Unpretentious film photography in digital age

miha · Oct 19, 2020

With everyone using their smartphones to take the odd snap of their surrounding, I wonder, does anyone here take ordinary snaps on film, develop AND make darkroom prints on a regular basis, put prints in albums and have a look at them from time to time..., like so many amateur photographers of decades ago?
No "art", big format, etc. prints, just unpretentious, album-size prints of everyday life, and stuff/people one finds interesting and worthwhile photographing?

Anon Ymous · Oct 19, 2020

Yes, I do take snapshots on films of all kinds and process them myself. If I had a darkroom, I'd definitely print from bw films, just like I did in the not so distant past. Right now, I scan and print the occasional shot, then place it in an album, or a box.

PFGS · Oct 19, 2020

miha said:
With everyone using their smartphones to take the odd snap of their surrounding, I wonder, does anyone here take ordinary snaps on film, develop AND make darkroom prints on a regular basis, put prints in albums and have a look at them from time to time..., like so many amateur photographers of decades ago?
No "art", big format, etc. prints, just unpretentious, album-size prints of everyday life, and stuff/people one finds interesting and worthwhile photographing?

With the caveat that until a few months ago I was mostly scanning, not printing (darkroom was out of commission for a few years while my kids were too small for me to have time for it) this is exactly what I do - about .5 to 2 rolls shot over the week, about 6 to 12 prints on the weekend, best ones go in albums but some are made for the fridge or my kids' rooms, dupes and seconds go in a box for grandma, who isn't picky about dust or contrast so long as the kid is in the picture. From 35mm I usually print 5x7, sometimes 3.5x5, from 6x6 I usually print 8x8, sometimes 5x5. Sometimes I do "wallets" from 6x9 contact prints. Mostly family stuff, walks in the woods, portraits, random stuff from the neighborhood. I still shoot lots of digital too but no longer have a photo-quality printer for those; I was good at that before I wore out my Epson R2400 but never enjoyed it as much.

pentaxuser · Oct 19, 2020

miha, the process you describe is all I do. In the last few weeks I now have a very primitive mobile phone that can only deliver indescribably bad photos but it will remain a tool for delivering emergency messages to Scotland such as the large movement of English troops heading for the Scottish borders

pentaxuser - the Scottish mole embedded deep in England

Ko.Fe. · Oct 19, 2020

Rangefinder.ru I'm member if it. Plenty of those who does what OP is wondering. Including moderator. Some even have tried digital, sold and just film.
It just cost arm and leg these days.

DWThomas · Oct 19, 2020

I'm not too casual with film, but I do often use it on vacation travels as more of a documentation than "art." I very seldom print album type stuff, as a significant percentage of the people I share the photos with are friends and family not local to my area, so it goes out in my web gallery. My film shooting is mostly B&W which lends itself to my interest in things structural or mechanical.

Tom Kershaw · Oct 19, 2020

I do sometimes do "casual" work with film, but will also use a digital system. As most of the films I use are at the more expensive end of the market I'm probably more cautious than if I was working with FP4 / HP5 Plus in 35mm...

bsdunek · Oct 19, 2020

That's the way I do 99% of my photography. I find no enjoyment sitting at my computer with PhotoShop. Wet prints all the way.

BradS · Oct 19, 2020

Yes. Virtually every photograph I have taken in the past 20 years has been a snapshot. However, I often drop films at a lab for processing and I also use large format for casual photography.
I did do some paid work back when there was still some money to be made doing photography but even then the vast majority of the photos I took were just snap shots, personal memories.

NB23 · Oct 19, 2020

Sure. I do this every day. Shot these just the other day.

NB23 · Oct 19, 2020

I’m also right in middle of the process of printing all my kid’s everyday life moments from the last 12 years. I’m about 5000 prints so far, size ranging from 3.5x5 to 5x7. 50-60 prints a day, everyday.

It’s fun, relaxing and truly rewarding.

miha · Oct 19, 2020

Thank you all, most interesting and illuminating.

darkosaric · Oct 19, 2020

miha said:
With everyone using their smartphones to take the odd snap of their surrounding, I wonder, does anyone here take ordinary snaps on film, develop AND make darkroom prints on a regular basis, put prints in albums and have a look at them from time to time...

Yes, only I don't put them in album, but in the box, as there are so many of them.

warden · Oct 19, 2020

It's the unpretentiousness of old photo albums that I like. Yellowed pictures of Grandpa posing in front of his '53 Buick or whatever. I can't imagine anyone putting a picture of me standing next to my vehicle in an album!

Anyway I don't make photo albums but I do like printing in the darkroom and looking at the pictures from time to time. They're all casual snaps and I just print them on 8x10 paper and keep them in the Ilford boxes the paper came in. I just leaf through them like loose pages of a book.

