Why I Shoot and Love 35mm Film

I shot my first roll of film in August 2010, and I fell in love. Before that, I hadn’t shot a film camera since college before digital photography was the norm. I took a film photography class and learned that I was terrible at developing my own negatives, then put the camera away until 2010. By then I was totally smitten with photographing everything and wanted to dip my toe back into the world of 35mm film.

It was so much better than I remembered.

At first it was kind of awful. The camera I have, a tiny Pentax SLR, has a manual focus lens, which requires slowing down — way down — and it took a while to get the hang of it. But I was persistent, and I shot as much film as I could afford. In fact, I rarely picked up my DSLR, always favoring those slow film shots.

I acquired a Holga 120 and Polaroid Land Camera, and shot both with abandon, even though I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was that I was having fun.

In 2012, I decided to do a 365 project exclusively in 35mm film. It was expensive and challenging and the ultimate trial of my patience, but again I persisted. Then I put my film camera down. Despite loving it so much, I needed a break and knew if I wanted to get serious about portrait photography, I’d need to reacquaint myself (and master) my big DSLR again. And so I did.

Then, in October, I decided to write myself a list of things I hoped to do before my next birthday, and I knew I wanted to include shooting film. I missed it. I missed the richness of it, the slowness, the frustration and the joy. And, I thought, it’s not hard to shoot a roll of film in a month. Right? Right.

Well, a month’s worth of film can be kind of random. Photos of my kiddos? Check. Photos of flowers? Check. Photos of the light hitting the garage in the morning? Check. So, here I am sharing the best of what’s left from my film from March (see the rest here). And I already have a new roll in the camera for April to capture all of this month’s spring-y goodness.

Thanks for looking!