I have not used a film camera since the mid-1990s having at that point decided to switch to using a digital camera as it seemed the thing to do. Strangely, I feel I take less pictures now then I did then. That could also be in part due to the fact that the whole ritual around snapping photos has changed. With my current digital camera I shoot, upload, and view all images entirely via laptop. Wham-bam...so quickly finished and I'm onto the next thing without hardly a thought to those photos so recently taken. Back before I went 'film-less', I used to regularly take 35mm rolls of film, b/w or color, to the local shop and have selected images developed into photographs. I remember the anticipation of waiting a week, or whatever it was, before being able to pick up the prints in either 3x5, 4x6, or, if I really liked the image, 5x7 format.
Youtube is such a boon. I've just watched a short tutorial on how one loads film into the AE-1. I realise it's much like how my old camera worked, but, you know, without the tutorial to 'jump start' my memory, I think putting a roll of film into this camera would have been somewhat daunting. It's so weird to think about how humans 'unlearn' things they used to know---things that are perhaps no longer considered relevant by the majority.
Wish me good photo luck!
I'm sure you'll be fine!
ReplyDeleteThat said, I remember how it felt trying to fit the square "grids" of the film onto the "teeth" of the camera... The first and last shots were usually half-cut, too :D
-good to know and thank you!
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