10 Years Back with Film

Photo by Warren on Unsplash

This is a special end of the year for me.  On one hand, I am turning 50 at the end of the year but I  am also celebrating 10 years since I picked up film photography again. I first learned on my fathers OM-1 camera and back in 2013 he gifted me his old camera.  I put it away and forgot about it until 2014 when I pulled it out, put in a battery and some film and shot my first roll.  I still have those negatives and adore some of the photographs that came out of it. I was hooked and never looked back.

I thought that in celebration of this occasion I would write up a simple, straightforward list of lessons I learned in photography.  They are in no particular order and I will not bore you with the reasoning behind it.  Consider it a grocery list of lessons I learned.  Let's keep them down to 10, one for each year of my film photography journey....  

1. I already gave away the first lesson. Photography is a journey not a destination. Learn, practice, be patient, be proud and grow.
2. Pick a camera and a lens and leave it at that. You need to be able to see the camera perspective without lifting the camera. You should know the mechanics by heart. This is called craftsmanship and it is critical for your journey.
3. Craftsmanship and artistry are two sides of the coin of photography. You need to work and build on both. Talented photographers have an eye but often lack the craftsmanship to be reliable. 
4. True...it is not the gear but the photographer...and the light, and the film, and the darkroom technique, and luck...it takes a host of things to capture good shots and yes gear is important but not in the way most think. Good gear is reliable gear. If your gear is reliable chances are it is more than good enough.
5. Copying the work of others is great practice. Feel free to steal anyone's idea and try it out yourself.  Don't be ashamed, give credit, capture the image and learn from it. The ONLY person you should never copy from is yourself. As much as you would like to revisit a location where you took an amazing shot, you will not learn anything from it. Your journey must move you forward not backward. 
6. Always leave yourself and out. Photography gear is expensive, but it does you no good to keep it at home unused. You need to take it out and use it but that opens you up to theft. When you are on the street with your gear, leave yourself and out. Look around you and always have another way out in mind. Train yourself to think like this. Be aware of your surrounds, the people around you, and where you will run if needed and what is your other way out.
7. Be prepared to lose your equipment.  This is key. You need to be ready to have your gear stolen and not let it break your love of photography. This is a risk we must take and while you can mitigate the risk, you must accept some residual risk is beyond your control.Be mentally ready to lose it and remember that your safety is more important than gear.
8. Print your pictures...and yes they will end up in a box under your bed. This is where they should go. But your photography is not over until a print is made. Your lessons are not learned until you see the photo in print form. You need to hold it, feel it and then consider its artistic value. Composition in a viewfinder is different than in a print and that is different again from composition in a framed print. Learn the difference.
9. Don't overpack. All you need is a pocket full of film and a reliable camera with a single lens. You can take more but you don't NEED to take more.
10. Finally, and this is key, the 50mm lens is perfect. Sure I can talk of the advantages of longer focal lenses or wider ones. But that 50mm....get a good 50 and move on. It will outshoot you any day, everyday.