Film
Yup. You read that right! I said FILM. Film photography is coming back. More and more people are buying film cameras and lenses and, yes, film! I had two film cameras, a Pentax K-1000 which was my first “real” 35mm camera, and a ProMaster camera which was stolen from me during my divorce and move out from my home. [It still had film in it, too. 🙁]
Once upon a time you could take your film canister into someplace like Walgreen’s, CVS, or a camera store to have your film developed in an hour or less, and you could get your prints and the negatives back quickly so you could look to see how good – or how bad – you did. And, of course, you would buy more film to put into your camera so you could take more photos. For a long time you could buy, and still can buy, throw away cameras that are loaded with film; they were your basic point and shoot cameras. You would shoot all the frames and take the camera into the store to be developed and they would break open the camera in a dark bag and remove the film, and then run it through the chemicals for processing before someone sat down with the processed film and printed what was on the negatives. Yes, I have used those cameras in the past, especially if I was going someplace where I really didn’t want to haul a heavy-ish camera and camera bag. They aren’t bad cameras. The throw away cameras actually take really good photos. They are also good to give to your kids to take photos of their friends, parties, or just the outdoors, and when done you can have the film developed and prints made.
So I have had a desire to get back to film photography. I took a lot of great photos with my Pentax camera, and probably my ProMaster, too, but I don’t remember those photos. I didn’t have a lot of lenses back then because I couldn’t afford them, but I made “do” with what I did have. I even took a course from the New York Institute of Photography and was within one section of finishing and becoming a professional. That was an enjoyable course of study and I’m sad that I no longer have my course materials. [Again, I have no idea whatever happened to them.] I even had a photojournalist badge, but since I didn’t finish the course, it wasn’t validated. However, I never did get into processing and printing my own film. I have a friend that did that when he was taking photos, but that was a lot of chemicals I didn’t want to be bothered with and had no real space to store them or to do film/print developing.
I was just thinking of a time when I was at Silver Springs State Park here in Florida taking a boat ride [I don’t think it was on one of the glass bottomed boats, though] and I was shooting away when I ran out of film in my camera. I rewound my film as fast as I could and I grabbed my camera bag, opened another box of film and loaded my camera as quick as I could,. One woman remarked that she had never seen anyone change film that quickly. Well, heck, I didn’t want to miss anything! [I have been back in Florida for a little over two years, and I live not far from that Park, yet I haven’t managed to get there and see how it’s changed in over 30 years. Someday soon, I hope!]
So, I got itchy and I bought an inexpensive refurbished Canon EOS Rebel Ti film camera and two rolls of 8 print 35mm film [off-brand] to test it out. There are things I need to learn because this camera is very different from my Pentax K1000. Unfortunately it didn’t come with a manual so I had to download one and I’m going to print it so I can learn about this camera. I will say, though, that with the price of film and printing now this probably isn’t going to be the part of my photography that I am going to do a lot. Although, nowadays you can get just the CD without prints and then look at what you’ve taken in the privacy of your home and print what you want and ignore the rest. While a bit early I got this for me for my birthday. You might recall that I had purchased a Canon Powershot Pro1 camera two years ago for my birthday and I have fiddled with it from time to time. I just haven’t been anywhere to take photos, which is my fault. [Being body limited right now I can’t take photos like I used to, and want to, so I have to learn what my body can do for the photos I want. The word for 2026 is LEARN!]
Digital. Film. Phone. Polaroid et al. Throw away [they do come in digital, but those are harder to find]. Professional. Amateur. Just for fun or for profit. Photography has been with us since the mid 1800s, believe it or not. And it will be around for much much longer, I hope. [And I am not discussing video because it’s not something I do , like some folks don’t “do” Windows.]
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