Is there really a strong interest in film photography?

Mike Lopez · Dec 15, 2022

VinceInMT said:
For me, there is nothing to “go through” as everything is filed by date and content both digitally and physically. And I don’t have a problem with my heirs going through my outtakes, after all, they tell as much of a story as who I am and what I did as the ones that were eventually printed or shared.

For practically my kids' entire lives I've been pointing cameras at them. As they became teenagers, they would sometimes be less patient with me, and the eye rolls almost became palpable eventually, as I would tell them to "go stand over there...now move one step to your left...now take one step forward...ok, now put your arm around your sister...ok, now hold it!"

Little did they know that I was secretly working in my darkroom, making contact prints when they weren't around. I would simply tell them that they would be thankful to have boxes of negatives someday, documenting their childhoods, after I'm long gone. And then right before my son left for college, I gave him a gift: a custom wood box, made by a friend, with 817 finished and mounted prints inside, along with journal entries, poems, and other writings transferred to boards to accompany the prints. I made an exact replica for his mom (we're no longer married, but we're cool). I'll do the same for my daughters when they are of age.

The only problem in the future might be the arguments over who gets which negatives when I'm gone.

CMoore · Dec 15, 2022

Helge said:
Negatives take up basically no space. Especially for their historic and sentimental value.

Stop taking bad photos if you think so little of most of your work.
And you shoot 4x5?

You can never ever predict what frames are going to end up being important or interesting.
A few of the best photos I’ve ever taken was to finish a roll. And I only saw their value years later.

It’s a matter of education and upbringing to get people to understand the importance of negatives. It’s like throwing out any old media: Super problematic and often plain lazy and wrong to do en masse.

About 5 years ago, a member on one of my guitar amp forums asked if anybody had a darkroom.
I said i did.
His wife's brother had, unknowingly, bought the house that this guy grew up in, during the 1940s and 1950s.!!
The brother in-law had found a bunch of negatives, in a box, in the basement.
They were looking through the negs, and this guy recognized his old house, some kids, and a new car his Father had purchased after WW2.
He sent me about 10-15, 6x7 negs, and i made some prints for him.
It was fabulous.!
He was really pleased when the enlarged prints arrived in the mail.
So yeah............ you just never know.

JParker · Dec 15, 2022

Mike Lopez said:
For practically my kids' entire lives I've been pointing cameras at them. As they became teenagers, they would sometimes be less patient with me, and the eye rolls almost became palpable eventually, as I would tell them to "go stand over there...now move one step to your left...now take one step forward...ok, now put your arm around your sister...ok, now hold it!"

Little did they know that I was secretly working in my darkroom, making contact prints when they weren't around. I would simply tell them that they would be thankful to have boxes of negatives someday, documenting their childhoods, after I'm long gone. And then right before my son left for college, I gave him a gift: a custom wood box, made by a friend, with 817 finished and mounted prints inside, along with journal entries, poems, and other writings transferred to boards to accompany the prints. I made an exact replica for his mom (we're no longer married, but we're cool). I'll do the same for my daughters when they are of age.

The only problem in the future might be the arguments over who gets which negatives when I'm gone.

Wow, that's really wonderful!
Your children will certainly very much appreciate your efforts, definitely when they are older.

@CMoore :
Amazing story. Yeah, that's what film photography is for: Archiving essential moments of life for the long term, and for the next generations.

Pieter12 · Dec 15, 2022

Some people are more organized and disciplined than others. I have boxes of prints (less the few choice ones that made it into albums) and negatives stored away, some with notes or dates on the envelopes, some blank. My late mother-in-law would write the location (if not obvious), the names of the subjects and the date of the photo on the back of every picture she kept. On the other hand my mother had a few albums and the rest in large envelopes with prints and negatives (not necessarily together) tossed into a couple of large boxes and bins. There were turn of the century studio shots of her family, my father's WWII photos and family photos off all of us growing up. It has yet to be sorted and put in order, pretty much the ways she left it. My uncle was an avid amateur photographer with a Leica (that had a 3-lens turret) he picked up in Germany after the war. He had a bathroom darkroom in his apartment, most of his prints were so-so. I have no idea what happened to all the photos he took and printed, although some did end up in my mother's hands.

