Film is Forever The Place to Be
Why I finally shelved digital and moved back to Film Photography
The last time I wrote a blog post about photography, I said “I knew going into this that I would never regret my decision. The Leica M Type 240 camera (with its lack of features and creature comforts) is everything I hoped it would be.”
I can tell you without hesitation that prior to selling the Leica M 240 digital body, it was worth it and it was everything I hoped it would be. Spending 8 full months with such a gorgeous and precise rangefinder digital camera was an incredible experience everyone should have at least once in their life. Spending the last 12 years with digital was in and of itself a lifetime experience.
By now you are asking yourself — “what happened?” — let me explain.
It almost seems too easy, doesn’t it?
Upgrading to the Leica M 240 surprisingly made me realize a few things about photography, my photography & what I really wanted out of the art.
Over the last 12 years, It made me sick to think about how much money I wasted by continuously upgrading my digital cameras to achieve the newest and greatest technology marvels and use them to help make my photography even better. My skills were applied with the advanced tools in digital to make professional photography more efficient, and overall mitigate any potential for failure with the ability to shoot thousands of photos in a short amount of time. However these advancements did nothing to improve my skills or style as a whole.
I learned it was the most simplistic options of the Rangefinder that helped hone my skills and show me where I wanted to go as a photographer no longer acting in the professional arena — only improving my craft in my personal art shop.
Another thing dawned on me — all of this money being spent on digital equipment, is all in an effort to achieve what we originally created with analog. Thousands of hours and dollars are spent on upgrading and building digital pre-sets to give us that analog film feel. WHY!???
One Giant 35mm “Pixel” Is All I Need
All of those VSCO pre-sets in Lightroom, all of those High ISO capable sensors, all of the equipment that is suddenly rendered obsolete in only a few years is one giant economic game to achieve what has been with film prior to digital ever coming along. How have we convinced ourselves to fall for this game? Why have I let myself fall into this trap?
I fully realize the importance of digital in todays world though. From an artistic standpoint, I feel there is complete saturation (pun intended) of the market on both personal and professional levels with digital. Everything seems the same. I don’t want to feel apathetic to everything that is out there, but honestly it’s hard to differentiate originality anymore when everyone is doing the exact same thing.
With all of the automated tools available in with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom today, I feel the challenge is lost in creating amazing images in the digital world (even though you and I both know I am grossly generalizing). It seems as if the only thing you have to work hard at to make amazing images today is learning new software features to keep up with your Instagram trendsetters.
Leica M240 to Leica M6
My “new” camera is a Leica M6 and was built in 1988. It’s amazing. It’s perfect. It’s built like no other camera today that I have used. Picking up film again is akin to me experiencing digital for the first time so many years ago. It just feels that good.
Not only does shooting with film “feel” good, but I have to teach myself again what developer and fixer combinations produce the best results for me, similar to creating a pre-set in Adobe Lightroom. Only this time I am literally getting my hands dirty to create my images now and the results are infinitely more gratifying.
Perhaps it is the fact I now have a physical object that I developed with my own two hands that makes me feel as accomplished as I do.
It might be that feeling of risk and anticipation in knowing the photos I’m composing will not be exactly as I expect them to be immediately after taking them. Maybe I am to end up with a surprise I did not notice while originally framing my shot. “Chimping” is not an option here (looking at the screen after every shot to make sure I got what I wanted). Every new developed frame is a surprise with character, emotion and romance not experienced with digital.
Maybe it’s because part of the fun is in knowing when I take a photo and someone asks me to see it, I get to tell them to their surprise “Sorry — it’s film. You can’t.” ☺
What’s The Best Part?
All parts above being equal — knowing that I never have to upgrade my camera ever again tops the list of the amazing things one can expect with shooting film.
It’s interesting how we find ourselves over the years coming full circle on so many things in our lives. I guess this is just another example of one of those situations in life. I’m really happy to be here.
Let me know what you think and be sure to Follow me on Twitter @NickMKE
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