my descent into film photography
Motivation
Some time in mid-late 2019, perhaps coinciding with getting a Google Pixel 3a with a pretty stellar phone camera, I became dissatisfied with the fact that I could take so many pictures of the same thing that it was hard to really appreciate said thing being photographed.
My mind turned to a hobby that has been seeing something of a resurgence: film photography, which nowadays is also known as "analog" photography to differentiate it from its currently understood digital counterpart.
Film photography isn't foreign to me: the earliest photos of me, and well through my childhood (through about 2003) were all on film. At that time, film was a means to an end of preserving images. I shot film as a kid, although on point-and-shoots and, yes, at one point, that dreaded APS format. I remember when my dad would drop off film at Vons through a kiosk towards the front of the store, and about a week later we'd come back, pull out our complete order from a drawer, complete with prints. There was always excitement because we never knew how the photos would turn out; we'd go through the photos (double prints, 4x6, "matte finish please") one-by-one to relive those memories. To this day I use photos as a crutch for my memory.
Coming back to film has a different purpose now. One of those purposes is not the objective quality of the image or the ease of capturing it; digital cameras far and away get superior images in a much more accessible way. This time, it's the physical representation that is captured in a very tangible manner: light bounces off the subject, which can be someone I love, and strikes the photosensitive layers of the film. Developing this image captures this subject for posterity in a way that isn't so easily moved as bits of a JPEG.
Which brings me to my particular focus on film photography: portraits. I have so many friends and so many non-friends who take excellent landscape photos. While I might photograph an interesting landscape myself, I personally see less of a point since there are people with vastly superior cameras who can show up to the same place with much better preparation to get a much better shot. But I can view that photo online, and it'll be there tomorrow if I were so inclined to see it. But a person -- my friends, my family -- they change from day to day and year to year, and not everyone with great cameras (or any cameras, really) is capturing that moment.
You'll never forget your first
In December 2019, I went home to southern California for winter break, and in one of the early days of the break I drove to OC Camera in Mission Viejo on the recommendation of one Ken Rockwell and bought for myself a Canon AE-1 Program, in black. It's got the classic body of a film SLR, which is perhaps essential if you want to get people asking, "do you shoot film?".
The biggest reason I chose this camera was that it had a Program mode, which saved me from having to figure out exposure myself. Having an SLR camera, as opposed to a point-and-shoot, was also important to me, because I wanted to have the ability to try out the many lenses available for the Canon FD system.
Now, Mr. Rockwell had noted it would be particularly inexpensive, but it had been many years since he'd made that suggestion and also I'd started to catch a wider resurgence in film photography. I think I got a body and 50 mm f/1.8 lens for around $200. Although nowadays I would consider that a lot (a better price may have been around $100), the body was in terrific shape.
A small camera bag (actually designed to hold a large lens), some film, and a nearly forgotten tripod later, I was on my way home with my first film camera.
Asides: remembering the things I didn't know then
Writing in early 2022, I now know the relationship between ISO, aperture, and shutter speed; prices for good cameras; rudimentary camera/lens repair; the effect of the focal length and aperture on the image. But as a beginner, I remember at one point mixing up the difference between the 35 mm film format and a 35 mm focal length (especially when saying the words, "thirty-five millimeter camera").
Portraits were taken
Now, I didn't take only portraits, but I sure did tote my camera everywhere. Looking back, many were out of focus (well, many still are). Being so used to great indoor photos on a cell phone, I started having a hard time keeping photos from being blurred at the whopping ISO 160 I was shooting at. Back at OC Camera, I had contemplated getting more lenses, but the staff there recommended I try out this particular camera and lens combination for a year, to get a feel for what it's like, and then try other lenses.
Also at Ken Rockwell's recommendation, I mailed out my film to The Darkroom in San Clemente for processing and scanning. There's nothing quite like receiving your first batch of film photos back and reliving it. Their service is very good, although I found their standard scans somewhat lacking; I'd change to a different lab soon.