Film

I know that this is the digital age and EVERYONE wants a super rad DSLR, but lets not forget the SLR and film. I got my SLR 10 years ago for my 18th birthday from my sister and brother-in-law. This was back in the day when only a handful of your friends had cell phones. I, myself, had a beeper, but that's another story. The main reason that I got my Pentax Zx-M was because I did my senior project on black and white photography. I had always loved taking pictures, but never had anything more than those little point and shoot film cameras. In my mind I had just gone pro. I carried that thing everywhere and am actually surprised that I've only had to send it in once to be repaired.

Anyways, last spring I took my first film class in ages and this class was no joke! When my finger wasn't on the shutter release button (a.k.a. the picture taker button) I was in the darkroom. Talk about expensive! The film that we used was $8 a pop and paper was insane. You really had to focus on what you were doing while developing your prints b/c you could go through 10 sheets of paper like it was nothing and end up with just that, nothing. We had to keep records of how we exposed the negatives to the paper and how long we went through the chemistry just so if something didn't come out right we would know what to maybe change for the next attempt. When the work was done and you finally got to see the end result you couldn't help but be a bit .... ok, ok ... VERY proud.

I know that not everyone has access to an actual darkroom, but there is such a thing as a digital darkroom. You can now get your film pictures put on a disc and view/edit them before you actually order prints! It costs a lot less than it use to and you are still able to get that raw film quality! So, if you've got an SLR I encourage you to put some film in it and spend a day shooting away! Not every picture is gonna turn out, but you're gonna be dag on proud of the ones that do :)