The One Roll Story

My newest project was to take a roll of 36 exposure film and try to tell a story that is unified by a single theme. I finished shooting my roll of film this weekend, and I am thinking that I will do this project again with a different theme.

These are a selection of shots from the roll.

Isn't film dead?

For those that may be following me on other media such as facebook or twitter, you know that I have taken up the old film cameras more and more over recent years, especially since I have learned to process my own black and white films. That does not mean that I don't shoot color film as well, it is just easier for me to shoot black and white since I can process it at home and not have to wait to send it off to be processed and then returned to me like I do with color film.

Why film you may ask? To be honest, I just find there is an excitement in film, an excitement of not knowing what exactly I have gotten until after the film has been developed. I can't look at the LCD on the back to see if I got things right the first time. If I want to make sure I got it right, I have to bracket the shot or hope I got it right on the first try.

Another reason to shoot film, is that the cameras don't all look pretty much the same. It doesn't seem to matter which camera(s) I take out with me, if there are other photographers around and the see them, or even members of the public at large, many will come up to me and comment on the camera that they see, whether it is my 4x5 pacemaker crown graphic from Graphlex or if they happen to see me using a light meter to check exposure. I have had a few nice conversations with people and listened to their memories of film cameras, whether it was listening to an older gentleman tell me about how he used to shoot weddings in West Virginia with a 4x5 speed graphic or listening as people tell me about having their photo taken with the family's Brownie camera. At this point, people don't have those types of memories associated with digital cameras, and I'm not sure they ever will. With their similarity in shape and color, someone might remember the brand name of the camera but that will be it. Just a few of the cameras in my collection, and as of this writing I have used about 41 of them to take pictures with, whether it is sports/action photography, like this shot from the 2013 Burnt Gin Hare Scramble: Or this shot from the Sumter Enduro 2013: The first shot was taken with a Nikon F which has TTL metering but is all manual focus, the second shot is a Leica IIIf rangefinder, which I have to use a light meter for. Many times I go for things that don't move nearly as fast since they are easier to take pictures of with manually focused cameras whether they have a built-in, synchronized meter or not. Those things I can stand around and take my time with since they aren't likely to move very much while I fiddle around with camera settings to get the exposure right and all that sort of stuff. One thing that shooting film has made me do is shoot less because unlike digital, I do not have the luxury of deleting photos to free up space and film cans are a little bulkier than card media for transporting photos, but I would not give up the experience of shooting old cameras for anything.

Exposure

Being a member of two photo clubs in the area has granted me a little bit of insight on the photographic human condition. In one of the groups, other members are very set in what they want to shoot and god forbid, they venture out of their comfort zone and learn to shoot something that they may have no interest in or anything like that. They don't want to burst the bubble that they live in and won't venture out unless it is somewhere that they know. The only way to get better at photography is to get out...to get EXPOSURE to new types of photography that may or may not interest you. Maybe in that new type of photography you will learn a technique that you can use to improve your images in subjects that you do enjoy.

Exposure to new photography can improve your photographic creativity through Exposure settings. How very novel.

Photography thoughts

As I was out photographing some hunter/jumper horse classes today I had the photographer that was contracted to shoot the whole show, ask me about how much I charge for an 8"x10" photograph. I told him that I didn't really sell my photos to anyone, and he seemed offended that anyone would travel across the state to take photographs, just to take photographs and not to make money from it. Has photography gone from being both a profession and a hobby to being purely a profession? I really don't make money from my photography and I have only sold 1 piece and that was to a friend. Every other piece that has been in a show has yet to sell and therefore has been put on my wall. I really do go out over half the state of South Carolina just to take photographs. I know it is a novel idea, to do something you enjoy and not care about how far you have to go to do what brings you pleasure. For me photography has a cathartic effect which is why I always seem to be doing it on the weekends. Then I went back this evening after feeding the dog and cat to photograph a mini-prix jumping competition and was told that I couldn't photograph it because the owner had hired a professional and that unless I wanted to pay a $500 vendor fee I couldn't photograph the event. As far as I could tell the photographer that was hired was fine with me shooting but if my shooting was to spook a horse he wanted my name on file as not being associated with him and I would be on my own if someone were to sue. Needless to say, I didn't have $500 to pay to be a vendor and I didn't plan on being anywhere near the ring to distract the horses or riders. Then at the singing of the national anthem the guy they had singing it managed to flub it so that pretty well ruined it for me and I left after the first competitor. Maybe I will just avoid shooting there since they seem to be so photographer unfriendly.