Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great day today! Me ? Pretty good. I'm excited about this week's blog. I have been out of commission for a couple of weeks and was itching to get out and shoot. My photography wingman Robert had never shot film before. So this Sunday we planned a film only photowalk. I set up two cameras that would be pretty equal. Both were 35mm and both had working meters in them to make shooting easier for Robert. I supplied both with 50mm lenses and 28mm lenses.  I also supplied the film one roll of Kodak Gold 200 film (Color) and a roll of Ilford HP5+ (B/W film) . Both at 36 exposures so 72 shots each. Robert was thinking that 72 wasn't very many shots to shoot but he later found out that shooting film is a lot different than shooting digital. I told him that this experience would make him appreciate the fancy Fujifilm camera that he shoots daily.  We were going to shoot everything in manual to include focusing. So there is lots to do. Find the scene, pick the shutter speed and aperture while using the meter to make sure it's going to be the right exposure then there is the focusing. Once you have all of that done then and only then you can push the shutter button! But you're not done you still have to advance the film so you are ready to start again. Sounds simple right? 

We made it to the first town that we were going to shoot. We sat in the car and I went over the controls of the camera he was going to be using. Showing how to Focus, read the meter , Aperture , ISO setting and changing lens. I made sure he understood everything about the camera. We loaded the first roll of film . He was using the Canon AE-1 Program. This is the same camera that he had gifted me a few weeks prior. As a matter of fact after the day was over he had more film though it than I have. I was using my trusty Pentax MX that I have had and used since the early eighties a manual only camera. And off we went. It was very fun to watch Robert work this old camera. I did catch him trying to "Chimp" a couple of times . (looking at the back of the camera) and many times he had forgot to advance the film and went to push the shutter button after composing focusing and getting the exposure right and nothing because he had not advanced the film. I asked him if he could imagine having to learn how to shoot the camera back in the day and having to wait for a week or so to see your photo's came out and then trying to figure out what you did right or wrong without the immediate conformation of what you just shot like with digital. I asked him what was what he missed the most and he told me the flip screen for really low shots because now you have to get really low. But I have to give it to Robert he was committed to doing a good job and it seemed like he really got into the process and took his time shooting. I told him about how much higher a percentage of good shots you get when you have to take your time to get everything right in the shot instead of just shooting away with a digital camera. I told him that if he took some of what he was doing today and applied it to his digital camera just think how good some of the photo's would be.

It was a great day we went to 3 small towns to walk the streets and shoot the interesting things of these towns. It took Robert all day to get through 72 photographs and this was a great exercise . I don't expect Robert to start shooting film but it was a good exercise for him to do and maybe slow down his shooting to get the great shots that I know he always gets. So this is a good exercise for you to do also. Even if you don't shoot film take your camera and shoot manual and limit yourself to 36 shots for a walk around town. Take time to compose and make sure everything is perfect before you pull the trigger. Slowing down will help your Photography. I took all the film at the end of the day. I had 2 rolls of color and 3 rolls of Black and white. I shot a little faster than Robert did and shot an extra roll which was to be expected I was very comfortable with the camera I was using.  

The next day I developed all of the film and Scanned into the computer. We had some really good shots and Robert did a great job. Only one or so were out of focus. And all were exposed correctly. I sent him his shots for him to go over and see what he has done. He was surprised by what he got. 

I enjoyed this experiment with Robert and hope he did too. Trying something new in your photography can make you a better photographer. If you're stuck doing the same thing all the time you don't grow.  Until next week! Get out and Shoot!