Last week, I put a roll of color film into my camera and didn’t finish the roll before it got dark and kept the film in for next time. For that week the film lived in the camera, I was completely anxious and obsessed about seeing what I had shot. I did get about 14 images on the roll before it got too dark and left but I wanted to see it!
We’ve all forgotten (for good measure in many cases) the anticipation, and for some, the anxiety of having a half roll of film left in the camera. I didn’t want to take the film out and waist the unused half. Penny pinching is important at times and film isn’t cheap. Digital photography has taken away all this good (and bad) anticipation on waiting with excitement to see your images on the light table. You can see immediately your images on the back of the digital camera which in many ways has taken away the excitement of photography.
Imagine this…you take your film camera out, you see the shot of the day, you focus, snap, and smile. Now you got 35 more frames on that roll before it goes to the lab. Sadly, the sun goes down and you can’t shoot anymore today. Throughout the week, you take more pictures hopping to get to the end. 12 frames, 22, frames, 33, 34, 35…oh finally! The end. After six days, you finally take the film out of the camera. You pull it out, get to the lab…the lab’s machine is down until tomorrow morning. Argh! You drop it off while you curse under your breath and obsess about that first frame you shot…obsess all through the night. Its it sharp, was the exposure dead on, did she blink? On and on and on…
Next morning you get up thinking about frame one. After coffee and breakfast you are still obsessing. The lab doesn’t start their first processing till 8am. Your film won’t be ready till noon. Wait and watch the clock. Wait….wait…and finally, you get in the car and rush over to the lab. Pay your money and run home.
Rush inside, throw the film on the light table and bam! There it is…the shot!
This shot of the four teens on the wall at Waikiki struck me cause of the moment, time and place. Its really nothing special other than the moment in my eyes.
But the most important think about this image was the time waiting to see it. The simple anxiety of waiting to see your work that you took all so long ago. And like I said, looking at the back of my digital camera doesn’t offer the same fun.