Film Photography in the 2020's and beyond part one

 Film Photography has never been more accessible than it is today. There's an article on Hamish Gill's excellent 35mmc film photography website that tells of buying all you need to have a home darkroom for £100/$100. For about the same price you can buy an inkjet printer and do it digitally, which is my chosen method. For less than the price of a DSLR and kit lens you can buy a decent Film Camera, a couple of lenses and the minimum kit you need to develop film at home. Add to that the ability to "scan" your negatives with a DSLR, a Macro lens and convert it to a positive with easily available and affordable software; Film Photography makes more sense than ever before.

After reading that opening statement, you might just be asking yourself "Hang on a minute, why would anyone want to shoot film when they have a digital camera?" It's a valid question and the answer is as varied and complex as the number of ways to compose a photograph, never mind process the image, print it and proudly hang the fruits of your labour on your wall. I can only answer this for myself as we are all as individual as our DNA and fingerprints, but there will of course be similar answers from each and every film photographer you ask.

I explained my background to film photography in my first blog post titled beginnings. I remember in the 1970's my Mum had a Kodak Instamatic that shot 126 cartridge film and used four shot flash cubes that were easily available and cheap to buy. She still has a few albums of photo's of myself, my brothers and sister and extended family from those days and cherishes those memories. Back then film was king and the digital revolution was still the realm of science fiction. Things we take for granted today, multi spot light metering and autofocus in particular were just beginning to be developed and most professional photographers either used a 35mm system like the Nikon F/F2/F3, Canon F-1 and the Pentax LX or shot Medium Format on camera's such as the Mamiya 645 or Hassleblad system camera's.

The beauty of film today is those camera's are still here. Admittedly you can't buy one new, but you can find a hidden gem in one of the few camera retailers that still sell Film camera's and supplies. This is also the perfect time to find your older relatives who enjoyed film photography back in the 70's and see if they still have their old camera gear. You will be surprised at what folk have tucked away in a cupboard or stored in a case in the attic or in their basement. Once the digital revolution took photography to the 21st century many folk left their film camera's behind and went full digital, but they didn't always sell their film camera's. As recently as 2017 the second hand film camera and lens market was trickling along and prices were very low for camera's that folk thought were not worth much as everyone has a camera on their phone.

In February 2017 I returned to Film Photography with a Pentax SP500 35mm camera and a Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2 lens that I picked up from ebay for £20. This was the student camera of the 1970's as it just had the basic functions you need, selectable shutter speeds, aperture selection on the lens and a very rudimentary selenium light meter built into the body. The lens was the student lens of the 1980's as the Zenit range of camera's began being imported into the west from the Soviet Union and cost peanuts! I still enjoy using my Pentax and Helios lens today, I think it's good to strip everything back to basics from time to time just to keep myself honest and my basic skills sharp.

The market began to change as the film community went online and shared their photo's and talked about their gear. Dedicated film photographers have writen blogs, built websites and sold 'zine's to showcase the art they love and slowly but surely, film has risen again as a credible art form. Wedding Photographers are increasingly offering a film shoot in conjunction with the digital photography to capture precious memories from the happy couples special day. My wife and I were given an album a dear friend had compiled from her film photo's she shot on our wedding day back in 2002. I often look at them and think they were taken on a digital camera, they quality is that good. If I remember correctly it was a Minolta X700, but hopefully Mal will put that right.

Film was still king back then but digital was growing up and advancing quickly until in 2006 when the big manufacturers called time on their film divisions and went fully digital. Film was considered dead and prices plummeted. Thank the deity of your choosing that enough film photographers kept their faith in film and continued buying enough film for Ilford, Fuji and Kodak to keep making it. It was a rough decade as many manufacturers ditched their film divisions or closed completely as the great film massacre ran wild through the photography market, but film refused to die.

Kodak stripped their film production back to it's most popular stocks that were using the most environmentally friendy chemical processes. Sadly Kodachrome was a casualty of the campaign to remove carcinogenic chemicals from everyday life and Steve McCurry, famed for his "Afghan Girl" was entrusted with shooting the last roll off Kodak's Kodachrome production line. I got back into film at the right time, prices were still low and boutique films were gaining in poularity and gave Kodak and Fuji the incentive to re-introduce Ektachrome 100 slide film and Acros II B&W to the market.

