Lines & angles

[Mousetoescamper]

9. I started with a 35mm film camera in the mid-1970s

I sometimes developed/cropped/printed B+W photos when I worked for community newspapers as chief cook and bottle washer. The job included everything but running the presses. I was glad to have some darkroom skills and liked controlling the process, but didn't enjoy being in what were usually poorly ventilated darkrooms. My personal color film was usually sent to a commercial processor and I was seldom satisfied with the results. For a few years I took my exposed film to a local photo shop whose owner would tweak things to my liking. Now I do all of it on my 15-year-old MacBook using the stock Apple photo program.

I always shoot in RAW and switch to manual exposure and focus for astrophotography and artsy projects like the ones I posted under the titles "The life aquatic" and "Antique glassware" earlier this week. My lenses in auto mode are slow and often less accurate than if I take the time to focus manually. Auto is the only way to go when there's no time for adjustments.

Apparently, film photography is making a comeback. I can't see going back to expensive film and processing, waiting for the prints to come back and lower resolution images. Maybe it's considered more "authentic."