The Decline of Film Photography

I have never really shot on film before. Even in college while I was taking my photography program, the film portion had been phased out. I just never saw the point in it as it was an obsolete technology that I considered inferior to the instant result and affordability of digital.

My attitude towards film is not totally my fault. To fully understand where I'm coming from I have to take you back to 2003. The year when 50 cents "In the Club" and Black Eyed Peas "Where's the Love" reigned supreme over the radio stations people still listened to. At this time, I started working in a Photo Electronic department that developed photos and sold cameras. People still regularly bought film and had it developed via the 1 hour or 1-week service. But I was catching the tail end of film and within the five years I worked there, I saw the rise of digital. Instead of people buying rolls of film, they bought memory cards and film slowly went away.

Fast forward to now, I am a professional photographer who has shot thousands and thousands of photos and when doing so I, like most of my peers, edit my photos to have a "film look" The reason we do this is that photos from a digital camera can look somewhat bland whereas film has great colour and offers so much style.

Film has fascinated me for some time now. I actually bought a film camera two years ago but I was intimidated by the learning curve. It became one of those things you say you will do, but then never actually do like cutting down on sugar. As more time passed, the idea of slowing things down, taking my time with every photo, not having endless amounts of options while editing as well as embracing the imperfections really spoke to me. Then I came across this post from Mastin Labs The easiest " learn to shoot" course in the world. The main takeaway for me was to buy a cheap roll and just go for it and don't worry about the outcome. Today was that day I finally quit sugar.... well I didn't cut out sugar because it's impossible, but I decided to do something easier and shoot my first roll. It was more fun than I anticipated and I anxiously am awaiting getting back my photos which I will share in my next post.