although there had been many labs closing, he was now processing much more film, not necessarily because other labs had closed, just more people shooting film. Big increase in 120 processing, Lomo stuff it seems.

Mick.

 

[eddie]

I'm always amazed when people complain about their wedding photos, don't people see a portfolio before hiring someone? Sounds like a typical shoot n burn shooter, turn up, shoot the photos, get $500 turn over a DVD. You get what you pay for.

Since most marriages end in divorce, it's probably best not to invest too much in the photographs... :confused:

 

[removed account4]

Since most marriages end in divorce, it's probably best not to invest too much in the photographs... :confused:

or the "client" can get kind of cranky

at least the dry cleaners weren't involved

 

[film_man]

Since most marriages end in divorce, it's probably best not to invest too much in the photographs... :confused:

Might as well not have a wedding then. Will save you even more...

 

[Theo Sulphate]

A photographer's real nightmare:

Divorced Man Sues Photographer for $48,000 To Recreate 2003 Wedding
http://petapixel.com/2011/11/03/divorced-man-sues-photographer-for-48000-to-recreate-2003-wedding/

The full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/n...reation-of-wedding-after-divorce.html?_r=2&hp

 

[Roger Cole]

Not at all true, sad to say. At my closest Walgreens, nothing. Across the street at CVS, a few disposable cameras, a few rolls of Fuji color neg. Wart-Mart, just last week, even less than the CVS, one peg of Fuji film.

And then what do you do with it? See my post: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I but it exactly the same place now as I bought B&W and color slide and even some pro C-41 in the 80s and 90s when I lived in a small town - from B&H and Freestyle. The only thing that has changed is that the Internet makes this much easier.

Similar with E6 processing (send it off in the mail) and B&W (do it myself.) Only C41 has changed in that I now mail it off too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk and 100% recycled electrons - because I care.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

I'm always amazed when people complain about their wedding photos, don't people see a portfolio before hiring someone? Sounds like a typical shoot n burn shooter, turn up, shoot the photos, get $500 turn over a DVD. You get what you pay for.

That doesn't mean my daughter and hubby-to-be, both very well tech educated and employed, would have known.

I have a sample portfolio album of my father's, shot 1956. Since he had been doing wedding for ten years before, not sure how he marketed previously.

I also converted the wedding photos to B&W. Ah......so much better!

 

[VisualDarkness]

Mostly people don't react to it, they just say that "you're a great photographer" even though I certainly don't feel like one. Though it's much nicer to get that reputation and not get the "you got a good camera" one all the time. The ones that do react mostly think it's cool and ask me if I develop the film myself.

I feel like the young people (as I am) today are way more open to the shoot with film part and genuinely interested in it than the many of older men currently only shooting digital. It's like a trend back towards film photography with young adults today and it follows some other retro going back to the roots trends. In this highly digital world of today truly physical interesting medias provide an interesting contrast and that is why we are seeing vinyl records and film cameras getting an upswing today.

One thing with shooting film is that you get to hear so many interesting stories from people as it seems to awaken old memories of the past. One day in Stockholm I got a lecture on the nice old phone booths (that just recently was taken down) from a man that built the last ones produced. Another man jokingly called me an idiot as I was so young and shot film with a bellows camera. It turned out that he was an ex photographer for the city of Stockholm and had been shooting film his while life.

 

[Tamara]

But pro photog who I have met frequently at demos starts to ask me questions about wet printing.
After a few answers I ask why. He says the only way he can get payed digital commissions is with a silver halide print portfolio..

Not a pro photographer, myself, just a writer. However, some of my columns or articles do require print-ready color photographs. Seeing as how everything is sent to editors in digital format these days, my beloved film cameras are next thing to useless to me for work. (Although I've been thinking about building up a stock of negative scans I could use for a couple of submissions, just as a lark.)

Humorously, an editor offered me a bit of a suggestion for cropping a submission a couple months ago, and wryly noted how much worse it was in the old days to be crowding up on deadline and get the negatives back, only to realize you'd left a glass of scotch or pack of smokes in-frame on the oh-so-casually-un-posed product photo.

