19.Sep.2010 Falling in love with photography all over again

I have been in love with photography for some time and now I am falling in love with photography all over again. I am learning about traditional film photography developing and processing. Two weeks ago I used a 12 year old Minolta Maxxus HTsi I picked up on craigslist to shoot my first roll of 35mm black & white film for my class. Then learned how to develop that roll of film. Before I even made my first print, I acquired 3 more film SLRs, a Minolta SR-T 101, SR-T 201 & SR-T 202, from a dental specialist who has used camera’s in his practice since the 1970’s. I commented that I thought it was neat that he was using a DSLR to photograph my teeth and mentioned that I am a photography major, the next thing I knew, I had a beautiful camera in hand and 2 more on the way.

Thursday, I learned how to make what my instructor calls an “archival quality print,” so now I have a print I made, from a roll of film I developed, of a photo I took. There is something magical about the whole process. Yes it takes a lot of time and patience, but the outcome, seeing the blank paper slowly reveal the image is worth the wait. I am so used to taking color photographs, I often rely on the pops of color to create interest in my photographs. I am learning that I need to be more conscious of light and shadows when using black & white film to create the more striking images. There was no question which photo was to be the first one I would print, it was the one that had the more dramatic lighting and shadows.

When I started learning about film photography, I thought it would be something I would try, appreciate and never do again. Boy, was I wrong. Now that I have 4 film SLR cameras, multiple lenses and the basic knowledge of film developing, I find myself researching negative scanners and cheap used darkroom equipment. I am looking forward to learning more and more about different film photography techniques, as well as techniques that apply to all forms of photography.