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 15, 2022

Helge said:
Negatives take up basically no space. Especially for their historic and sentimental value.

Stop taking bad photos if you think so little of most of your work.
And you shoot 4x5?

You can never ever predict what frames are going to end up being important or interesting.
A few of the best photos I’ve ever taken was to finish a roll. And I only saw their value years later.

It’s a matter of education and upbringing to get people to understand the importance of negatives. It’s like throwing out any old media: Super problematic and often plain lazy and wrong to do en masse.

I've found as I get older, that getting rid of stuff is freeing. I've carried around or should I say dragged around stuff all my life. Well, it's a drag. Getting rid of stuff lightens the load, and frees your mind and spirit. It's the opposite of G.A.S. Most of it is junk.

CMoore · Dec 15, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
I've found as I get older, that getting rid of stuff is freeing. I've carried around or should I say dragged around stuff all my life. Well, it's a drag. Getting rid of stuff lightens the load, and frees your mind and spirit. It's the opposite of G.A.S. Most of it is junk.

I am right there with you.
My wife, however, is a different story

Pieter12 · Dec 15, 2022

My wife will delightfully get rid of all my stuff when I die. Especially the hundreds of books. My brother’s wife has a rule that for each new book coming into the house, one has to leave. So now he just gets e-books. I can’t do that, most of my books are art and photography books.

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 15, 2022

Pieter12 said:
My wife will delightfully get rid of all my stuff when I die. Especially the hundreds of books. My brother’s wife has a rule that for each new book coming into the house, one has to leave. So now he just gets e-books. I can’t do that, most of my books are art and photography books.

Pieter, I get the print version of Lenswork, a photo magazine/book issued every few months with nice photos. I think you can buy just one before subscribing to see if you like them. They also have web versions to appease your wife.

Try LensWork Online for 30 Days

VinceInMT · Dec 15, 2022

Mike Lopez said:
For practically my kids' entire lives I've been pointing cameras at them…

That’s wonderful Mike. I think that the value of these things sometimes isn’t important until we get older. I come from a family of snap shooters so there are lots of photos of me growing up, something that wasn’t that important to me until I decided to write my memoirs. That writing may or may not be for public dissemination but the photos have helped me reconstruct the timeline of my life in areas that were fuzzy at best.

VinceInMT · Dec 15, 2022

CMoore said:
About 5 years ago, a member on one of my guitar amp forums asked if anybody had a darkroom.
I said i did.
His wife's brother had, unknowingly, bought the house that this guy grew up in, during the 1940s and 1950s.!!
The brother in-law had found a bunch of negatives, in a box, in the basement.
They were looking through the negs, and this guy recognized his old house, some kids, and a new car his Father had purchased after WW2.
He sent me about 10-15, 6x7 negs, and i made some prints for him.
It was fabulous.!
He was really pleased when the enlarged prints arrived in the mail.
So yeah............ you just never know.

A friend from our vintage car club saw me shooting a film camera at one of our shows and asked about how I have it processed. I told him I have my own darkroom and he asked if I could print some negative he had but had never been printed. They were from one of his tours in Vietnam. As a fellow veteran, it was an honor to do so.

VinceInMT · Dec 15, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
I've found as I get older, that getting rid of stuff is freeing. I've carried around or should I say dragged around stuff all my life. Well, it's a drag. Getting rid of stuff lightens the load, and frees your mind and spirit. It's the opposite of G.A.S. Most of it is junk.

