When I was about 10 years old, I remember going to the beach. The whole family went. My parents sat in beach chairs on the sand where it morphed from wet to dry.
My dad was playing his acoustic guitar and had his Pentax 35mm slr. He always had his Pentax near. Which is the cause of the bins and bins of photographs that we have stored in our house. That day, he taught me how to hold it, focus the lens, and where the shutter button was. That was the very first time I had held an slr.
I'm not going to say that since that day I was a devoted, die-hard-Bruce-Willis photo-lover. I used it from time to time after that, after all, it was the family camera. I'm not one of those photogs that once they held a camera that was it for them, the light turned on. That didn't actually happen for me until my junior year of college.
Anyway, I digress. I still have that Pentax. And every now and then, when I'm feeling overwhelmed and in need of some motivation, I'll whip that baby out and shoot. Shoot and forget about looking at the back of the camera. Shoot and think hard about my exposure. Shoot and feel the metal of the focus ring gliding smoothly between my fingers. Shoot without pressure to get it perfectly right.
And I don't get it right every time. And I'm okay with that. And I'm okay with starting sentences with "and". But the best part, my favorite part about shooting film, is taking it in to get developed. That's my favorite. Because then I see the wonderful memories caught on film...literally. And the feel, the look, the surprises.
I know film is "in" now and more people are shooting with film and to me that's really awesome. Something nostalgic about taking my time to shoot film. And perhaps that is why I shoot when I am in need of something more, something relaxing. Something that brings me back to 10 years old with a bob haircut in an oversized t-shirt on the shore of the beach listening to my dad's guitar and the sound of the ocean.
Happy weekend!
