Back in September, I finally picked up a part of photography that I should have dabbled in the past: using 35mm film. Whenever I explain this to someone, especially to someone who didn’t have digital SLRs or Mirrorless Cameras at my age, it feels weird when I express how much joy it brings me. The casual nature of shooting film and how relaxing it is. It brings a level of authenticity to the medium and that’s usually when I get the look of “yeah, no s**t, that’s all I had growing up”. I find it quite funny, because it's something I haven't experienced until now. Perhaps I shot a couple photos here and there with disposable cameras when I was a small child, but it didn't peak my interest until I got the prints in hand. However, now as an adult, I find it to be exhilarating. After shooting digital for six years now (definitely feeling slightly older now) film has brought this newfound excitement to the way that I shoot in general.

I think people are tired of hearing people who shoot film say that it helps the photographer “slow down” or “be more intentional with your shots”. To that I have to say, most things that are considered cliche are quite true, so I agree with those two statements. I just like the possibility of what shots come from the roll of film. What does it look like? Did it come out alright or did I mess it up? It can become an expensive mistake (if you look at it that way) but there's something about that waiting process that brings me joy.

I had considered giving it a try when I was preparing to go to San Francisco in September of last year, and while printing out photos at my local camera store, saw a reusable, simple, point and shoot film camera for less than twenty dollars that came with a roll of black and white film in it. I figured it might be the cute couple thing to do at first, since this would be my first trip traveling with my girlfriend, just the two of us. So, I picked it up and brought it with. It was that trip, as well as the scans that came back, that really got me pumped to continue using film.

A huge shoutout to this lovely lady here, who did take majority of these shots during our adventures in California.

With my newfound interest, I was then gifted an Olympus Superzoom 760 along with an Argus M-1000 point and shoot camera.

I have mainly been using the Olympus since then, and have five rolls of film to develop and scan, but I luckily have some examples to show. Everything below was shot this past December, with the Olympus Superzoom using Lomography Purple Film Stock. Honestly, some of these turned out way cooler than I anticipated.

I just genuinely enjoy the look and feel of 35mm film. This is how it turned out, and of course I could probably edit them a bit, but I prefer not to, just to see how the camera captured the image. I still have some room to grow, to perfect the art of it, but I look at film as my “hobby” in a sense. Digital can be reserved for my professional shoots until I get enough practice to use film, but for now I’ll use film to have fun and keep capturing those memories. It’s a bit more expensive to get into, once you look at the cost of film, getting it developed, if you want digital scans or prints of it…yeah it definitely adds up and the costs to get those done aren’t cheap. Along with the news that Kodak will be raising its prices of their film stocks by 20%, it’s gonna be very costly. Good news, though, is that film is still around and feels very popular in the world of photography. I’m glad that I finally got into it and gave it a shot. Below are some of the film stocks I’ve been using if you’d like to check them out!