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The Future is Film

Lessons from my first experience with film photography.

By Ashley SmithPublished about a year ago 3 min read
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The first scene from my Montana film roll.

Your mistakes are beautiful.

In 2021, I set out on a journey to regain confidence in my photography skills. One semester in a college digital photography class had wiped away any notion of talent I thought I had. During some spring cleaning, my grandmother came across an old box. The tattered cardboard was home to her old film camera she forgot about in the early 2000’s as digital cameras made their way into view. It was a Pentax K1000 she purchased in the late 70’s. “The newest model,” as she described it. She offered me the camera, and I spent the next several hours researching ways to make it work again. It turns out, a single battery was all it needed to start capturing images again. Of course, I decided to make it my entire personality. In a week or so I had a new lens and several YouTube tutorials bookmarked. I didn’t know much about the technical nature of my new-to-me camera, but I did know that I was thrilled to begin traveling with the same camera my grandmother took all over the world.

Knock-out roses from Grandmother's garden.

The first lesson I learned in film photography was how to choose the correct film. In July 2021, My grandparents and I took a trip to Montana and Wyoming. I was so certain I’d leave with the most aesthetic pictures — Instagram here I come. I knew that for my subjects, range of lighting and color preferences I’d need a brand of film that was both versatile and well-trusted. I settled on Kodak Portra 400. The best way, however, to choose a film is to test it out. Shoot on several kinds, and take stock of what suits you best.

Montana Summer 2021.

The second lesson I learned was how to use a light meter. Most older film cameras have built-in light meters.The Pentax K1000 has a light meter that is built-in, meaning you match the needle through the lens — a (TTL) light meter. In other words, the needle in the viewfinder automatically adjusted to the lighting, and it was my responsibility to adjust it as needed. This is also an excellent test of patience and skill. If the light meter needle was too high, I knew to adjust my aperture, ISO or shutter speed. There really is nothing like attempting to photograph herds of bison while your grandfather hits the brakes and says not to get mauled while worrying about the light meter on your camera straying too far away from the center.

Glacier National Park double exposure.

The third lesson I learned from my first experience shooting on film is to choose a credible film lab to have your photos processed in. Major drugstore brands have terrible reputations for ruining film and even losing it in some cases. I settled on a small lab based in Ohio that I knew would take care of my negatives. In 2 weeks, I had the digital scans, prints and negatives back.

A triple exposure, starring Grandmother.

Once you work through the technical challenges of film photography, you can get to the heart of the medium — preservation. The memories I have from this trip get to live on in clumsy, vintagey film photos I was way too proud to take. My photos aren’t perfect. Most of them aren’t even aesthetic. In fact, many of them were underexposed or, to my surprise, double and triple exposed. (I still have no clue how I managed that.) Even though my photos weren’t perfect, and I’m still not an expert on film photography, I’m excited to keep pursuing it. My attempts may be clumsy, but with persistence and YouTube tutorials, anything is possible.

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About the Creator

Ashley Smith

Creative writer, people person.

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  • Jessabout a year ago

    Love this insight! I'm still learning to use my dad's film camera from the 90s, and it's definitely been a journey full of beautiful mistakes

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