As some of you may know, the citizens of Melbourne just survived one of the craziest weather phenomenon in a very long time, if not, ever. Hail the size of golf balls battered cars, people, clothes, trees etc and the heavens opened up to release 19mm of rain in the first hour alone. That of course flooded some areas in the city, a section of the roof at a major train station collapsed and not to mentioned many people's prized plants were all destroyed thanks to this storm we had. Some people found it fun, others were obviously severely inconvenienced and some like to think it's the end of the world. As the storm was going on, I was at a friend's place playing poker when I received an SMS from my sister and this is what it read...
"Have u seen how bad it is outside? SAVE YOURSELF!"
That really got me laughing. There is even a Facebook group that said that we survived this crazy storm. It's now on its way to the tens of thousands of fans. Needless to say, I'm one of them.
Also, today was another phenomenon similiar in its size like the storm we had on Saturday but of a different kind. We play basketball/captains ball after church and today demonstrated the largest turnout for this game ever in OCF. Ever. 28 people congregated at the Carton Primary School for mayhem on the basketball court. And that is not even the full compliment of players yet. And, we were nearly having a 1:1 ratio of guys to girls. Crazy epic man. But it was fun as always. We now need to find a bigger playing area or as a friend suggested, set up a league.
Lately I've been bitten by the medium format bug. It's kinda like the same bug that bit me when I wanted to go film and when I wanted to get new lenses. Not funny man. And I'm not talking about those toy cameras using medium format film. I'm talking about the big-ass medium format cameras that you can look through from the top at waist level. And some of these medium format gear are pretty cheap especially if you are looking for the old ones. Of course, that makes it even more tempting. *shake fist at Khai*
Speaking of which, I've been asked quite a number of times from non-photographers and "photographers" on why I still (if not, more likely) shoot on film. It's so old and everyone is moving on to the digital age with those big expensive DSLRs because after all, we now live in the digital age. Why should I go back to something that is a generation ago where everything is pretty much manually done? There are many replies to this question of which many film photographers better than I am will tell you the same thing. Tone (whatever that really means), colour/character, detail and the list goes on with a bazillion other valid reasons that I will agree with them.
But' I'm not going to repeat the same answers but instead I'm going to attack this question from a slightly different angle and the answer is not a technical answer. In fact, it has very little or nothing to do with photography at all. This can be applied to many other things outside of photography and it is not some knowledge that I received in the middle of a nap or while playing computer games or doing a random assignment. It is widely known but few take the time to think about it. It is an answer, or rather, a philosophy that is fast diminishing from this ever advancing world that we now call home, where things are moving at an exponentially fast pace.
I'd like to be pleasantly surprised.
Yup, that's right. That's it. I just want to be pleasantly surprised. For those who have been following my blog and think that this sounds too familiar, like in a post somewhere, you're right. It is here, the third video. And a lot of what Barry is saying actually somewhat does apply to my stance on film.
This stance has somewhat followed me for awhile now but it was not until the Turkey trip that I've begun formalizing my thoughts. Most of which are lines of thought from Barry's short presentation but I think it somewhat does hold. Film inherently gives me less choices in what I can do for my pictures as compared to a digital camera these days. For example, I can't adjust the white balance, the ISO in between shots, the colour saturation, contrast and many other aspects in between shots, unless I finish the roll of film. What am I to work with are only three things; shutter speed, aperture and imagination, given a roll of film. So shooting in film essentially has three choices (debatable but at the very least, it's this number but I'm guessing no more than 5 or 6). Compare that with a digital camera. We can choose between settings in each shot from portrait, landscape, night scene, beach, snow, indoors, sports and a whole supermarket of other settings. Add that to the throng of settings for white balance, colour saturation, contrast, RGB/CYMK and, if you are having a DSLR, the usual choices of ISO, shutter speed and aperture. That is definitely waaaaay more than three and you can imagine what kind of effect that would have on the normal everyday user of cameras. So what happens when you take a picture that doesn't really look that great? What's the expectation? Do you blame the camera or yourself for not nailing the shot? As with Barry, the more choices you have the more likely that you will blame yourself for the seemingly bad choices that has been made. And when you do nail a shot, you're probably not as excited about the shot because you had the expectation that these settings will make my picture look awesome. There is now no such thing as a surprise anymore, nothing, not even the most magnificent landscape set before your very eyes, will catch you by surprise in your pictures. At most you'll think, "This is great but I already knew that". That's the digital age for you.
Now what about film? We have less choices to make, simplifying some things but complicating others as well. We have to work with shutter speed and aperture and it forces us to go back to the fundamentals which I would say is really all you need, the rest are just extras/luxuries/bells and whistles. The other thing about film is that you'll probably spend more time thinking and shooting just to finish up the roll of film, not to mention the processing time as well. Probably the worst thing about film, which ironically is the crux of what I love about film, is that you don't know how the shots will turn out. What kind of expectation that sets on you? Pretty low actually and at most you'll be like "I think this is going to be good but will see how it goes". And after you have the film processed what happens if the shot you think is good turns out to be not so great? Yeah that's a bummer but you've had a low, or rather, lower expectation about the shot anyway so it's not likely to affect you in a severe way. If it turn out to be a great shot, your excitement level would be high since you've had a lower expectation from the beginning. But the best part of it is when you have no expectation for a particular shot and, lo and behold, this stunning picture landed in your hands where all the elements of colour, exposure, depth of field and detail magically come together and so how's your excitement level going to be like? I expect that you should be half way to the moon already. It's pleasant little surprises that overall lifts you about your photography and not to mention doing wonders to your self-confidence and mental health. So even the most mundane things can turn into a magnificent photograph because you don't know what to expect. Obviously not professional grade photographs (possible but let's not get our hopes up, shall we?) but it's good enough to leave an impression on you, encourages even spur you on to find your artistic niche in photography. And isn't that what photography should be like, or any art in general?
Film gives you a great deal of things to the user and teaches you equally as many things. You learn to slow down, take time to think about your shots long before raising the camera to eye level. You learn to appreciate things when you slow down and sometimes the appreciation has nothing to do with photography, you just learn more about the world around us. Along the way, it gives you little surprises that just makes you say "Wow! I never expected this." and sometimes it gives you the opportunity to explore your artistic or creative side in ways you never knew. All in all, photography is almost like the concept of Zen which is no surprise that the Japanese are the ones who makes the cameras.
What I've said here may not be the reason why you still shoot in film (or digital for that matter) and you may not agree with what I've presented here as an argument for film, from a non-arts totally amateur photographer. But it is real enough for me to continue going to film. Comments are welcomed.
Fire away...
And now the news:
If this formula for a happy lasting marriage is true, that means my future wife is now 21-22 years old, have a PhD and from Malaysia or Singapore. It's not looking good...
Possibly the cutest set of milk teeth ever.
I'm sure we've met people like these but I'm also sure that we do the same to them as well, in one way or another
Girls, be careful when some guy says to you that you are genetically diverse
It's funny that we know how the last dinosaurs were wiped out but only now it's made official. But people have been wrong on occasion.
IQ isn't everything
Can you imagine your grandmother mixing beats on the dance floor?
Gaming is evident in all people. Take this guy for example.
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