I feel like since I have started shooting film I have grown as a photographer. It has stretched me and taken me out of my comfort zone. In my life, growth has always come from being stretched. But, for some reason when my film camera is in my hand, I feel like I am painting. It’s truly magical.
I will have to write another blog post on the steps I took to learn film photography, but for now, here are the things I have learned from shooting film.
- slow down. In the digital world, we can snap as many photos as we want and take 30 photos of the same thing. But I would be in the poor house if I did that with film. At first it was a scary feeling wondering whether or not I got the shot, but then time and time again of seeing the results of film, I have learned to trust myself with the shot and it is a actually freeing. I take the photo and I move on.
- Exposure. With digital, I used to just use my in camera light meter and not really even look at my exposure settings. But with film, I have to use a hand held light meter. This one It reads the light and will give you a correct exposure. Then you can take that exposure setting and input it in your camera. I love the look of bright and airy images, so I always overexpose my images by one stop.
- patience. after a session, I can not go home and look through my images. I have to send my film away to film lab (The Find Lab) and they develop my film, scan the images and email me the photos. This whole process takes about two weeks. And of course, it is like christmas morning every time I get an email from them letting me know my images are ready.
I could go on, but these are just a few things that come to mind. Here is a lovely maternity session of our dear friends Melissa + Justin in downtown St. Augustine. Baby Oscar, we can not wait to meet you.