My wife and I talk about relocating should she ever decide to join me in retirement. She, quite seriously, says we can’t because “how would you ever move all your stuff.” She’s right. I am a hobby person and have lots of passions and it seems that most of them require floor space and stuff. If she could argue that “you never use that stuff” she might have a point but that isn’t true since I do use it all, regularly: woodshop, vintage cars and all the tools, the photography, my art studio, vintage hi-fi stuff (sheesh, over 20 reel-to-reels and all those tape and don’t even look at the 8-tracks), my sewing stuff (industrial machine for doing upholstery), the electronic repair stuff, the motorcycles (put 20,000 miles on one of them in the last year and half), all the home repair stuff, and the list goes on. If getting rid of all this is supposed to be freeing, I don’t want to be free.

CMoore · Dec 15, 2022

VinceInMT said:
A friend from our vintage car club saw me shooting a film camera at one of our shows and asked about how I have it processed. I told him I have my own darkroom and he asked if I could print some negative he had but had never been printed. They were from one of his tours in Vietnam. As a fellow veteran, it was an honor to do so.

Wow......he waited a LONG Time to see those.!

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 15, 2022

VinceInMT said:
A friend from our vintage car club saw me shooting a film camera at one of our shows and asked about how I have it processed. I told him I have my own darkroom and he asked if I could print some negative he had but had never been printed. They were from one of his tours in Vietnam. As a fellow veteran, it was an honor to do so.

Considering they sat undeveloped for so long, how did they come out?

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 15, 2022

VinceInMT said:
My wife and I talk about relocating should she ever decide to join me in retirement. She, quite seriously, says we can’t because “how would you ever move all your stuff.” She’s right. I am a hobby person and have lots of passions and it seems that most of them require floor space and stuff. If she could argue that “you never use that stuff” she might have a point but that isn’t true since I do use it all, regularly: woodshop, vintage cars and all the tools, the photography, my art studio, vintage hi-fi stuff (sheesh, over 20 reel-to-reels and all those tape and don’t even look at the 8-tracks), my sewing stuff (industrial machine for doing upholstery), the electronic repair stuff, the motorcycles (put 20,000 miles on one of them in the last year and half), all the home repair stuff, and the list goes on. If getting rid of all this is supposed to be freeing, I don’t want to be free.

If she gave up work, you might spend more time together so you don't have as much time for your personal hobbies. Suddenly, you're traveling more, going to the theater, etc. Also, people often downsize their homes in retirement.

Melvin J Bramley · Dec 15, 2022

Craig said:
I'm not sure if it's a revival, but I can walk into my local camera store (The Camera Store) and buy Ilford 4x5 and 8x10 film off the shelf, along with a range of various chemicals, including stuff from the Formulary. I think that's a good thing.

Unless I mail order I have to travel 100 kilometres to purchase 120 film and darkroom supplies .
What we have is not revival but a strengthening of a niche market and good for us it is too.
We now have an unreal situation where digital as in cameras is starting to struggle as the world turns to selfie photography and art by volume !!

Mike Lopez · Dec 15, 2022

VinceInMT said:
That’s wonderful Mike. I think that the value of these things sometimes isn’t important until we get older. I come from a family of snap shooters so there are lots of photos of me growing up, something that wasn’t that important to me until I decided to write my memoirs. That writing may or may not be for public dissemination but the photos have helped me reconstruct the timeline of my life in areas that were fuzzy at best.

Part of what motivated me through the years was my own dearth of pictures from my childhood. My parents just didn't take a lot of pictures of us as kids, and I wish they had. My kids won't have that problem, and they'll also have quite a few very nice pictures of their extended family to remember them by. It was a labor of love, and the acts of printing the pictures and producing the gift for my son resulted in something reciprocal: I got a whole lot of fulfillment and gratification from it myself.

Mike Lopez · Dec 15, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
Considering they sat undeveloped for so long, how did they come out?

It says that the negatives had been kept by the vet for all those years, but not printed. Thus the film was developed (presumably) long ago.

Mike Lopez · Dec 15, 2022

JParker said:
Wow, that's really wonderful!
Your children will certainly very much appreciate your efforts, definitely when they are older.

