A couple of months ago, I decided to purchase an old vintage 35mm film camera. I had dabbled in photography before, but I never really considered myself a photographer. I still don’t consider myself a professional in any sense, but I thought it would be worthwhile to take a shot — no pun intended — and try my hand at film photography.

I think at first I was interested in the look that film creates vs digital photos, and how film is the artsy thing. Thinking all of a sudden, that would make me a photographer and impress people with my great black and white photos.

Once I started shooting my first roll, I quickly realized that it wasn’t about the look or the film itself, but it was about the process and the thought that goes into it. I haven’t thrown a lot of money at this or really expected to spend a lot of money doing this. I got a very used Pentax K1000 and also snagged a very very used Yashica FR-I (I didn’t even know that was a company until I saw the camera.) The fact that every photo that you take has a price behind it really makes you think about what you’re taking a photo of. I don’t have the money to be going through the rolls of film that I have and just take photos like I would with my DSLR or my iPhone. It really makes you think about what you’re shooting, and getting it right the limited amount of opportunities you have.

It’s not about the film, it’s about the process and the appreciation of the process. How our modern cameras work now is based on how film worked before. I have understood the functions of the modern cameras that I had, but now I’m able to really begin to learn what all of it was based on.

This whole blog post is just to tell you that I’m going to be posting more photos that I take from my film cameras.

Yashica FR-I estimated to have been made in the late 1970s

This is the 2nd film camera I had purchased, taken with the first film camera. Since I’m not buying any of these really new or refurbished or anything, a lot of these used cameras need to be fixed a little bit to be able to be used without issues, and some issues are too far outside of my ability to repair, but hopefully won’t affect the ability to take photos with.