My Introduction to Fillm Photography

My introduction into photography began many years ago around 2015 or 2016 with a Sony digital a5000. A small compact APS-C camera I purchased from Best Buy for a whopping $400! Around this time, I knew nothing about photography. Absolutely nothing! I, like most folks, just turned it on and started taking photos thinking that’s all I needed to do. Boy was I wrong! Thankfully though, someone told me, “if you want to learn photography you need to learn the basics–the three legged stool of exposure.” Huh?! And . . to learn it through shooting analog. Huh, again?? You mean the camera my parents used to use when I was a kid? Yep!

So needless to say, off I went. First, to a local Barnes & Noble where I picked up my very first photography handbook called “The Beginners Photography Guide” from DK books. Which by the way, I still have till today along with others. I went through that book flipping through the pages I don’t know how many times.

I always came back to the first part of the book that discussed exposure–the “three legged stool,” which I now know to be the “exposure triangle.” I basically stayed there studying those pages. I wish I can tell you after so many years since this journey began that I’m any good! Oh No!!! My pictures at times still come out funky because of my bad use of light, my misunderstanding of film stock or my lack of creative composition but I’m still saying, “put me in coach, I can do it!”

At this point in the story, I hadn’t yet owned an analog camera; that, of course, would change when one day I decided to take a trip to my local antique store. I still remember arriving there 15 minutes before closing time. Closing time mind you! My heart and mind were thinking, “what if, I possibly, find a film camera?” And guess what!!? I did! There towards the back of the antique shop as I was heading out the back way (two entrances & exits) I happened to stumble upon an old brown leather camera bag perched upon an ancient Roman replica capital next to a glass bookshelf, or was it an old brown dinner table next to a glass bookshelf? Gosh!! I can’t remember! You get the point! It was there for the taking.

Inside was a fairly unused Canon AE-1 Program, with three lenses, three manuals and a polarized filter. Man!! The jackpot! I was so excited! I rushed home to familiarize myself with my new gadget. In my heart I was on my way! I could picture it! I thumbed through so many pages of my handbook that I was ready to go! UUM! Not so fast! I soon found out that I had no idea where to find a roll of film. As I searched the internet for camera film I was surprised to find that my local Walgreens still sold film. Nowadays, my go-to film stock is Kodak 400 or 800–oh yeah, and CineStill 800 too! I’ve grown up a little, but finding Fuji film 400 in stock back then was finding gold!

Continuing to stumble forward, I figured out, with the help of Youtube, how to load my film. Now I was ready. But what to shoot? As you might expect, I shot like a madman! Anything and everything with no intentionality. Like I have heard some say within the photography community, “spray and pray!” I wish I could say that I was some great prospect in the minors of photography or some phenom at my first crack at it. Nope!! Nowhere close! Of course, I did come away with some decent ones. Decent in the sense that they were not too over or underexposed. I will include several of these here, but for the most part nothing grandiose– that would come later, at least according to my taste. You be the judge.

Below are some pictures from that first Fuji Film 400 roll developed by Henley’s Photo Lab here in Bakersfield, Ca.

Until next time, see ya!

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