The Old Master Says: Shooting on 35mm In A Digital Age

I was recently pouring over old photo albums, digging through boxes upon boxes of photographs my parents had taken over the last 60 years when it hit me: My kids will never have this experience. They'll pull up a folder on a computer, and click through moments of their life (some important, but mostly ones they won't understand why we took the photo to begin with). That realization really struck a chord with me. Physically sifting through these photos is not only an experience in itself, but the fact that these moments were captured and only exist because someone had a camera in that moment meant something. Every piece of media in this digital age we're all living in is recorded, downloaded, uploaded, edited, altered, and it all feels unbelievably disingenuous after a while. Let's face it, half the time it is. The idea of the "family photo album" now exists on social media where people are just looking for engagement, the dopamine hit so many have become addicted to. Maybe I'm just old school, but that's a real downer.

I decided enough was enough. I wanted to take pictures of my family, my kids growing up, family vacations, parties with friends, but I also wanted to be in the moment. I didn't want everyone to stop what they were doing to crowd around to see how the photo came out just after it was taken, I just wanted it to be captured, and forgotten about until it was developed. Remember the anticipation of getting your film developed? Looking through the photos, and having forgotten you even took it, now that I missed. It should also be noted that I'm no photographer by any stretch of the imagination. I couldn't tell you specifics on any of it other than the basic features. I grew up on analog as it was transitioning to digital. Record players, cassette tapes, rotary phones, point-and-shoot cameras, slowly transformed into digital cameras, CDs, MP3 players, and so on. For me analog is nostalgia at its absolute finest. I will admit I quickly accepted that if it was new, it must be better (like the majority of consumers), but the older I've gotten I've realized there are some things you just can't replicate. The older cameras have a look that no matter how hard you try to recreate digitally with filters and Photoshop it just can't be done.

Now, I will admit, it's a process. The 'One Hour Photo' at your local drugstore has gone the way of the Dodo, but there are still places that do it (just be prepared to wait a few weeks). Point and Shoots are a dime a dozen too, and extremely reasonable, as well as film. I will say that making the transition to taking out my phone camera to grabbing one of these 35mm cameras was hands down one of the best decisions I've made in quite a while for so many reasons, but most importantly it's allowed me to live in the moment. In a world where everyone is filling their phones with 100 versions of the same photo, I'll happily take the one quick picture and continue living every time.