I studied film photography at A level and LOVED it. So in my teens I got hooked on
manual photography controls and developing film by hand.
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| One of my first prints was of Harrow Town Centre (BHS on the right) |
It was empowering to
have such immense control over an exposure.
Some of my earliest stuff is still my
favourite – with many shots being of total strangers. I really loved learning
on Ilford black and white films.
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| Taken at Regents Park, these chaps were out for a stroll |
Having cut my teeth with manual photos, my dad
treated me to a cheapo automatic film SLR which I later upgraded to a Minolta Dynax
60, which has now been on my hip for a solid 15 years.
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| My partner must have got fed up of me carrying my camera all the time. |
Armed with a few basic lenses, including a
75-300mm Minolta Tele Zoom (used in the football shot, above), my trusty 35-70mm Macro zoom and a couple of
others, I’ve recently invested in some wide angle lenses to keep my kit
versatile.
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| The Eden Project, Cornwall |
I've never been good with landscapes and now I know I just needed a wider frame. As much as I love the above, it's quite close in.
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| Landscapes were fine if I'm far away but now when I'm much closer. |
It's started to dawn on me though, that in order to be versatile, I really
ought to be considering making the digital switch to a digital SLR.
Above: pictures from a sunny stroll along the Thames when I lived in Hammersmith
I’ve really struggled in the past without
the ability to change ISOs at the flick of a switch, so that prospect does
tempt me over to the shiny electronic side. But the throwaway disposable nature
of digital images fills me with real disgust.
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| Bari, Italy |
However.
When I recently took some Kodak Portra 800
for developing at Snappy Snaps I was in for a whopper of a developing bill. It
struck me that recently offering to photograph a close friend’s wedding was
perhaps a higher bill than I was willing to pay.
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| My macro lens would occasionally come in handy |
But at least they’d have had prints.
Then again, a recent trip to meet my new baby
nephew (the photos I took to Snappy Snaps), I ran into another whirlwind of
problems.
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| My kit lens was fine for portraits |
The first, not anticipating the fluorescent
light at the hospital (silly error really – I should have packed my FL-D
filter) so my nephew’s pics are twinged with green, sadly. Don't worry though, I've fixed them in post. Got them put on a disc so I could do some manipulations.
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| Upped the magenta and downed the green in photoshop to achieve this balance |
And then my far of shoving a flashgun in
his adorable, very very new face – meant that all the other photos that day
have come out either blurred (too lazy to carry a tripod, I am – I won’t be
making that mistake any more) or too dark. A high price to pay for dodgy
prints.
But for the most part, there are some
beautiful ones in there.
I’m not totally pleased to hand over my
prints to the happy couple to be honest, I’m embarrassed as a photographer to
have been so thoughtless with such basic rules.
Maybe my new found laziness means I ought
to switch to digital?
Or maybe I should be working harder to
rekindle my love for film photography, and just, y’know, do it right? Like I used to...
Whatever happens, I am still a good old fashioned cheap photographer in Harrow, London. Happy to take on events and portraits, get in touch if you fancy a shoot and I'd be happy to consider it. I do it for the love of film.
