Falling in Love All Over Again… with Film!

I did something completely rebellious in this day and age… I switched back to film! The Chicago Photographer Group went on a photo shoot in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago and I decided to tag along. This was pretty cool. Only problem, no DSLR. Didn’t want to look like a dork with my little point and shoot, so I dug out my good old fashioned film camera.

My first thought was to grab my Nikon 6006. I love this camera. It was my first camera out of college. I had fun in photography school with this camera. It’s my friend. It won’t let me down on the photo shoot.

Unfortunately, the batteries had no trouble letting me down. And the back up batteries. And the back up, back up batteries. Perhaps it had something to do with letting the camera take a nap the past several years while I played with my digital camera. Never mind the fact that I had just been at Calumet camera that day and forgotten to buy batteries.

Yes, I know, I’m a big, fat hypocrite. I wrote a blog on the importance of back-up batteries last fall.

Quick thinking, I need a camera which doesn’t need for batteries. Time for old school. Time for really old school. I dug out the trusty old Pentax Asahi K1000. This was a hand-me-down camera just waiting patiently in the back of the closet. It had a fifteen year old battery in it, but I had no idea what the battery was for anyway.

Photo taken by Gokhan Cukurova

Film, film. Ok, dug around the old camera bag and found some film that expired in 2006. Time to experiment.

To Pilsen We Go

The Chicago Photographer group met at Kristoffer’s Cafe, home of the most awesome Tres Leches in Chicago according to photographer Vanessa Frosch. Our group consisted of 7 photographers from Chicagoland (and me).

Gokhan Cukurova, of Cloud Veil Photography, set up the group for wedding and portrait photographers (and me) to have a fun outlet. He led us on an awesome tour, taking photos with his slave flash. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what a slave flash was either.

Time for laughter

Are you wondering how I managed to take photos without a light meter? See, the battery compartment in the Pentax did have a purpose. The camera was completely manual, but it did have a little light meter so you could set exposure. And that light meter needed a battery.

Having friends with DSLR’s, I was able to go off of their exposure meters to set my own exposure.

I know, you’re dying to see some of my bad photos. So, here’s one of Gokhan and his flash. See my hand over the right side of the photo? You can witness my “excellent” hand position in the photo at the top taken by Samuel Barr.

Wondering why it’s grainy? Well that’s what happens when you turn the aperture ring rather than the focus ring. The focus remains blurry, but you just narrowed the aperture. Bonus.

Hey, that’s why you hire one of the other guys in my group. Wen, Kevin, Matt, Karen, Sam, Gokhan, and Vanessa all took way better photos. I’ll show you some of their shots along with some video of the event next week.

It got even better when I started taking video of the portrait session on my point and shoot. Switching back and forth between a digital camera and stone age one was humorous. I kept forgetting to turn on the p & s because there was no power button on the Pentax. And, I was looking to review my photo on the back of the Pentax. Confusing.

The Pentax was quite the little darling of the photo shoot. Wen just marveled at the process necessary to load film. And I hope she doesn’t hate me for posting this photo:

photo taken by Kevin Bailey

The all-metal body feels so good in your hands. It has a real shutter advance. It makes a real sound when the shutter clicks. It’s just awesome.

Photo comparison: old film SLR vs. digital point & shoot

Ok, I’m not always that bad at taking photos. Here’s a better one taken on the Pentax:

And here’s a similar scene taken on the point and shoot:

The comparison makes me remember the why I loved film, or SLRs anyway. Notice how you can read the store signage in the point and shoot photo? Yes, I can blur it in Photoshop. The point is that having control over your exposure and focus enables you, the photographer, to determine the point of your story, or the subject of your photo.

I miss the ability to control the storytelling aspects of my photos. Yes, I can use scene modes and Photoshop to make up for some of those missing features. And you can’t beat the convenience of a point and shoot. But when I want to take a really good photo, I’m going to grab an SLR. Preferably one with batteries and recent film.