Why I shoot more with film?

For me, there’s no doubt film has something different.

To answer that question, I have to tells my story back to the 90s. I grew up in Britany, West Coast in France. At school, I was that kind of shy kid very curious and always looking for new cool things to do. I started to surf around 12yo and my friends was mostly like surfer dudes or musicians. After school, my daily routine was the search of perfect waves. I was used to shoot random stuff with a disposable camera since my dad offer me his Fujifilm underwater camera.

the search of perfect waves

You can’t imagine how proud I was! To get a real camera was amazing for me - here it is, my dreams comes true, I was a photographer - I had no idea how it works but it doesn’t matter, my only ambition was to get crazy images similar than what I saw in magazines. At this time, internet doesn’t exist and the only way to know which rolls better was advices from my dad or to ride my bike straight to the film store. Then, my first rolls comes and let my heart filled by passion for images.

After years focused on my work and my passion for surfing, i was missing something that animated my everyday life. So I looked to buy a DSLR but can’t afford it at this time. I focused about analog camera on Ebay and found a Canon AE1 and a couple of rolls. As I shot, my images got better, I met passionate people and shared our best tips.

Looking for a Camera

If you’re hesitate to buy an analog camera, you should listening what will following here: Although film photography is seen as a dying field, you’ll have a huge choice on market places like Ebay. If you don’t know yet which format you’re looking for, I highly recommend to get a 35mm for begin. Most versatile than 120mm, you also have more choice on film stock and it’s cheaper. You be able to shoot 36 frames on a roll instead 8/12 with 120mm.

Personally, I had the chance to travel in Japan at this time and found my favorite Nikon Fm2 in one of many stores in Tokyo. Japanese photographer are very picky and I found my camera in an amazing condition. If you can’t go to Japan just for buying a camera like me, don’t worry, just make some research online and look at conditions and photos before purchase your new toy! Remind something important, good conditions, new lights leaks and not fungus mentioned should be a good deal.