A Whole New Experience
I wanted to give an update sooner, however I was waiting on the results of my first roll of film that I shot on my Pentax ME. However, because I shot my first roll on black and white film, the place I’m getting it developed takes a while to do that, versus color film. This is something I want to learn more about as well as I visit that store more and more.
The update I wanted to give was my reaction to the shots I took on my very first roll of film. Since I can’t do that until a few weeks from now, I at least want to share my experience shooting on film. The entire experience is completely different and it actually broadened my love for photography. It didn’t even feel like I was creating the same art form as with digital photography. My one big take away from this new experience is that I’ve been reminded about how easy everything is now a days. With our smart phones and digital cameras, the device does almost all the work for you. Something thats true about a lot of other things in life. We have made things much easier for ourselves than it used to be. So much so, that it’s taken sense of accomplishment and pride out of our daily lives. We’ve relied so much on this new easy life that without the instant gratification from our daily tasks, we start to panic.
Shooting on my film camera means there is no instant gratification. You can’t click a button to see if you got the shot. You can only hope for the best. Also, there isn’t any kind of visual representation about how the shot will turn out before you hit the shutter. Well, except whether something is in focus or not of course. But is the shot overexposed? Underexposed? No clue. All I could do was rely on my camera knowledge, without any kind of visual indication that my settings were correct. Other than looking at the final result once the photo’s developed.
It was actually kind of stressful. But more than anything, it was exciting! The funny part was, my digital camera’s SD card can store thousands of photos and sometimes I struggle taking even one photo. Meanwhile, my roll of film only has 36 exposures on it, and I was taking photos of absolutely anything, just trying to complete the roll. I believe that the process is what made the difference. A little bit of it was the excitement of not knowing how the photos will turn out until the roll is finished. But the extra technical thinking you have to do to make up for the ease of use a digital camera provides for you is what adds that pride and accomplishment to the art.
I just started my first color roll the other day. So we’ll see how that goes. But i’m pumped!