Ambiguity

by streetsofmine

I hate shooting with film cameras. I also love it.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

I hate it because it’s frustrating.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

First of all it’s expensive. Even if you make the compromise of buying the cheapest color film and converting it to b/w on your computer afterwards. I could have bought a decent compact camera from the money i spent on film and development in the last couple of months. For a student with small budget this is a problem.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

Secondly, i am not used to wait after taking a picture to finally see it. Shooting digitally you can instantly check if you nailed the exposure etc. With a film camera you sometimes wait a week only to finally receive some blurred and underexposed negatives.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

So why do i more and more often grab one of my film cameras instead of my digital gear?

Yashica Electro 35 GT

I think it has something to do with how analogue cameras changed my whole approach to photography.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

Since i bought those two cheap rangefinder cameras i’m taking pictures almost every day. Whenever i leave the house, i take a camera with me. Impossible to do so if you use a DSLR.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

I also think shooting film makes me pay more attention to the light. Most current digital cameras offer ISO ranges up to 12500 or even more, so you can take pictures in any situation without worrying about blur or underexposure.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

In the past, this often led me to forget about the aesthetic value and creative potential of decent lighting conditions. Being limited to ISO 400/800 you have to be more aware of the light you’re shooting in.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

But even more importantly, i learned that i highly overrated things like sharpness and having as little grain as possible. I noticed how much i liked the grainy quality of some of my recent pictures.

Yashica Electro 35 GT

The streets aren’t clean, so why should my pictures be?