I apologize for the long read in advance, but if you’re like me, and enjoy reading the photographic experiences of others, you will hopefully find this enjoyable. =)
I am getting into film and printmaking for the first time.
Growing up in the digital age of the 90s, my first camera was a Canon 20D which i bought used on ebay in 2012 (this was originally new in 2004! Isn’t used eBay gear always great!?). With no budget for a modern lens and just wanting to make pictures with my new camera, i found a generic brand lens, a 35mm elicar f 2.8
Soon after, a voigtlander vitomatic iia caught my attention after seeing some low light photos on Flickr, and had to pick one up. I decided I loved the lens and ergonomics of the film camera, but didn’t enjoy using the rangefinder so much, so I became more interested in the m42 mount and other vintage lenses. This lead me to own a pentax spotmatic ii with 50mm 1.4, but I mistakenly returned it due to thinking it might have been a bad purchase due to the yellow coating on the lens.
Either way, i wanted a film camera again, and that one small voigtlander, fixed lens film camera I still had, with its bright viewfinder left such an impression on me, that I ended up going medium format into a Hasselblad 500c with T* C 50 f.4 and then when that got sold for our rent money later, my girlfriend at the time, seeing how much I had babied my hassy and had taken it everywhere, bought me a Hasselblad 503cx with the same, but newer generation CF T* 50 f.4 for my 24th birthday, in 2014.
After having the new Hasselblad for some time, I purchased an Epson v600 to scan my 35 and 120mm film. I decided I liked the image quality and handling of the light medium format body, among other things, but not so much the 12 shot capacity of the A12 back, and needed a camera that could just take more images, wasn’t as heavy as the voigtlander vitomatic iia, and had the option for interchangeable lenses.
During this time, it was now 2015 when I started my first extracurricular photography class, in studio photography at my college. Everything since had been me learning self-taught by the masters of YouTube on Adorama TV, The CameraStoreTV, and mister Kai Man Wong and the digitalrev team.
I went on to receive a mirrorless Sony a6000 with 55-20 and 18-50mm kit as a birthday gift and I also upgraded my Dslr to the 40d (two generations newer from my 20D, but still 7 years old at this point!), with 70-200 f4 Is usm, a 50mm 1.8 and a vintage m42 pentax super takumar 105mm f2.8 lens. This vintage lens was inspired after reading the same 105mm focal length was used by Steve McCurry to photograph the famous, national geographic, portrait “Afghan Girl” and at the time I was all about fast lenses, wide apertures, and bokeh! Even after having the most recent, best digital cameras and lenses, I still loved the look of film and their vintage glass, manual aperture rings, and smooth focus!
This year, 2017, I have kept my current Hasselblad setup along the way, still shooting with the digitals, but picked up the Pentax super program with 50mm 1.4, some other film lenses and a Pentax P30t later on. I enjoyed these lighter weight slrs, and being more involved with scanning and developing my own films.
There was just one thing missing up till now…and this week, I picked up my first color enlarger for 35mm and medium format film, with rodenstock rogonar-s 50mm 2.8 lens, darkroom equipment, chemicals, enough bw and color paper for 2 years, all for under 400$!
Growing up in digital has been nice, and the new cameras and lenses, are still very capable, but nothing has replaced my interest in film and classic cameras! I still use digital for convenience, and paid shoots, but now I hope to start shooting more for myself, and to start shooting with an end in mind -printed photos. It’s a value I haven’t been able to achieve in the digital world which rarely needs a printed format when we usually have the opposite attitude of shoot first, edit, and share with others later.
This is nice, and fulfilling in its own way, but I am also interested in shooting for myself, and printing my own images. I want to shoot with the print in mind and I would rather have 30 printed images I can hold and see with my eyes, than 3,000 that I only ever get to see through the led lights of my computer monitor.
Thank you for reading about my photographic journey in a “short” paraphrased form. Even with film, paper, chemicals, and especially enlargers rising in cost or scarcity, here’s to keeping film alive in 2017!
#staybrokeshootfilm
Overly Deep Thinker 
Reblogged this on gmechanic.