Days of Ilford
Just finished looking up one of my old archives. Found a folder named Ilford, one of my favorites BW grainy films. Beautiful rendering of gray tones, superb granularity, and its easy development process appealed me. I was thinking what I lost and what I've gained since I stopped shooting on film and started the digital age. In the beginning, I had two cameras with me. film and digital. I guess it worked for a while until my neck cracked up.
Why did I give up on film? I got to hand it to you, digital is practical. I mean, boom, there you go, live view, instant review, push-to-wifi and here I am, Instagram! Yea. And those filthy 64Gb Ultra Speed III blah blah SD cards. More photos. Thousands. Readily available. But something is lost in this process. It becomes a mechanical process. Photography is no longer an incentive to contemplation. It becomes fast-food. Gigabytes of fast-photos. No substance whatsoever for 99% of them.
I remember the film was getting pretty expensive in its "final" days. Only 36 positions. 12 even on medium format. It compels you to stop. To feel the scene. To construct it. There's no delete button here. There's no instant preview. Given the correct setups, exposure, shutter speed, you must get it right in all terms. It was something else. It is like reading a paperback book versus a kindle one. Or a god damn pdf file.
Digital has something immediate in its rendition of colors. Film was dreamy. Film was perfect for artistic photography. It promised an altered reality.
If you go out with your 1000Gb SD card plugged into one expensive digital SLR, limit yourself to 36 frames, as an experiment. And then review the images at home. Pretend that you have to wait for the development process. Don't use the instant review. You will get a glimpse of the joy of shooting film. And I might just switch back to my double cameras set-up. Just waiting for the Easter bunny to see if he is kind enough pointing at my wife and gives me one rangefinder.
I miss my Ilford days!
Photographs below were shot on film, Ilford Delta 3200 pulled to 1600, Nikon f90x, 18-35mm, 35mm, etc.
Really nice to see your old film shots as an exclusively analog photographer. Easy to see that you were still killing it back then. The second last one is particularly good, so interesting, so much depth. I agree a lot with what you say about the limitations of film and I think it's really a huge part of what makes me love the photographic process.
Thanks, Jake, for stopping by. Totally agree about the joy of the process itself. I really feel the need to get back to it.
Majoritatea pozelor sunt facute in Maramures?
Da, unele la Memorialul Durerii.
Da, am recunoscut! Felicitari!
Merci. Sotia este din Sighetu Marmatiei. A trebui sa ajung si pe la socrii. :)
I'll try sending telepathic messages to your wife...
Mine gives me "the scorn" every time I stop and drool in front of these shops filled with old Leica and Nikon rangefinders (and there's quite a few here in Tokyo).
Ah, man, you're in Tokio!? So nice! God, one day I will go there too!
Haha, I get what you mean about the looks, man. Thanks for positive prayers. I hope they can reach my wife's heart and melt it into getting me what I wish. :)
I really enjoyed this photo album! very strong pictures, well done, really!
I am glad that you enjoyed it! Thank you for stopping by. Checked your blog also. Beautiful photography. I followed for more.
thanks man!
I followed you for upcoming works too.
There’s nothing like film. I miss everything about it...
Indeed. But I'm soon making a comeback! :P
More power to you! I’d love to. I don’t currently have the resources.