Hi! It’s been a long while since I wrote something. I hope you are all doing okay. As for me, my portraiture here in my new city is sloooowly picking up. I couldn’t complain, better slow than none at all, right? So here, this will be quite longer than what I usually write.
This is my roller coaster emotional ride in rediscovering my love for shooting film.
Anyway, one day during my lull time, I decided to open my Filmbox where I keep all my analog cameras, developed rolls, and unused film. It has been 4 years since I last shot my last roll of film. [As some of my readers know, I got swallowed up with wedding photography and its monstrous side a couple of years back.] Upon seeing these beauties, I instantly got the urge to shoot film again. So I got some batteries and loaded them up and went for a two-day photo project. Unpleasant surprises abound – My Diana Mini’s shutter worked for a while before it’s shutter mechanism broke down, the Recesky’s shutter pole snapped, the Minolta X300s just stopped working completely after two shots, and my first love, my favorite Fujica ST605’s metering just went haywire! All those happened in two days so just imagine the PAIN and the SADNESS I felt. These are my babies, and seeing them die down on me was just excruciating. So, after a week of wallowing in sorrow I decided not to have them fixed and just let them retire. They have served me well, accompanied me through my years of victories and defeat, my travels, my daily adventures, and most importantly they were my pills for battling my condition.
Determined to go back shooting film I searched for camera sellers here in Cebu and Online, to ease the pain of the loss and give myself a chance to rediscover my passion for shooting film. I first considered getting a Leica M6. Who wouldn’t, right? But my heart sank and my wallet cried to know how expensive even the most out of shape Leica M6 are. So the search continued and I stumbled across this Soviet Camera Store and instantly fell in love with the Praktica Super TL + Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar f/1.8. It was also my wife’s first choice between it and the Zenit.
Excited, I immediately ordered films online, and after a just a few days, the camera and the 35mm rolls arrived. I immediately loaded it and the following day went outside for a shoot! I searched for local developer here and had my roll processed.
To my shock and utmost disappointment, the processed roll was the dirtiest and most uncared for negatives I’ve ever seen! I started doubting the camera at first, but I know deep down that it was the developing (please see below). I had some okay frame, but the rest were dirty, and it seemed that the chemicals used were Outdated, Dirty, and the handling was horrific!!! These are the only “usable” frames I consider, still very dirty.
No, I wouldn’t name the developer here in the city. I will just consider it as maybe a fluke, maybe consider to have my rolls developed there when I feel like having a shoot from the hip, I-don’t-care, super hardcore lomo-ish, photographs. They have the lomographic look, don’t they?
So, frustrated and in doubt, I searched for a better film developers and came across Sunny16Lab (they accept films outside Manila and also internationally). The only thing, it is located in Metro Manila and I have to ship my rolls there. So in a week’s time, I loaded 2 rolls of film (Acros100 and Fujicolor c200) to re-test my new love, the Praktica. After 5 days (shipping time included), I got the scans, and damn they were carefully handled, processed professionally, beautifully scanned! Below are the sample shots, nothing artistic or special because my main goal was to test the camera and find a developing shop that I could trust my films with.
Fujicolor C200
Fuji Neopan Acros 100, PUSHED TO 200, thus the contrasty look, and I love it!
When I received the scans the Love for Film Photography re-ignited inside me! …but why do I love shooting film? Is it because I find my analog cameras sexy? Is it because I am an old soul stuck in a digital world? Honestly there are some things that cannot be explained fully, but one thing I am sure of is I love the process –
I love how shooting film slows me down and not fire at will, I love the way it makes me look around better and find beauty in the mundane, I love that I am beginning to see in light and shadows again, I love hearing the cranking sound when I cock the film advance lever, I love the feeling that after I take the shot I cannot delete it and it is there physically on film already, I love that I am learning more and more about shooting film and photography, I love the anxiety that comes when waiting for your films to be processed, I love the feeling when I first look at the shots I have taken and knowing I made that shot manually.
Certainly, I fell in love with shooting film once again, and this time it is sweeter – maybe because I am older already and I am in the path of pursuing of my happiness. I don’t have anything against digital photography, heck I still shoot digital on my paid gigs. It doesn’t matter if I earn from shooting film or not, but hey, I would love it when one day a client would ask me to shoot their portraits purely on film. That would be a bucket-list checked.
I am also thankful to my wife for letting me indulge in this love affair with film photography, and with that I will continue shooting until I can.
Keep in touch if you like and I will share thru this blog and my IG (@edu_bw & @edu_hues) my future film photography adventures, and also my pursuit to owning my first Leica M6… would you help me? If you want to donate your old Leica or an Olympus SP 35 I would whole heartedly accept! Joke… jokes are half-meant. Hehehe! Wishful thinking!
P.S. If you are in Cebu or nearby cities in the Philippines, you might wanna buy 35mm film from Back to Film. Thanks!
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