A few months back, I moved a box in the attic looking for one thing only to find another… my second SLR, a Canon Elan 7 film camera.  Immediately I thought to myself, I bet I could have some fun with this thing (if it still worked)!  So off to the store to find batteries and film.  The batteries was the easy part, the film… not so much.  But I was able to find some ILFORD HP5, which is ISO 400 Black & White film. With a loaded camera, I was waiting on the right opportunity to try her out.

Film is beautiful. It has a depth to it and a painterly quality in the way it captures light and texture that digital just isn’t capable of capturing…

The funny thing about film, is that you can’t get instant gratification by looking in your viewfinder.  But the anticipation of wanting to see the results is a priceless!  By not being able to check every picture, immediately after shooting it, you can focus on what you are about to photograph, rather than what you just shot.

During the holidays, I found myself in Demopolis, AL at my grandparents house and   below are a few of the photos that I snapped.

Photo of my dad in the garden

Photo of my sister in the garden

Photo of my older sister Van, baby sister Von and dad next to my grandfather’s shed

Photo of my me in the backyard

Least to say, I was very satisfied with my results and plan on shooting more B&W film in the near future.

It’s easy enough to desaturate a digital photo in post processing, but it’s really not comparable to shooting in black and white. I love film grain in B/W photos, but if it’s digitally added, it just doesn’t look right. But more importantly, if you know you are shooting in black and white, you can keep it in mind when composing your shot, to get the most out of any contrasts and shapes in the frame. Something that’s easy to forget if you’re shooting a digital color photo, which you may or may not convert later.

One thing about shooting film is that it’s definitely going to make me a better digital photographer for many reasons.  I’ll share those reasons at another time.  But for now,  If you’re looking for something different and/or are interested in a B&W photos like this, send me an email and we’ll see if we can swing it! They’re totally fun!!

Talk to you soon,
Richie