If you follow along on instagram, (which you totally should! It’s where all the new stuff is!), you know I’ve been very into film photography lately. This summer, I bought a vintage camera off Facebook marketplace decided to teach myself to shoot film. Why?
The simple answer is- it’s everything my iPhone is not.
It’s intentional- you only get one shot to get it right. And even then, you don’t know if you got it right!
You have to wait. there’s no instant gratification. waiting for the scans to come in feels like the night before Christmas as a kid.
It’s real. Some of the things I’ve seen photoshopped lately… changing how people look, where the setting is… something feels so strange to me about changing the photos so much from how they actually were.
It’s not perfect. The natural graininess, the soft focus, the light leaks… every imperfection just adds to the beauty & aesthetic, and the raw and the real.
It’s nostalgic and timeless.
It’s also hard. Harder than shooting digital for sure! And I love a challenge. Nothing has improved my work as much as adding in shooting film. I’ve always been someone who rushes and likes to be the first one done, so making myself SLOWWW DOOWWNN and wait has made all my sessions just so much better. I no longer just click away at the shutter seventy times in a row, thinking “there will be a good one in there somewhere”… now I make a good one, right then and there.
Curious about adding film photography into your session? I’m one of few Minneapolis film photographers.
