I started my photographic journey with a Nikon D40. It soon became my crack cocaine, flickr the pipe that fed me more. I started searching for different ideas, cameras, lenses....and suddenly I REALLY looked at film. Wow! Was all I could say. Then I started looking at Leica, Wow again. Everyone knows how this story goes. Soon you're on ebay and all the used camera sites searching for that bargain. Well, I was lucky enough to find an old 'user condition' Leica M4 on ebay and an old Summicron 50mm lens.

 

My first roll back was nothing spectacular, except for a picture of a warehouse on TMAX 400. The text practically jumped out of the picture at me! The sharpness was truly amazing! I was hooked.

 

For the next couple of months I shot in black and white and some colour. I had mixed results as I worked my way through the stumbling blocks of film - no chimping! I had a cool off period with my pictures after some difficult 'life' events and decided to sell my Leica and my D40 - which I did. I then bought a Nikon P6000 Point and Shoot for pictures of our son or just walking around, and to feed my film lust I discovered the joys of the Olympus OM line - as sharp as Leica (but not quite the same look) but way way way more affordable. An amazing value! And I just purchased a used Fuji GA645 Medium Format - true love.

 

After moving to film I truly discovered shooting, something that gets lost in the digital world with photoshop, lightroom, new lenses, new cameras, sensors, full frame, huge sd cards, presets, auto-focus, auto exposure, filters, tripods, camera bags, lens cleaners, sensor cleaners....when I shoot now, I shoot. If I am street shooting, I set my lens at hyperfocal distance, guage for my exposure and wait for the 'decisive moment.' It's how they did it for 75 years, fairly easy once you jump. When I take a picture I stop and think, look at different angles and compositions. When I put a new roll of film in my camera, I have a new camera. Different emulsions provide different saturations or sharpness. It's fun, it's experimental, it's adventurous but most of all it's a hobby that I can really sink my teeth into - and I haven't yet moved to large format, soon to come - I just trust my instinct and the meter. The drooling I do is over Ektar or Portra- it can't be explained until you get a scan back or a print....incredible.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love digital - hey I have to scan these photo's don't I?? I would know nothing without digital cameras, but once I moved past the beginner stage it all started to look the same. The only thing left to do was to buy better and better equipment for more and more money. Finding bargains in film is fairly easy - yes you have processing and film cost but processing a neg and doing the scanning yourself costs next to nothing. For the same quality I would have to spend $2000 on digital equipment instead of $100 for the camera with lens, and $200 for the scanner - the difference is a lot of film!

 

Digital is great for long exposures, low light, quick changing scences where you need to change ISO, professional services, children, blind photography, and learning. Film and digital are cousins that both provide a need.

 

Once I got out of the equipment junkie mode I started going to the library and taking out old photography books. Once I dropped the word 'digital' I started looking at all sorts of photography books, or photographers picture books. Inspiration is truly endless. My influences are (it's a long one - some are regular flickr members);

 

(Alphabetical order)

  

Robert Adams

Roy Arden

Ian Baxter&

Henri Cartier Bresson

Edward Burtynsky

Gregory Crewdson

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Jackson Eaton

William Eggleston

Walker Evans

Lee Friedlander

Andreas Gurskey

Gary Gumanow

Fred Herzog

Todd Hido

Geoffrey James

Les Krims

Scott McFarland

Joel Meyerowitz

Jeff Otto O'Brien

Bill Owens

Martin Parr

Freeman Paterson

Robert Polidori

Marc Riboud

Gaëtan Rossier

Stephen Shore

W. Eugene Smith

Alec Soth

Vincent Versace

Jeff Wall

Robert Walker

Garry Winogrand

George Zimbel

   

So that's it. The road of learning continues. Next up is flash photography inspired by Philip-Lorca diCorcia and good dynamic street photography.

 

Keep filling up Flickr!