(My new 35mm camera, the Canon AE-1, first manufactured in 1982. Ironically, I took this photo of the camera with my iPhone, lol.)
I began photography using a camera just like the one pictured above--a black and white film, 35mm SLR camera, and developing all of my own photos in a dark room. The camera I first began shooting with wasn't a Canon (which is my digital camera of choice these days for my professional work), but I loved the process of shooting with film and developing the pictures on my own. The photos I created couldn't be instantly uploaded to a social networking site, shared through sites like Flickr and Tumblr, or seen with a quick shot of the LED screen on the back of my camera and posted on Instagram from my smart phone. You really had one chance to take a good shot and get it right, which meant you really needed to know your stuff! While digital cameras are quite revolutionary in their ability to take a photo and receive an instantaneous image you can view immediately and upload conveniently to your computer, it's almost too easy, and I think it takes away from the knowledge you really need to have to be a "good" photographer.
How many people nowadays, with their digital cameras and high mega-pixel smart phones, would be 100% sure they're taking a great photo if they couldn't see anything they were aiming their lens at? Do you understand how the light is falling on your subject or scene, and where the shadows are and how they effect your shot? Do you understand depth of field? Your Aperature, ISO, and shutter speeds? Do you understand how aperature and shutter work TOGETHER? Do you understand how lens filters work (and I'm not talking about the same filters you find on Instagram to change the actual look of a photo!)? Do you understand temperature, exposure and color balance? And let me not even get into the whole lighting thing--naturally and artificially. The point is, knowing all of these things, doesn't necessarily make you a "photographer" either, but it does change your skillset and what you bring to the table. So don't get me wrong. If you don't understand any of these things that doesn't mean you still can't take a nice photo! Tons of people are getting away with not knowing any of these things at all and still managing to produce good shots. It also doesn't mean that you don't have a genuine love, appreciation, or respect for the craft. It's why things like Instagram (which I LOVE!) exist, right? But the question remains, without knowing any of this technical knowledge, if your ability to see every photo as you take it, is completely taken away, would you STILL be able to confidently take a good photo, without that knowledge, without the help of your camera's digital capabilities...or furthermore, without even the help of Photo Shop to correct anything that doesn't look too hot in the end? It's a good time to mention right now also, that even if you don't know any or all of these things, it's never too late to learn! And growing means always feeding yourself knowledge.
That's why I decided to get back to my own basics and start shooting with a 35mm SLR again. I shoot digitally so much, that I guess you could say sometimes I feel a little guilty abandoning "my roots," and how I learned and experienced this craft as a new photographer with a basic camera. I have a lot of vintage cameras that I collect, but I didn't want to use any of those to shoot leisurely with, so I bought a vintage Canon AE-1 (pictured above). I really love it! I've already gone through a roll of film and I thought to myself, "Wow...now I actually have to buy more film." Lol. It's really that basic thing that is such a major factor when it comes to, ummm, actually taking a photo with a film-based camera, as opposed to dumping a memory card and putting it back in the camera to take more photos. I love the organicness of shooting with film also. There's a rhythm you get into that you don't quite get when shooting digital. The photos appear more relaxed and spontaneous. There's a harshness within digital I think we've all gotten accustomed to, and the loss of information in some aspects of film gives a photo even more of a story to tell. With film, you really just focus on taking "the shot." You have less chances to get it right, which means you have to think a little bit more, and I love that. I never want to get to a place where I'm absolutely comfortable picking up a camera, going into a shoot, and just clicking away. I want to think. And I don't feel I'm losing that ability to think shooting digitally, but I don't ever want to walk into a shoot and be totally comfortable that something good will happen just because all the elements are there to make something good happen. I want to really think about what I'm shooting, and start with the knowledge I know about my camera and my environment first before I take the first shot.
The digital world is an amazing one and I, like most people, love it. I think that with digital cameras we get an honesty in a photo that wasn't always there. It's more specific and detailed in the information it provides in a photo. The colors are truer. Digital is almost like editing as you go--changing and tweeking things that don't look so good to make them look better as you go along. But I also believe whether an image is retouched or not, it should always start as an already good photo, and the test of that is what an image looks like before it's ever uploaded into any software (or with a lot DSLRs today, even edited right there in the camera!). I want to always keep in the front of my mind as a photographer the question: "If I couldn't see every shot I take after I click the shutter, am I confident with the shot I'm taking and how it will turn out?" After I ask myself that, I have to think, and as long as I'm thinking, I know I'll never stop growing.
Happy Shooting! And follow me on Instagram @MikeLetterlough
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