35mm has set me free, again. đź“·
I needed to get back to my photography roots. Film was the way.
Shooting film changes the way I capture images here in Tokyo. There’s something about this urban setting and film helps tell a different kind of story. To me, it adds mystery. It adds an element of surprise. My digital cameras will always find good shots, but film adds a tactile experience that goes hand-in-hand with this concrete jungle.
I began my love of photography over thirty years ago when my parents let me use one of their SLRs during high school. I took a few years of photo courses, and when I graduated, they gave me a Minolta X-7a and I began to capture photos like this:
I was always very deliberate about how I shot. The camera was always up to my face during live shows and I never missed a moment. A number of years went by and I stopped shooting. Life got in the way and one of the last photos I took on a film camera was this one in 2003.
I never really put down the camera and hopping on the DSLR train in 2009 with a Nikon D5000 allowed me to remain shooting behind the lens. Am I dating myself? I suppose, but what that means is that I’ve had a lot of time to think about what photography, and shooting film, has done for me. Not only did I have fun way back when, but I was creating what I thought was important.
Currently, shooting film makes me think about my surroundings differently than on my digital cameras. I’m faced with 24 or 36 frames on a roll and I have to be more deliberate, but at the same time being spontaneous (while making sure I can capture those images without wasting film.) The other day, I started banging out frames faster than I normally do and my roll was done. I was kinda pissed. Regardless, I’ve become a seeker. I look for unexpected moments but I’ve also found myself asking people if I may take their photo. That’s the deal here in Japan. One may be committing a crime by taking photos of people, and the legal history of this goes back decades. That said, I’m pretty careful when I’m taking photos of passers by. Read this article from Donny Kimball that says more about this issue.
I’m developing my film at home and I love it. It helps me think about how the roll will look — are the exposures too dark or light? Too much grain? Am I making sure the temperature of the developer is at a particular temperature every time? What brand of film am I using and am I allowing the correct time for it to process in the tank? I’m sure much of this doesn’t make sense to some folks, but I’ll be getting to this in future articles. So what I’m trying to say is, my creation will never be fixable if I screw it up. Then again, what if I want to mess with it to see what strange things are created, it’s up to me as well. No RAW digital file exists to edit and re-edit so I need to be aware of every single little thing. It’s awesome.
“No RAW digital file exists to edit and re-edit so I need to be aware of every single little thing.”
I’ve been shooting with five different film cameras lately. That’s too much and I’ve recently narrowed it down to one. I was a collector of cool old cameras, but I also get rid of excess.
I’ll leave you with a few frames. How do they make you feel? Is there a different kind of emotion going on here? Do you connect with them? I sure do.
Thanks for reading. Visit my website shutteradvance.com and check out my Instagram channels for some extra camera candy. jgarcia.35mm and shutteradvance đź‘Ť
#film #35mm #streetphotography #tokyophotography
