Whenever I met another film photography enthusiast, the first question we would ask each other was how and why did we start shooting with film.
I don’t think I have ever blog about this in my website. So here it is:
How did I get to know film photography?
Fuji Pro400H, selfie
My story is a bit long winded.
Unlike many, I didn’t have friend around me who is actively shooting film. Well, I do have one or two friends who shoot film occasionally, but I didn’t give film a *uck at all. Having owned a few point-and-shoot basic cameras, I thought owning a Nikon D3100 given by my father back in 2011 was the coolest thing ever.
Before I got hold of the dSLR, the camera was my wallpaper everywhere. It was my dream!
I started doing photography. Then I went to USA for my internship. During a trip to San Francisco, I saw a Lomography store. I thought the name was so cool and I had seen this brand on some websites.
After patronizing the store, I bought a Lomography La Sardina together with a few rolls of Lomo films.
San Francisco, 2012
Too bad, my knowledge of film photograph was very bad! Most of my shots came out extremely underexposed because I didn’t use flash.
When I came back to Singapore, I continued to use this Lomo camera but the results were mostly disappointing. So, I stopped. Then I went to UK for 2 years. I did consider bringing films over but due to the limited luggage weight and space, I left the camera and films with my cousin.
From year 2013 till September 2016, film was dead to me.
The real story
Kodak Tmax 400, Rolleiflex
In 2016, I was very into photography. I constantly practised portrait on my model- Emilia. Then, I showed the photos to a friend. The friend commented that Emilia has the same vibe as another fashion blogger Zoe Suen. At that time, I didn’t know who Zoe was. I had a brief look at her profile and was quite amazed by her photos.
Yes, both Emilia and Zoe have got the same vibe! They somehow also look alike and I would believe if people mistaken them as sisters! I am very sure if Emilia is well-trained in modelling and do some styling, she would stand out and shine too!
Back to point, the friend also mentioned that Zoe uses film. I was again surprised because as I said, film was dead to me.
A few months later, I was researching on how to achieve the Japanese vibe and vibrant colours in my photography. On many sources, they say Japanese uses film.
So, I then expanded my search on film and found that film is so alive. Besides, I was mesmerised by the vintage look of film camera. I really did believe by using film, my photos would have the Japanese vibe. WRONG.
To conclude
To conclude, the main reason why I got up with film was the hope to achieve Japanese vibe.
Secondly, if a blogger and many more people are using film, it means film is still alive.
Lastly, challenge. I realised I am always blindly following digital metering in my dSLR. So, I want to be more aware of the ISO, aperture and shutter speed I used. Hence I decided to try film.
On 13th September 2016, I bought my first official film camera, a Nikon FM2. I started my film journey for the wrong reason. Although I cannot achieve and have given up trying the Japanese vibe, I fall in love with the experience and the film look. Ever since, I am 80% shooting film and 20% using digital for photography classes.
Yeah, so this is my story. What’s yours? Tell me!
If you are new to this blog, start here!
I got so excited when i read ZOE’s name in your blog that i had to re-read!! i’m a huge fans of her <33!!
Btw, your friend are really pretty too!! I have seen a lot of pictures of her by you but i've never said these before! HAH!
Anyway, recently i noticed there's few vloggers i been subscribing all along, they start to shoot film too 😛 though i've yet too see the result hehe they all used olympus mju-ii!
hahaha! After I know about her, I like reading her blog but too bad she doesn’t publish often :/