The final piece of the puzzle is the rise in the number of Camera Repair and Service businesses over the last few years. It has improved the supply of  high quality reliable camera's and lenses to the market. If reliability was holding you back, now is the perfect time to be able to buy a camera and a couple of lenses that you can happily shoot for a decade or two with minimal servicing and the ability to have it professionally repaired at an affordable price.

During writing it has become increasingly clear that this is going to be a two part blog. If you got this far, thank you for sticking around. I appreciate your time but don't want to push my luck too far. I shall finish this first part and share some early images I have taken that have not appeared in my blog thus far. They aren't the best photographs ever, but they did teach me a lot. It's reckoned that your first ten rolls are the steepest learning curve and show your best improvement. For me it was probably my first fifty as things take a while to sink in these days. I will continue giving my thoughts on why Film is more accessible than ever in part 2 as I talk about developing, scanning and printing photographs and hope you will join me again as I continue My Journey into Photography.

Wigan Pier Autumn 2020

Wigan is famous for a few things that the townsfolk take pride in, but one stands out as a landmark that refuses to die. Wigan Pier. Once a busy port on the Leeds to Liverpool Canal and the title of George Orwells social commentary on the plight of the early 20th century industrial towns of the North of England, Wigan Pier has seen better days. It lay derelict for many years after the canal barges finally gave way to road and rail haulage. Wigan Borough Council spent several million pounds in the 1980's to refurbish the site as a Pub and History Musem that was very popular for a number of years. Sadly, falling visitor numbers in the early part of the 20th century saw Wigan Pier decline and once again it was closed and mothballed. The Orwell Pub lasted a few more years until sadly that closed too. The complex was left to gently rot away but that changed in 2018 when local Arts hub The Old Courts took the premises on and with sound financial backing Wigan Pier has been undergoing a refurbishment to restore it to a useful life.

The work began in 2019 and was to have been finished by now, but "The 'Rona" had other ideas. Delays due to lockdown and the uncertain future of the entertainment industry has seen it mothballed until it's safe for the tradesmen to return and put the finishing touches to this world famous landmark. A lot of the remedial work to ensure the roofs dont leak and the exterior is looking nice again has been done, as has the interior of Pier 2 and 3, formally known as The Orwell pub. This is eventually going to re-open as a pub and host functions, events and conferences. Pier 4 is being repurposed from it's previous life as the Local History Museum to become a hub for local artisans and small businesses to have a place to make and sell their products at an affordable rent. With business rents and rates rising ever higher, this is a welcome development and has already got several tenants waiting to move in.

The final part of the refurbishment of Wigan Pier will be the building of apartments and housing to fill the need for affordable housing in the community.That plan has been put on hold for the foreseeable future, but by the end of this decade Wigan Pier will once again be a bustling hive of activity. It's good to see investment in the town to bring a former industrial site back to good use and I am sure Wigan Pier will still be around for many more years to come.

Here are a few photo's I shot before we were once again placed I Lockdown here in the UK. I shot them on Kodak Pro Image 100 using my Nikon F801 and AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D and I hope you enjoy them.

Looking for the shot

Autumn and its unpredictable weather has given me a few opportunities for film photography this year. I enjoyed shooting a couple of rolls of Proimage 100 but I hate running out halfway through a walk so I always take my trusty Nikon D700 out with me too. The Nikon D700 is a critically acclaimed DSLR that has been owned and loved by many a photographer since it was introduced in 2008. It has also been slowly depreciating in price and in early 2019 I managed to save up enough cash to buy a second hand one with a low shutter count from Wex Photo Video here in the UK. It is a decision I will write in my memoirs as one of the best I have ever made. If you are looking at buying a decent second hand/used full frame Nikon DSLR, look no further than the D700. You can read all about it in my previous blog entry dated 8th June 2020.

