My First Foray into Film (Part 1 of 2)

Once again my photography had pretty much stalled out. The glory days of photographing the South Carolina coastline (see Sea Gallery) had long passed. Now, several failed attempts later at restarting my creative engine, I have landed on the doorstep of film. Not the fancy moving picture type but the old school 35mm variety. Call it a cry for help, or a mid life crisis, but I needed something to get the ball rolling again with my creative work and hey, this couldn’t hurt could it?

It seems to be all the rage with the hipsters to pick up old film cameras and start photographing dilapidated gas stations on the outskirts of town. However my interest in the medium was more in the classic, idealistic, globe trotting, photo journalist sense. I’ve always had this crush on the idea of being a Nat Geo photographer on the ground in some war torn country snapping shots of a crying mother holding her baby after their home was just shelled by the great oppressor. But seeing as how I don’t even have a passport I’ll probably just start things off at the old gas station outside of town.

The first order of business was to find a camera. I had a general sense of what I wanted based on my requisite YouTube research, but availability and finances were my main constraints. It had to be cheap enough for my wife to give me her blessing but nice enough that I would actually want to use it. After a quick search on Facebook Marketplace I found an irresistible deal on a Canon AE-1 35mm camera with a 50mm prime lens. Not the nicest camera on the block but plenty sufficient to get my photojournalism career on the right trajectory. With the wife’s blessing in hand and my Venmo app on the ready, I set out to purchase my first SLR film camera.

The nice lady that sold me the camera gave me ten rolls of film that dated back to when Saved by the Bell was a thing and MTV played music. Nevertheless, I made the assumption that the film was properly stored in a freezer for the past two decades and was as good as new. So I loaded the camera and ran off to the backyard to document the mysterious foliage growing along my back fence, which I later found out was a neglected weed that had grown into a mid-sized tree. Then I photographed the dog, the family, and just about anything that seemed noteworthy to get through a few rolls.

I was hooked. The act of taking a photograph with no immediate gratification was exactly what I needed. It took me back to my high school days in the dark room discovering how awful of a photographer I was at a painstakingly slow pace. It also catapulted me forward into my fantasy world of documentary photography in the African Congo. I blasted through five rolls of film in no time. I never made it to that gas station though… 

No one tells you that purchasing a camera and some film is arguably the easiest and least expensive part of this process. Developing the film and getting prints is a whole other can of worms that I’ll tell you my story on next time. Speaking from experience though, you shouldn’t cheap out on this part of the process. Let the pros do what the pros do unless you want to invest in a rather large amount of archaic equipment and lethal chemicals.