Film Photography: Documenting The Process

I spent the morning walking around Mt. Doug (PKOLS) with my camera slung over my shoulder. As I looked around I felt as though my mind was putting everything into an invisible viewfinder. Everywhere I looked there was potential for a photograph, and yet I was hesitant. One of the wonderful things that sets analogue photography apart from digital is the idea of needing to think more deeply and critically about every shot. It limits one’s ability to hold down the aperture and take dozens if not hundreds of photos of relatively the same thing. I found myself feeling the weight of the single shot, of trying to save my film for the right moment.

I left Mt. Doug having taken only a handful of exposures. As I walked and positioned my camera, turning the dials to what I understood to be the proper settings, I realized that my learning needed to be documented in more than just my photographs. I couldn’t finish a roll without focusing on my adventure into film photography. I decided I needed to annotate the settings, that way when I receive my prints and the outcomes weren’t as I had expected, I can look back and adjust for next time. Thus creating a way to continually self-assess and document my process.

And so the adventures continue as I look into notebooks and ways to annotate my process.

Hopefully with photographs coming soon 🙂