PFGS · Oct 19, 2020

NB23 said:
Sure. I do this every day. Shot these just the other day. View attachment 257429 View attachment 257430

I don't want to turn this into a gear thread, but - I'm very interested in whatever time machine you are using to raise your kids in 1963, or however else you are keeping contemporary ugliness and squalor out of the frame.

wyofilm · Oct 19, 2020

Yes. I learned some years ago that if I take a cell phone image (or an image from a dslr) it will likely never see the light of day. Now I print (nearly all b&w, though just started color) the best. Into a frame or box or in the mail they go.

NB23 · Oct 19, 2020

PFGS said:
I don't want to turn this into a gear thread, but - I'm very interested in whatever time machine you are using to raise your kids in 1963, or however else you are keeping contemporary ugliness and squalor out of the frame.

oh, those are not my kids, just a very fine neighborhood whith a large hassidic jewish community. Those people are very photogenic.

Also, I am VERY allergic to cars, cell phones, running shoes, baseball caps and the 2010-2020 physical person in general (actually 1990-ongoing). I tend to choose my subject carefuly and I try to compose so I have the least visual pollution possible. Not cropping in the darkroom helps to get the shot in-camera. I am extremely selective of my subjects and backgrounds.

As for the time machine, photography is such a magical thing. I’ve stumbled on the work of a local photographer on instagram. Shots from the 80’s. What 40 years can do to photographs is totally amazing...

Charles Escott-New · Oct 19, 2020

Looking at our photo albums covering a near lifetime, apart from family pictures, the ones that stir most memories are photos of the places we have lived, flats, houses, gardens, snaps of motorbikes and cars owned, holidays, and dogs. I wish I had taken more photos of friends from university days, but we were otherwise engaged. I gave my niece a nice camera with a couple of spare lenses to take to university as she said she wanted to build a record of her time there.These albums have been especially important this year. The arty shots don't cut it. All the best, Charles.

MattKing · Oct 19, 2020

One of the great things about photography is that you can easily mix artistic creation with memory recording - even on the same roll of film.

miha · Oct 19, 2020

Charles Escott-New said:
SNIP I gave my niece a nice camera with a couple of spare lenses to take to university as she said she wanted to build a record of her time there.These albums have been especially important this year. The arty shots don't cut it. All the best, Charles.

Was it a film camera?

PFGS · Oct 19, 2020

MattKing said:
One of the great things about photography is that you can easily mix artistic creation with memory recording - even on the same roll of film.

In my house those are known as the "dad pics," vs "the ones everyone else wants to see."

Helge · Oct 19, 2020

NB23 said:
Sure. I do this every day. Shot these just the other day. View attachment 257429 View attachment 257430

These are brilliant. Are they staged?
They’d be very good either way.

blockend · Oct 19, 2020

I generally make photobooks of the year just passed, plus ones on holidays, events, landscape and street. I find people spend more time poring over images in a book than loose prints.

miha · Oct 19, 2020

blockend said:
I generally make photobooks of the year just passed, plus ones on holidays, events, landscape and street. I find people spend more time poring over images in a book than loose prints.

Why not albums?

Cholentpot · Oct 19, 2020

I take most of my kids snapshots using film. B&W film at that, and odd formats. It's really a timeless look and I get to print them. I don't print in the darkroom much but I scan every single frame with a DSLR which is about as much work as making a print honestly. So my kids will look back at their childhood in black and white and color shifts. Yes, I use a digital camera from time to time and my cell phone. The vast majority of photos are on film though, about 100 rolls a year ranging from 16mm/110 up to 4x5.

NB23 said:
oh, those are not my kids, just a very fine neighborhood whith a large hassidic jewish community. Those people are very photogenic.

Also, I am VERY allergic to cars, cell phones, running shoes, baseball caps and the 2010-2020 physical person in general (actually 1990-ongoing). I tend to choose my subject carefuly and I try to compose so I have the least visual pollution possible. Not cropping in the darkroom helps to get the shot in-camera. I am extremely selective of my subjects and backgrounds.

As for the time machine, photography is such a magical thing. I’ve stumbled on the work of a local photographer on instagram. Shots from the 80’s. What 40 years can do to photographs is totally amazing...

Montreal? I wonder if you've got any of my cousins in those shots.

16mm on microfilm

Messed up development temps but I still like the snap.

Unpretentious film photography in digital age

miha

Anon Ymous

PFGS

pentaxuser

Ko.Fe.

DWThomas

Tom Kershaw

bsdunek

BradS

NB23

NB23

miha

darkosaric

warden

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Unpretentious film photography in digital age

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