I'm switching to film

The last 12 months or so have been very interesting to say the least. I had a lot of time to think about my business, photography in general and possibly what direction I want to go. I've been using Fuji cameras for many years now and they have been super wonderful to work with. The features are great and being light and compact didn't hurt either. The lenses are amazing (all the ones I've tried) and each generation just keep improving. Being a crop sensor system has never bothered me as I'm aware of the limitations as well as the benefits and I've just been impressed overall.

More recently I've been assessing my work for the last few years and what I've enjoyed and some things that I haven't enjoyed as much. Also, new ideas that I've been having about my editing and overall look of my photos. Lately I've been playing around with presets and different things to get that nice film look, but not too heavy handed. I liked what I was getting, but at the same time it just seemed so far away from what I was doing. And I was not ready to go back over all my shoots and weddings to re-edit them. 

Just like in anything else you do some research to see what's out there that might work for you and also cost. In the end budget is a real thing and making decisions that affect that require much thought. So I started looking at where the film industry was and noticed that film cameras of all kinds are doing really well and that film is still available. Being someone who appreciates gear I picked up a Pentax K1000 locally with a lens and headed out to take photos. Wow, did that bring me back to high school. It just felt right in a sense almost like finding a toy you once enjoyed. Of course that was not enough. I looked at other film cameras and even into medium format as those prices aren't astronomical yet. I picked up a Yashica D TLR. Now that takes a lot of getting used to and it really slow you down. And then another camera and you know how that goes.

After a month of chatting with other photographers you already shoot film, watching reviews and other real world examples I have decided to move to film for all my personal work and some of my hired work. It makes sense to keep my Fuji camera to be able to take good digital photos that will be ready quickly, but photographing with mechanical cameras has been a joy.

I have a lot to learn still and developing etc, creating new budgets and goals for myself, but I truly think film is for me.

You've probably read a lot of these posts before and this is just my journey, but I'm excited to re-ignite my passion for photography and go down the less traveled road. I want to shoot more of what makes me happy and the way I want to shoot it.

Please stay tuned though as my website will have a major change in the next 30 days as my focus is shifting as well (no pun intended). 

Thanks all of you who are sticking around for the ride.

​- Tomas Haran