Late last year I started toying with the idea of shooting film again - something I hadn’t done in years - probably not since my early 20’s. Back then I’d saved up to buy my own film camera (graduating from my dad’s Yashica, which I used to death), a great little Fujifilm panoramic point and shoot that used APS film.
I loved that little Fuji; I took it everywhere. I was super into graffiti back then and used it to document my crew and many of my hometown’s local writers. My friends and I would travel back and forth from Calgary to Edmonton and I’d take long panoramic shots of walls covered in graffiti by some of my favourite writers from the area.
When I recently decided I wanted to start shooting film again, I initially tried to find the same Fujifilm camera, then quickly realized no one produces APS film anymore. So, I changed course and set my sights on an Olympus MJU, but I ended up with a Minolta Auto Focus D (a good option that saved me about 240 bucks).
Getting back to it
Re-learning how to shoot film has been been a bit of a process for sure. Even with the Minolta’s ease-of-use, my photos still look a bit…off, like they were taken by someone imitating my style.
Now, two rolls in, I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it again. However, one thing has changed - with the cost of film these days, I’m being far more precious than I’m used to being when I shoot digital. Every time I’m about to press the shutter, Stakes is High from De La Soul plays in my head.
So far, I’ve collected some successful and some not so successful shots. I really like the character of the Minolta so far, with its soft lens giving some of the images an almost painterly feel. But it’s not an ideal camera for the kind of outdoor shooting i’ve been doing. I feel like it’s best used in close quarters like hanging with friends - particularly with the flash, which I love the look of, so going forward I’m going to reserve it more for those situations.
Next up
I recently added a Pentax KM to my collection - a fully manual SLR and I’m hoping my familiarity with that style of camera will help bring the feel of my film photos closer to my digital ones. I’ve just put a roll of expired Ilford SFX 200 in it to test and I’ll definitely share the results in a future post.
Thanks for reading this far, I’ve been super into the growing photography community here on Substack. It feels like I’m a part of something cool and new, where people put value on creativity again and reward it with their time and attention. What a cool fucking thing.
To all 35 (as of this post) of my subs, thanks for tagging along. It’s all your amazing photos and writing about photography that is keeping me inspired. If you’re up for it, leave a comment, ask a question, tell me what photos you liked and didn’t like, or let me know about which film cameras you’ve used. I want to know more about you all, so let’s go!
All photos shot with the Minolta Auto Focus D 35mm using Kodak UltraMax and Gold.
Stay focused.
love the last shot! The light is great & I'm impressed the Auto Focus got the DOF right
as for shooting film, I definitely agree re: costs & wish color was as accessible as black & white. I hear that there's going to be a new & fairly cheap color film from Lucky coming out later this year, though; hopefully that'll make it a little easier on everyone's wallets. No idea how the people shooting Portra 800 all the time are pulling that one off
Nice read and cool photos from a - to me - different part of the world. It’s really interesting that many of us have similar backgrounds like coming from Graffiti/Hip Hop , skateboarding or punk scene and all that.
It feels like an awesome community here!
Cheers buddy