 

[Xmas]

Might as well not have a wedding then. Will save you even more...

Nostalgia is always dear.
It is very difficult to get any paid commissions even with a specialised arts degree from established uni and being good.
Lots of former established chums have trained as school teachers or got office jobs just to eat.
Many weddings are iPhone weddings where bride take a laptop on honeymoon and has all the stills and video emailed before she takes the flight abroad.

 

[ericdan]

Using my Ricoh GR1v, I've been laughed at and told "you need to seriously get rid of that piece of sh*t".

 

[Xmas]

Using my Ricoh GR1v, I've been laughed at and told "you need to seriously get rid of that piece of sh*t".

You try the reposte 'the number of aspheric surfaces for a prime ...'

Or

The guys who decorated the Sistine Chapel used old tools.

 

[film_man]

That doesn't mean my daughter and hubby-to-be, both very well tech educated and employed, would have known.

I have a sample portfolio album of my father's, shot 1956. Since he had been doing wedding for ten years before, not sure how he marketed previously.

I also converted the wedding photos to B&W. Ah......so much better!

What I mean is, did they not see a portfolio before hiring said photographer? If so the expectations would have been set, unless the photographer used a fake portfolio so in that case it is a different issue.

Anyway, I suppose if you are not that photographically involved choosing a wedding photographer is a tricky business for something you don't understand much and unfortunately there are far too many incomptenet lowballers that can blag their way into your wedding day even with a so so (or worse) portfolio...

I always advise friends/etc to make sure they see at least two full albums from the potential photographer, this way they get an idea of what they're actually getting as opposed to 20 shots which are just the one best shot he/she chanced from 20 different weddings.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

What I mean is, did they not see a portfolio before hiring said photographer? If so the expectations would have been set, unless the photographer used a fake portfolio so in that case it is a different issue.

Anyway, I suppose if you are not that photographically involved choosing a wedding photographer is a tricky business for something you don't understand much and unfortunately there are far too many incomptenet lowballers that can blag their way into your wedding day even with a so so (or worse) portfolio...

I always advise friends/etc to make sure they see at least two full albums from the potential photographer, this way they get an idea of what they're actually getting as opposed to 20 shots which are just the one best shot he/she chanced from 20 different weddings.

Friend. It's done. Just an observation of The New Wedding Photography Business is. I don't know how, why, or how much the photography cost. Doesn't matter. Drop it, OK?

 

[removed account4]

What I mean is, did they not see a portfolio before hiring said photographer? If so the expectations would have been set, unless the photographer used a fake portfolio so in that case it is a different issue.

Anyway, I suppose if you are not that photographically involved choosing a wedding photographer is a tricky business for something you don't understand much and unfortunately there are far too many incomptenet lowballers that can blag their way into your wedding day even with a so so (or worse) portfolio...

I always advise friends/etc to make sure they see at least two full albums from the potential photographer, this way they get an idea of what they're actually getting as opposed to 20 shots which are just the one best shot he/she chanced from 20 different weddings.

hi film_man

the wedding photographer we used was with 30 years experience and from a studio
that had been around for IDK 50-60 years maybe more ... maybe my expectations were
higher because i shoot professionally, but i have to admit it was an experience.
certainly wasn't "now" when the happy couple is given 10,000 proofs to look at, and a multi media demonstration.
it IS a tricky business, and while i have done some weddings bar/bat mitzvahs &c
in my past, i'm not that much of an adrenalin junkie or feel comfortable enough in such a litigious society
that i would ever be involved with that sort of thing except tangentially as a friend with a camera.
too many nightmares i have read and heard. on the same note, i have a friend who has made a living
the past, IDK 20-30 years or more shooting wedding videos, film, digital, super /regular 8+16mm ..
and i have heard some real "interesting" stories from that end of the market as well ...

 

[film_man]

Friend. It's done. Just an observation of The New Wedding Photography Business is. I don't know how, why, or how much the photography cost. Doesn't matter. Drop it, OK?

Sure thing, just conversation mate, that's what forums are. All done here.