I was enjoying an afternoon walk along the local nature trails and footpaths, especially the colours that nature regales us with at this time of year and looking for shots I knew my D700 would excel with. It was a beautiful autumn afternoon with blue sky, some clouds and plenty of autumn leaves to provide that contrast between the green grass and blue sky. The field where the horses spent the sumer is quiet now the horses are in their stables for winter, it gave me the opportunity to walk the path through the field rather than around the outside, it's also a shorter route. The distance it gave me made a big difference to see the wonderful colours on the trees and I started exploring angles and compositions.

I spent quite a long time making my way along the path as this was a perspective of the trees and hedgerow I had not studied until now. I spent a large portion of time this year enjoying seeing the insects feast upon the wild flowers and do the vital cross pollenation for the various flora in exchange for sweet nectar. To finally put some distance between myself and the trees came at the right time. One particular part of the hedgrow was hard to ignore as it was a riot of orange, brown and russet. 

My D700 may be a dozen or so years old and only have 12 megapixels to play with, but that sensor has a fantastic dynamic range and truly made the autumn leaves come alive. I would stop every few yeards and get lost in the vista before me. Soon I had reached a small pond that provides a welcome home for aquatic life and could explore some reflections. This cloudy day gave me a chance to study a composition and slow down as I waited for the sun to appear in one of the many blue holes and bathe the scene in autumnal light. I began to rue not bringing enough colour film with me and rejoice at being able to capture it on my DSLR. How's that for ambivalence!

Both formats can happily co-exist and compliment each other if you give them a chance. Just about everyone carries a camera with them these days as the smartphone has come to dominate our lives and decimate the camera market. The advantage of digital is you can see the result of your digital photography immediately. However, the beauty of film has always been the antici....... pation. I enjoy both in equal measure and I hope to do so for many years to come.

Here are some photo's I shot with my Nikon D700 and AF Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 D lens, I edited the RAW files using Affinity Photo. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did producing them. You can see more on my Flickr page titled Autumn

Lockdown again....

I had to take a break from my blog. I have had a rough couple of weeks, depression is a biatch and it's hard to find the mojo when your mind is out of phase with what you want to do. I accepted it will be a part of my life a long time ago, perhaps the rest of it. The battle is constant and I am glad to have a good support bubble around me. Onwards and upwards.

Here in the UK we are in Lockdown again. Non essential stores are closed, we are asked to stay at home if possible and wear a mask whilst out and about. One good thing about this Lockdown is my local Max Spielmann Photo Store is open as it does approved/accredited photo's for Passports and Driving Licences etc. I can still get my colour film developed without having to mess about with colour film developing chemicals at home. Having a local lab to do it for me makes me happy as I can support a local business during the challenging time we live in.

Before my break I spent a couple of days walking the local nature trails and farm roads enjoying the colourful display from the tree's. I shot a lot of digital images, but I also shot 2 rolls of Kodak Pro Image 100. The two rolls were shot in totally different conditions, this blog focuses on the overcast day. I wanted to see how Pro Image 100 handles the flat light that a dull grey sky presents us with and I have to say I am not disapointed with the results.

Autumn is perhaps the most colourful time of year and a favourite of mine. Nature gives us one last display before resting for winter and reminds us that life and death are constant. We often take nature for granted and many folk will hardly notice the changing of the seasons. That's a shame as nature is the best free entertainment a person can enjoy, it's all around us and despite the best efforts of the corporate world to squeeze every last penny of profit from natural resources, nature takes it all in her stride.

I have been enjoying the local nature trails this year as I have developed my skills and learned new ones. I have seen the woodland come alive in spring, flourish in summer and regale us in autumn with a myriad of colours. I often wonder if these area's will remain untouched or will they succumb to the warming climate and abandon this latitude and migrate further north? I also wonder if future generations will see my photogaphs and not recognise the area. Time will tell, but perhaps we don't have time to do anything about it. Has the damage already been done and are we destined to a life where my local woodland will disappear? I hope not.

Here's a few photo's I shot on an overcast autumn day in October 2020 with my Nikon F801 and 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 D on Kodak Pro Image 100. I hope you enjoy them and they inspire you to think about the beauty of nature during these unprecedented times.