When I started taking pictures there was no digital cameras around but even when the first digital camera was released it was not until smart phones came out that I started taking pictures using digital.
The reason being that film was what I was used to and to be honest I found digital cameras very fiddly. Lots of unnecessary buttons to push and pull and lets not start with the focusing.
So roll on a few years and I get my first smartphone which, lets face it has basically turned the entire world into photographers. I was really impressed with how you can just take a picture and then edit it in the palm of your hand and then ping them on Instagram and have an instant audience.
I had lots of fun doing this for a few years, mainly family snaps that would be uploaded to Facebook and I also started experimenting using black and white and some lomography featuresas well.
So roll on another a few years and then I start to realise a few things about photography and the direction it is heading. The first thing is that I started to feel I was losing a real skill of taking real pictures. I started to get board as well. The things you can do with a digital photo is endless so it was a bit strange that I would get bored. I think the main reason why I got bored was I did not feel connected to the pictures I was taking and they started to become a bit "throw away". It all became a bit too easy in the end. When things get easy for me I loose interest very quickly.
Shall we roll on a few more years.
I then stumbled across one of my old battered film cameras in a box in my loft. It looked a bit worn out and extinct but was certain it had enough life to take some pictures again so I bought some film and took it for a test roll. It was actually really exciting just wandering around taking pictures of random things, not really knowing what I was doing really and not really think about the subject matter, just content with shooting film again. You really have to think about your shots where as before I was just snapping away and not thinking hence why I was becoming less and less connected to the photos. I am not a gear head and certainly not a technical wizard when it comes to taking pictures so I wont be able to explain to you why I got hooked on film again. All I can say is that digital and film photography both have a place in the photography world. One is not better than the other, they are both equal and young photographers should be encouraged to take pictures using film and get involved in the development process. As more and more Street Photographers use film and looking at how fast the genre is growing I cant see film going away anytime soon.
Here are some of my film photos.