@CMoore :
Amazing story. Yeah, that's what film photography is for: Archiving essential moments of life for the long term, and for the next generations.

Thank you!

And I agree—@CMoore has quite a story there. That’s great.

Helge · Dec 15, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
I've found as I get older, that getting rid of stuff is freeing. I've carried around or should I say dragged around stuff all my life. Well, it's a drag. Getting rid of stuff lightens the load, and frees your mind and spirit. It's the opposite of G.A.S. Most of it is junk.

I agree. That is true at any age.
But there is stuff that isn’t junk that will often get thrown out in these symbolic, cathartic cleanings if you don’t employ intelligence and careful consideration.
Negatives (and slide) is one of those things that should almost never be thrown out. Like old personal correspondence or personal writing. It takes up so little space compared to how much they form part of you and humanity.

Craig · Dec 15, 2022

VinceInMT said:
vintage cars and all the tools, the photography, ....... If getting rid of all this is supposed to be freeing, I don’t want to be free.

I'm in the same boat. I'd feel so useless if I didn't have my tools, it would be like losing an arm. I couldn't imaging not being able to fix or make something.

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 16, 2022

Mike Lopez said:
It says that the negatives had been kept by the vet for all those years, but not printed. Thus the film was developed (presumably) long ago.

You're right. I misread the post.

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 16, 2022

Helge said:
I agree. That is true at any age.
But there is stuff that isn’t junk that will often get thrown out in these symbolic, cathartic cleanings if you don’t employ intelligence and careful consideration.
Negatives (and slide) is one of those things that should almost never be thrown out. Like old personal correspondence or personal writing. It takes up so little space compared to how much they form part of you and humanity.

I understand your point. That's why I'm creating slide shows of the important pictures and putting them on memory cards in video-playing form with music, title,s credits, etc. Then I;m giving them to my daughter so her family can enjoy them now. This way, they're all done. She only has to play them on her TV or computer or cellphone to see them.

Also on the memory cards are the edited stills so she can use those to make prints if she desires. Saving extraneous pictures that are duplicates or just bad makes no sense to me. I'm not looking at them. Why should she? She isn't going to go through all of them and neither is my wife. My point is that I have to do the curating and editing now. Expecting others to go through them after I'm gone might be expecting too much.

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 16, 2022

Craig said:
I'm in the same boat. I'd feel so useless if I didn't have my tools, it would be like losing an arm. I couldn't imaging not being able to fix or make something.

The problem I have with having stuff is I feel obligated to use them. So when I go out to shoot film, I take my medium format and large format equipment each with its own four lenses. It complicates life. Having less stuff simplifies life and decision-making.

I was up in the attic this morning and found my scuba gear sitting in a bag unused for over twenty years. I also have my Nikonos underwater camera also unused. What am I saving it for? It's like I don't want to move on in life. I'm stuck. I can't let go. Getting rid of stuff frees you up. Clearing out the junk in the attic clears out the junk in your brain.

mtnbkr · Dec 16, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
The problem I have with having stuff is I feel obligated to use them. So when I go out to shoot film, I take my medium format and large format equipment each with its own four lenses. It complicates life. Having less stuff simplifies life and decision-making.

I was up in the attic this morning and found my scuba gear sitting in a bag unused for over twenty years. I also have my Nikonos underwater camera also unused. What am I saving it for? It's like I don't want to move on in life. I'm stuck. I can't let go. Getting rid of stuff frees you up. Clearing out the junk in the attic clears out the junk in your brain.

I totally agree with this. I have 3 hobbies that all involve GAS (Photography, Guns, and Amateur Radio). I've been clearing out stuff as well and have defined a personal rule where N+1 requires N-1+ as well. It feels liberating to get rid of stuff I was not using or only using because I had to make a point to do so.

Chris

VinceInMT · Dec 16, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
Considering they sat undeveloped for so long, how did they come out?

They had been developed back in the day but never printed.

Is there really a strong interest in film photography?

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency