How does it feel to get back into film photography after fifteen years?

I started shooting film again last year. I didn’t know film photography was still a thing and I though I was the only one in the world who could possibly be interested in it. I didn’t even know whether films were still being sold. Turned out it was a big thing and there is a huge community of film shooters out there. Many of them reuniting with it or discovering it now for the first time.

There is a distinct story of how I got back into this. I lost my darling dog last year. She died in old age, being almost fifteen. I started going through old photos of her and remembered that her puppy photos were taken on film, somewhere in 2001 and 2002, just before the world officially turned digital. I even found some old digital photos from that era, but I was more than thrilled to find some old negatives and paper prints in really good condition. I felt really nostalgic and realised how well the photos were preserved during these years. They were neatly packed away in a box at our attic. In the same box were all my old film camera equipment. I picked up my old Canon AE-1 and swiped the dust from it, like it was a historic relic. I cranked it, but it didn’t fire. I looked at for a while, but put it away for another few months.

A bit later, I started to think about purchasing a mirrorless camera. I was supposed to level up my photography game by upgrading my camera. An unexpected turn happened though, and after getting my hands on the new mirrorless, I got back to film to my own surprise. Getting a better digital camera felt like a level up for a short while, but after shooting absolutely everything with f1.8 for the first couple of weeks, I realised that adding trendy bokeh and lightrooming the hell out of my photos, wasn’t improving my actual underlying photography skills what so ever. I remembered my equipment box in the attic as well. I bought an adapter for my vintage lenses and started to play around with them as a curiosity.

During this time I had been thinking about the AE-1 too and I went to the attic to pick it up again. To be honest, I didn’t remember how to even load the film and it seemed like a chore to getting back to it. But you know what, like the one ring, the camera whispered it to me and sait it wanted to be used again. I was worried that it had gone bad sitting in the storage box for the past ten or fifteen years. I checked the battery and it had very little charge left. I tried few times shooting with it and it surprisingly came back to life. The shutter release finally responded and I heard the shutter sound first time in ages. It sounded fantastic and I got the camera somewhat running after playing with it for a while. It was probably just jammed from not being used. Actually shooting with it started to look like a possibility again and replacing the battery revealed the delightful truth, that the camera was actually in a perfect shooting condition. I bought couple of rolls of black and white film, couple of new vintage lenses, for 20€ each, and I was back on track.

I find it funny that I was supposed to get back into proper photography by buying a new digital camera. I really invested time in deciding which body and lenses I should buy. I am not the biggest gear freak in the world and equipment hasn’t interested me, as such, almost never. Now though, I did my research and really got my head around crop factors, sensors and all the stuff I didn’t know much about, but I though were super important. The result? Well, I ended up shooting with 40 year old camera(s) instead, and developing my own black and white negatives at home. Quite the opposite of what I was planning and almost a 180 degree turn in term of gear choice. I really didn’t see any of this coming, but it has been a one satisfying journey so far. My motive for camera upgrade was to learn the art of photography. Who would have known that it wasn’t to be found from the catalogue of latest Canons or Sonys, but from the past. Dear GOD I love film!