A short guide to shooting film
Thanks for reading, and for the gentle observations that keep arriving. I would rather do one thing with care than five things quickly. Some of this will be self-evident; some of it took me years. The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for slip-ups.
Before and after
What surprised me most was how little equipment it needed. Nothing here requires a medium format camera, though it does make things easier. Little, repeatable steps beat big plans very nearly every time.
A friend once described coastlines as hushed work, and the phrase stuck. The best frame on the sheet was the one I very nearly did not take. Most of what I know about coastlines came from getting it wrong first. For a long time I treated film stock as an afterthought.
Second thoughts
Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. Most problems with film stock turn out to be problems with time. I tested the grainy version first. It did not last. A light meter is a good teacher if you let it disagree with you. I keep a short list of things to try next; walking with a camera is near the top.
If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about the darkroom.
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